THE VILLAGES, Fla.—Bob Prescott has put thousands of miles on his black Volvo over the last year, chasing Tea Party bus tours and going to nearly every major conservative rally he can make his way to.
Prescott, 64, is an avid Tea Partier and entrepreneur, who — along with his wife — has a simple business: selling campaign buttons to conservative activists. After using the money he makes — sometimes a couple thousand dollars after a big event— to pay for gas, Prescott often donates some of it back to Tea Party groups.
“It’s much better than being at home and throwing coffee cups at the TV set being frustrated,” Prescott said here at a Spending Revolt tour stop at a sunny retirement area in Florida. He and his wife followed the bus from stop to stop the day before in Orlando and Tampa.
He’s followed two tours of another well-known bus expedition, trekking 11,000 miles in 28 days and going to 46 Tea Party Express rallies. He kicked a few hundred dollars back to that group, especially after he made more than $2,000 dollars at the massive Searchlight, Nev. rally this summer that featured Sarah Palin in Democratic Sen. Harry Reid’s hometown.
“Where there’s big numbers, there’s a market for this,” he said.
But don’t get the idea he’s living a luxurious life. The Jacksonville man and his wife, who started selling the buttons during the 2008 campaign, sleep in their vehicle while out on the road.
The buttons that he buys from a mom-and-pop manufacturer have messages like “Don’t Tread on Me” and “Keep Your Hands out of my Pocket Book.”
He agrees with his customers: “Most of America has old-fashioned values,” he said. “They don’t like what’s going on. They’re very upset with the environment Obama has created.”