'Shrug': The 'lack of fervor' Alabama college football fans had for Trump was 'notable'

01 October 2024

Former President Donald Trump doesn't need to do a lot of campaigning in Alabama, as it's a deep red state that he carried by 26 percent in 2020 compared to only 5 percent in Texas that year.

But on Saturday night, September 28, Trump attended a major college football game at Bryant-Denny Stadium in Tuscaloosa, Alabama — where rap-rocker Kid Rock and country singer Hank Williams Jr. were with him. And according to NOTUS reporter Ben T.N. Mause, Trump's presence at the event didn't inspire as much excitement as it would have in the past.

"In the heart of the South — in the left ventricle of college football — there are three things people here care about most: God, SEC football and Donald Trump," Mause explains. "And not necessarily in that order. But at Bryant-Denny Stadium on Saturday night, on the University of Alabama quads during the day and ESPN’s College GameDay set that morning, something was missing. Maybe it's just that the football seemed to mean more than usual. No. 4 Alabama was hosting No. 2 University of Georgia in a September battle that would establish the hierarchy of college football dynasties for months to come. But over the course of dozens of interviews Saturday, there was a common feeling."

Mause adds, "Ask these people about their excitement over Trump coming to the game, and you're often greeted with a physical reaction: a shrug."

The reporter points out that "on a scale of the Trumpiest places on Earth, an Alabama football game is about a nine" and "just below a Trump rally." But at Bryant-Denny Stadium, the "lack of fervor" for Trump was "notable."

"Unfortunately for Trump, according to the fans on the ground, few seemed to be paying enough attention to even associate his visit with electoral matters," Mause writes. "Even the fans who loudly proclaimed their early morning drunken adoration for him said it wouldn't get them any closer to filling out a ballot if they weren't already planning to."

Democratic strategist Tharon Johnson observed that Alabama is far from a swing state, although Georgia most definitely is.

Johnson told Mause, "He's doing something that's sort of unorthodox by going to a non-battleground state to try to appeal to battleground voters."

Read Ben T.N. Mause's full NOTUS article at this link.

From Your Site Articles