Biden takes Amtrak to Alliance for campaign stop

ALLIANCE — Former Vice President Joe Biden rolled into Stark County on Amtrak to pitch his plan for workers Wednesday, the day after his debate with President Donald Trump in Cleveland.

Alliance was the first stop on the Democratic presidential candidate’s “Build Back Better Express” train tour.

“What I saw last night was all about him,” Biden said. “He didn’t speak to your concerns or to the American people even once. Donald Trump broke his promise. He said he was running to help the forgotten American. As soon as he got elected, he forgot them. I’ll never forget.”

Alliance v. Park Avenue

Biden, who got the nickname “Amtrak Joe” as a senator for his daily train commute from his home in Delaware to Washington, D.C., said it was good to be traveling through Ohio by his favorite form of transportation.

"This election is between Cleveland and Park Avenue values, between Alliance and Park Avenue values," Biden said in Cleveland just before boarding the nine-car Amtrak train his cash-flush campaign rented for the day.

A series of horn blasts announced the train’s arrival in Alliance around 11:45 a.m.

Stopping at the Amtrak station, Biden remarked on the importance of railroads in the city’s history — Alliance formed in the 1850s when three villages merged at the junction of two major railroads.

“Alliance started as a place where people came together, and it’s what we so badly need to do now in this country is begin again to come together,” Biden said.

The railroads once attracted factories and bolstered the city’s economy, but today Alliance is a town with fewer than 22,000 residents and a median household income of $35,000 a year, according to U.S. Census estimates.

The Amtrak station where Biden spoke was a few hundred feet from Alliance Castings, a factory that idled in early 2017, leaving more than 400 workers without jobs. The factory made parts for rail cars.

Tom Davis, who lost his job after 17 years at General Motors’ Lordstown plant, introduced Biden.

Davis said he transferred to a GM plant in Bowling Green, Kentucky, and commutes each weekend to see his schoolteacher wife, Tiffany, and their two children in Girard.

He said Biden was the candidate who could rebuild the economy for working families.

Biden was joined at the event by Youngstown Mayor Jamael Tito Brown and Portage County Commissioner Kathleen Clyde. Stark County Sheriff George T. Maier also was in attendance. All three are Democrats.

Debate reaction

Biden took questions from the press on Tuesday night’s debate, which saw repeated interruptions by Trump and personal attacks by both candidates.

Biden said Trump behaved as expected, and that he understood why some viewers would be turned off politics by what they saw. The next debate will be in a town hall setting.

“I hope we’re able to get a chance to actually answer the questions that are asked by the persons in the room, but God only knows what he’ll do,” Biden said.

He also commented on Trump’s debate remark that the Proud Boys, a far-right group, should “stand back and stand by.”

“My message for the Proud Boys and every other white supremacist group is, cease and desist,” Biden said. “That’s not who we are. This is not who we are as Americans.”

From Alliance, the train was scheduled to take Biden to Pennsylvania, stopping at stations in Pittsburgh, Latrobe and Johnstown.

Crowds gather

Social distancing rules kept the general public a couple of hundred yards from where Biden was speaking. That didn’t stop a large crowd from showing up.

About 1,000 people — Biden and Trump supporters — gathered across South Webb Avenue from the driveway to the Amtrak station. They waved flags and banners, shouted through bullhorns and carried signs. Police stepped in to break up a few verbal skirmishes.

Morena Lindsey, 66, traveled 40 minutes from Stow. Holding a Trump banner, she said she loved Trump.

“He’s pro-life,” she said. “I like the way he treats our veterans. … I love the wall. I can’t wait for it to be finished.

She also said she supported Trump’s cutting of regulations and willingness to go “against the grain.”

“Finally, somebody speaks his mind and tells it like it is,” Lindsey said.

Standing next to her and holding the other end of the banner, Diane Briggs, 66, of Canton said, “We want him for another four years. Biden has to go.”

A short walk from Briggs and Lindsey, 15-year-old Braelyn Crockett of North Canton held a sign supporting Biden.

She said it was important for her to be there as a queer woman of color, even though she was too young to vote.

“I’m scared that my rights are going to be taken away,” Crockett said. “If Trump is re-elected, I can basically kiss my rights goodbye.”

Donna Kirksey, 62, of Alliance came downtown hoping to meet Biden, like she’d met Barack Obama and Jesse Jackson when they ran for office. She stood in front of the Cantell Elks lodge with other Biden supporters.

Kirksey said she brought a letter for Biden, but didn’t want to share what she had written.

“With the way the world is, we need someone like him,” she said.

She said she was heartbroken to see the depth of racial divisions in the country, and that it would take time for the country to heal.

“We are going to have a struggle no matter who gets in,” she said of the two candidates.

Massillon Independent photographer Kevin Whitlock and Columbus Dispatch staff writer Darrel Rowland contributed to this report.