When my family moved to Howland, Ohio, when I was a freshman in high school, I quickly learned that while the region in northeastern Ohio was formally Cleveland Browns territory, there was a big, loud San Francisco 49ers subculture. The reason for this was twofold. In part, it was a function of how good the Niners were at the time. In larger part, though, it was a function of the team’s owner: Edward DeBartolo Jr.
Howland is a bit east of the city of Warren, which is itself due northwest of the much larger city of Youngstown. In Youngstown, the DeBartolos weren’t quite royalty, but they weren’t quite not. I knew the name DeBartolo within weeks of moving to the area. They were a family that had risen to national prominence from an area that was more often the subject of mopey songs or depressing news articles about the U.S. economy. Youngstown was a big loser in the economy of the 1970s and 1980s — but could also boast of being the home to the family that owned a team that kept winning the Super Bowl.
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In the 2016 election, Mahoning County, where Youngstown is located, narrowly voted for Hillary Clinton over Trump, though Trump benefited from a 25-point swing in his favor. Trumbull County, where Warren and Howland are located, voted Republican for the first time since 1972. Trump won Ohio by eight points, but polling last year had him trailing some potential Democratic opponents. Locking down Mahoning County, 2 percent of the state’s population, doesn’t hurt Trump’s chances.
There are other reasons for Trump to have been sympathetic to DeBartolo, including that the Youngstown native supported Trump’s presidency. But someone, somewhere, no doubt kept Trump apprised of DeBartolo’s popularity in a region central to U.S. presidential politics.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2020/02/18/why-did-trump-just-pardon-former-owner-49ers-part-because-he-wants-win-ohio/DeBartolo, who spread his campaign donations between Democrats and Republicans for decades, has in the last two years given the maximum contribution just three candidates, all Republicans, according to OpenSecrets donor database.
There’s no indication that DeBartolo donated to Trump’s presidential campaign, but in 2016 he co-hosted a pre-inauguration day party that honored several individuals close to Trump, including former Trump attorney Michael Cohen and former White House aide Omarosa Manigault.
Most of Trump’s 24 presidential pardons have gone to well-connected individuals who have a direct line to him or influence among his supporters.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/trump-pardons-former-san-francisco-49ers-owner-edward-debartolo/2020/02/18/e47f9ed6-526a-11ea-9e47-59804be1dcfb_story.html
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