Arrowhead Park in Neola, Iowa is a picturesque little campground right off I-80, with tents and RVs sharing space with wooded clusters, fishing ponds, and a few cornfields. On Thursday night, its Breezy Lodge was also host to two Presidential candidates, who were guests of the Pottawattamie County GOP.
Former Vice-President Mike Pence was the first guest, who arrived with his wife Karen to mingle with guests an hour before the meeting started. Cold-cuts, pasta salad, and brownies among other things had been brought in for guests, and Pence commented to one guest, “that looks like a good brownie.” The guest shielded his brownie from the VP playfully but then later offered it to him. Several guests had also brought copies of Pence’s latest book, “So Help Me God” for him to autograph. The VP signed one brought by “Miss Nancy” but signed it to the wrong person, so his aide brought out an extra copy, which he signed and presented to her later. One guest told me that Larry Elder was “going to be a tough act to follow.”
Larry Elder, who ran an unsuccessful campaign to unseat California Gov. Gavin Newsom, arrived shortly afterward. The “black face of white supremacy,” as he was referred to by the Los Angeles Times, wore a suit and tie with a pair of garishly-colored Polo sneakers, a gift from his girlfriend. He also spent time greeting guests, but other than a few words and a handshake before their stump speeches, Elder and Pence did not interact.
In his stump speech, Pence focused his ire on failures of the Biden administration, specifically citing inflation and the withdrawal from Afghanistan in 2021. He also gave praise to Chuck Grassley and Kim Reynolds, but other than saying “I’m incredibly proud of the record of the Trump-Pence administration,” Pence made no mention of the 45th President.
Elder described himself as “an America-fist, Make America Great Again candidate. And in the unlikely event that I’m no the party nominee.” He said he agreed with much of what Pence said, but lamented that Republicans were not addressing the “10,000 pound elephant in the room of epidemic of fatherlessness in America.”
Race also played a key role in Elder’s stump speech, as he focused on successful black leaders in America as proof that the United States was not “systemically racist.” Specifically he cited mayors of Los Angeles, Chicago, and Atlanta and presidents of the American Bar Association, the American Medical Association, and Notre Dame University among several others, as evidence.
Several news agencies were on hand to cover the event, including a correspondent from ABC, Jeff Zeleny from CNN and Marianne Levine the Washington Post, as were members from a few local stations were on hand to cover the event.
