STEUBENVILLE — A town-hall style meeting this weekend at the Schiappa Branch of the Public Library of Steubenville and Jefferson County is the latest of nine stops aimed by the Ohio Democrat Party leaders to reach rural voters whose voices they say have been unheard.

And the Building Country Roads Listening Tour has been organized by a Buckeye State farmer who said he has been one of those voters.

In a telephone interview before his stop at the library at 10 a.m. Saturday, Christopher Gibbs noted he once served as Republican Party chair in Shelby County, where he and his family own and operate 500 acres of farmland.

Gibbs said the Trump administration’s handling of some international affairs, and especially trade policies he said impacted American farmers, led him to leave the party in 2019.

He said he became an independent for a while before he found he shared some views with Tim Ryan, a Democrat who ran for a seat in the U.S. Senate in 2022.

Gibbs said with that he learned, “This Democratic Party is big enough for a moderate like me.”

As chairman of the Ohio Democrat Party’s rural caucus, he has made stops in eight of nine regions, with the last to be held in Raymond in Union County.

Gibbs said the Democrat Party has been accused, rightly or wrongly, of ignoring the concerns of rural voters.

He said through the tour, “We’re going to find out what’s really going on, what’s really important to these voters.”

Gibbs said while the caucus certainly welcomes comment from registered Democrats, it also wants to hear from “scores of disaffected Democrats” who have left the party, independent thinkers who “are just tired of the vitriol on both sides” and what he calls legacy Republicans, those who had been strong Reagan and Bush supporters.

“These folks are out there. They’re just looking for a safe place to park their vote,” he said.

Gibbs said while the tour is new, the rural caucus was established a few years ago and joins others dedicated to the interests of veterans, women, Black Americans and other groups.

Gibbs said he begins each meeting by asking what makes attendees proud of their nation, state or community, and most respond that it’s the freedoms they enjoy and the unity shown by fellow citizens in the face of adversity.

He said he also asks when it comes to interaction with their government, “Would you rather be informed or listened to and heard?”

Gibbs said the answers vary, with many saying they want to know what their government is doing while others want their leaders to know and consider their opinions as constituents.

The common denominator, he said, is they want honesty.

Gibbs said an attendee suggested more ice cream socials are needed, alluding to old-time, informal gatherings politicians once used to meet with citizens.

“They want that kind of interaction with the candidates,” he said.

Gibbs said the comments of attendees along the tour have been recorded and their first names noted, to compile a survey of issues future Democrat candidates should address.

He said he isn’t a candidate himself.

“I’m trying to make sure folks in rural Ohio know the Ohio Democratic Party is seeing and hearing them,” he said.

Gibbs said comment from those not able to attend Saturday’s meeting is welcome and can be e-mailed to rural@ohiodems.org.

“With just these nine sessions, there’s people we haven’t heard from. We want to hear from them all,” he said.