In rural Virginia, 2024 local Trump rally nowhere as big but just as nutty as in 2020
In eastern Virginia, two to three hours out of DC, is Virginia’s “Northern Neck” – “Neck” being an old term for a peninsula. The NNeck consist of six counties, bordered on the north and south respectively by the Potomac and Rappahannock rivers, the east by the Chesapeake Bay, and the west by mainland Virginia.
Largely rural, the NNeck is part of Virginia’s First Congressional District, which has been represented for 17 years by Rob Wittman, Republican, who has neither introduced nor passed a single piece of meaningful legislation, and who was one of the 147 Republicans who, in January 2021, voted for a resolution to overturn the 202 election. Wittman reliably wins re-election with 58 to 65 percent of the vote.
At the tip of the NNeck are Northumberland and Lancaster counties. Northumberland went for Trump by 70% in 2016 and 2020 and no doubt will repeat in 2024.
Northumberland County is home to Bleak House Farm (BHF), a working farm that also is home to Republican rallies each election season as well as other rightwing gatherings.
In 2020, BHF was host to a huge Trump rally – over 1,500 people from all over the NNeck turned out to hear speeches by local and state Trumpists. At the end of the 2020 rally, a “Trump train” of over 300 vehicles formed up and toured the main roads of the county, escorted by county deputy sheriffs.
Yesterday – October 12 – the Northumberland County Republican Committee sponsored a rally – 1-5 PM, $20 per ticket, hot dogs with all the fixings, and three Trump speakers: (1) Governor Glenn Youngkin in his signature WalMart red vest; (2) Representative Rob Wittman; and (3) Republican candidate for US Senate Hung Cao, a Vietnamese immigrant, former Navy SEAL, who will lose to Senator Tim Kaine by about 60-40.
The crowd was nowhere near the 1,500 from 2020 – more like 500, if that. The “Trump train” did not form. In fact, I was returning from Northern Virginia and at 4:00 PM – one hour before the end of the rally – I passed the road coming out of the rally site and stopped for a minute to watch -- at the stop sign waiting to turn onto the main road, was a small line of vehicles – including a couple with Trump flags and some vendors’ trailers – leaving the rally site an hour before the end. No Trump train developed, one lone deputy was directing traffic out of the rally site.
Here are a couple of pics from Governor Youngkin’s Facebook page. Notice the admiring ALL-WHITE faces. (I tried my best to insert the pics but could not figure out how to do it -- go the the Facebook page and check out the rally pics.)
Glenn Youngkin's FAcebook page.
https://www.facebook.com/GlennYoungkin/
Virginia will go for Harris by 5-10 percent PROVIDED WE WORK OUR TAILS OFF AND GET OUT THE VOTE!!!!
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