THIS IS HUGE: Barack Obama just packed nearly 10,000 people into an Ohio auditorium, a crowd Trump would need to pay people to attend to match

Barack Obama just showed what a real crowd looks like.

At his first campaign rally of the fall in Cleveland, Obama filled the Public Auditorium, which holds more than 10,000 people, to near capacity, according to NBC News. The floor was packed. The balconies were packed. The aisles were jammed with supporters holding Fighting for Ohio signs.

They came to see Obama, and to cheer on Amy Acton for governor and Sherrod Brown for Senate.

And Ohio showed up in force.

This is a state Trump won in 2024. Both big races there are toss-ups this year, and Democrats are hopeful of winning the governorship for the first time in 20 years.

So here's a question for the Trump campaign.

Could Trump fill a room like this in Ohio right now? Only if he would need to pay people to attend.

Every rally has a crowd. Not every crowd is the kind that makes a former president tell the room to settle down before he can even start speaking.

Obama did it in Cleveland, and he had another stop on the schedule the same day.

Trump has been on the road this month too, with another Ohio stop planned this week. We'll see how many seats are full and how many are paid for.

Obama didn't need to ask twice. Ohio filled the building on its own.