Donald Trump faces a major challenge to repeat the swing states victory he achieved in 2016. The Guardian’s Chris McGreal takes a US election road trip and meets voters who explain why they are standing by the White House incumbent
For Donald Trump to win a second term this week, he needs another strong showing in the swing states that backed him in 2016. According to the polls, he is facing a huge challenge. But many of those who swung behind Trump last time are sticking with him again this year – and they aren’t necessarily the brash, loud voices featured on news clips from Trump rallies.
The Guardian’s Chris McGreal has spent months criss-crossing the swing states – from the south, through Appalachia and up to the north and midwest. He tells Rachel Humphreys how in West Virginia he met Bo Copley, who lost his job in a coalmine before 2016 and credits Trump with overturning environmental regulations to reinvigorate his industry. He meets Andrea Zupancich, a part-time mayor in Minneapolis, who had twice backed Barack Obama and switched to Trump last time. She believes the Democrats have become too radical and recoils from slogans brandished by some supporters such as “defund the police”. In North Carolina, he also hears from Lisa Matthews, another person who backed Obama and then switched to Trump. She says that as a black single parent, she felt the Democrats stopped trying to lift people like her up and instead spoke about handouts. With only one day to go until polling day, McGreal looks back on his journey and despite the sense that many of the voters Trump is relying on may be drifting away, he can’t discount the possibility of another shock win for the former reality TV star.
