By Brandon Moseley
Alabama Political Reporter
Donald Trump is creating buzz in the political world and that buzz is creating growing momentum. And Alabama is no exception. On Monday, Donald Trump announced that he was coming to Mobile to speak at a campaign pep rally in the Mobile Civic Center. Mobile does not have a civic center that is big enough to contain Trump mania. After 30,000 people went online to get their Trump pep rally tickets, the event had to be moved to Mobile’s Ladd-People’s stadium.
Donald Trump told reporters, “It’s going to end up at 30 to 40 thousand people in Alabama.”
If that many show up this will be the biggest campaign stop event in the country to date (that we are aware of), surpassing the 21,000 that came out to see U.S. Senator Bernie Sanders (I – Vermont) in Portland, Oregon. Sen. Sanders is running in the Democratic Presidential Primary.
Ladd-Peebles Stadium has a capacity of 50,000 and is best known as the home of the NFL’s annual Senior Bowl. The gates are scheduled to open at 5:30 pm and the pep rally and town hall event will be from 7:00 to 8:00 pm.
Mary Anne Busenitz is the Alabama Director for Team Trump. The Alabama Constitutional Conservatives are among the groups that are trying to organize volunteers for the Mobile Trump event. An Alabama for Donald Trump 2016 Facebook page has been started as well.
Trump’s GOP rivals had been hoping that his campaign would trip up and fizzle out at some point well ahead of the Iowa Caucuses. That has not happened and some are beginning to take a tougher tone.
On Thursday, August 20 according to original reporting by the Associated Press’s Jim Cole former Florida Governor Jeb Bush (R) told a crowd in New Hampshire, “There’s a big difference between Donald Trump and me. I’m a proven conservative with a record. He isn’t.” Gov Bush said, “I cut taxes every year; he’s proposed the largest tax increase in mankind’s history, not just our own country’s history. I have been consistently pro-life; he until recently was for partial-birth abortion. I’ve never met a person that actually thought that was a good idea. I believe we need to reform our health care system to make sure we stop the suppression of wages and allow people to have access to insurance; he’s for a single-payer system.”
Trump, who was holding an event nearby jabbed back, “Have I gotten under Jeb Bush’s skin?” Trump said of Bush, “I don’t see how he’s electable. Bush is a low-energy person,” he said. “It’s hard for him to get things done.”
Trump’s brash outspoken demeanor from his long running ‘Apprentice’ reality TV shows has translated well thus far to politics.
Trump wrote in the ‘National Enquirer,’ “I am going to talk straight about taxes, social security, health care, our foreign policy and terrorism. Get ready for facts and answers you won’t get from today’s politicians. I may shock you, I may surprise you. But I’m going to tell it to you straight.”
The Alabama Presidential Primary is March 1.
(Real Clear Politics, The Hill, the New York Times, and CNN contributed to this report.)
