Vice presidential candidate Tim Kaine came to Colorado Monday for a voter registration rally and performance by rockstar Dave Matthews.
The "Get Out the Vote" event drew about 1,000 people to the National Western Complex on behalf of an effort to rally support for Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton in the weeks before Coloradans are permitted to vote by mail.
Local politicians Mayor Michael Hancock, U.S. Sen. Michael Bennet and Gov. John Hickenlooper appeared in support of the Clinton campaign, prior to Dave Matthews’ solo performance. Hickenlooper remained silent, though Bennet made digs at Donald Trump’s mannerisms along with briefly discussing his senatorial race against Republican candidate Darryl Glenn.
If you happen to live under a rock (no shame), it’s been a rather tumultuous weekend in election land. After the Washington Post published a video Friday of Trump making vulgar comments about women, the weekend culminated in a tense debate between Clinton and Trump.
But the rally was noticeably light-hearted.
When Matthews took the stage, the crowd went wild. One woman screamed, “I love you Dave,” eliciting laughter from the audience.
He performed a brief acoustic set that consisted of some of his more well-known songs, including “Satellite” and “Don’t Drink the Water.” Matthews, a South African native, is openly liberal and despite performing at a Bernie Sanders rally in June, came out in support of Clinton, Jambase reported.
He briefly talked politics between songs, voicing his support for Clinton’s more inclusive stance on immigration.
“I’m an immigrant, I didn’t take anybody’s job,” he said. “We are all immigrants, because we are standing on colonized ground.”
Once Matthews introduced Kaine, the crowd roared again. They sounded about as enthused about Kaine as they were Matthews.
He focused primarily on the differences between Clinton and Trump, touching almost immediately on the 2005 video.
“He cannot look at a woman and see and equal,” Kaine said.
He also compared Trump’s desire to imprison Clinton to political conditions in 1980s Honduras (a military dictatorship), emphasizing what he anticipates would be Clinton’s very different approach.
“The day Hillary Clinton is elected, she will not give a second thought to Donald Trump,” Kaine said.
The crowd at the National Western Complex was diverse and pretty evenly split along gender-lines. It was difficult to find attendees who were not in support of Clinton and Kaine.
Mutiu Okanlawoa moved to Colorado from Nigeria about one year ago. He said he appreciated Clinton’s fleshed out approach to the presidency and described Trump as “too vague.”
“She has more vision,” he said.
“Tim Kaine and Dave Matthews, what could be better?” said Caroline Hogue, 69, who traveled from Boulder for the rally.
“It is my responsibility as a white person not to throw disenfranchised groups under the bus,” she added. “I trust [Hillary] to do everything right that Donald Trump would do wrong.”
Janson Valentino, 27, said he mostly came to see Dave Matthews, though, much like Dave, he said he recently came out in support of Clinton after backing Sanders.
Kaine drew the rally to a close after about 2 hours. He gave one final battle cry for himself and Clinton, labeling their campaign—and Democrats more broadly—as “underdog people.”
Multimedia business & healthcare reporter Chloe Aiello can be reached via email at [email protected] or twitter.com/chlobo_ilo.
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