■ Vice President Mike Pence strolled in the South’s largest St. Patrick’s Day parade.

Protesters among 500K at Savannah procession

SAVANNAH, Ga. — Vice President Mike Pence strolled Saturday in the South’s largest St. Patrick’s Day parade, where a few lucky fans behind sidewalk barricades got hugs or selfies and a small band of protesters followed nearby waving signs and rainbow flags.

Pence swooped into Savannah on its busiest day of the year. The historic city has been celebrating St. Patrick’s Day since 1824, and the March 17 holiday has grown into one of the South’s biggest street parties after Mardi Gras in New Orleans. Organizers of Savannah’s parade estimated crowds would swell to 500,000 or more.

Wearing a striped green tie with a navy blazer, the vice president overall spent about an hour among the festivities. Flanked by his wife, Karen, and his mother, Nancy Pence-Fritsch, he stood on a second-floor balcony of City Hall with Mayor Eddie DeLoach to watch part of the procession of marching bagpipe bands, classic convertibles and floats pulled by pickup trucks.

Then, Pence and his entourage hit the street for nearly 30 minutes, walking past gaudy green revelers cheering and chanting “U-S-A!” behind security barriers lining the streets and two of Savannah’s oak-shaded squares. He ignored a group with rainbow flags and signs reading “Mike Pence Is A Homophobe” and “The Devil Went Down to Georgia,” then stopped to hug a woman next to them with a banner saying “Team Trump Rebuild America.”

A few blocks later, Shannon Lennon of Orlando, Florida, and her friends in shamrock glasses and leprechaun hats were stunned when Pence grabbed Lennon’s cellphone and snapped a selfie with the group.

“He said, ‘This is a great picture, give me that,’” said an ecstatic Lennon, who admitted some of her friends weren’t quite as thrilled. “There’s two out of six of us who are fans of his. But we all respect each other.”

Stephen B. Morton The Associated Press Vice President Mike Pence, center, his wife, Karen, left, and his mother, Nancy Pence Fritch march Saturday in the St. Patrick’s Day parade in Savannah, Ga.