A CHILI RECEPTION

CINCINNATI — Donald Trump’s running mate Mike Pence is campaigning in southern Indiana and Ohio, including a stop at a wellknown Cincinnati chili parlor.

The Indiana governor and Republican vice presidential candidate made his first appearance Saturday in Lawrenceburg, Indiana, where he delivered pizza and a pep talk to GOP volunteers running a phone bank.

Next he stopped at Price Hill Chili in Cincinnati where he shook hands, posed for pictures and had a bite of chili. The restaurant is a popular campaign stop for GOP politicians.

One supporter offered a riff on the anti-Hillary Clinton “lock her up” chant that has become common at Trump rallies. The woman suggested the chant should be “lock her out” — a reference to the Oval Office, which drew a laugh from Pence.

“I heard the chili is pretty good here,” Pence said, smiling as he reached across a table for a handshake. The Cincinnati Enquirer reported that supporters tried to shoot smartphone photos of Pence through a wall of media photographers.

Pence’s trip to Price Hill Chili illustrates another strategy. This type of politics – local restaurant, shaking hands one by one – is in Pence’s wheelhouse compared with Trump, who specializes in big speeches at big rallies. Trump and Pence are working to gain support from different wings of the Republican Party.

Democratic vice presidential candidate Tim Kaine ended the week in Western Michigan.

Kaine was in Grand Rapids looking for support in a key Midwestern state that gave Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., his largest margins of victory in the Democratic primary — largely with the area’s white working class.

Kaine referenced how thrilled his 81-year-old mother was about Democrats nominating a woman for president.

“She said, ‘This is the best night of my life,’ ” Kaine told the audience at the Wealthy Theatre, which sits on the brink of both a heavily black, poor neighborhood and a wealthy white one. “I got to thinking about how many strong women have helped me at every step along the road.”

To some, those words were part of what is starting to look like a coordinated Democratic effort to have male leaders encourage support among male voters for Clinton.

“It’s interesting to watch the gender narrative evolve,” said political science professor Molly Patterson of Aquinas College, a local Catholic school. “Between Obama’s Glamour column (professing his feminism) and Kaine, it seems like men being supportive of women’s success is becoming more accepted and prominent.”

Both presidential campaigns see Kent County, which contains Grand Rapids, and the adjacent counties as rich with persuadable voters; both Trump and Clinton took their biggest beatings from their primary foes, Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, and Sanders, respectively, in western Michigan.

The attention paid to the Grand Rapids area is unusual, said Susan Demas, editor of Inside Michigan Politics. Evangelical voters are generally wary about the GOP nominee, and their congressman, Rep. Justin Amash, was one of the first Republican officeholders to publicly refuse to endorse Trump.

“Tim Kaine is the perfect messenger,” Demas said.

“His faith has defined his life, he’s a white male and he’s clearly making a play for voters who are very uncomfortable with both Trump’s style and some of his substance. Tim Kaine was put on the ticket for a reason, to do that outreach to more religious voters, to white men. If that’s what you want to do in Michigan, Grand Rapids is a good place to do it.”