Marcus M. Perkins watched the vice presidential debate on a big screen outside St. Paul’s Dual Citizen Brewing on Oct. 1, 2024. Photo by Michelle Griffith/Minnesota Reformer.
Marcus M. Perkins on Tuesday evening watched the vice presidential debate on a large screen outside of St. Paul’s Dual Citizen Brewing with his hands in his lap, seated next to a firepit. Other attendees loudly cheered whenever Gov. Tim Walz tried a one-liner, but Perkins mostly watched the debate stoically, shaking his head in disagreement once in a while throughout the 90-minute debate.
He was so engrossed watching Walz and Sen. J.D. Vance spar that a hot ember from the fire burned a hole in his jeans without him noticing.
Perkins, 70, grew up in Cedar Rapids, Iowa. In 2008, he was a precinct delegate for Barack Obama in Iowa City, door-knocking his largely Republican neighbors to elect the nation’s first Black president. Helping elect a Black president was a life goal.
Another: Helping elect a woman president, namely Kamala Harris.