Historical visitors
Although Butler County residents have seen presidential campaign visits in the past, until this year — with President Donald Trump's rally Saturday at the Pittsburgh-Butler Regional Airport — they'd never had a visit from a sitting president or vice president.
In 2008, former President Bill Clinton visited the Rose E. Schneider Family YMCA in Cranberry Township to campaign for former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton's primary campaign against former President Barack Obama.According to Butler Eagle articles, Clinton spoke to a crowd of about several hundred people about his wife's responses on core issues of the time that included health care and fuel costs, reducing energy consumption and falling employment rates.“I want you to know, it's people like you in places like this that have kept Hillary in a position to win this election,” Bill Clinton said at the time.Hillary Clinton went on to win over Butler county by a 26% margin, and she won in Pennsylvania as well, despite the overall defeat by Obama.
In 1982, former President George H.W. Bush visited Penn Township for a fundraising event during his first term as vice president under former President Ronald Reagan.According to Butler Eagle articles, Bush attended a benefit dinner at Frank Rath's house in the township. The dinner supported Eugene Atkinson, a congressman who had recently changed his party affiliation from Democrat to Republican.Bush spoke on topics such as the recession and the economy.
In 1960, former President John. F. Kennedy stood on the steps of the Butler County Courthouse as part of his presidential campaign.According to a Butler Eagle article earlier this month, Kennedy, at the time a U.S. senator from Massachusetts, spoke before “one of the largest crowds ever assembled in Butler,” as he campaigned for his presidential bid.Speaking publicly near the Nixon Hotel, Kennedy touched on many issues, including raising the minimum wage, the coal and steel industries and rising unemployment.“If you take the view which I take, and I take it as a dedicated citizen of this country, that the balance of power is not shifting in our direction, that our economy is not growing as fast as it must, that we are not catching the imagination of the people around the world, that we do not give the appearance of a society on the move, then I ask your help in this campaign,” said Kennedy to conclude his speech.
Although the exact date is unknown, it is believed that former President William Howard Taft visited the Nixon Hotel in Butler.According to a Butler Eagle article, the exact date and circumstances for Taft's visit are unknown, but the stop was mentioned in a 1939 list of dignitaries who had visited the hotel.Eagle staff writer Nathan Bottiger compiled this list through multiple articles published in the Butler Eagle, including those written by staff writers Alex Weidenhof, Paula Grubbs and Jim Smith, as well as former reporters Kathryn Sheranko and Kelly B. Garrett.
