WEST CHESTER, OHIO — With only three days left until the election, the Romney camp is flying high.
About 30,000 people braved the chilly night air to see GOP presidential candidate Mitt Romney and running mate Paul Ryan, along with a host of other political celebrities, including former Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani and Sen. John McCain in Friday night.
Prior to Friday’s event, the largest Romney campaign event had drawn 15,000 people in Land O’ Lakes, Fla. at the end of October.
Friday’s Romney rally audience is similar to the size of crowds then-Democratic nominee Barack Obama was drawing during the last days of this 2008 campaign for the presidency.
On Oct. 30, 2008, just five days before Obama was elected, he held a campaign rally in Columbia, Mo., with 35,000 to 40,000 attendees, according to the The Missourian.
The cool temperatures at Romney’s Friday rally could account for the difference in attendance numbers. At the start of the event in West Chester, it was 43 degrees, dropping to 34 degrees over the next few hours. While the temperature at the exact time of Obama’s 2008 rally was not available, the high in Missouri that day was 73 degrees. The high in West Chester was 51 degrees.
Romney has been drawing increasingly larger crowds throughout the last month, as POLITICO reports, but large audiences is not necessarily a sign of a candidate’s success on Election Day. In 2004, Democratic nominee John Kerry drew a crowd of more than 80,000 people to a rally in Philadelphia, but lost the election to George W. Bush, according to POLITICO.
Romney’s momentum is not just with older voters, either. Young people comprised a large portion of the crowd at Friday’s rally. Even Ohio Governor John Kasich, one of the big-name guests in attendance, mentioned he had never seen so many young people at a campaign rally.
With Romney gaining ground in Ohio, Republicans have reason to be excited. Arguably the most important swing state in this election, winning Ohio could ensure that Romney also wins the White House.
