Find the Daily Beast’s coverage of the 2024 election here. Subscribe to The New Abnormal on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Podcasts, Stitcher, Amazon Music, or Overcast.
Ohio Sen. JD Vance’s final rally of the 2024 campaign was held in Newtown, Pennsylvania, on Monday night, and if the number of attendees he gave on stage was accurate, the crowd he drew was half what it was for his previous rally at the same venue in September.
Shortly after 6 p.m., the Trump-Vance campaign was still sending out text messages to supporters stressing that “there’s still time to join” Vance for his scheduled 8:30 p.m. speech.
ADVERTISEMENT
When Vance began his remarks a few hours later at the indoor Sports & Events Center, he said attendance was 2,500.
“We‘ve got 2,500 people here, and that’s an incredible, incredible testament to the enthusiasm we have in Pennsylvania,” Vance claimed, even though his rally there on Sept. 28 had an estimated capacity crowd of 5,000, as the Bucks County Courier Times reported.
Lack of interest in the GOP ticket’s events has become a feature of the final weeks of the campaign.
Trump, for instance, has been insisting that “nobody leaves” his “full” rallies, only to have cameras immediately whirl around to show people leaving, and many empty seats.
This fact hasn‘t been lost on Vice President Kamala Harris’ campaign. In speeches, social media posts, and in her debate against Trump, Harris and her team have repeatedly called his rallies small and boring, and those who attend them often exhausted.
Vance, who was in Atlanta, Georgia, earlier Monday night, had some choice words for Harris.
“In two days, we‘re going to take out the trash in Washington, D.C., and the trash’s name is Kamala Harris,” he said, botching his big line by forgetting that Election Day is not Wednesday, but Tuesday.
