I’ve been invited to attend a Tim Walz rally tonight, and I have no idea what to expect. Share your stories and get me pumped up to see our next VP!
Update: Everybody was right, lots of standing and clapping, but what I really didn’t expect was the sense of family I felt with all these strangers around me. We’d bump into each other, and laugh it off, one guy was telling me about how his son was thinking about going to the college that I work at (I was still wearing my shirt from work), and we all just knew that we were working together to make great things happen. I’ll probably skip the next one, but it was a great experience. I’m glad I went, and would recommend going to one if you have a chance, and a candidate you believe in.
I went to a Clinton rally in 1992.
It was interesting. They didn’t allow signs on sticks, and Clinton was over an hour late. Really all I remember.
Do mayoral ones count?
Sure! Why not?
I attended a Ralph Nader rally in Boston ahead of the 2000 US presidential election. It was a high energy event, with an atmosphere almost like a pop music show. Nader and his VP candidate both spoke about their campaign positions, with frequent pauses for enthusiastic applause from the crowd. Nader was a third-party candidate, which meant that he was an outsider to the regular election process, and in particular was not invited to the nationally televised debates. There were frequent chants of “Let Ralph Debate”, and we were certain that the establishment was uncomfortable with that idea because they knew his policies would be very popular. Cash donations were collected, and many people wrote pro-Nader messages on the bills they gave.
I suspect your rally will be similar, really. Not quite as much of an outsider vibe, but maybe it’ll be replaced with an underdog vibe. Expect an optimistic event that tries to inspire enthusiasm. It’s not just about encouraging your direct support, but also about inspiring you encourage others to support the campaign.
No, but I’m interested to hear the experiences from those who have.
I, personally, just don’t get the appeal. All I really want from candidates is a website that lists their policy positions and legislative voting records / accomplishments. Attending a rally just seems too “cult of personality” for my taste. Though I would and have attend smaller, town hall style meetings.
I think its quite possibly the best way to determine if a candidate truly represents you (if you are good at sizing a character) by hearing that candidates points and comparing them to yours, gauging the crowd and seeing if they are like you, and lastly seeing if the energy you feel is positive or negative. At the end of the day, the media will spin it however they want to give them more coverage or clicks, and hearing them on video just doesn’t translate that crowd energy either.
Yeah, it’s not something I’ve ever really considered doing before, but the opportunity fell in my lap, so I might as well see what the fuss is about!
Tim Walz seems like a really great guy all around, and truth be told, if I was given an opportunity to attend a local rally for him, I’d probably seriously consider it. Doubt that I would actually go, but it wouldn’t be an immediate hard “no” like I’d usually respond lol.
All the small time local politicians from the town hall are also there, and they are fucking STOKED, and they RECOGNIZE YOU. It’s an incredible energy.
I’ve been to a few. I literally met Joe Biden at one of them, when he ran for president in 1988 but tanked in the primaries. He gave a stump speech at my school with maybe 100 people gathered, and he stayed around and chatted afterwards. It was pretty relaxed, Biden spouted platitudes, and he tried to recruit one of the student organizers to his local campaign (no idea what if anything happened with that).
Frankly I wouldn’t go to one now, especially an indoor one. Think of Herman Cain who now has an award named after him. The Biden one I went to was outdoors. If you go, wear a properly fitted N95 mask and keep it on the whole time, or as much as possible.
I went to one for a candidate for the House district I lived in a few election cycles ago, It was mostly stump speeches and other “rah rah we’re gonna win!” style pontificating. But one thing I did not expect and I actually found interesting was the house candidate spent a lot of time introducing other local politicians that were in down ballot races in the district. City council seats, education board seats etc. That turned out to be really useful, because it meant I got to meet/ hear from candidates who I either had no idea existed or who were just a name of a flyer before then. I suppose that experience may not transfer to a national candidate rally though.
I went to a Sanders rally in 2016 here in Seattle. I went on to be a county Delegate for the caucus - our last caucus, thankfully. The energy was huge, the people were absolutely stoked, and the arena was 100% packed with lines wrapping around outside.
Hey, me too! I just commented about it. We got there two hours early. After about an hour I went up to the balcony to vape, and the line outside was at least a mile long. The rally itself was pretty much the same thing we already heard on TV, but it was fun to show our support.
We also became delegates for him, and moved on to the following caucus. After that fiasco we passed the torch to someone else to carry, because the caucus was a complete train wreck. There were 600 people packed into a tiny middle school gymnasium, and we had to debate for 6 fucking hours over whether we could start debating yet, since some Hillary delegates didn’t show. The other Hillary delegates refused to accept the delegate count, hoping they’d get some more support from the missing delegates, and us Sanders delegates kept arguing that we had waited long enough and should start the debates. All-in-all it was a miserable experience, but I’m glad that we were able to experience it before they changed how votes are handled here in Washington State.
'Had a similar experience with a 2020 Bernie rally in Los Angeles. Big arena, lots of energy, long lines. It was loud but a good experience. I’d recommend it at least once for a candidate that you feel strongly for.
PS: I went on to canvas for Bernie. He won the primary in California!
He won quite a number of primaries in 2016. We were robbed of a better past future.
Yeah, the Democratic party really showed us how they think about positive change when they blocked Bernie. We’re seeing the same dysfunction with how Harris has softened her position on a number of issues. That party machine mainly thinks of itself.
We saw how much they clamped down on party dissent against Biden ahead of the 2024 primaries while also trying to undermine the calls for Biden to step down.
Unfortunately we won’t see a completely new phase of the Democratic party until the DWSs and Third Way Clinton crowd are gone from the party.
Same. Sanders rally was my first experience and it was wonderful. Diverse, smart, compassionate, joyful people. Had a lot of fun talking to other people!
I tried to go to Harris/Walz rally but it was over capacity!
I went to a John Kerry Rally in 2004. I got there about 30 minutes late and for whatever reason was ushered up to the front corral of people. Inexplicably, Bon Jovi takes the stage and shouts, “You what George Bush’s financial policy is? Bad Medicine!” and launches into the song ‘Bad Medicine’. I started laughing my ass off because it was corny as shit and Bon Jovi and I made eye contact for a brief second.
YMMV
I went to a Republican campaign launch, state level candidates were there to put some sound bites on local TV and get the volunteers hyped. The free lunch was pretty good.
I went to a Bernie rally in Feb 2020. It was kind of electric. He was saying common-sense things about stuff that people really want changed about society and people were fired up by the huge crowd of agreement reinforcing how badly they were needed. I really thought he had a great chance before the dems kneecapped his campaign.
Bernie was the first politician that ever made me think “I want to hear more about what THIS guy is saying!” I rarely voted before I had heard of him, but learning more about Bernie slowly got me involved!
I can see Tim Walz being that guy for some people. After Kamala’s done her 8 years, Trump will have long slithered back into the shadows, and the GOP is deciding whether or not they should stick with the loud and crazy strategy, if Walz were to run, I think his common sense regular guy style could win over a lot of the rural Republicans. They aren’t all MAGA fiends, they just don’t pay much attention, and their friends like Trump. But if he can reasonably explain to them in their own language that nobody’s taking their guns, we just didn’t want people geared up like they’re in Call of Duty, we might be able to get them to stop considering us as villains.
For various reasons, I’ve gone to political rallies for a good portion of my life. They can be really fun or incredibly boring. There’s a sense of community you get at a concert or church service, and at the good ones, it can be quite a charge to be sharing the moment with others. At the bad ones, it can seem shrill or too amped or on the opposite side being dull as dishwater.
tl;dr - basically like a school pep rally for adults, but without the drawback of being required
I went to a Sanders rally in 2016. It was fun. Get there early! There was a line a mile long (literally) by the time we found our seats. Oh, as to what to expect, expect speeches and a tiny view of a person standing on a stage. There wasn’t really a show or anything. We just went to show support for our chosen candidate.
I saw Obama in 2016 in Elkhart, IN, where he made the infamous “if if if if we…” gaffe. It was a fun speech and the crowd was very energetic.
I used to live in Ohio, and had three presidential candidates visit close enough to conveniently get to. I went to the Edwards, Obama (primary season), and Romney events. I didn’t order advance tickets for any of them. Both Democrats had volunteers outside the security trying to get everyone who showed up with or without tickets through security and into the main venue. At Romney’s I didn’t get in and just loitered around the outside fencing. That might have been the better experience – I could still hear the speeches, and the outside crowd had better signs and more colorful commentary than the inside ones.
I went to a Bernie rally in 2015. It was by far (by a wide, wide margin) the best attended political rally we’d ever had in Idaho. It was at the college stadium and I chose to stand in the crowd nearest the podium. That was cool. But, I was standing in line for two hours and then the rally was about three hours. The standing floor at the rally was really crushed in so you don’t have personal space and you can’t really shift your weight and relax muscles. So, I recommend getting a chair if they’re available. I was getting so fatigued I was having a hard time enjoying it. I would totally do it again. But I’d head for seating.
There is a “special guest” on the itinerary. My wife asked “What if it’s Bernie?”
I doubt it will be, but I low key geeked out a little at the possibility. 😁
