Nick Hedrick and Sue Loughlin, Tribune-Star
Everywhere GOP presidential front-runner Donald Trump goes, they follow.
Vendors strode back and forth on the sidewalks outside the Indiana Theatre on Sunday afternoon, selling T-shirts and other campaign accessories promoting the billionaire, former reality TV star.
Most of the traveling salesmen aren't just in it for the money. They believe in Trump's message.
"Is there anyone else running?" said Blaine Baylor, a Virginia resident, loading up on more T-shirts from his car parked on Ohio Street. He wore a cap emblazoned with Trump's campaign slogan: "Make America Great Again." It was a familiar refrain found on much of the merchandise.
Outside the soon-to-open J. Ford's Black Angus restaurant at Seventh and Walnut streets, Yana Koleva stood next to a cart filled with foam fingers, caps, bumper stickers and T-shirts. Koleva, a native of Bulgaria, also wore a "Make America Great Again" cap.
Koleva figures she's been to 50-60 campaign stops, so far. She hears a variety of reactions, she said, to Trump's candidacy. Koleva recalled being in Chicago in March, when violent protests forced Trump to cancel a rally.
"I haven't been cursed [at] that much in my life, but I'm not taking it personally," said Koleva, adding that the protests weren't as unruly as it seemed in media coverage.
While disapproving of Trump's call to temporarily ban Muslims from entering the United States, the vendor said she's backing him because she doesn't want her taxes to support an unemployed person's health care.
Traveling merchant Chris Love, from Alabama, was selling Trump campaign buttons three for $10. He has been following Trump — literally — since October, he said. He also followed Barack Obama in 2008.
Love supports Trump personally. "We want to make America great again," he said. "We want to bring back the jobs." Love is college educated but has had trouble getting a job, he said. "I had to start doing this."
But with so much competition Sunday, business was not as good as Love had hoped. "I'm a one-man team," he said. "It takes a lot of logistics."
Some vendors brought helpers with them to peddle their wares. But while sales weren't so good for Love on the first day of May in Terre Haute, he still comes out ahead on the Trump campaign trail.
Love was hoping to make it to Fort Wayne later Sunday in time for Trump's next rally, but if not, he'll be in Carmel today, where Trump plans to speak at 4 p.m. at the Center for the Performing Arts.