Kamala Harris’ biggest headache • “Don’t care about us workers” • TV4 News in the USA
Wyoming is not a wave master state. Mickey Mouse would probably win here, if only he called himself a Republican. Only one Democratic presidential candidate has won here since 1952.
By how much Trump will win this time is hard to know because there are hardly any opinion polls.
– There are probably more coal mines here than there are Democrats, as one voter told TV4 Nyheterna.
“Don’t care about us workers”
Wyoming is not only America’s most Republican state, it is also home to many of the group of voters that Democrats have the hardest time attracting: whites without college degrees.
– I don’t think the Democratic Party cares about us workers, says Nathan Hardy.
Nathan Hardy has worked in Wyoming’s coal mines for 35 years. He was there when Obama promised war on coal and he was there when Trump promised to end the same war. He has seen good times and bad times come and go. He has seen colleagues buying up cars during the former and colleagues losing their jobs during the latter and sought solace in the bottle.
But the hard truth is that the future does not look very bright for Gillette, a city that with its roughly 30,000 inhabitants proudly calls itself the country’s energy capital.
Don’t expect miracles with Trump
For decades, it was Gillette that lit the lights in American homes. That is no longer the case. Then the question is, what happens to Gillette?
– Without the coal, this city does not exist, says Mary Ellen Young.
She worked in the coal industry for 32 years at Gillette, before retiring. Like Nathan Hardy, she will vote for Donald Trump. But she is not hoping for any miracles. Or some new golden age for coal.
However, she hopes that the miners will be recognized more than she feels they were done under Joe Biden. And that the village gets help in the transition.
– Green energy is fantastic. I believe in it. But that change cannot happen in a day. And all these electric cars that everyone will now drive, where will the electricity for them come from?
Democrats’ biggest headache
Voters like Nathan Hardy and Mary Ellen Young, white Americans without a college education, continue to be perhaps the biggest headache for Kamala Harris and the Democrats. In a Siena/New York Times poll, Donald Trump leads Harris by 18 percentage points in that group, in perhaps the most important state of the election, Pennsylvania.
The Harris campaign is now doing everything they can to woo those voters. The question is how well they succeed. It will probably be decisive. Not in Gillette, where the battle is lost, but in Pennsylvania. And without Pennsylvania, Harris’ path to the White House will be very difficult.