Indiana Governor Mike Pence visited Williamsburg Tuesday night. Despite heavy rainfall, the vice presidential candidate hosted a rally in front of Colonial Williamsburg’s Capitol building, where he laid out the Trump ticket’s plan to “make America great again.”
“I like to tell people that other than a whole lot of zeroes, Donald Trump and I have a whole lot in common,” he told the crowd.
Referring to Trump as the election’s law and order candidate, Pence stressed that the safety of the American people is a chief concern for their campaign.
“The security of the American people is much on our mind this rainy night,” Pence said before referencing this past weekend’s bomb explosions in New York and New Jersey, and a stabbing attack in a Minnesota mall, for which ISIS claimed responsibility.
“When Trump becomes president we will bring the fight to the enemy, we will destroy ISIS at its source,” he said.
Throughout the course of Pence’s speech, torrential rains hammered down on the candidate and the crowd. But bad weather did not keep guests away, as several hundred people turned out for the rally — both in support and opposition to the Trump/Pence campaign.
For local resident Jonathan Glasser, the rally served as a site of protest.
“Part of it is to be together with the people who are against what Trump and Pence stand for,” he said. “And to exercise my First Amendment right to speak out.”
Speaking out was just what Pence asked of his audience in his closing remarks, albeit in a different context.
“My word to you tonight on this soggy evening is — after you get all dried off — go tell somebody,” Pence said. “I want you to leave here tonight from this historic place and tell somebody that we have got to elect Donald Trump as the next President of the United States and we can make America great again.”
Adrienne Berard contributed reporting.
