Gavin Bade

What you're being outfitted with here is some protective equipment, some safety glasses, some earplugs, and then also some toe caps to ensure safety during any part of your visit to the plant today.

Put this in context for us.

How have tariffs changed businesses' plans across the country?

Walmart and other companies have said tariffs have forced them to raise prices.

I stopped by a Walmart parking lot in Cleveland where a few voters told me they feel inflation firsthand.

Let's talk about what that could mean for political races in Ohio.

Erin, how are tariffs factoring into this race?

You know, one of the things that we do as reporters is you meet with businesses and you see about what is the manufacturing economy like.

I started talking to a company that was saying we may have to close down some auto glass plants in Ohio.

They were really concerned about Chinese competition, not coming from overseas, but actually one that had set up here in the U.S.,

In a big way, that is part of this story, right?

And that's certainly what the Fuyao people would say and also kind of some of their allies.

But this story is about the risks to U.S.

industry when Chinese investment comes to town, when you allow a Chinese company that comes from a non-market economy to get a toehold in the U.S., and what happens when they are more efficient and allegedly not playing by the same rules.

Vitro is really a pillar of this very small town.

I mean, it's like 4,500 people, Crestline.

This is, you know, one of the few sources of stable employment from year to year in this factory town.

It was almost kind of a throwback to the old 20th century model of industrial employment.

There are, you know, old assembly lines, people, you know, putting glass into machines by hand, people inspecting the glass windows.

And you just hear the, you know, the clank and grind of all of these, like, you know, very industrial age 20th century machines going on.