The politics behind the presidential candidates’ restaurants during their campaigns

Vice President Kamala Harris and her running mate Tim Walz were in the Valley last week, gathering with thousands of supporters at the Desert Diamond Arena in Glendale. But after their rally at Cocina Adamex, a Mexican eatery on Seventh Avenue in downtown Phoenix, they made another stop in the Valley, continuing a long tradition of candidates eating at Mexican restaurants during their visits to Phoenix – from George Bush to Bill Clinton to Barack Obama.

But how do they decide where to go? And what political aspects play a role? To learn more, The Show spoke with someone who has worked on many campaigns in Arizona: longtime politician Christa Severns.

Full conversation

CHRISTA SEVERNS: Well, it’s like a beauty pageant or the Miss America pageant because you have a lot of things you’re working on. You have to worry about security, you have to decide where you’re going because you don’t want to go somewhere where you’re just going to eat across the valley. That means you have a line of cars across two highways. You get on everyone’s nerves. So you have to find a location that’s close to something else you’re doing and then you get a message.

In beauty pageants, it’s not always the most beautiful girl who wins. It’s the girl who can perform her duties like a princess who wins. And in this beauty pageant, you look for a place that won’t cause controversy, but that will send a message to the community and that the secret service can investigate and protect.

LAUREN GILGER: OK. So you’re juggling a lot of things. Well, that’s fine. Let’s talk about some famous examples from Arizona over the years. This goes back a little bit into the history of presidential campaigns. What are the first things that come to mind?

SEVERNS: Dick’s Hideaway, that was George Bush, and I have to give him credit for that. I thought that was pretty cool because Dick’s Hideaway is a hideaway and they went with the McCains. The McCains live in the neighborhood. And so it sent a message. I don’t think the McCains and the Bushes were really getting along at that point, but you know, they were out there eating their food.

So the message was clear, and I think it was before the Kerry debate, and it was about Mexican food. That resonated with everybody. But it’s also the coolest place I’ve ever seen a candidate go, because there are some…

GILGER: What are some of these examples?

SEVERNS: Ponchos, Bill Clinton. At the time, the rumor was that they were going to Los Dos Molina, which is just down the street. I think the rumor got around, but the Secret Service said, “No, too many people have heard about it or we’ll be there.” We have to go somewhere else, and so they came to Ponchos. It’s down in South Central, and they had been for an event somewhere nearby, and you could go in there and there was a picture of Bill Clinton on the wall where he was sitting.

GILGER: Presidential tables often follow. Yes, after these visits there is a small sign on the table. And when Obama came to the valley and went to Macayo’s? That was controversial among local food critics at the time. What do you think of that?

SEVERNS: Oh, Macayo’s is an institution in Arizona. It’s family-owned and probably in a good location. It was close to where they were going, so it was perfect. Again, they don’t go to these restaurants to get the best food or whatever they’re looking for, because it’s reliable. The Secret Service says it’s OK, and the embassy is OK.

GILGER: And what about more recently in the last election cycle? We saw President Biden here a couple of times, and she and Vice President Harris went with Silvana Salcido to the Barrio Cafe, which recently closed. But that was a very political decision, in my opinion.

SEVERNS: But it was also a great choice because here a woman has managed to win many cooking awards, the food is good and she is trying to make a supportive statement for female chefs and Mexican food.

GILGER: And Mexican food, right? So we have to talk about that. It’s always about Mexican food. In Arizona, that seems to make sense in some ways. First, because we have great Mexican food, but we also have a large Latino population here in the Valley. Is that politically motivated? Is that some kind of rite of passage to come to Arizona and eat Mexican food?

SEVERNS: You don’t have to, but it’s the safe choice. They’re not going to go to a chain, they’re not going to go to Chili’s, and you know, you need a local place, you need the local feel. So that’s what they go for. And they usually don’t have a lot of time to think it up. So either the national campaign gets a list of places or someone here suggests a few.

GILGER: Mexican food has its pitfalls, doesn’t it? Tim Walz, for example, has joked here about how he can’t eat spicy food. I read this story that’s a pretty infamous example of that: Gerald Ford went to Texas and tried to eat a tamale with the skin on. I mean, that’s not entirely safe.

SEVERNS: Well, you know, everything has some risk. So if someone orders a large glass of milk, you know, is there something to drink? OK. Is that a problem or not? You know, people talk about it, but in the long run, it’s really not a big deal. But if someone were to eat a tamale with corn on it, that would be a problem. And that advanced person would be fired.

GILGER: Because there is someone in the election campaign who is responsible for finding out what people are going to order and how they are going to eat it and whether there are any local pitfalls they might fall into.

SEVERNS: Right. That’s someone’s job.

GILGER: That’s so interesting.

SEVERNS: Yes, it is all, it was all clarified in advance.

GILGER: Because it can become a meme so quickly these days.

SEVERNS: That’s always been a problem. But now it’s really a problem with social media. Yeah. So I don’t think you’re going to see a lot of quinoa and salads because people will get worked up.

GILGER: That brings me to a point. Right. Quinoa, because that’s a kind of fine dining. That has a political dimension that I find very interesting. For example, what it says about the candidate or what he wants to say about himself with what he eats, where he goes and what he orders.

SEVERNS: Sure. This is all really based on polls. It’s based on research because you have to figure it out. All right, how do you get more votes than the next person? What groups of people are you targeting? Who can you target? You have a base and then you have the people who might switch or whatever. The first thing you want to do is not offend anyone. The second thing you want to do is figure out, OK, does this work for the group I’m targeting?

GILGER: I want to ask one more thing, because this is what I was thinking about when I was researching all this. Can they order a drink like a beer or a glass of wine, or is everyone in the restaurant going to drink soda when they’re on the campaign trail?

SEVERNS: That’s a really good question. I mean, I saw that they wait until they left it. So, I wonder if you really want to see a picture of Tipper Gore with a beer in his hand. I mean, I think, you know, it’s fine. It just saves a headache.

GILGER: OK. So last question for you. Where would you send a candidate? If they get through today?

SEVERNS: I’ve been thinking about it. It’s like, can we have a hot dog? Can we have a good burger? Can we go to Pizzeria Bianco? Can we do this more like Anthony Bourdain? Let’s go to Fry Bread House. It’s a James Beard Award winner. It’s in downtown Phoenix. Let’s go to a place that tells our story in a new way, in a new way.