At St Brendan’s parish church, on Youngstown’s West Side, there were signs on Tuesday morning that John McCain’s efforts to woo voters in a traditional Democratic stronghold had not been in vain.

“I voted with the experience, with the war vet,” said David Tacsik, a 54-year-old who runs a car dealership on nearby Mahoning Avenue. Mr Tacsik was born and raised on the West Side, a predominantly white area in a city where roughly half the population is black, its ethnic origins signalled by the local Paprika Café and the two Hungarian churches.