MAGA In Montco Week In Review: Trump And Vance Campaign In Local Area
— For the first time in this election cycle, former President Donald Trump and running mate JD Vance came to the Philadelphia suburbs, and they chose communities in Montgomery County to make their regional 2024 debut.
Both events were well attended, though drastically different in tone and environment. Here's a quick recap of a week of MAGA in Montco.
Trump in Oaks
Trump held a town hall style event at the Greater Philadelphia Expo Center in Oaks on Tuesday.
The event turned the parking lot around the center into a MAGA tailgate area for hours before Trump arrived, with gathered attendees chanting and cheering "USA! USA! USA!"
When Trump and South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem arrived, they began a question and answer session that only lasted a short time before a medical emergency involving guests in the crowd becoming overheated, according to video from the scene.
"The number one issue this country has," Trump was saying, but was cut off by shouts of "Medic, medic! from the crowd due to the emergency.
After that delay, the discussion was mostly over. "Who the hell wants to hear questions, right?" Trump said, and then proceeded to emcee a series of songs for the next half hour, playing music and swaying gently back and forth to the beat of LGBTQ anthem "YMCA," "Rich Men North of Richmond," "Hallelujah," and others.
Watch Trump's full appearance on CSPAN .
Vance in Lafayette Hill
Vance's appearance was more sober and less musical. He spoke at a meeting of Moms for America, a conservative action group that works to bring together mothers for "family freedom" and the Constitution. They billed it as a "MomVote" town hall.
As opposed to the thousands that packed the expo center for the Trump rally, only around a hundred appeared to be in attendance at the Vance event.
The event took place at the Union League Liberty Hill in Lafayette Hill, a high end country club. It featured a guest appearance from a Benjamin Franklin impersonator who said he had to cut his dance routine due to time restrictions, and Moms for America founder Kimberly Fletcher.
In a far more substantive event, Vance handled questions from a panel of women who sat on the stage with him before the small crowd. The town hall touched on a host of topics related to the economy and education, but focused on parental control over public school curriculum, a hot button issue at school board meetings across the state and the country since 2020 and the rise of controversy over critical race theory.
Specifically, Vance spoke on books in public school libraries that contained sexual or violent material, and tied it to personal liberty and transferring power away from institutions and back to families.
"I promise that when Donald Trump and I are back in office, you're going to have somebody who fights for you and fights for your right as parents," he said. "We want parents making these decisions, not anybody else...the reason why we establish government is to protect our rights not to destroy our rights."
Vance's full appearance is available on CSPAN .
Democrats in the suburbs
First Lady Jill Biden campaigned at Montgomery County Community College earlier this week as well. She and President Biden appeared at a Democratic Party of Philadelphia dinner in the city on Tuesday, while Vice President Kamala Harris campaigned in Bucks County.
The renewed focus on the Philly area comes just a few weeks out from Election Day, and with the race seeming to ever tighten, Montgomery County voters could very well swing Pennsylvania and the White House itself.
Trump has cut Harris's lead to 1.6 points nationally in an aggregate of polls, according to RealClearPolitics , and he leads Pennsylvania by 0.5 points after sitting in a statistical tie with Harris for weeks.
