“Trump and JR Ewing, two billionaires that workers love” – L’Express

It’s an advertising spot unknown in France but which, in the United States, has amused more than one person. Donald Trump, on his knees, shining the shoes of comedian Larry Hagman aka “JR” Ewing, the evil oil baron of the series Dallas. It was in 2012, four years before the election of the Republican candidate to the White House, in a promotional clip broadcast on the occasion of the reboot from the legendary soap opera of the 1980s? Rich, greedy, fickle, a certain outspoken… JR and the New York billionaire have many things in common. Like JR, Trump survived an assassination attempt (two, in JR’s case). Like him, he is one of the two faces America loves to hate.

Unlike Larry Hagman, who died in 2012, Donald Trump was not born in Texas. But it feels a bit like home… In the very rural county of Collin, a Republican stronghold located 40 kilometers northeast of Dallas where the Ewing family’s Southfork ranch is located, 56.2% of voters have in fact slipped a Trump ballot against Clinton in 2016. Four years later, despite a clear drop, 51.4% still gave him their confidence against Biden. And in 2024?

We do not have polls for Collin County alone but according to several indicators (in the city of Dallas, the Democrats have a large advantage), Donald Trump could lose his crown as king of oil. First, between the 2012 presidential election (Mitt Romney was the Republican candidate) and that of 2020, the conservatives saw their lead over the Democrats melt like snow in the sun (95,000 votes ahead in 2012, 60,000 in 2016 , 22,000 four years ago). An erosion which can be explained in particular by the demographic boom: “Over the last ten years, Collin County has gone from 700,000 inhabitants to around 1.2 million,” points out political scientist Joshua Blank, research director of Texas Politics Project at the University of Texas at Austin.

“Trump doesn’t always mean what he says”

Why such a boom? The economic attractiveness of Dallas, which has become too expensive for housing, is pushing part of the population who work there to settle in surrounding areas, including Collin County, which has become a sort of satellite. Historically very “white”, this territory has seen the arrival over the years of a new active population with varied profiles. Mostly Asians – “people with a very high level of education” underlines Joshua Blank – who now represent 18% of the inhabitants, ahead of Hispanics (16%). However, Asian Americans generally lean toward the Democratic Party, even if this support seems to be eroding in recent years.

At the Southfork ranch, which we visit on a September Sunday under the relentless sun, there are no Asian Americans, but long-time locals. Starting with the employees of this vast expanse of land, half-ranch, half-“museum”, a place of pilgrimage for those most nostalgic for the series. “I’m surprised to see how many visitors still come here, not just Americans, but people from all over the world,” says Katherine*, tourist guide to this temple of kitsch where the costumes worn by the characters rub shoulders with filmed interviews. of the time and old scripts scribbled in pencil. “With the chaos and hatred we see all around us today, visiting Southfork takes people back to that time when life was a little simpler for everyone,” analyzes this Dallas native with an accent. from the South well marked. After having voted Democratic for a long time, this sixty-year-old will slip in a Trump ballot.

Despite the slip-ups? “He sometimes says things he shouldn’t. But I think he doesn’t always mean what he says. It’s often misinterpreted,” sweeps the Texan. Which places the question of purchasing power at the heart of its concerns: “I don’t like the situation we find ourselves in today. It is difficult for ordinary people to earn a living. Of course, that is is made worse about four years ago with the pandemic and everything else, but I think we were in a better economic situation in the 1980s than we are today.”

A new term for Trump? “I don’t even understand how he got elected the first time,” fumes Jim, a fervent Democrat, who came straight from Kansas to visit the Ewing ranch with his wife Susan. And yet, nationally, about 46% of voters could try the Trump experience again: “If you are ready to support a man who has no program, no vision for America and who only seeks to “getting rich reveals your personality,” says this retiree, a bit disappointed. Just as passionate about justice as Bobby, his favorite character in the series (the good guy from the Ewing siblings), Jim pleads for a better redistribution of income: “Today, the system favors the ultra-rich too much. If we don’t rebalance not that, there is a real danger that the middle class of which we are part will disappear.” It is therefore logical that he will vote for Kamala Harris, even if this curious nature – “Tell me, you who live in France, is the Paris of the Olympic Games that we saw on television was a watered down version? – is “not yet really convinced” by the Democratic candidate.

Because if the ex-president is a repellent for many, Kamala Harris is not a magnet for voters. More of a default choice. Thus, Isabella, 18, will vote for the first time on November 5, above all to avoid the election of Trump: “We need a president who is more level-headed” – but also to defend the right to abortion. Her mother, a devout Catholic and Republican, will not vote this time for Donald Trump, whom she “doesn’t like”, but will not support Kamala Harris either. Impossible to vote for a candidate in favor of the right to abortion. “Not Trump!”, it is in these negative terms that Deborah, eleven years of service at the Southfork ranch, implicitly tells us that she will vote Democratic. A bit disillusioned by the political offer. “Nowadays, politicians spend their time denigrating each other, but what do they really want to do?” asks this adopted Texan, who defines herself as “libertarian” and “neutral”: “It’s safer that way,” she says with a burst of laughter.

“JR and Trump, the kind of billionaires workers love”

While it is easy to imagine that the very misogynistic and manipulative JR Ewing – “Never tell the truth when a good lie is enough” – would never have slipped a Harris ballot into the ballot box, what about his wife Sue Ellen, deceived all day long? “I think as JR’s wife, she probably would have gone to the fundraisers and voted Republican,” imagines Max Marshall, author of the terrific story “Dallas at 40: The Story of the TV Show That changed Texas forever” published in 2018 in the magazine Texas Monthly. According to the Texan journalist, the series Dallas contributed to breaking two stereotypes anchored in American culture: on the one hand, having erased the image of a city long associated with the assassination of JFK – “The series made Dallas go from the city of hatred to the city ​​of greed” -, on the other hand, having drawn a line under the image of the necessarily philanthropic billionaire which has long prevailed in the United States: “With JR, the rich finally felt free to flaunt their wealth saying ‘look how I can break the rules without being worried’.”

JR, Donald Trump, two sulphurous billionaires with unabashed greed who emerged at the same time: the glitzy Reagan years. Two figures appreciated by the “average” American, according to Max Marshall, for the same reason: “The enemies that JR Ewing destroyed in the series with an ironic smile were often self-satisfied bosses, part of the establishment. For the worker, JR was therefore the fantasy of this bad guy who works in your name to demolish the people you would like to see fall. It’s the same with Trump, describes the journalist Besides, the progressives forget how much they have. loved seeing Trump attack Jeb Bush, Ted Cruz and Marco Rubio during the 2016 primaries. Then once he started turning his attacks on them, Democrats began to see him as the archetypal wicked.”

The workers’ vote, the Republican candidate’s best hope to win on November 5? Harry Enten, a data journalist at CNN, threw a wrench into the pond on September 30: “Donald Trump enjoys the most working-class support of any Republican presidential candidate in a generation.” Dallas, your world remains unforgiving.

* The first name has been changed.