BEALLSVILLE, Ohio — Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney has promised voters in coal-rich eastern Ohio that America won’t have to buy oil from Venezuela or the Middle East by the time his second term ends in 2021.

Romney stopped Tuesday outside a coal mine in Beallsville, where he said the U.S. would be independent from energy sources outside North America if he were elected in November and served two, four-year terms.

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FILE - In this Aug. 8, 2012 file photo, Republican presidential candidate, former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney campaigns in Des Moines, Iowa. Democrats are growing increasingly confident that a two-pronged tax attack on Republican Mitt Romney _ one part policy, one part politics _ could help President Barack Obama lure pivotal support from middle class voters _ and win a second term. Led by Obama, the Democrats are going after Romney for seeking to protect tax cuts for the wealthy and refusing to release more information on the taxes he pays on his multi-million dollar personal fortune. (AP Photo/Charles Dharapak, File) ASSOCIATED PRESS

Introducing Romney was Josh Mandel, who is running against Democratic Ohio Sen. Sherrod Brown. Mandel accused Democrats of trying to stand in the way of using all energy sources.

Mandel says that would happen only, in his words, “over our dead bodies.”

Romney was finishing a four-day bus tour with three stops in Ohio.