NORTH AUGUSTA — Rodney Tillman, owner of Big Rod’s Barber Shop in North Augusta, proclaimed Friday afternoon on the front porch of his shop, that, “In this community, we know about soul.”
Tillman’s Edgefield County shop was one of the stops on the Biden for President campaign’s “South Carolina Soul of the Nation” bus tour.
Four surrogates spoke from that porch about former Vice President Joe Biden – Randall L. Woodfin, mayor of Birmingham, Alabama; actor Sean Patrick Thomas; Biden’s sister Valerie Biden Owens; and state Rep. Bill Clyburn, whose district includes Aiken, Edgefield and Saluda counties.
The event was hosted by Antjuan Seawright, who began by leading the crowd in a “fired up, ready to go” chant.
“In your county, right in Edgefield, in six weeks you will make a very, very important decision,” Woodfin said. “One that can change the trajectory of this – not just this county, not just the state of South Carolina – but the United States of America.”
Tillman said having the event at his shop is exciting and means a lot for the community.
“One of my customers in the shop, he’s pretty highly favored in the Democratic Party in the area, and he just called me out of the blue one day, asked me would I be interested in partnering with Joe Biden. I said ‘definitely,’ so it all just manifested,” Tillman said.
He pointed out that the Bettis Academy community is trying to revitalize with its Vision 2020 slogan.
Clyburn called those in the audience Friday “movers and shakers” and urged the crowd to support Biden “like you’ve supported me, and let’s just see where God carries us.”
“This is a very important election,” Clyburn said.
“I am a father of three children and four grandchildren and I am really, really serious about this election," he said. "I really care about what’s going to happen to them. I am talking about democracy, I am concerned about where we are going. What I know for sure is that Vice President Biden is the type of person who understands foreign affairs and who really is sensitive about our needs.”
The campaign event is the first Biden has held in North Augusta. South Bend, Indiana, Mayor Pete Buttigieg, also in the race, visited North Augusta in June 2019.
