Hours before President Barack Obama addressed a crowd gathered on the Downtown Mall Wednesday afternoon, the Jefferson Area Tea Party staged a rally a couple streets away to show Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney’s commitment to the youth vote.
The Republicans assembled at Lee Park Wednesday expressed confidence in the GOP’s chances in November. But Del. Rob Bell, R-Albemarle, speaking at the event, said the Republican Party has a number of hoops to jump through before November rolls around, especially in overcoming Charlottesville’s strong blue history.
“The Charlottesville area is challenging [for conservatives], but we are not seeing the same Obama enthusiasm from students that we did four years ago,” Bell said.
Bell wasn’t the only Republican to note the significant challenges Charlottesville poses for the party, but Carole Thorpe, media relations director and former chair of the Jefferson Area Tea Party, said the Tea Party exists to provide an alternative for Charlottesville voters.
Thorpe said her main concern is protecting the next generation.
“The Class of 2016 should talk to the graduating class who don’t know how they’re going to pay their [student loans],” she said. “If they think it’s bad now, wait four years and that’s when it’s going to be really bad.”
To lively cheers and clapping from the audience, Kate Obenshain, the vice president of Young America’s Foundation, a conservative youth organization, delivered a fervently anti-Obama speech encouraging young Americans to “break through the meanness of the left, the lies, and the fear-mongering” to win the election.
“So many people in this country [four years ago] were embracing the concept of equality of outcome,” she said. “That should send chills down our spines. If young people believe socialism is the way of the future, then we will lose everything we treasure about the United States. We will cease to be the greatest country in the world.”
Later that afternoon, Obama also expressed concern for the future and for America’s path in a speech designed to mobilise youth voters. Attacking Romney for his stance on social issues and criticizing his opponent’s tax plan as “another millionaire’s tax cut” at the expense of the middle class, Obama attempted to show his dedication to college-age Americans.
“I tell you: on almost every issue he wants to go backwards, sometimes to the last century,” Obama said.
Obenshain said this year’s presidential contest was about more than winning. “It’s about a way of life,” she said.
While Tea Partiers waved signs saying “one and done” and “November is coming,” gates a block away on the nTelos Wireless Pavilion opened to the public. As Obenshain ended her speech, the line to hear the president was already stretching down the street.
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