US Election campaign hits climax with fear, suspicion, hope on display

GRAND RAPIDS, United States: The US election campaign reached a crescendo, with Republican Donald Trump making a final pitch to supporters in Michigan and Democratic rival Kamala Harris looking to end on a high note in Pennsylvania.

At Trump’s final rally in Grand Rapids, the crowd of thousands was boisterous, convinced that his victory was inevitable, with some saying any other result would mean the vote had been rigged.

In Philadelphia, where Harris was preparing to host a star-studded rally featuring Lady Gaga and others, supporters said they were cautiously optimistic, and fearful of another Trump term.

With polls opening across the United States just hours after each of the candidates were due to speak late on Monday, both sets of supporters will have their answers soon enough.

‘Awful suspicious’

“If you look at the numbers of people, you look at the rallies, it’s crazy the support that Trump has,” said Mark Perry, 65, who had lined up in Grand Rapids.

“If it goes the other way, I think we’re gonna be awful suspicious,” he told AFP outside the 12,000-seat Van Andel Arena, where supporters had braved hours of rain, some perched on fold-out chairs.

Immigration tops the list of concerns for many Trump voters, inflation for others, while some defended abortion restrictions or an end to gender transitions for youths.

But no matter their stance on the issues, they share a deep skepticism that a Harris win could be legitimate, despite opinion polls consistently showing a dead-heat between the two.

“It would be very hard to accept,” said Jacob Smith, 41, an HVAC technician from the area, as his wife Danielle chimed in to echo his concerns.

Trump has ramped up claims of election fraud ever since his 2020 loss to President Joe Biden and ahead of this year’s vote, though no evidence of widespread fraud has come to light.

On the campaign trail, Trump has called recent migrants to the United States “animals” and likened the wave of immigration to an “invasion.”

Still, some immigrants say they will vote for him because they back his conservative stance on hot-button social issues.

Sam Nyambe, a 48-year-old who immigrated from Zambia, told AFP he supported Trump for his “Christian values,” especially on abortion.

‘He’ll ruin everything’

In Philadelphia, the steps of the city’s art museum were lit up in shades of royal blue, with a long queue snaking its way to the venue for Harris’s rally.

“I’m cautiously optimistic, but I’m worried,” said Robin Matthews, a community organizer. “If she doesn’t win, we’re screwed.”

Matthews, who lives in the Pennsylvania suburbs that will be so crucial in deciding this key swing state in a knife-edge election, said she feared a second Trump presidency.

“He’ll ruin everything,” she said. “There’s no checks and balances anymore (if he is reelected).”

Her 16-year-old son Asher intervened to offer what he felt was at stake in this election: “The preservation of our democratic system.”

As a long campaign comes to an end, marked by extraordinary twists and turns in a country that appears more divided than ever, Yvonne Tinsley, a 35-year-old accounting manager, just “want(s) it to be over.”

She does not expect any political miracles from Harris but says too much is at stake if former president Trump returns to power.

“I’m a Black woman in America, so unfortunately, all policies hit me different,” she said.

“Every Supreme Court decision or bad Republican policy, or bad Democratic policy, I get the short end of the stick.”

‘Convicted felon’

“It’s kind of mind-boggling that the race is so close, because he’s a convicted felon,” said Trish Kilby, a 60-year-old Harris supporter.

Trump has 34 felony convictions for crimes related to hush money payments to a porn star ahead of the 2016 election and is awaiting sentencing.

On the campaign trail, the former president has painted his legal woes as the result of political victimization, accusing the Biden administration of weaponizing the law.

The convictions have not appeared to dent Trump’s credibility with his supporters.

Jeff Dickerson, a 70-year-old handyman from Bonita Springs, Florida, was at the January 6, 2021, US Capitol riot where pro-Trump demonstrators attempted to block the certification of Biden’s victory.

“I’m just a die-hard Trump supporter,” he said, listing the flow of undocumented migrants along the southern US border as his top concern.

“I like everything that he’s done.”