A look back on presidents who have visited Butler County
When current presidential candidate and former President Donald Trump visits Butler County on Saturday, July 13, he will become the first modern president to visit the county twice.
Before Saturday, only a handful of presidents — Trump, Bill Clinton, George H.W. Bush, John F. Kennedy, William Howard Taft and Woodrow Wilson — had stepped foot on Butler County soil once.
Trump’s first visit to Butler County came in October 2020 while he was serving as president. He visited the Pittsburgh-Butler Regional Airport, where he talked about the oil and gas industry, A.K. Steel and veteran’s affairs. Trump was bested in that November’s election by current president and then-Democratic candidate Joe Biden.
His trek to Butler County was the first in well over a decade, and he was the first sitting president to visit the county.
In 2008, former President Bill Clinton visited the Rose E. Schneider Family YMCA in Cranberry Township to campaign for former Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton’s campaign against former President Barack Obama.
Approximately 700 people came to hear Clinton’s discussion of his wife’s responses to core issues which included health care and fuel costs, energy consumption, and employment rates.
In 1982, former President George H.W. Bush visited Penn Township for a fundraising event during his first term as vice president under former President Ronald Reagan.
Bush attended a benefit dinner at Frank Rath’s house in Penn Township. The dinner was in support of Eugene Atkinson, a congressman who had recently changed his party affiliation from Democrat to Republican.
In 1960, former President John F. Kennedy visited the Butler County Courthouse as a part of his presidential campaign. Kennedy, at the time a U.S. senator, spoke before “one of the largest crowds ever assembled in Butler,” during his presidential campaign, according to the Butler Eagle.
Despite the exact date being unknown, it is believed that former President William Howard Taft visited the Nixon Hotel in Butler. The exact date and circumstances of the visit are unknown, but the stop was mentioned in a 1939 list of hotel dignitaries.
The Hotel Saxonburg, refurbished in the 1800s, has former President Woodrow Wilson, the 28th president of the United States, listed on its hotel guest registry from 1914-1917.
Past Presidential Visits
2020 — President Donald Trump visited the Butler-Pittsburgh Regional Airport
2006 — President Bill Clinton visited the Rose E. Schneider Family YMCA in Cranberry Township.
1982 — President George H. W. Bush visited Penn Township and attended a benefit dinner at Frank Rath’s house in the township.
1960 — President John F. Kennedy visited the Butler County Courthouse
UNKNOWN — President William Howard Taft visited the Nixon Hotel in Butler.
UNKNOWN — President Woodrow Wilson visited the Hotel Saxonburg.
