Tim Walz Is Not Turning This Damn Bus Around
Fifty. Stay Above Fifty.
Democratic vice presidential nominee and Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz drove his bus into the York Expo Center on Wed., Oct. 2, 2024.
Literally.
The production crew announced Walz’s entrance, and a garage door at the back of the arena, behind the audience and the press riser and filing tables, was slowly raised up to reveal the tour bus Vice President Kamala Harris's campaign has been using for the last two months. The audience of 2300 went nuts as they drove the big, blue bus into the arena — maybe an echo of the already iconic Air Force Two gliding into Kamala Harris’s first rally in Detroit — the words “A New Way Forward” serving as a clever motif.
The bus had barely stopped next to the stage before Walz was leaping out the door and onto the stage. I could see Walz mouthing the words “You did fine” to Jerri Anne Johnson, a local Republican who had just announced her support for the Harris/Walz ticket.
Johnson had a rough speech. Through the viewfinder of my camera, I could see the pages of Johnson's speech vibrate as she spoke. She was nervous, shaking, hoping she wouldn't screw this up in any of the myriad ways one's body can suddenly betray them while addressing a large crowd.
And then came the medical emergency. A guest had become faint, and required immediate assistance.
Calls for a medic came just as quickly. Hands shot up from the crowd as a signal to direct medical personnel. Johnson could see the crowd reacting just as much as I could from my position on the cut-riser to the left of the stage. Johnson looked horrified.
The crowd of mostly elderly folks had shuffled apart so a stretcher could be brought through. Volunteers began moving through the crowd, passing out bottles of water. The whole scene lasted only a minute or two, and is a common occurrence at many Harris and Walz rallies. I can't say whether this happens at Trump rallies as the Trump campaign continues to deny credentials to most journalists and photographers.
With two outstretched hands waving as he bounded up the stage, Walz made his way to the podium where Johnson was still standing with a relieved smile. Walz embraced Johnson in a large hug.
“You did fine,” I could see Walz say again.
Walz pressed his hands together and raised them to his heart as he closed his eyes. It's become such an iconic gesture of gratitude that he might as well get it trademarked. The crowd roared.
The trip was originally supposed to include Harris, but she canceled to survey damage in North Carolina with President Joe Biden. Harris later made a trip to Augusta, Georgia, and distributed aid for those hit hard by Hurricane Helene last week.
Walz was fresh off his debate with Ohio Sen. JD Vance, the Republican vice presidential nominee. During the debate, Vance had shed his typical demeanor of a walking, talking internet shitpost in favor of a more folksy appearance to throw off Walz, an unnamed adviser to Vance told the access-obsessed Axios.
The Vance campaign had an “intentional strategy of not being overly adversarial and aggressive,” the adviser said, adding, “It looks petty... Fundamentally, no one gives a shit about the VPs.”
And it would have been a good strategy had Vance been able to grow up and admit Donald Trump lost the election in 2020. Vance's refusal to answer the question prompted Walz to call Vance's omission “damning.” The exchange has since become the most memorable portion of the debate.
“It felt, especially in that moment, to me, that Senator Vance was speaking to an audience of one,” Walz said in York. “Now look, there is a reason Mike Pence was not on that stage. And let me just say this, I served with Mike Pence in Congress. We disagreed on most issues, but in Congress and as vice president, I never criticized Mike Pence’s ethics and commitments to this country.”
“I work with him,” commented Pennsylvania Sen. John Fetterman about Vance as he warmed up the crowd before Walz’s arrival. “You might think, is he really that weird? And I'm here to say, yes, I can confirm that.”
“I thought we were the ones who were soft on crime,” Fetterman joked.
Walz’s trip to York marked an outreach effort by the campaign to reach so-called disaffected Republican voters.
Like many parts of Pennsylvania outside of Philadelphia, the city of York is surrounded by rural and reliably Republican voters. In 2020, Trump carried York County by 146,733 votes to Biden's 88,114 votes.
But after crisscrossing much of Pennsylvania several times, I’ve noticed there aren't as many Trump signs on lawns as one might think. Many yards are surprisingly devoid of any political signage. There aren’t as many farms with old semi-truck trailers serving as makeshift billboards. You’ll still see Trump/Vance signs, but if you look closely while zooming by, you’ll see it’s just an old sign with “Pence” crossed out and “Vance” drawn in.
There is a surprising amount of support for Harris in these reliably Republican areas. Harris flags fly next to the Stars and Stripes, and yard signs supporting down-ballot Democrats, like Sen. Bob Casey and other congressional and state reps, dot lawns. The fact that there are any signs supporting Harris is curious, and suggests waning support in blue collar counties for the excesses of Trump’s Suits and Ties-first policies.
But is it enough to maintain the Blue Wall?
Back in York, people in the crowd carried campaign signs that read, “Republicans for Harris/Walz.” Others, however, had made their own. A “Joy Corner” was set up near the press filing tables where people could make their own signs.
Kids and grandmas were drawing anti-Trump signs. A young girl with a sucker gave a cheeky pose with a sign that read, “No Orange Peanut.” A little boy sat with his mom writing, “Let Me Grow Up Free,” on one side, and “Kids 4 Coach” on the other.
One member of the crowd was Nita Sue Kent, 82, of Elizabethtown (E-Town), Pennsylvania. A self-described Never Trumper, Kent wore a smile as bright as her blue Kamala Harris t-shirt. She carried a sign that read, “A Republican for Harris/Walz.” She said she'd been a Republican all her life until Trump ran in 2016.
“I believe in the Constitution and the rule of law, and he doesn’t believe in either,” Kent told me and Mike Argento, a reporter with the local, Gannett-gutted York Dispatch.
“His very essence to me is disqualifying,” Kent said.
I think they are all bozos on that other campaign's bus.
I think it's called "The Bus That Can't Slow Down"