This is America, 2016: Confessions from the campaign trail

This is America, 2016: Confessions from the campaign trail


Mickey Herrick of Brighton, Michigan, is a lifelong Democrat. "It wouldn't matter who they put on the ticket, I'm voting for the Democrat." If Hillary Clinton is elected, he says, "It'll be four or eight more years of the same. Congress won't want to work with her." #myvote #postcardsfromthetrail

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Lauren Drake, a 29 year-old barista in Mt. Lebanon, PA, says she's been excited about Hillary Clinton since 2008. Drake says she won't like it if Trump becomes president, but says the animosity in the election is getting out of control. "People should just be nicer to each other. That would just make everything a lot less complicated. My family, we're all divided, my dad's a Republican, he's not voting for Trump but everyone in my family has different opinions and yet we're able to sit down and have meaningful discussions without getting mean." #MyVote

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D, a barber at Razored Edge, isn't sure who he'll vote for. He supported Bernie Sanders in the primary, "For us to choose between them two between all the people that was running, I think that’s not right, that’s crazy. They didn’t really give us a choice." Asked about Pres. Obama he says, "He can’t fix everything in 8 years, it’s been wrong for a lot longer." #myvote

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"It ain't gonna be Hillary (who gets my vote). She wants to shut down the coal industry — that's gonna put me out of a job. Wouldn't be real smart to vote for someone who's gonna put you out of a job." – Ryan Barnette #myvote

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"One way we figured out to communicate if we need to have silence, so that people can know if there is important information, is to raise a closed first in the air." –Kim Huynh, a Houston-based nonviolent protest organizer with @democracyspring in Philadelphia during the DNC (7/24/16) #myvote

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Ana Carolina Machado Silva, 21-year-old student born in So Paulo, Brazil, who lives in Roanoke, Virginia: “I became a citizen four years ago, and I actually didn't know it until this summer, so this is my first time voting. … I think as an immigrant, things that Trump is saying are really harmful to the immigrant community and just having people that strongly believe that I shouldn't be here has really affected me personally.” #MyVote #portrait #cnn #politics #immigration #DonaldTrump

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A car mechanic who has lived outside Harrisburg his whole life didn't want to give his name, but said of the election: "Just hoping that it’s not about another historical event. First Black, first woman. I’m worried about my family and my pocket. You ask me, the old days, I was better off." He said everything has gotten harder, "Everything’s just frickin' high. Jobs is jacked up. Back in the day you used to go get a job, find a better paying job. But now everybody’s stuck like Chuck as far as I’m concerned." #MyVote

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Ky'lend Adams, 21-year-old student from Washington, DC: "I remember as a kid looking at a poster, you saw all the presidents, and they're all white males, and so now they're gonna see wait, wait, wait, there's a black man, and, wait, right next to it is a white woman, so I think they're going to believe that, hey, I can do anything that I put my mind to." #MyVote #portrait #cnn #politics #HillaryClinton

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Norm, 85 years-old, was born in the coal region of Pennsylvania. He was drafted into the Korean War and later did aircraft repair all over the world. "I’ve been around the block, I’m not bragging. And that’s what bothers me today when I see what’s going on. It kills me. I keep thinking to myself — I shouldn’t say this, but, when I see all these service men that died, my two brothers got wounded — one was in Germany, one was in Iwo Jima. When I see all these servicemen that died, they died for this country, when I see what’s happening today, what they put their lives on… I think about that a lot," he said. "My problem is, it's going to take a long long time to figure things out. I won’t be around." #MyVote

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"Donald Trump strikes me as the Kim Jong Un of American politics. He's volatile, he's temperamental, he is not capable of controlling anger. In that position, those seem to me to be vital characteristics. People ought to be thinking back to the Cuban Missile Crisis. We averted nuclear war because of the temperament of President John Kennedy. Had Donald Trump been in the White House at that time, I think there's no question that he would have ordered a missile launch and the United States and the Soviet Union would have been engaged in a catastrophic nuclear exchange." – David Irvine #myvote

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    Mike Hudson of Grove City, Ohio, woke up at 2:30 a.m. and drove three hours to be the first in line at Donald Trump's rally in Charleston, West Virginia. The event started at 7 p.m. last night. Hudson, 74, got there at 6 a.m. It was the Vietnam veteran's fourth Trump rally, and he picked a spot in the third row. "I’m afraid of what our country is turning into. I went out and fought for this country. And the people that’s run it have never done anything like that for this country," he said. "The only thing they do is take paychecks. And Donald Trump’s one that doesn’t need a paycheck, and he’s a great person." Just an hour before we spoke, House Speaker Paul Ryan said on CNN that he wasn't ready yet to endorse the party's presumptive nominee. Upon hearing the news, Hudson didn't even blink. "We’re going to fire him and put Newt Gingrich in there," he said. "We don’t need him no more. He’s nothing but nothing." #MyVote

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    Cherry Curry, 61 years-old, born and raised in McKees Rocks, normally votes Democrat, but this year she doesn't think she'll vote for any presidential candidate. "They’re both idiots, I mean that’s my opinion. I’m not going to vote… Whoever’s gonna get in we’re screwed, so it doesn’t matter." #MyVote

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    Fred Jenkins of New Cumberland, Pennsylvania, said he's been a Trump supporter from the beginning of the billionaire's campaign and likes his unpredictable style. "The fact that nobody knows what Trump is going to do is very important," he said, arguing that President Obama makes too many announcements about U.S. war plans against ISIS. It's a point that Trump also makes on the campaign trail. "Nobody knows what Trump is going to do when he does it." #MyVote

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    "We look different. We talk different and people seem to think we don't exist but if you're hungry we'll split our last meal with you. If you're cold, we'll get you some kind of, to stay warm. We give everything that we got and we get nothing back." Vira Rose has fought off cancer four times. She's got black lung, two artificial knees and a messed up back. After 20 years in the mines, she literally built her business with her bare hands stood up walls in the dead of winter, ran power and water lines, built the roof. "I've got to keep going," she says. She's 69 years old and can't afford to retire. #myvote

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    Erica Smegielski, the daughter of slain Sandy Hook Elementary School principal, hugs Sam Saylor, whose 20-year old son was murdered in 2012. The two met during a Clinton event in Hartford on Thursday. "Be nice to each other. It's really all that matters," reads Smegielski's tattoo.

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    Richard Brannigan, 47 years old, born and raised in Pittsburgh, on a bike he built himself: "I'm definitely going to vote for Trump. Simply because Hillary's been known to lie in the past. Simply, like what he says, she's been doing this for 30 years and she hasn't really made any kind of progress… There's other issues I don't agree with, abortion. What if someone had aborted us? You know what I mean?" Brannigan said. "He just speaks his mind, just because he might have said some messed up stuff about women doesn't mean he doesn't know how to run a country. Look at what he's created." #MyVote

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    Jawahir Ahmed, 18-year-old student from Chantilly, Virginia: “I think the issues are really important, but I don't think I'm going to make much of a difference. I'm one person. … Anyone who's against Trump I guess I'm for. … I'm not necessarily against him, I don't know him personally as a human so I can't really judge him for what he is. … I'm a Muslim, clearly, and how he's like slightly against Muslims in general, it kind of keeps me away from him.” #MyVote #portrait #cnn #politics #DonaldTrump

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      "How many 'Hillary for Prison' shirts we got here today? That meme, multiple times, has been the number one search term above 'Brexit' and 'Pokmon Go.' That's right, we're even giving Nintendo a run for their money now. So think about that and think about that long and hard. (Crowd: 'Hillary for prison! Hillary for prison!') She IS 'Crooked Hillary.' That's the thing about memes. When a meme isn't true, it's really hard to get it going. But when something's true, it's easy to get it going — like 'Crooked Hillary' and 'Hillary for Prison.'" –Infowars founder, radio host and conspiracy theorist Alex Jones, in Cleveland at an outdoor rally during the RNC. 7/18/16 #myvote

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      Richard Ripley in Battle Mountain, Nevada: “We’re a boom-and-bust town. Live and die by the mining industry the gold mines. And to me, seems like we’re almost in a downward spiral right now. Things are slowing up and people are moving out of town, and we just hope things always get better.” #MyVote #portrait #election2016 #cnn #politics

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        Katie Peterson, from Vienna, Virginia, has three children: “Michelle Obama is the smartest, classiest, most inspiring first lady that I have encountered. … She's got a wonderful real tone that lets you know she knows how it really works, but she keeps her actual words classy. … She didn't run for president, her husband did. But she stepped into it beautifully because she was always living her life right. … I think my kids, because they've grown up with the Obama family in the White House, they actually just assume that that's a model of how to be.” #MyVote #portrait #cnn #politics #MichelleObama #Obama

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        Pete Saenz, mayor of Laredo, Texas, describes his brief meeting with Donald Trump, who visited the border city in July 2015: “He asked specifically about the wall and mass deportation. He and I rode together in the Suburban to the World Trade Bridge and he asked if I would join him by all means. He asked me whether I knew whether or not Mexico had a policy, direct or indirect, of sending bad guys over here. I said, ‘No, I really haven’t heard that.’ Asking whether I had knowledge of that, as a policy, or as someone from the government or remotely connected to the government saying, ‘We’re sending all the bad guys over here.’ I said no. Maybe the border patrol folks, who talk to him, and they’re privy to more stories, but from a mayor’s standpoint, no I’ve never heard that. I guess he wanted confirmation or verification of some sort, but I said, ‘I can’t confirm that.'” @pvanagtmael/@magnumphotos, May 16, 2016 #MyVote #portrait #election2016 #donaldtrump #cnn #politics

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        Pamela Taylor, a naturalized British-American citizen, lives north of the actual US-Mexico border but south of a stretch of iron fence. Migrants frequently pass through her property after crossing a narrow stretch of the Rio Grande on the outskirts of Brownsville, Texas: “I resent it. When I came into America, I went to an Army hospital. And when I did, I was checked from stem to stern to make sure I wasn’t carrying any kind of disease. I had to talk to a counselor in case I was a little bonkers upstairs, OK? I had to have two sponsors that, in case my marriage didn’t work, they would be my sponsors. All of this has gone out the window. What makes these people so much more important than I was at that time?” http://cnn.it/borderinsta @pvanagtmael/@magnumphotos, May 18, 2016 #MyVote #portrait #election2016 #immigration #cnn #politics

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        Xochitl Mora Garcia, then a spokesman for Laredo, Texas, says some Americans have short memories when it comes to immigration: "I don’t think anybody ever did it the right way. Honestly, not even the pilgrims, if we’re going to be honest about it. Nobody did the right way. That’s the truth that everybody seems to forget. They’ve been here, but maybe one or two generations ago they were not a welcome immigrant. It will divide people here they forget that they were either once themselves … they can bully the weaker link. That’s not surprising at all. When I hear the people saying, 'Go back and stand in line; I did,' I say, 'No, you didn’t. Not you, not your grandparents everybody got here illegally.'” Mora Garcia moved east along the border to McAllen, Texas, this summer, where she now directs the city’s public information office. cnn.it/borderinsta @pvanagtmael/@magnumphotos, May 16, 2016 #MyVote #portrait #election2016 #immigration #Texas #cnn #politics

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        Javeria Ahmed, a teacher and mother of two, says as a #Muslim American, she worries what the future will be like for her children. "At the end of the day, we're all the same. There is no difference," Ahmed says. On being Muslim American in the year of #DonaldTrump cnn.it/politicsinsta Jeremy Moorhead/CNN #politics #religion #election2016 #profile #quote #cnn

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        Chris Steele left work at a coal mine to stand outside Hillary Clinton's event in Williamson, West Virginia on Monday. "We he had all kinds of promise before," he said of Clinton's plans for coal country. "They are all lies."

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        Jorge Rivas's wife Betty (pictured) was pulled on stage during a Trump rally — she was there for fun, like when she saw Bernie Sanders at the same venue a week before — ahead of the Arizona primary. But many locals lashed out, threatening their family and restaurant, and calling Betty, who is Mexican-American, a traitor. "You want to be a gringa," one said. After their story spread, the tide began to turn and the attacks mostly stopped. Jorge: "People are saying, 'We don't agree with Trump, I'm not going to vote for him, but I stand with you because we agree that we should have the liberty to move around without anybody saying we want to hurt you if you do that." Neither Betty or Jorge voted in the primary. 3/24/16

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          Wanting to bridge the divide between her community and police, Cassandra Johnson joined her city's Civilian Police Review Board in Durham, North Carolina. The board hears appeals to complaints that residents feel weren't properly or fully investigated. #myvote

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          Kerry Powers, 73, is a Cruz supporter. His wife, Clara, supports Trump and spoke on his behalf today at the Wyoming GOP Convention when Sarah Palin was unable to attend. The key to their 51-year marriage? "Negotiation!" #postcardsfromthetrail #myvote

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          "Colorado has become a far more immigrant-friendly state in the time that I've been here. It continues to do so because of the work that individuals are doing together — undocumented immigrants and citizens alike." – Angel Sanchez #myvote

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          Ramona Morgan, 51 years-old, born and raised in Pittsburgh, on the election: "I'm tried of hearing about it, I can't wait till November. I'm going to go as early as possible and I'm going to vote. And I'm voting for Hillary, cause I do not want Donald Trump. At all," Morgan said. "He's disrespectful. Have respect for the people. I think he's just in it to get more famous, he's not in to help nobody. At least Hillary has been there, she knows the issues, she can best help us." #MyVote

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          Dudley Dudley*, a longtime Democratic activist in New Hampshire, shares a voicemail Bernie Sanders left her after she endorsed him in the primary. "We needed a little time to heal. But we have healed, and we are passionate now about Hillary," Dudley said. "My support for Hillary is not just because I don't support Donald Trump. It's because I do support her, and the way that she has grown, and stretched, because of her contact and support from Bernie." Durham, NH (link to full story in profile) *yes that's her real name #myvote

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          More from NH: Arnie Arnesen, a progressive radio show host, hosted one of Bernie Sanders early events at her house in Concord before he declared, though she never endorsed him. "Change doesn't happen with a switch. It takes time. Hillary Clinton is smelling it, and realizing it, because Bernie showed that that's what people want,” Arnesen said. “Bernie won, but he will lose if she loses. If Donald Trump wins, we all lose." (link to the full story in profile) #MyVote

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            This is Vic. He's a big @hillaryclinton supporter, but everyone tells him he looks like @berniesanders. #postcardsfromIowa #myvote

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            Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio poses with a with a Trump supporter's service dog, seen here wearing a "Make America Great Again" hat. Ted Cruz would win the majority of delegates during a contentious AZ GOP convention in Mesa, Ariz. Trump's campaign representatives would dispute the results — claiming the outcome was rigged against them. 4/30/16

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            "Say cheese." #myvote

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            "Bernie Sanders galvanized Ameica with this whole notion that you don't have to expect less — that you deserve more. For me, today is the beginning of that, getting groups of people together who will agree to do the work that is necessary to put the pressure on all levels of government, but particularly the federal level. And the greatest model that comes to mind for me is A. Philip Randolph, with the Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters, and the pressure he put on President FDR in the 1940s when he threatened to march on Washington but didn't because the President gave in to the demand of desegregating the defense forces and creating the Fair Employment Act. It really is about planning and organizing and having a commitment across this country that we're going to continue fighting for the issues that we believe in." –Former Ohio State Sen. Nina Turner, a top Bernie Sanders surrogate (seated next to fellow Sanders ally Rep. Tulsi Gabbard), speaking during the "People's Summit," a progressive gathering in Chicago, soon after the end of the Democratic primaries. 6/18/22

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            “I’ve always considered myself a black Donald Trump, even in college and playing football. I just want to give him a shot. I want to see something different. I like his business moves. He’s a successful guy. I like his aura. I like his persona. So I want to emulate that and maybe I can be successful in the same way.” – John Bradley, 38, Tampa #MyVote

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            Onboard the Amtrak Southwest Chief, a voter weighs in on #election2016: “I think our country is just by the day, by the year losing perspective. And the more we do, the more irrelevant our choices in candidates will end up being. Because we’ll pick one candidate and he’ll just jack things up, and we’ll pick somebody diametrically opposed to him and he’ll jack things up. So somehow we’ve got to come back to a place we were before.” #MyVote #portrait #cnn #politics

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            In Berlin, NH a local voter showed me his signed notes from Chris Christie's 2 hour town hall. He said Christie kept his attention the whole time, that his foreign policy is "right on" and he likes how Christie talks about leadership #fitn #nhprimary #cnn #MyVote

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            "It's depressing to watch the population disappear. The businesses disappear and the activity to stop. Back in the 50s, 60s, 70s it was hard to walk up the sidewalk because there was so many people. Now you walk up the sidewalk and there's nobody." Ed Shepard is 92. After World War II, he came home to West Virginia and opened the service station he sits in today. He hasn't had any business in five years, but he still comes to work six days a week. His town has left him, but he hasn't left his town. #myvote

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            Soon-to-be Democratic primary candidate @GovernorOMalley channeling his inner Woody Guthrie in the basement at Margarita's in Nashua, New Hampshire. 3/31/15

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            "I don't give a f–k about Trump. This is business. Hillary, baby, you got my vote before Trump." –street vendor in Cleveland while selling crude anti-Clinton t-shirts during the RNC. 7/20/16

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            "This election scares me more than that border," says one of the few female ranchers who lives near the U.S./Mexico border. #MyVote. by @chrismoodycnn

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            Meet Fred & John. Their families have lived on the border for more than 100 years. They've seen it all, and now they want a change. That's why they want Donald Trump in office. #MyVote via @vanessayurkevich

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            Voters on 2016: 21 yr-old student Kristina McNamara on how the election seems like entertainment and why it shouldn't be. "Just him thinking that men can brag about sexually assaulting a woman, is disgusting, it's not locker room banter, it's a serious matter and that's scary because I have friends who have been sexually assaulted." 10/10/16 #MyVote

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            Blake Espino said he bought a Trump wig on Amazon and has been doing impersonations around friends and family for five months now. “He’s just funny,” said the 12-year-old from Fairfield. “He’s just a character.” Espino, who wants to be a comedian when he grows up, was quite the hit at Trump’s rally in Sacramento, where several people approached him for photos and videos of his Trump imitation. He also does a Bernie Sanders act, but he’s not eager to go to a Bernie rally. “I think it would be pretty dangerous,” he joked. Still, he plans on buying a Bernie wig. #trailcolor

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            Muslim Americans describe the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks as a seminal moment that painfully altered their place in American society. But when CNN interviewed American Muslims about the presidential election, we heard a startling message: 2016 is worse. At the ADAMS Center's Radiant Hearts Academy in Sterling, Virginia, where preschoolers to second graders are taught a curriculum centered on Islamic values, teachers and parents are grappling with how to explain the U.S. presidential election to children." You can't really hide it, you know? If it's in the news and your parents are watching the news, it'll come up and the word 'Muslim' will come up," says Hurunnessa Fariad, the school's vice principal. Originally from Uzbekistan, Fariad moved to the US when she was little and now has four daughters. "You have to constantly tell your children, 'No, we're not going anywhere. We're here, you know, we haven't done anything wrong,'" she tells CNN. Fariad doesn't want to share who she will vote for in November, only saying: "It's obvious." (: Jeremy Moorehead/CNN. For more, see the link in our profile.)

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            Dana McGill and Debbie Ellis said they haven't worn matching outfits since they were children, but tonight they were a crowd favorite with shirts that say: "Texas Twins for Trump." #trailcolor #MyVote

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            When I told my Uber driver that I was in NH to cover Donald Trump's event this weekend, he said Trump is "my guy," but originally he was a Jeb Bush supporter. Mike Wany, a Christian from South Sudan and a big fan of George W. Bush, said he went to six Jeb Bush events in NH. He said he understands why Bush isn't endorsing Trump, but at the end of the day, Wany cares more about preventing another Democrat from becoming president. He thinks Obama has been too soft on terrorism and likes Trump's tough-talking style. "He talk crazy, but he's a good guy," he said. #trailcolor #MyVote

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            "As a generation we are individualistic, we are concerned with ourselves, our job security, our paycheck. What's good for me? Not what's good for everyone, what's good for me right now, today? A lot of people forget that that's what the Republican party is about." The words of young republican Devon Leasure who says she will be voting Trump on Nov 8th. Devon was one of many young voters I met along our journey to the battleground states of FL, NC, & OH. In this series we dig into the issues millennials really care about and how those topics are influencing their election decisions. Check out Devon's story and others on @cnnpolitics #myvote #florida #cnn #cnnpolitics

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            Pete Scville of Greencastle, Pennsylvania, made the 13-mile trip on his bike to Trump’s rally here in Hagerstown, Maryland today.

            Read more: http://www.cnn.com/2016/10/25/politics/election-2016-voters/index.html

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