WARREN, Ohio — In a speech just a stone's throw from a General Motors assembly plant, Vice President Joe Biden urged some 200 union members and others to remember who'd been on their side when their jobs hung in the balance — and to side with Democrat Hillary Clinton this November.

When the economic recession of 2008 hit, Mr. Biden said, "I got my brains kicked in" for supporting a financial-aid package that staved off the collapse of the American automobile industry. "Remember what they were saying about you all? They were saying American workers were not productive, that you all were lazy." In a shot at Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump, he said, "That's still Trump's story."

Mr. Trump's election prospects depend on support of working-class whites, though he has offered conflicting appraisals the assistance given auto workers. While he offered warm words for the effort at the time, after his campaign got underway last year he said, "You could have let [the industry] go bankrupt."

Today, Mr. Biden praised the resiliency of working Americans, speaking in a voice that ranged from hoarse to thunderous. Mr. Trump didn't understand the challenges facing American workers, he said, "anymore than you understand what it's Iike to live in a 30,000-square-foot penthouse."

RELATED ARTICLES: Trump promises to restore jobs in hard-hit Wilmington | Trump would require schools to teach patriotism

But Mr. Biden also seemed to acknowledge, and sought to address, Ms. Clinton's own weakness among working-class whites.

"I know some of you are mad at Hillary, [but] let me tell you something: She gets it," Mr Biden said. He noted that when she served as a senator from New York, Ms. Clinton pressed for "card check" legislation that streamlined the process of unionizing a workplace.

By contrast, he said, "Do you think there's any possibility that Donald Trump would do anything other than try to break the labor movement?"

Much of Mr. Biden's speech offered familiar talking points, faulting Mr. Trump for selling a signature line of clothing made overseas and casting doubts about his judgment. Mr. Biden said he had to travel to Eastern Europe to assuage leaders there about Mr. Trump's praise for Russian leader Vladimir Putin — and his lukewarm support for NATO.

"They're scared to death, with good reason, that Russia will cross the border and annex them," Mr. Biden said. "For the first time, he's causing nations to actually wonder whether or not we're going to keep our word."

While enthusiastic, the audience for Mr. Biden only filled half the room. But the site, a union hall across the street from a cornfield, was a familiar location for Mr. Biden: He appeared here during a campaign stop in the 2012 election. Ms. Clinton herself visited the nearby GM Lordstown plant during her 2008 presidential campaign.

This year, both presidential candidates are becoming intimately familiar with the state. A US News survey last month suggested that Mr. Trump and Ms. Clinton had visited Ohio a total of 13 times between mid-June and mid August. (Pennsylvania was the second-most visited state, with the nominees visiting 10 times, by the US News tally.) Mr. Trump gave a speech on terrorism in nearby Youngstown on Aug. 14.

Ohio is among the most closely fought battlegrounds in this year's election. A recent Emerson College poll found Ms. Clinton and Mr. Trump tied at 43 percent: Most recent polls have shown Ms. Clinton holding onto a lead in the mid-single digits.

Those attending the Biden rally said Democrats should have an edge among plant employees, though they acknowledged Mr. Trump had some backers. "I think they aren't so much for Trump as opposed to her," said Jason Hobson, a union member there.

But the Lordstown plant, which employs 4,500 workers and manufactures the Chevy Cruze, has been "running three shifts, six or seven days a week," said Dan Adams, a trustee of Local 1112.

And Mr. Adams, who was wearing a shirt jokingly identified him as a "union thug," said the plant's activity was a testament to federal support in the industry's darker days. "Without that loan, I highly doubt if this plant would be running," he said.

And in the end, he said, "Hillary will do just fine here."

First Published September 1, 2016, 6:33 p.m.