It’s hard to believe it has been 10 years since it all started – right here in Alabama. Since then, there have been three national elections featuring Donald Trump, two presidential inaugurations, and over 300 large, enthusiastic rallies in stadiums and other spacious facilities. But this was the first. Would it work?
There was something special in the air at Mobile’s Ladd-Peebles Stadium. Reality TV star and billionaire builder Donald Trump was trying something new early in his first campaign for President – a rally in a football stadium.
It was August 21, 2015: fourteen-and-a-half months before the 2016 presidential election, six months before the Republican primaries.
A yuuuuge crowd showed up despite the moving of the venue three times. As requests for tickets quickly overflowed two smaller venues, the optimistic Trump organizers moved the event to ever-larger facilities and, finally, to Ladd-Peebles Stadium, home of the Senior Bowl. Home field for the University of South Alabama Jaguars football.
Could he draw a crowd to justify the stadium site? The answer turned out to be – “yes.”
Many political writers like to record the beginning of the Trump era as the event when he rode down the escalator to announce his candidacy. That is a convenient starting point and a nice visual, but it did not demonstrate any particular appeal. His first-ever stadium rally did.
It was hot and humid in Mobile – a typical August afternoon. I should know. I was there, along with 15,000, or was it 20,000? Or, was it 30,000, other folks? Estimates of the crowd varied widely.
With me were my wife, Jackie Zeigler, a retired elementary school principal, and Hope Scarborough, my chief of staff during my term as state auditor. We did a Mobile thing. We first drove to Callaghan’s Irish Social Club, located in Mobile’s historic Oakleigh District and close to Ladd-Peebles Stadium. We parked our car outside Callaghan’s. We ate Callaghan’s cheeseburgers, a very Mobile thing.
When it was time to head for the stadium, we called an Uber. It was my first time using Uber, and it worked perfectly for the intended use. The Uber driver dropped us off in the stadium parking lot right where the line to get in had formed. He pointed out where we should go for the Uber pickup after the rally. Very helpful.
We got in line. Since I had just been elected state auditor the previous November 2014, some of the folks recognized me and came over to speak.
A wave of excitement went through the line as we saw and heard Trump’s large airplane flying over. It wasn’t Air Force One yet, but it was a large, impressive aircraft. He made several passes over the stadium area. It was a grand entrance from above.
I was spotted by Deanna Frankowski, who had called earlier in the week to tell me she was in charge of the Trump reception just before the rally. She came over and pulled us out of the line. She said to go with her to the locker room, where Trump would come before the rally. (Deanna is now a staffer for U.S. Sen. Tommy Tuberville.)
The locker room beneath the stadium had the appearance of an unlikely place for a reception for a presidential candidate. But it was full of political types, and we joined them.
Trump was not there yet, but he came in shortly.
There was no organized speech or other program in the locker room. Trump began to work the room. When he came to Jackie Zeigler, she held out her hand and said, “Jackie Zeigler, retired school principal.”
Of her short time with Trump, she later said, "He made eye contact. For those seconds, he didn't look around for more important people. I had his undivided attention. He thanked me for coming out to attend the rally."
I was called away to the stage, where I joined the first Alabama officials to appear with Trump. I went up on the stage and stood beside the podium, but was not asked to speak.
Unbeknownst to me, Fox News was broadcasting the pre-rally activity onstage. They got a still shot of me beside the podium, beside the speaker of the moment.
The first Alabama elected official to speak and to endorse Trump was then-State Rep. Barry Moore of Enterprise. He did not completely know at that moment what a defining moment that would become. Now, as a congressman and candidate for the U.S. Senate, he correctly says that he was the first Alabama official to endorse Trump.
After the brief speeches, we were directed off the platform for the main event of the evening – the entrance and speech of Donald Trump.
Trump’s dramatic entrance, to the tune of “Sweet Home Alabama,” again exhibited an excitement – a certain spirit – beyond what I had experienced in other political rallies. Over the years, I have been to George Wallace rallies – those could be quite spirited. And I, as a yute, was at another stadium rally – Barry Goldwater for President in Montgomery’s Cramton Bowl in 1964. None were anywhere near as spirited as the first Trump rally in Mobile.
The speech was an early version of the Trump speeches we have since come to know.
During the speech, Trump called Alabama’s U.S. Senator Jeff Sessions to the podium. Session donned a red "Make America Great Again" cap. He became the first U.S. Senator to support Trump, but did not make an official endorsement until months later at another Trump rally in Madison.
After the speech concluded, someone gathered a group photo of the earliest Trump political officials in Alabama. You still occasionally see the iconic shot on social media:
In the shot, you can see Barry Moore and wife Heather, State Rep. Tim Wadsworth (R-Arley), State Rep. Jim Carnes (R-Vestavia Hills) and wife, former State Rep. Ed Henry, Deanna Frankowski and State Auditor Jim Zeigler.
We don’t know where and when the Donald Trump story will end, but we do know where the stadium rallies started – Mobile, Alabama.
Jim ‘Zig’ Zeigler’s beat is the colorful and positive about Alabama -- her people, places, events, groups and prominent deaths. He is a former Alabama Public Service Commissioner and State Auditor. You can reach him for comments at [email protected].
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