BETHLEHEM TWP., Pa. — His words, the way Roz Metzger described it, were akin to a desperately needed vitamin B12 shot.
The divisive political climate was wearing the Bethlehem resident out. The hatred and anger were grinding her into an emotional nub.
But as Metzger exited Bethlehem's Freedom High School following a campaign speech by Democratic vice presidential candidate Tim Walz on Saturday afternoon, she appeared revitalized. Smiling. Hopeful. Her gray skies cleared.
“He said all the right things we care about — free school lunches, common sense laws about guns,” Metzger said.
“He’s so natural, so real. A regular person.”
Metzger paused, exhaled quietly and of her wish for a Democratic victory in November, said, “I’m beyond praying.”
Approximately 1,500 Walz supporters poured out of the gymnasium after his 40-minute speech that touched on gun control, abortion, health care, middle class tax cuts and his highlighting the differences between he and presidential candidate Kamala Harris’s vision for America and that of the Donald Trump-J.D. Vance Republican ticket.
While the Harris-Walz agenda meshes with their own, Diane and Steve Medeiros of Coopersburg were captivated by the Minnesota governor’s homespun, Midwestern persona.
“He’s so down to earth,” Diane Medeiros said. “I was most impressed with how he talked about women’s issues, in general. He just seems to care about people.”
Steve Medeiros found Walz’s position on gun control very promising.
'They're trying to take away our freedoms'
Trump was not without his supporters during Walz’s campaign visit to Bethlehem.
About 40 of them waving Trump flags and holding signs of support as well as others attacking Harris and Walz gathered a few hundred yards away from the high school.
“The Secret Service said we cannot get much closer,” one supporter said.
“And I’m voting for Harris and Walz because I value democracy.”Norman P. Watchous
As traffic passed the Trump supporters at the intersection of Chester and Shakespeare roads, they waved Trump flags and signs in the direction of the drivers.
Each time a vehicle passed — and including when the Walz motorcade roared by — one Trump supporter would holler, “Lower food prices! Lower gas prices! Support the police!”
Three open-bed trucks occasionally raced up and down Chester Street with horns honking and attached Trump flags flapping in the breeze.
One Trump supporter, Wayne Buller of Bethlehem Township, said a reason he supports Trump is because, unlike Harris, the next president “needs to be concerned about this country.”
“I don’t think some people are looking to keep America what it was all about,” Buller said. “They’re trying to take away our freedoms and change the Constitution. Free speech is going away."
Asked his opinion of Harris, he said, simply: “She’s fake.”
Nearly two hours before sunrise, at 4:30, Tammie Erb was there. First in line at Freedom High School. No coffee. No worries.
“I wanted to make sure I got here and got a good seat,” said Erb, of Pennsburg.
“I’m here because he and Kamala believe what I believe — women’s rights, gun control, environmental protections. The other side doesn’t believe in those.”
Erb is a Democrat, but hasn’t been throughout her voting life.
“I left the Republican Party when Donald Trump got involved in it,” she said. “He’s a misogynist, a racist, lies all the time and he’s a criminal. Other than that …”
Of Walz, Erb, like many others at the rally, was most impressed by Walz himself.
“He’s like a dad,” she said. “He’s believable. He’s real.”
‘Veterans are not suckers and losers’
Norman P. Watchous stood proudly if not steadily as he waited in line outside the high school before Walz’s speech.
The Army paratrooper from Milford wore a Disabled Veteran and Proud of It baseball cap, a Veterans for Harris 2024 T-shirt and his disdain for Trump on his sleeve.
Leaning on a black cane, the Army veteran of Korea was flanked by wife, Maryfrances, and sister, Patrice Worthington.
And did not hold back.
“The way he talked about veterans, that we’re suckers and losers,” Watchous said. “Veterans are not suckers and losers.
“And I was at the Naval Academy when he said those things about McCain.”
While on a bombing mission over Hanoi in October 1967, John McCain, then a Navy pilot, was shot down, seriously injured, and captured by the North Vietnamese.
McCain was a prisoner of war until 1973. He experienced episodes of torture and refused an out-of-sequence early release.
In 2015, Trump said of McCain: “He’s not a war hero. He was a war hero because he was captured. I like people who weren’t captured.”
“I think something is seriously not right with Trump,” Watchous said.
“And I’m voting for Harris and Walz because I value democracy.”
Freedom
Natalie Guzman was late to the Walz campaign event. Something about a babysitter that showed up far too late.
As the Secret Service turned her away from the entrance to the gymnasium, she was asked about the vice presidential candidate visiting her home city.
“Freedom,” she said, pointing to the name of the school on an exterior wall. “It’s where we are. It’s what we want.”
