PRESS RELEASE
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
August 29, 2024
CONTACT: Davis Lundy
423-240-5749
[email protected]
SAVANNAH, Ga. August 29, 2024 -- The Wayne Johnson Campaign started the day Wednesday intending to find the Harris-Walz bus tour in Albany and Valdosta as originally announced. The campaign plan was to intercept and make its presence known, and to bring urgent attention to the economic situation in Middle and South Georgia. Wayne Johnson had no idea that the chase would continue into mid-morning Thursday.
“The bus tour was announced as a chance to visit Black communities across South Georgia and show empathy for the Black families that have suffered under the very policies Harris and Sanford Bishop endorsed,” said Johnson. “This rural Georgia bus tour ended up being were four flashpoint appearances with tiny crowds around Savannah. The bus tour the media hyped for days traveled about 70 miles.”
Instead, Johnson and a staff of eight traveled 350 miles in three wrapped trucks carrying Johnson’s campaign theme of “Stop the Stupid in Washington” to catch up with the Harris bus tour and follow it around Savannah.
Johnson is the commonsense, conservative candidate who is running hard to unseat Rep. Sanford Bishop in the November General Election in Georgia’s 2nd Congressional District.
The day started with the campaign team and trucks waiting in Albany across the street from Bishop’s Columbus campaign office. When it was clear that Harris-Walz was going to be a no-show in a county with 59,000 Black voters, the campaign team took the trucks on a parade around the city while playing Johnson’s “Stop the Stupid in Washington” jingle. Also calling out
“Where’s Kamala? Where’s Tim? Where’s Bishop?” Johnson said as the truck convoy with police escort left Albany.
“What happened in Albany should scream a message to Black voters in Albany all of South Georgia, and Black voters all across the 2ndDistrict. The message was clear: Harris-Walz-Bishop are taking you for granted and assume you will vote Democrat because that is what happened in the past. That will not be the case in November,” said Johnson.
Having no idea where Harris was at the time they started their chase because Harris campaign was keeping it secret, the team headed for Waycross, Ga., hoping to catch up to the bus tour there. However, as the team traveled, the campaign’s digital director found a report that said Harris was going to stop in Liberty County or Hinesville, Ga., which is an upscale area and a 35-minute drive from the Savannah airport. While Johnson pulled off the convoy to fulfill a scheduled speech in Thomasville, Ga., the remaining trucks headed to Savannah.
The Johnson campaign descended on Hinesville with each of the three wrapped trucks sitting at strategic locations in Hinesville, waiting to spot the Harris bus. One of Johnson’s trucks was positioned right near Liberty County High School since Johnson’s campaign speculated that because Tim Walz was on board, the campaign would plan a “Coach Walz” staged event.
As police and Secret Service activity started around the school, the Johnson campaign knew it had found its target. The other two trucks headed that way, and all three trucks were positioned where everyone heading to the high school would see them. It was impossible for Harris and her entourage to not see and hear the Johnson team as the lights were on while speakers at full blast playing our jingle “Stop The Stupid In Washington.”
Johnson had made his point, and the Johnson campaign had made its presence known. In talking with the press, Johnson pointed out that Liberty County was not a rural county, contradicting the stated purpose for the bus tour. Is it likely that Harris-Walz just liked the idea of visiting a county called Liberty?
“While we were on station at the high school the Secret Service knew who we were and what we were doing,” said Johnson, “and they respected our First Amendment rights and let us stay on the public roads where we were parked.”
The team on one truck passed out Gatorade and water to people entering the event and were in the perfect position to be seen by the media attending the event, which were glad to talk to the team. Two of our team were able to get inside the event and reported that there were less than 30 people there, other than the high school band.
“Harris made a short speech where she talked to these high school students like they were toddlers. That is not something the national media will report,” said Johnson.
The bus tour then made a brief stop at Sandfly BBQ in Savannah, again not a rural stop, then it was off to the $500 a night Westin Savannah Harbor Resort to recover from the long, three-hour bus tour.
On Thursday, two members of the campaign team got up at 4:30 a.m. from the $80 a night hotel where they were staying to go scouting. Mike Nixon, a senior advisor to Johnson, and his father, David, went to the Westin, which has only one road in and one road out and presented themselves at the gate. They told the Secret Service agents who they were and, after checking the Johnson Campaign wrapped truck for any explosive device, the truck was let onto the property.
Mike and David were successful with their scouting trip. They found the Harris/Walz bus, which was hidden, and the Harris Vice-Presidential limousines.
The Nixons went back to the hotel and informed Johnson that the bus had been found. The entire team and three trucks went back to the Westin and again searched and cleared onto the property.
“We were able to go into the property and walk right up the Harris-Walz bus and limousines, complete with the Vice-Presidential seal. We were able to lay hands on the vehicles and to take a team picture with our Wayne Johnson for Congress campaign signs. While doing so, nobody said a word,” said Johnson. “But when I pulled out a Trump sign, we were told to leave within a minute.”
The team went back to the campaign trucks to wait for the Harris motorcade to start with a plan to join the motorcade.
While waiting, Johnson and his videographer decided to walk into the lobby of the Westin.
“There were Secret Service, police and Harris people all over the place, but once we went through the magnetometer, we were allowed to walk around the lobby hotel,” said Johnson. “At one point I was approached by a Harris campaign staffer who said we could not talk to anyone nor film anything and she asked a Secret Service agent who was standing right beside me to have me leave.
“The Secret Service agent responded to the staffer that he was not allowed to interfere with First Amendment rights.” Johnson stayed in the lobby and talked with several bus tour VIP’s, who were expressing frustration at having to sit around for so long for two days.
Johnson and the team went back to the trucks, and they all parked in a visible place where the Harris-Walz bus would have to pass.
“We were in the perfect location to join the Harris-Walz bus motorcade and just waiting for the show to get rolling. As everything was just getting started, a Georgia State patrol vehicle came up and blocked our path,” said Johnson. “He told us he wanted to make sure we did not mess with the motorcade. After we told him who we were and what we were doing, he informed us that he was going to be the last patrol car in the caravan. With this information in hand, we concluded that we could pull out right behind his car, which we did. At that point, we were rolling as part of the motorcade with “Stop The Stupid In Washington” blaring from our speakers. We passed 50 to 70 Trump supporters waving signs along the route and they cheered us on.
“As we proceeded as part of the motorcade, we had blue lights in front and blue lights behind, and we traveled with them for several miles while being escorted through red lights and stop signs. We stopped at the first stop when they discovered they did not have a prearranged place to park us.”
Johnson summed up the events that covered two days.
“What this experience proved to me was that the Harris-Walz campaign is nothing but a fraud, and the national media is on board with it,” said Johnson. “The Vice-President had a real chance to connect with Black voters all over South Georgia, something she had promised to do, but what ended up happening were staged photo-ops.
“The Democrats made a promise to Black voters to spend time with them on this tour. They simply did not tell the truth to Black voters across South Georgia. Worse, they and the media also mislead all of America as to what this trip really did, and did not do. People of Albany, Americus, Ellaville Buena Vista, and even President Carter in Plains are still waiting on the courtesy of a visit.”