Pete vs. the Others

By: Hana Hofeld

On Sunday night our class discussion started with my classmates as they had just returned from a Pete Butteigeig rally shocked at what they had witnessed. To my knowledge the rally started off with the paramedics coming for a fainting woman, next there was a crowd of black lives matter protesters protesting while Pete was speaking, and to top it all off a woman was holding up a ‘free Palestine’ sign in the back. Apparently this was not the first time Butteigeig had BLM protesters at his rallies; this has become common ground. Midway through the event all protesters were escorted out. Finishing off the class discussion on Sunday night, I was eagerly awaiting the next day, pondering what would be in store for those of us who hadn’t seen him yet at the second Pete rally scheduled for Monday in Winterset, Iowa.

Monday arrives and the first thing I notice as we enter the building is the amount of security. The large majority of the staff seems helpful and nice. One thing that stood out to me the most was the fact the stage where Pete would be talking was raised in the middle of the room surrounded by a curtain barrier implying that he’d be farther removed and that the event would be less intimate then all the other ones we had seen. I believe that the way everything was set up for Pete looked like he was about to do a stand up comedy show. There was a big corporate Pete poster behind the stage and in between it was an American and an Iowa flag that just didn’t quite look right. The whole time I was there, I was paying close attention to my surroundings since from what I had heard the night before, I was sure something similar was going to happen. Undercover security stood in the back of the room by almost all the doors.

Pete spoke and I honestly wasn’t impressed with anything he had to say. What I did find interesting was the way he interacted with our Elon student media post rally. After he spoke he took photos with audience members who waited in a long line to reach him. Elon’s student media made it clear to his campaign managers that they wanted to get in a question but Pete refused and walked straight b ignoring them. It wasn’t so much that he did this, but it was interesting because most every other candidate we saw were delighted to give students the time of day.

I was really curious about how my Pete experience would compare to my classmates the previous night. Though there were no protesters or extreme outbursts, it was interesting to observe and look for some of the things they noted the night before. It’s really intriguing to compare Pete’s campaign to other candidates who are polling higher. I think part of the differences between them are one, that the former mayor of South Bend has had past issues with the African-American community there, hence the BLM protesters, and two, I wonder how much of the strangeness of set up, security and control has to do with the fact that the people running the Pete campaign are rookies.