U.S. Rep. Keith Ellison, a Minnesota Democrat and Congress’s first Muslim member, urged supporters of Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton to vote and help turn out their friends and relatives to vote, at a stop Wednesday evening in Toledo.

Mr. Ellison, who appears regularly on national television political news shows, talked up Mrs. Clinton and talked down Republican Donald Trump to about 25 people at the Clinton campaign headquarters on Jefferson Avenue. Earlier in the day he was in Lima, Ohio.

He told the group they could be part of a historic event, just like women winning the right to vote in 1920.

“Hillary Clinton’s election is going to be on a direct line between that moment and this,” Mr. Ellison said.

Mr. Ellison, 53, is a native of Detroit, where he was brought up Catholic — later converting to Islam — and attended University of Detroit Jesuit Academy and High School along with Wayne State University.

One of the attendees to introduce Mr. Ellison was Syed Hasan of Maumee, a Pakistani-born American, a Muslim, and Marine veteran of the Iraq War, who was featured in a Clinton campaign video.

In the audience were his first cousin, Cheryl Ellison Slack, and her husband, Eric Slack, of Toledo.

Mr. Ellison is the latest in the line of Clinton surrogates to campaign in Toledo.

“You guys are the battleground state of all battleground states. If you guys can get the vote out here it will make such a tremendous difference,” Mr. Ellison said.

He said Mrs. Clinton would provide forward rather than backward leadership, and asserted that Mr. Trump doesn’t respect his supporters and wants to return to a time when some people were barred by law from having equal rights.

He said if one of those folks showed up at one of his developments, “someone would call up security and escort them out.”

“When he says, ‘Make America Great Again,’ it makes me think he thought America was great when some people had to sit in the back of the bus,” Mr. Ellison said. “We’re never going back there. Them days are over.

“We’re having a massive dialogue in the country over who’s included, who’s not included, who’s a part, who’s not a part,” Mr. Ellison said.

“I know you’re going to say no to that woman-hating and misogyny, you’re going to say no to that build-a-wall-ism.”

Jon Stainbrook, chairman of the Lucas County Republican Party, said Republican candidates outnumbered Democrats at the recent United Muslim Association of Toledo Unity Dinner, proving that all are welcome in the GOP.

He said Mr. Trump’s “Make America Great Again” motto means he and his supporters believe the country is on the wrong track.

“When somebody says, ‘Make America Great Again,’ they believe the person sitting in the White House steered the nation in the wrong direction. They believe the nation needs to be steered in another direction, away from the corruption of Hillary Clinton and lobbyists,” Mr. Stainbrook said.

He disputed Mr. Ellison’s belief that Mr. Trump looks down on his supporters.

“I think that Donald Trump embraces the people that come to his rallies,” Mr. Stainbrook said.

“I also think that Donald Trump and his campaign have been put in a bad light in the emails you’ve seen in which people were paid to come to these rallies and disrupt them with fights and violence.”

He referred to claims in conservative media that undercover videos and an email released by WikiLeaks show that Democratic operatives paid people to disrupt Trump rallies.

Contact Tom Troy: tomtroy@theblade.com or 419-724-6058 or on Twitter @TomFTroy.

First Published October 20, 2016, 4:00 a.m.