Politics and college football mixed in Tuscaloosa over the weekend. The University of Alabama defeated Georgia at Bryant-Denny Stadium. GOP Presidential hopeful Donald Trump was in the stands and Democrat Kamala Harris made her presence known with a nationally televised attack ad. APR News spoke with red fans and blue fans who made their feelings known about campaigning on game day.
The day started early for some fans of the Crimson Tide and the Georgia Bulldogs. ESPN’s College Game set up its show on the University of Alabama campus. Students carried signs reading don’t embarrass me in front of my Georgia fan parents or teach the bulldogs to behave.
If ESPN flashed something on their big TV screens that Bama fans like, the reaction was cheers. And, if they didn’t like what they saw, there were boo’s.
Not far from the College Game Day Show… tailgating was in full bloom. Supporters of Alabama and Georgia set up tents, hooked up their TV satellite dishes, and fired up the grill for a day of BBQ. Something else was being dished up as well.
“Donald Trump is not welcome here,” he said.
University of Alabama Poli Sci major Braden Vick is president of the group UA Student Democrats. He and his friends set up a tailgate with a specific message..
“That's what we live for here at the University of Alabama, tens of thousands of people crawling on here to party and celebrate Alabama football, because that's what we're supposed to be here for, right? I mean, it shouldn't be marred by a former President in orange…tangerine coming out here, trying to ruin the party and make it his own campaign rally. That's what we're opposing,” he said.
An oil executive who got married at Trump’s Mar-A-Lago property in Florida reportedly invited the GOP Presidential Hopeful to attend Alabama’s game against Georgia. Braden Vick says Alabama may be a deep Red state, but the election results on the Tuscaloosa campus have been different…
“For the past seven years, there's been 23 races where Democrats and Republicans have competed on campus,” said Vick. “Every single one of them has been won by the Democratic Party.”
But, Vick is quick to add that Saturdays in the Fall in Tuscaloosa should be about football and not politics. Still, he and his friends were ready to carry the Harris/Walz banner while fan after fan wearing Team Trump stickers rode buses from University of Alabama parking lots to Bryant Denny Stadium for the game…
So it's a, it's a, it's just a, it's an American tailgate, right?” said Shane Walsh for example…
“And then we got a whole bunch of red blooded American kids that that are that love Alabama and love America,” he added.
Walsh’s son is a senior in Tuscaloosa. Three times a year, his makes the drive from Austin Texas to Alabama to tailgate and go to whoever’s playing the Tide that day. Their tent included a sign with a big picture of Trump and the slogan They’re eating the dawgs today—a possible reference to Republican stories of Haitians eating house pets in Ohio. That said, Walsh says he agrees with Vick that politics on gameday are maybe better left at home…
I think it's America. I think they should do what they want to do. You vote for who you want to vote for. And you know, if you hand out a button, if somebody doesn't want it, that's fine. We're not going to take them. But, I mean, I'm not, I don't want them evicted from campus or anything.”
The politicking continued during the game. The Kamala Harris campaign aired a national TV spot late the third quarter razzing Trump for not agreeing to a second Presidential debate. The Trump side responded with an ad of its own on Harris’ record as a prosecutor.
