Yahoo News The delicate art of the campaign-trail restaurant visit
CORRECTION: A previous version of this article incorrectly said JD Vance visited a doughnut shop in Georgia in September; he visited in August. The article has been corrected. Originally moved Sept. 26.
- - -
Presidential campaign trails are paved not just with rallies and glad-handing and stump speeches, but also with food. At diners, state fairs and deli counters, the people seeking the highest office in the land often make their case against the backdrop of burgers and pancakes and waffles and ice cream.
Most of these kinds of stops are seen as easy wins, creating lighthearted, humanizing moments and memes that will be shared on social media feeds.
They can, though, sometimes go very wrong. In August, Republican vice-presidential candidate JD Vance had a memorably awkward exchange at a Georgia doughnut shop, where the clearly uncomfortable employee asked not to be filmed and Vance’s ordering skills were mocked for seeming robotic.
When they go well, campaign experts say, such stops can serve a few fundamental purposes.
Simply put, food is the most relatable medium, says David Urban, who advised the 2016 and 2020 campaigns of former president Donald Trump. “People in America connect through food,” says Urban, a managing director at BGR Group. “And so when they turn on the local news and they see their friends and their neighbors and they see a candidate eating where they eat, they think, ‘He’s like me, she’s like me,’ right? That creates a sense of connectivity.”
Although many of these interactions might look casual, a lot goes on behind the scenes to pull them off. To start, picking the right spot is crucial. Advance staffers, the people who travel ahead of the candidate, are usually tasked with identifying potential venues. Typically, campaigns look for iconic establishments.
“One of the goals of a campaign is to personalize and localize your appeal,” says Kevin Madden, a senior partner at the Penta Group who was a spokesman for former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney’s 2008 and 2012 presidential campaigns. “So one of the best ways to do that is to showcase identifiable local food landmarks.”
That’s how Vance found himself last month ordering cheesesteaks at the legendary Pat’s King of Steaks in Philadelphia and takeout Italian at the beloved Tenuta’s Deli in Kenosha, Wis. (Both made headlines, although they mostly focused on his attempts to make jokes that landed oddly.)
A campaign also might look for businesses whose owners’ stories jibe with the candidate’s messaging. On her recent visit to Savannah, Ga., Kamala Harris made stops at Dottie’s Market and at chef Mashama Bailey’s acclaimed restaurant, the Grey, both small businesses owned by Black women.
If a candidate visits a chain, it usually has some specific resonance: Democratic vice-presidential candidate Tim Walz last month visited a Raleigh location of Cook Out, where Gov. Roy Cooper suggested that the two order milkshakes, a specialty of the beloved Tar Heel State-based company. And Trump earlier this year met with Black students at a Chick-fil-A location in Atlanta, where the chain is headquartered.
A few cautionary tales in the annals of campaign-trail eating haunt advance staffers’ nightmares. Democratic nominee John F. Kerry in 2003 infamously ordered Swiss cheese on his cheesesteak at Pat’s in Philadelphia instead of the customary Cheez Whiz or provolone, a misstep that some say helped doom his bid by reinforcing his image as an out-of-touch elitist.
Then there’s the tamale that may have swung the 1976 race. Gerald Ford was running for a second term as president against Jimmy Carter, when, during a visit to San Antonio, he bit into a tamale without first removing its corn husk wrapping. Lone Star voters were aghast. “I am convinced that it was that gaffe with the tamale that cost him the state of Texas,” former Arkansas governor Mike Huckabee, who was then living in Texas, reportedly said. “Carter won Texas and Carter won the presidency, and it may have been a tamale that did it.”
Campaign veterans say the best way to avoid such gaffes is to make sure a candidate has a local with them to explain the mores and traditions. That might be a friendly mayor or congressperson, or even the owner of the establishment they are visiting. (Several noted that Vance lacked a wingman on that ill-fated doughnut run.)
“I would never stick my candidate alone somewhere,” says Robby Mook, whose campaign-trail experience includes Howard Dean’s 2004 run as well as Hillary Clinton’s in 2008 and 2016, the latter of which he managed. “Nobody expects them to be from a place they’re not from, and so having somebody local with you makes it more fun and more interesting, and someone to tell you about what you’re doing.”
“You have to have a sherpa,” agrees one longtime Democratic presidential advance staffer, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because he is not authorized to represent any campaigns. “That’s somebody to have a conversation with as you’re walking around, somebody to ask, ‘What’s your bestseller, what should I order, how long it’s been open,’ whatever else.”
Most candidates opt to order takeout, a strategy that is only partly about keeping the always tight schedule on time. It’s also about not eating in front of a phalanx of cameras.
Madden says he tried to steer candidates away from potentially embarrassing shots. “I would say, ‘We might want to stay away from the corn dog station,’” he says. “You look at all the photos of the Iowa State Fair and people eating corn dogs, it’s not the most flattering look.”
Eating in front of reporters (and regular folks with phones) offers opportunities for other gaffes, too, such as when in 2011, former vice-presidential candidate Sarah Palin - who was then contemplating her own presidential run, complete with a bus tour - ate pizza with a knife and fork. In a strange twist, her guide for that visit to a pizza shop in Times Square was none other than Trump, well before his more recent presidential ambitions. (Trump also got dinged for choosing a generic, touristy chain instead of one of New York’s revered slice purveyors, with comedian Jon Stewart noting that other locations included one in Terminal 4 of the Phoenix airport.)
As the veteran campaign consultant says: “It’s just the rules: No funny hats. No eating.”
Many such drop-ins are called “OTRs” - or off-the-records - in campaign parlance, meaning they aren’t necessarily listed on the candidate’s daily schedule that’s shared with the media and the public. Sometimes it means the press pool traveling with the candidates doesn’t know the destination until pulling up.
Proprietors typically have more of a heads-up. Security is far more rigorous these days than in more freewheeling times, when campaign veterans remember popping into establishments 20 minutes before the candidate arrived to allow Secret Service to secure the area. Bill Penzey, the owner of Penzey’s Spices, whose Pittsburgh location Harris visited this month, said someone from her campaign got in touch with him the day before. They asked him to keep the news close to the vest, he said. “They said if we pull up Saturday afternoon and there’s a whole lot of protesters outside, and there’s 8,000 people excited to see her standing outside the store, we’ll have to drive by, it’s just too massive.”
He notified the location’s manager the next day, and he said Secret Service came about an hour and a half before Harris arrived and screened people who would be in the store when she got there.
In ever-more-divisive times, it’s also not a given that an establishment wants a visit from a political candidate, for fear of potentially alienating half its customer base, experts say. In the case of Penzeys, the Harris campaign had reason to think they would be greeted warmly: Bill Penzey is an avowed fan of Harris and regularly calls out Republicans.
Such stops might be lighthearted, but they can serve a serious function. Madden says visits to eateries along the campaign trail can act as a sort of crucible for a candidate. If they can’t make it through the gantlet of diners in key primary states, there might be a problem that’s bigger than a silver-dollar pancake. “It exposes people and their flaws sometimes,” he says. “Not being able to make small talk in New Hampshire diners tracks pretty closely with your ability to win the state.”
But unlike a visit to, say, a manufacturing plant, the point isn’t to labor over policy points, Mook says. “They should actually be a fun break for the candidate and a chance for them to experience the local culture and the local food,” he says. “It’s not some micro-targeted messaging that’s going to change the race.”
Related Content
Meet the United Auto Workers members who could swing the election
