PEORIA, Ariz. — President Trump wasn’t on the lineup at a campaign rally Thursday in this small, liberal-leaning desert suburb at the edge of Phoenix, but Laurie Hartgrove, 51, was no less enthusiastic about his understated understudy.
Vice President Mike Pence hit the road this week to pinch-hit for the COVID-stricken commander in chief, drawing much smaller crowds and delivering much less inflammatory remarks. He is the yin to Trump’s yang — “the balance” — who comforts and explains, as Trump energizes and excites, Hartgrove and her friends said as they waited for Pence to speak in a sweltering parking lot of a tactical equipment company.
“He has a deep-seated love for his country,” she said. “You never hear it mixed with money or dollars. It’s just a pure love for his country and the citizens who live here.”
Zubair Zulfiqur, 31, an independent contractor who drove from nearby Tempe, put it another way: Trump is the tsunami — in a good way, he added — and “Pence is the soothing wind after the storm.”
Fresh off the debate stage, Pence on Thursday made stops in Arizona and Nevada as he attempted to shore up support among wavering Republicans. With less than a month before Election Day, the vice president is taking a rare star turn as the Republican ticket’s main attraction at campaign rallies.
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