(The Center Square) – A northeast Ohio county fair board removed the county’s Democratic Party booth from its fair for what the board called offensive buttons.
According to reports, the removal came after a fairgoer posted the display to social media. By Friday morning, the fair board’s response had nearly 2,000 views and more than 1,000 comments on Facebook.
“The Ashland County Fair Board would like to let you know this afternoon we were made aware of offensive buttons in the Democrat booth. We are a family friendly fair and do not condone this from any vendor/merchant. We apologize for those who saw the display. The democrat party has been asked to pack their booth up for this year so they will not be here the remaining of our Fair week. This is not political, we just can’t have this at our County Fair!,” the board’s statement on Facebook said.
The board removed the Democratic Party booth from the fairgrounds for the rest of the fair, which ends Saturday night.
Attempts by The Center Square to reach the Ashland County Democratic Party, the Ohio Democratic Party, the Ashland County Fair Board, the Ashland County Republican Party and the Ohio Republican Party were unsuccessful.
Photos posted to social media with the fair board’s statement showed buttons seemingly aimed at President Donald Trump that depicted a red hat with the “felon” blazoned across it, along with “is he dead yet,” in small lettering.
Other buttons showed hats with the words fascist, resist, fascism, along with the numbers “8647” and the phrase “One day, we will wake up to his obituary.”
The incident happened the same day Ohio’s Democratic and Republican leaders issued a joint statement that condemned violence and pushed for a peaceful future.
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As previously reported by The Center Square, House and Senate leadership – Senate President Rob McColley, R-Napoleon, Senate Democratic Leader Nickie Antonio, D-Lakewood, House Speaker Matt Huffman, R-Lima, and House Minority Leader Dani Isaacsohn, D-Cincinnati – joined in a statement to condemn the assassinations of conservative activist Charlie Kirk and Minnesota lawmaker Melissa Hortman, hoping the unity sends a stronger message.
“In a free and democratic society, there is absolutely no place for politically motivated violence, nor should anyone encourage or celebrate this type of heinous criminal behavior,” the group said in a statement. “As leaders from different sides of the aisle, we felt it was vital to join together to emphasize the significance of this message as we strongly condemn the assassinations of Charlie Kirk and Minnesota lawmaker Melissa Hortman and her husband Mark Hortman earlier this year.”