Group puts up billboard ahead of Trump visit warning of ‘superspreader’ event

MACON – Rural America 2020, the national nonprofit made up of rural leaders, put up a digital billboard in Macon ahead of President Trump’s appearance there at the Middle Georgia Regional Airport, warning that it is a possible superspreader event.

The billboard, which is on Interstate 75 south of Hartley Bridge Road near the airport, warns residents and attendees in the area near the event. The billboard is the second Rural America 2020 has put up as it follows the president across the country. The first, posted in Des Moines, Iowa, went viral and has been featured on national and local television and print news outlets.

Local Georgians, including those in Bibb County, working with Rural America 2020 praised the billboard and its message of warning:

“This billboard is a public service announcement,” Seth Clark, a Macon-Bibb County Commissioner-elect who works with the Rural America 2020 campaign, said. “Nobody wants to see a superspreader event, but that’s exactly what these rallies are becoming. By ignoring expert warnings on distancing and masks, the president and his campaign are flying from one location to the next and leaving COVID hot spots behind. We don’t need that in Georgia, particularly since our state has already seen well over 300,000 infections.”

A Georgia Tech professor has said there is a 98 percent chance for COVID spread at the Trump rally if there were only 500 people present. Local GOP officials have said that they are expecting 20,000 rally participants.

Rural America 2020 is a 501(c)(4) bipartisan nonprofit that has built steering committees of concerned rural leaders and farmers across multiple states. Rural America 2020 helps educate and activate rural Americans on public policy issues that are impacting them, their communities and key rural industries, including agriculture.

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