As we wait to hear how Michigan has voted, a state that may decide the next president of the United States, let’s hear from two who have knocked on doors in recent days to get people to vote for Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton.
Jay Tener is a Cleveland businessman who works in the food services industry. He sees the vote for Trump as a necessary step in rebuilding America, and if the rest of the world is petrified by the little they know of Trump’s foreign policy, Tener is not too put out by that.
‘I don’t think of Donald as a Republican president, I think of him as a businessman. None of those effing politicians have a clue. We need someone in Washington DC who understands how things are made. We are good at distribution and supply chain and we used to be good at manufacturing but now we don’t do enough. The innovation manufacturing has been shipped off. We need to re-shore it.
‘And if the rest of the world is worried, well I would rather they respect us than like us. Barack Obama has totally screwed up the Middle East. Donald can’t do any worse, not by a long shot. I am sure Donald will make mistakes but hopefully they won’t be of a scale that embarrasses us.'
Tener was speaking at the Cuyohoga County Republican Victory Party, which may not have been not too grandiously named after all.
Across town, at the Democratic Party headquarters, people were quiet, tense and disbelieving. There was a cheer when the California results came in. The crowd was desperate for some good news, no matter how much everyone knew California was about as safe a blue state as they come.
Tatiana Singh is from Chicago. She has been in Cleveland for seven weeks campaigning with the American Federation of Teachers. She cannot believe the results coming in.
‘The world is going to laugh at us. We are not the greatest country in the world. We are the stupidest country in the world.
‘Michigan is one of her firewall states. If she loses that…I never thought we would be at this point. I never thought our country would be electing somebody like that as a president. I don’t know how this night will be end. I don’t know what it would mean for him to be president. I have never thought it could happen. Now I have to think about it.’
Photo: Getty Images/Spencer Platt
