On a brisk Saturday on the lawn of the White House, vapers congregated to protest the banning of flavored e-liquid. Over 4,000 vapers was a number I head, that had attended the Rally. Signs donned with “We Vape We Vote” littered the lawn. A cloud of vapor hanging overhead could be seen from the street. One after another, speakers would hit the stage to tell their stories of how they were able to quit smoking with flavored e-liquid, and then explaining the injustices of the current regulations. Some speakers more vibrant and powerful than others, but all shared the same passion.
I showed up an hour late, since I was driving in on that same day. This ended up being OK, since the rally needed to be pushed back an hour due to the President leaving the White house. This worked in everyone’s favor, because there was no denying the President saw the sea of vapers in the lawn.
Picture of @realDonaldTrump flying over the line to get into the #VapeRallyDC2019 and Washington Monument. What an amazing visual. pic.twitter.com/6wvs5P7iwA
— Paul Blair (@gopaulblair) November 9, 2019
During the rest of our time there, we walked around and met with many of the vapers there. A lot of vapers came up to me, thanking me for inspiring them to get into mixing. Pictures and hugs were taken. I met with many of the vaping personalities I’ve been watching over the years. Grimmgreen, Alex Clark of CASAA, Mike Vapes, DashVapes. It was awesome being able to take part in something like this together.
But ultimately, the rally had this air of motivation and hope. I was a bit cranky at first. Having to drive 3 hours to stand in the freezing cold, only to try and convince my government to not ban my industry in its entirety – it put me in a bad mood. But over the hours, as I loosened up, I began to feel a great sense of community. Many of these people fighting for us are some of the smartest, and most passionate people of any industry. The creativity and cleverness of this industry was certainly in abundance at this rally. And that was my take away from this.
I do want to shout out the United Vaper Alliance, Matt Culley, and the Vaping Legion especially. The fact they were able to put this together, in such a short amount of time, under immense pressure, and execute with no issues at all, is something to be commended. And we should all be very thankful for their work. I also want to thank Paul Blair of American’s for Tax Reform and Greg Conley of the American Vapor Association for dealing with the media in the most professional and efficient way. And to all the people who said this rally wouldn’t do anything, I only have this one tweet to show you.
Will be meeting with representatives of the Vaping industry, together with medical professionals and individual state representatives, to come up with an acceptable solution to the Vaping and E-cigarette dilemma. Children’s health & safety, together with jobs, will be a focus!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) November 11, 2019