Why did Woodrow Wilson do so well in Ohio in 1916?

[インターネット掲示板ユーザー Punxsutawney Phil]

I was looking up the electoral history of Delaware County and found that the only Democrat since the foundation of the Republican Party to win Delaware County was Woodrow Wilson in 1912 and 1916 (Delaware County even voted for Wilson by a bigger margin than the nation did). Most of rural Ohio voted for Wilson (something I'm guessing had something to do with the German vote). Still, the performance he put up seems somewhat unusually good even given the extent to which the peace issue defined the 1916 campaign.

What was so special about Wilson?

[RINO Tom]

Without any in-depth knowledge, I was going to simply posit what you already said - Germans swung toward Democrats by huge margins in 1918, and the Midwest as a whole is extremely German.

[Podgy the Bear]

The rural vote in Ohio swung strongly to Wilson--the farm vote trended strongly in his favor, like it did in much of the Midwest.  Also, an article in the NYT from October 1916 (available in the NYT Archives) talked about how the labor laws passed in the 1913-1914 time period plus a boomtime economy in the war industry and machinery (all substantial in Ohio) provided high wages and better working conditions--which benefited Wilson.

The interesting point of the article is that the Republicans had largely given up on Ohio in October 1916 for the above reasons.  It was also pointed out that Wilson would run significantly ahead of the rest of the Democratic ticket.  And it did happen--Wilson ran about 80,000 votes ahead of the Senate candidate (Pomerene) and the gubernatorial candidate (James Cox)--all of whom won that year.

[インターネット掲示板ユーザー Punxsutawney Phil]

One thing that I wonder about is, why is the Ohio state line visible as a place past which Wilson does quite well.
Is there much of a difference between far western OH and far eastern IN?

(Wikipedia)

[bagelman]

One thing that I wonder about is, why is the Ohio state line visible as a place past which Wilson does quite well.
Is there much of a difference between far western OH and far eastern IN?
snip

As GeorgiaModerate said, probably because Republicans viewed Ohio as a lost cause and focused their efforts elsewhere. So some Republicans east of the state line may have stayed home. Also there are rural Catholics in west Ohio.

[CadetCashBoi]

One other factor is that the Ohio Democratic Party was probably more southern influenced and rural then most other northern state Democratic parties at the time, Democrats had strength in rural ancestrally copperhead counties at the time, most of which flipped in the 20s and have remained solidly GOP since. So Wilson was in some respect an ideal Democratic nominee for them.

[Vosem]

Contrariwise, given the general pattern of the results, I kind of wonder how Wilson lost Indiana.

[Joe McCarthy Was Right]

Contrariwise, given the general pattern of the results, I kind of wonder how Wilson lost Indiana.

Both Wilson and Hughes had running mates whose home state was Indiana. If one was popular there and the other one wasn't, it makes sense.