To celebrate the beginning of early voting, Ohio Democrats held press conferences in Bowling Green, Toledo, and Cleveland, as part of their #PeopleFirst Bus Tour, where candidates are traveling all across Ohio until Election Day in a 56-seat coach bus.
The bus will travel to county fairs, festivals, rallies, college campuses, cities and villages in every area across Ohio, hoping to highlight their agenda and educate voters on important issues.
“Our candidates are focused on making sure Ohioans have access to affordable health care, good-paying jobs and quality education — issues that directly impact all Ohio families,” Ohio Democratic Party Chairman David Pepper said in a press release.
The bus arrived in Cleveland at 3:30 p.m. yesterday to great fanfare, including the Shaw High marching band and dance line that took over the steps of the former location of Campus International School-South Campus.
Attendees for the event featured candidates Betty Sutton for lieutenant governor, Zack Space for Ohio Auditor, Judge Michael Donnelly for the Ohio Supreme Court, Congresswoman Marcy Kaptur, Congresswoman Marcia Fudge, Ohio Democratic Party chairman, David Pepper, Cuyahoga Democrats chairwoman, Shontel Brown, State Rep. Stephanie Howse, candidate for HD11, State Rep. Nickie J. Antonio, candidate for SD23, State Rep. Kent Smith, for HD08, Juanita Brent for HD12, Cassimir Svigelj for HD16 and many others.
The event took place at the beginning of rush hour, meaning visitors were fighting heavy traffic and less-than-stellar parking accommodations to hear the speeches given by the candidates. People could be seen hanging out of their car windows trying to snap photos and videos of the event while waiting at the nearby stoplights.
A large cluster of Cleveland State University students huddled on the corners across the street, where many appeared to be extremely excited about the rally, including one colorful expression from a student walking by who screamed “Fuck Trump.”
The abundance of students was logical given the rally’s proximity to the campus, but people from a variety of ages, gender expressions, sexual orientations, races, religious backgrounds and socio-economic statuses were all joined together on the steps of the old church, painting a well represented image of the diverse community that makes up Cleveland.
Author’s Note: Scene would be more than happy to cover a similar event hosted by the Republican party, but as of publication, there are only small-scale or individual candidate events scheduled, no comprehensive party events.
This article appears in Oct 10-16, 2018.
Your political team is pathetic. Your coverage is deceptively boastful. We can see in the pic there is more members of the student band than rally attendees. Must be all the dem supporters were too busy confronting lawmakers in restaurants and reading the communist manifesto.