On an overcast Saturday afternoon in Savannah more than 300 of Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump’s most ardent fans crowded a ballroom to hear one of his most enthusiastic surrogates: South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem.
Two weeks after Democratic nominee Kamala Harris arrived in the Hostess City, Republican Party faithful packed the Charles H. Morris Center at Trustees’ Garden, eager to participate in their version of a pre-game pep rally.
In a presidential election that most polls indicate couldn’t be much closer, the leader of a mostly rural state more than 1,600 miles away provided the message that the crowd hoped will sway neighbors and friends to give Trump a second term in the White House.
“I need you to leave here today recognizing the responsibility on your shoulders to talk to people that haven’t made up their minds,” said Noem, outlining the job ahead in a presidential race where swaying a few thousand voters in the right places could make the difference between victory and defeat in November.
The 52-year-old governor, once considered Trump’s possible running mate, went on:
“We’re not talking about those who have lost their minds and think that they’re going to vote for the most radical, dangerous person we’ve ever had on the presidential ticket ever in the history of America, right? We’re talking about the ones in the middle that have no idea what they’re thinking. Those are the ones we’re gonna go find.”
The Current spoke to five people who spent Saturday at what was billed as “Team Trump’s Agenda 47 Policy Tour,” to learn what’s driving their support for the 45th president who is seeking another four-year term in the Oval Office.
‘We the people are pissed’
Lee Pepin learned of Noem’s visit to Savannah by chance.
Since early July, Pepin and his wife Lisa have been hopscotching up the coast from Stuart, Florida, aboard their 42-foot trawler. They were at a bar in Savannah Friday evening when they heard about the Trump campaign event.
“We’re stopping at all these great places,” the 66-year-old landscaper from Danbury, Conn., said. “And then we heard about this rally last night at the bar and I said, ‘I’m going to that.’”
“I think Trump’s the right guy for the country,” said Pepin, wearing a T-shirt bearing the slogan and standing with his wife amid a crush of Trump supporters in the back of the ballroom at Charles H. Morris Center. “We the people are pissed.”
“We were a lot better off when he [Trump] was president than we are now. Gas prices, food — food, oh my god! Just the prices were better with Trump. He did a good job of running the government.”
While there’s no doubt who the couple will vote for in November, Pepin said he was “horrified” by Trump’s performance in the debate last week with Vice President Kamala Harris.
“I don’t think Trump did a good job on it,” he said. “He doesn’t smile anymore. He used to be a very happy person when he was running four years ago. He’s just not happy, and that bothers me.”
‘Like Paul Revere’
“I’m down here like Paul Revere in some ways, trying to get everybody to get out and vote for Trump.”
That self-described version of the Revolutionary War hero is Brennan Smith, a 35-year-old resident of the Pittsburgh area who is going door-to-door in Coastal Georgia for Patriot Grassroots, one of the many groups working alongside the Trump campaign to muster voters to the polls.
Asked where he’s temporarily living, Smith said Savannah, then quickly adds a Revere-like account of his call to arms:
“Let me tell you, I’ve been to some back dirt roads that I never knew existed. But hey, that’s good. We got to get people up and out to vote because otherwise we don’t have a country. If we don’t have Trump in office this upcoming election, it’s either communism or freedom and prosperity.”
Smith, who works in the biotech field when he isn’t knocking on doors for Trump, offers a litany of grievances about Harris, Democrats, and this election cycle. He cited the baseless claim that Harris wore an earpiece during last week’s debate that was used to feed her answers. Harris and her party are “frauds” that need to be exposed. The polls are “rigged,” Brennan said, again without evidence.
Smith said he doesn’t yet know if he’ll be working in Georgia until the election. His contemporary version of Revere’s midnight ride to Lexington to warn of approaching British troops may move to Pennsylvania or Arizona, both battleground states, he said.
Values of money, California at stake
For Rich Grenham of Savannah, this election is about the money: His.
Grenham, an airplane mechanic, said the Trump presidency was better for him financially.
“My money actually meant something. I went to school for two years to become an aviation mechanic, where I could actually make a good living,” said the 39-year-old Grenham.
“Three and a half years under Biden has destroyed what that money is worth. Now I might have to go back to school and get an engineering degree or get another degree.”
Arm-in-arm with Grenham as he waits for Noem to take the stage is Aaron Scott, 50, also of Savannah. She describes herself as a third-generation Texan who has seen firsthand the problems of illegal immigration and fentanyl trafficking.
For her, Harris is imbued with the values of her native California, values that shouldn’t be applied to the nation at-large.
“California shouldn’t be running our country,” Grenham said. “Right now, we have someone that’s running for office that was working in California. Look at how California is broken.”
‘I think it’s going to get bad.’
Among those who attended the Trump rally on Saturday, Mark Allen was a distinct outlier, one of those Republicans unlikely to heed Noem’s campaign advice and fervently pound the pavement in the weeks ahead in support of the former president.
Which doesn’t mean he isn’t voting for Trump. Allen, a semi-retired business consultant who divides his time between Savannah and Tennessee, is one of those begrudging Trump voters that dislike the former president but plan to cast their ballot for him anyway.
“I think a lot of Republicans are going to stay at home and not vote,” said Allen, wearing a black baseball cap with emblazoned with an American flag and the slogan “Trump 2024/Keep America Great.”
“But do I think it’s going to be good for the country? No, I don’t.”
Allen went on: “If Trump wins, I think it’s going to get bad. And I think if Kamala Harris wins, I think it’s going to get bad. I don’t see anything good coming out of this election. The one thing that I was wanting was for the man [Trump] to stay at home and become a king and let somebody else run. But now that’s just me.”
Standing on the sidewalk outside the ballroom on Saturday, Allen traced his distaste for Trump, whom he describes as having a “dictatorship-type style,” to the ex-president’s actions following his defeat in the 2020 election.
“Trump did something that to a politician is intolerable. When you get your ass beat — excuse my language — you just kind of gracefully go away,” he said. “You accept, for the good of the country, the results of the election. You do not tear the country apart for your own ego. That’s what the man was doing.”
Though Allen said he will cast his vote for Trump, calls for party loyalty may not suffice for victory in November.
“I think you’ve got the old, hardcore Republicans that love the country more than they love the party, that are not going to go vote. And I think that’s going to be Trump’s downfall.”
This story was provided by WABE content partner The Current.
