Pennsylvania's Northampton County voted for Obama, Trump and Biden. This time the election is dividing households

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Pennsylvania's Northampton County voted for Obama, Trump and Biden. This time the election is dividing households

时间：2024-10-30 05:00 来源：未知作者：admin 阅读：次

Bethlehem sits in Pennsylvania's Northampton County, where voters have an uncanny knack for predicting the outcome of the US presidential race.

It's a swing county within a swing state that voted for Barack Obama twice, then Donald Trump, then Joe Biden.

Since 1912 the county has correctly swung with the nation all but three times: In 1968 when Richard Nixon won office and then 2000 and 2004 when Republican president George W Bush defeated Al Gore and then John Kerry.

This election is incredibly tight with both Kamala Harris and Trump making late efforts to sway voters at rallies just days out from the November 5 vote.

The latest New York Times/Siena poll has voters across the nation split at 48 per cent when it comes to their preferred president.

Former steelworker Don Young is now one of the guides at Bethlehem Steel after it became a tourist attraction.

In the shadow of the rusted towers and pipes of Bethlehem Steel 87-year-old former steelworker and registered Republican Don Young tells 7.30 why he will once again be voting against that party.

"My vote for Kamala Harris is simply based on that she is not Donald Trump, and with Kamala Harris, I expect the democratic traditions of the country to be continued," Mr Young said.

"Donald Trump — I fear he is going to wreck the democratic United States government."

Mr Young says Trump "preaches a rosy future without any real statistics or plans to back it up".

The tight race in Northampton County has exposed divisions between neighbours, colleagues and even within households, including Don Young's.

"My wife is an ardent, ardent Trump supporter. She really looks at Trump as the orange Jesus, the saviour of the nation. And I have to live with her. But, she's a fine woman."

Donald Trump's rhetoric and politics have been dividing Americans as the US election draws nearer.

In nearby Allentown, the poll has caused problems in Gary Ward's household too. He's voting for Trump, and he and his wife fell out over her lawn signs supporting the Democrats.

"The vibe is not good. That's why I just can't wait until this election is over and we can get back to being, you know, a friendly husband and wife," Mr Ward told 7.30.

"It's just, I'm surprised, the first time in our over 50-year marriage where an election has actually impacted the way we're treating each other."

Mr Ward sells oriental carpets from an Allentown warehouse and thinks Trump is better placed to fix America's soaring cost of living.

Gary Ward considers himself independent and plans on voting for Donald Trump next week.

"I do like him because like me, he's a business guy, and I believe that he's is not as insulated as … career politicians are," he said.

"He knows about profit and loss, and I believe if this country were run more like a business that we could bring things in or rein things in, like inflation, and solve problems like the border issue."

To vote for Trump he will put aside his personal dislike of the former president.

"When I pull that lever or mark my ballot, I'm going to be holding my nose literally, because I want to demonstrate that I'm not really happy with whom I'm voting for," he said.

"I'm all over his policies, but I don't like the guy."

Anger over abortion rights

Mr Ward's colleague, office manager Kathy Skrapits, can't fathom why so many here, including her employer, Gary, are voting for Trump.

"Most of my friends are Democrats and will vote that way. We all kind of feel, and this is horrible to say, but we're voting for the lesser of two evils," she said.

"I will not vote for a convicted felon. I will not vote for someone who has taken my daughter's choice away."

Ms Skrapits said she has a friend, a nurse, who had an ectopic pregnancy and survived thanks to emergency surgery that is now illegal in some US states.

Abortion rights are a key issue for Kathy Skrapits.

"Had she been in a state where it was across the board no abortion, she would have died," she said.

"She was bleeding out as she was driving.

"It's too important to not take it seriously enough. And I do, and for that reason, I will vote for Kamala Harris."

Ms Skrapits says she cannot believe that people will still vote for Trump after he was found guilty of falsifying business records at a criminal trial in May.

"He's not a good person," she said.

"He's a felon, 34 counts, convicted felon. He could be running the country from prison.

"Isn't that funny? Not in a 'haha' kind of way, either. Kind of mind-blowing that there are such smart people who will still vote for him."

'Americans can trust him'

One of those smart people who will vote for Donald Trump is emergency room doctor Jim Sweetland.

For most of his adult life, Dr Sweetland has voted for the Democrats.

His politics shifted over the Affordable Care Act — better known as Obamacare — which he called a "tax" rather than healthcare reform.

Dr Jim Sweetland is an emergency room doctor and former Democrat voter.

"Somebody has to pay for that in the United States [and] that's the middle class. So they're paying it indirectly, through higher premiums for their health care insurance," Dr Sweetland told 7.30.

He says he didn't abandon the Democrats — the Democrats left him.

"I was the youngest of five kids, and I was lucky enough to get through school to become a physician," he said.

"I think everybody has the opportunity to achieve in the United States, and I don't think the Democratic Party is into that anymore. It's more a Republican issue."

In July Dr Sweetland's political transformation led him to a Donald Trump rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, where he sat with his wife Lois in the crowd behind the former president.

A few minutes into Trump's speech, Dr Sweetland heard the pop of gunshots and watched Trump get buried under a scrum of Secret Service agents.

It was clear that someone in the crowd had been injured too.

Dr Sweetland was in the crowd at the Trump rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, where an attempted assassination took place.

Dr Sweetland recounted the event: "I heard a woman say very loudly, 'He's been shot. He's down', which, in EMS lingo, is 'This person's seriously ill, come now".

Dr Sweetland clambered through the crowd and found an injured man who'd fallen between the rows of seats, later, he'd discover it was firefighter Corey Comperatore, 50.

"He's a big guy, and I couldn't lift him," Dr Sweetland said.

Another bystander helped pick him up and lay him on a bench, where Dr Sweetland performed CPR until emergency services arrived.

Comperatore's wife Helen was beside Dr Sweetland as he continued resuscitation efforts. Four months on, he remains affected by the events of the day, where Comperatore died.

Corey Comperatore, pictured here with his daughter, was killed in the attempted assassination of Donald Trump in Pennsylvania.

"The look on her face I'll never forget, and for many, for more than a few months, it's woken me up at night, but the look on her face was that of sheer shock and horror, but also a little bit of hope."

Dr Sweetland says he has sought out counselling since the rally.

Since the shooting, Dr Sweetland has spoken at Trump events.

"I've given speeches, and I always end it by saying, we as Americans need to turn down the temperature in the room, and we can do that by doing just this, call up somebody that you know that doesn't have the same political view that you have, and just say, I want to speak with you in a respectful manner."

Turning down the temperature is not something the often inflammatory former president is renowned for, which Dr Sweetland acknowledges, while saying the Democrats are also guilty of being intemperate.

"He's bombastic in certain ways," he told 7.30.

"There's not — and I love the man — but he does not have a filter from his brain to his mouth.

"So a lot of things have come out unfiltered, and that's his downfall, I think, as well as his strength.

"Americans can trust him. He just said something I wouldn't have said, but I know what he's thinking. And when he says he's going to do something like in his first administration, he did it."

Watch 7.30, Mondays to Thursdays 7:30pm on ABC iview and ABC TV

By：ABC

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