While watching the local news Tuesday night I learned that Tim Kaine was going to be in Grand Rapids on Friday for the opening of the local Coordinated Campaign office. After a quick search I found the event information on HillaryClinton.com, and as requested, filled out a form with my contact information on Wednesday night saying I planned to attend. Thursday night I got a phone call from the campaign letting me know that the event had been moved to the Wealthy Theater, down the street from the new office and giving me suggestions on where to park. I was quite impressed that they contacted me by phone!
Doors were to open at 3:30 and Kaine was scheduled to speak at 5. Having been to a number of political rallies over the years, I was pretty sure Kaine would be at least an hour late, but we wanted to be sure to get in, so arrived in Grand Rapids, which is an hour north of us, around 3:45 p.m. Doors had not opened yet, and there were several hundred people ahead of us in line. It was a beautiful, sunny day, and the mood was festive. The crowd was a typically diverse crowd that you see at Democratic events: young and old, black and white, all manner of folks.
The line eventually started moving, and we got to the airport style security area inside the theater around 4:50. I knew the capacity of the theater was only 400, but it looked like we were going to get in. Unfortunately, they declared the theater full about 8 people ahead of us in line. However, we and about 100 other people were allowed to stand in the lobby of the theater and look in the open theater doors or watch on a TV screen. It’s too bad we didn’t get there a little earlier, because after the seats in the theater were filled, they let the next 30 or so people in line go stand on the stage, including three young Muslim women in head scarves who had been ahead of us in line. I often wondered how they choose the people who get to be on the stage, but in this case, it appeared to just be a function of where you were in line.
The event got rolling about 5 p.m. We heard very short speeches from about seven speakers to start, including the local State Representative, the regional UAW leader, the head of the Michigan Democratic Party, the Regional Director of the Clinton Coordinated Campaign, and Congressman Dan Kildee from Flint. (Unfortunately, the Grand Rapids area is represented in Congress by the extreme Republican Tea Partier, Justin Amash, who was not invited.) After a break of about 30 minutes, our very popular senior senator from Michigan, Debbie Stabenow, was introduced. She proceeded to introduce her colleague and friend, Senator Tim Kaine.
Kaine spoke for about 15 minutes and was very well received. His remarks were very similar to those he gave at the Democratic Convention, including the three questions. He talked about Trump’s unfitness to be commander in chief, and the Moody’s analysis that said Clinton’s economic plans would create 10 million new jobs while Trump’s would lose 3.5 million. He did tell us that his 81 year old mother was at the convention and told him that it was “the best night of her life.”
At the end he said that while we Democrats felt great coming out of the convention, it has been a “season of surprises” and that this election “will be a pitched battle like no other.” He encouraged everyone to volunteer. He touched on voter suppression efforts and urged us to ask anyone who says they don’t think their vote matters why the other side is working so hard to stop them from voting if their votes don’t matter.
Then it was over. I believe that Kaine and Stabenow were headed to a fundraiser afterwards. When we came outside the same 8 or so protestors we saw on the way in were still there. They had parked themselves across the street from the entrance, wearing Bernie buttons and carrying signs like “Wikileaks has Proof. Rigging isn’t Winning,”“Hold Hillary to her promises, Democrats,” and flying some kind of socialist flag. At one point one of them taunted those of us in line by yelling “Good luck in November.” Truthfully, I think I would have preferred pro-Trump protestors, but I am happy to say that no-one tried to engage them, as I am sure that would have been fruitless.
If you get the chance, by all means attend any campaign events you can. Just standing in line makes you swell with pride at how diverse the Democratic coalition is. My only disappointment was that there was no swag for sale. I was hoping to buy a bumpersticker for my car or a t-shirt. I should be able to get those soon at my county Democratic office.
On to victory!
