AYESHA RASCOE, HOST:
In Ann Arbor and Tuscaloosa this weekend, football with a side of politics for dipping. Democratic vice presidential candidate Tim Walz went to the Michigan-Minnesota game as a candidate and as Minnesota governor. And last night, Donald Trump was in the stands for the game between the Bulldogs and the Crimson Tide. Pat Duggins is the news director at Alabama Public Radio, and he joins us now from Tuscaloosa. Hi there, Pat.
PAT DUGGINS, BYLINE: Hey there, Ayesha. How are you?
RASCOE: I'm good. So paint the scene there in the stadium.
DUGGINS: Well, it was the third time that Trump has shown up for an Alabama game. So really, that was kind of a big ho-hum for the press. The big anticipation was whether or not the Kamala Harris campaign was going to follow through on threats to hire a banner-towing airplane with the message that Trump was punting, if you pardon the football expression, on a second presidential debate.
RASCOE: And did they do that?
DUGGINS: No, there was no banner-towing airplane, but the Harris campaign did air a national TV spot four minutes before halftime. It had lots of football imagery in it, and Donald Trump missing a putt on the golf course, and it made jabs about his refusal, at least at this point, to do a second debate. The Trump team aired their own ad during the third quarter that focused on Harris' record as a prosecutor.
RASCOE: So Alabama is deep red. But did you find some static for Trump there?
DUGGINS: I did. The group, UA Student Democrats held an anti-Trump tailgate before the game. Now, for any listeners who don't care about college football, a tailgate is a party where people set up tents with Satellite TV and barbecue. Braden Vick of UA Student Democrats says that his group wanted to send a specific message.
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BRADEN VICK: Donald Trump is not welcome here. I think that's been proven in the election results on campus for the past seven years. There's been 23 races where Democrats and Republicans have competed on campus. Every single one of them has been won by the Democratic Party.
RASCOE: Considering how conservative Alabama is, how was that message received?
DUGGINS: Well, I spoke with Shane Walsh (ph). He's a Trump fan, and he and his family drove in from Austin, Texas, for the game. Walsh says that if students want to speak out against Donald Trump, he doesn't care.
SHANE WALSH: This is America. They're free to do what they want to do. I wish they wouldn't. I wish they wouldn't turn this into, you know, a political event by actively campaigning. But I don't - they do what they want to do. I mean, that's what makes this country great.
RASCOE: Was there any friction between the two sides?
DUGGINS: Not that I saw. Braden Vick says that he got some thumbs up from some people, but both sides kind of seemed indifferent to each other.
RASCOE: How did things go for the Democratic vice presidential hopeful Tim Walz in Michigan?
DUGGINS: Our colleague Colin Jackson with Michigan Public Radio Network was there, and he made sure to tell us how bad the weather was. Walz met with a few people at the game, but mostly he just kind of watched, and that kind of makes sense. He has to walk a political tightrope. He's the governor of Minnesota, and that's where the Golden Gophers play, but he and Kamala Harris need the electoral college votes from Michigan. So maybe fortunately the Wolverines won so that Walz could play the generous - the gracious loser, rather, while shaking hands with voters.
RASCOE: But why would Trump go to Alabama, since that's a state he could win easily?
DUGGINS: Donald Trump likes attention. And this Alabama versus Georgia game was kind of like the gunfight at the OK Corral. The last time these two teams met, Georgia was on its way to a possible third national championship in a row. The Tide spoiled that by beating the Dogs for the Southeastern Conference championship. So Georgia fans really wanted revenge. Now as for political support, it's true - you can throw a rock in any direction and hit 20 pro-Trump Republicans in Alabama. But Georgia is considered a toss-up, and that state has 16 electoral college votes compared to Alabama's nine. So if Trump had shown up, like, in a Georgia Bulldogs T-shirt, I don't think anybody would have been surprised. Georgia is very much on the campaign's mind and its path to victory in November.
RASCOE: That's Alabama Public Radio's Pat Duggins. Thanks, Pat.
DUGGINS: Thank you, Ayesha. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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