Several members of the Ohio University College Republicans arrived wearing red "Make America Great Again" hats to the final OUCR meeting Wednesday before Donald Trump becomes president.
"We are all excited," College Republicans president David Parkhill said.
Perhaps nobody was more excited than the club's vice president, Ryan Evans. Evans was an enthusiastic Trump supporter who spent 20 hours a week volunteering for Trump's campaign during the presidential election.
"A few weeks ago, a friend of mine got tickets and asked me if I wanted to go to the inauguration," Evans said. "I'm really looking forward to it."
Evans said a small group would be going down, including a couple of other members of the College Republicans. They will stay at a friend's house in the D.C. area, but Evans was not sure if he would be on the parade route or on the Mall. Inauguration events will run from Thursday through Saturday.
Evans also added that he was not particularly concerned about protests or other unrest.
"I have no clue what to expect, but I think it will go smoothly," he said. "At least, I hope so."
Parkhill was also a big Trump supporter during the campaign but said his busy schedule ensured he would not be able to travel to Washington for the inauguration.
"I'll probably just watch it on television in between my classes," he said.
Parkhill and Evans were both optimistic Trump could bring economic change to Athens County and the surrounding area. Both said the economy should be Trump's focus, and both wanted to see the Affordable Care Act, or Obamacare, repealed.
For Evans, seeing companies such as Carrier — an Indiana furnace manufacturer that decided not to move to Mexico after a $7 million incentive — decide to keep some jobs in the United States rather than move them all to a foreign country shows that Trump is focused on protecting jobs.
"For me, the biggest thing is the economy," Evans said. "I would like to see him bring back jobs, which he has already done as president-elect. I think he'll be a president for small business."
Parkhill said he wanted a "smart repeal" of Obamacare, with a replacement plan ready before the ACA is repealed, a sentiment that is shared by local Republicans.
"I think that denying somebody for an existing condition isn't fair," Parkhill said. "But we need to be able to offer healthcare across state lines; the red tape just kills success."
He also offered some mild praise for the outgoing president.
"President Obama, he's not the worst thing to ever happen," he said. "But some things he's done, like Obamacare and the Iran deal, were really bad."
Athens County Republican Party chair Pete Couladis was one of the few non-college-aged people in the room. For him, the focus was less on southeast Ohio and more on the country as a whole.
"Southeast Ohio shares a lot of problems with the rest of the country," Couladis said. "The first thing Trump has to do is get the mess cleaned up in Washington."
Chief among those problems were the country's debt and healthcare.
"The debt is almost $20 trillion, and that's something both the president and Congress need to work on," he said. "With Social Security and Medicare, they must either cut benefits or raise taxes. Neither will be popular, but they have to get the system sorted out."
