Duluth is first post-convention stop for Vice President Pence

Vice President Mike Pence’s first campaign event following the Republican National Convention was a visit to Duluth, Hubbard affiliate station WDIO in Duluth reports.

Pence spoke to a few hundred people at the Clure Public Marine Terminal on Friday afternoon. He was joined by Rep. Pete Stauber (R-Minnesota), Republican U.S. Senate candidate Jason Lewis, Two Harbors Mayor Chris Swanson and Virginia Mayor Larry Cuffe.

Pence touted President Donald Trump’s actions to respond to Chinese steel dumping and said Joe Biden would repeal tariffs that level the playing field. He also addressed recent racial justice concerns and violence.

"There’s no excuse for what happened to George Floyd. Justice will be served. But there’s also no excuse for rioting and looting and violence," Pence said. He said law and order will be on our streets for every American.

Several of the speakers criticized the format that Democrats used for their convention, with Lewis saying that the DNC looked like an "H.R. meeting on Zoom."

Kate Bedingfield, Biden for President Deputy Campaign Manager and Communications Director, accused the Trump campaign of trying to change the subject after being unable to make an affirmative case for their re-election.

"Minnesotans who tuned into the Republican convention heard an endless parade of divisive rhetoric and fear-mongering — but no strategy for getting control of a pandemic that has infected more than 72,000 Minnesotans and left too many without a job," Bedingfield said in a statement released before Pence’s event.

Duluth Mayor Emily Larson was one of several Democrats to speak out against the Trump-Pence campaign on a conference call prior to Pence’s visit, saying their platform does not put people first.

"The Trump administration is one of chaos. They breed it, they incite it, they create it on purpose so that they can kind of gently drop in some kind of half-hearted lip service solution. It’s not working. We see through it. It is not fair. It is not right. It is putting people in the middle," Larson said.

A group of Trump opponents held a rally near the Duluth City Hall at Noon. Concerns about the U.S. Postal Service were highlighted at the event.

The Vice President was last in town two years ago for a visit to Industrial Weldors. After Duluth, Pence will fly to Traverse City, Michigan, for another speech.

A pool report said Pence is traveling with Dr. Deborah Birx, but she did not speak at the campaign event.