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Portman Pledges to Fight to Save GM Plant in Lordstown

STATEHOUSE NEWS BUREAU
Senator Rob Portman (R-Cincinnati) plans to work with Governor-elect Mike DeWine on a package to encourage GM to keep producing a product at its Lordstown plant

Republican U.S. Senator Rob Portman says he hasn’t given up the fight to keep the GM plant in Lordstown open and its 1,500 workers employed.  

Portman says he knew the Lordstown-produced Chevy Cruze has not been selling well recently. But he says GM’s leaders have not provided him with many specifics about why they decided to close the plant rather than manufacturing another vehicle there. Still, Portman says he’s working with incoming Governor Mike DeWine and they are not giving up.

“I think there’s an opportunity here, working together, to put together a package to get them to make the investment in Lordstown.” 

Portman says he doesn’t believe the fight over tariffs had anything to do with the company’s decision to close the plant.

Jo Ingles is a professional journalist who covers politics and Ohio government for the Ohio Public Radio and Television for the Ohio Public Radio and Television Statehouse News Bureau. She reports on issues of importance to Ohioans including education, legislation, politics, and life and death issues such as capital punishment. Jo started her career in Louisville, Kentucky in the mid 80’s when she helped produce a televised presidential debate for ABC News, worked for a creative services company and served as a general assignment report for a commercial radio station. In 1989, she returned back to her native Ohio to work at the WOSU Stations in Columbus where she began a long resume in public radio.