Red state, blue state Free Press travels to North Dakota, Minnesota; Manitoba’s neighbours brace for whatever comes after a U.S. election like no other By: Adam Treusch Posted: 3:00 PM CST Monday, Nov. 4, 2024

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This article was published 04/11/2024 (638 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

FARGO, N.D. — On a Friday afternoon, cheering people packed the Fargodome’s concourse during the final day of early voting at the indoor stadium.

But they weren’t there to cast their ballots for Republican nominee Donald Trump or Democratic nominee Kamala Harris. They were there for high school football.

Games were held there throughout the day as part of the Minnesota section playoffs. Voters waded through parents and siblings in team gear and high school girls in eye black before going up an escalator to cast their ballots and then down again.

The early voting location, one of several in Fargo, moved Saturday to accommodate a North Dakota State University football game.

The Free Press travelled to North Dakota and Minnesota to speak to voters and political organizers before Tuesday’s U.S. presidential election.

Married couple Galen and Sandy Heinle said they voted Democratic, as usual.

“If it goes the other way, we’re going to have turmoil, and the world will have turmoil for the next 40 years,” Galen said. “(Trump is) a very scary man. Terrible.”

Both are worried about what will happen in the aftermath of what is expected to be a close result nationally, regardless of who wins.

“I mean, I’m concerned — period,” Sandy said.

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Dave Cebulla, who was at the Fargodome for football and unaware that people were casting ballots, said he had not yet made a decision.

“I don’t know yet,” he said. “I’m going to wait till the very end.”

John, who did not want to give his last name, said he voted for Trump again after doing so in 2016 and 2020.

“The Democratic party themselves, I think, are just terrible at this point,” he said. “I don’t agree with anything they stand for. The Democrats today are not the Democrats of eight years ago, in my opinion.”

Another Trump supporter who would not give his name said the result of the election will determine whether “America survives or dies.”

“You pick out any one of the people here, they’re smarter than (Harris),” he said, pointing at the crowd inside the Fargodome’s concourse. “She’s just word salad. Nothing’s coherent. She needs a TelePrompTer. She’s fake. She’s just fake.”

“It’s that the other candidate’s policies about a lot of things are troubling and disturbing to me, and I just don’t think it’s a good move for our country.”–Wendy Wheeler

Wendi Wheeler, 53, of Fargo, said she’s glad to see a woman as the presidential nominee of a major party for only the second time in U.S. history, but the main reason she voted Democratic was to cast her ballot against Trump.

“It’s that the other candidate’s policies about a lot of things are troubling and disturbing to me, and I just don’t think it’s a good move for our country,” she said.

Wheeler said she would love to see Tim Walz — the governor of neighbouring Minnesota and a former high school football coach — become vice-president.

“I love the fact that he’s a teacher, and so, education is obviously important to him. His wife is also a teacher, and I think good things are going to happen if (Harris and Walz) are our president and vice-president,” she said.

Earlier that day, Ryan Gustafson, who supported Trump twice before, voted for him again at the Alerus Center arena in Grand Forks.

“The last 3 1/2 years have not gone very well for a lot of people, and it just can’t continue in that direction,” said Gustafson, 52, who lives just outside of town.

He said Trump has “his flaws” but Harris has no substance.

“There’s nothing there. I don’t see any policies. I don’t see any ideas,” he said. “I don’t see anything but, ‘Donald Trump sucks. Vote for me.’”

Trump is expected to easily win this solidly red state for the third time. North Dakota’s Electoral College votes haven’t gone to a Democratic party candidate since Lyndon Johnson’s crushing 1964 victory over Republican Barry Goldwater.

Katie Carl, 37, who supported Trump in the past, cast her ballot for Harris this time. She said she was excited when President Joe Biden backed out of the race in July and the vice-president took his place.

“There’s nothing there. I don’t see any policies. I don’t see any ideas.”–Ryan Gustafson

“I just felt like Biden was a little confused there, at the end,” the Grand Forks resident said, referring to his debate with Trump in late June. She said abortion rights were also a factor in her decision.

“I think it should be every woman’s choice, and there’s a lot of grey — it’s not a black-and-white matter.”

Samantha Olson, 35, said reproductive rights is among the reasons she continues to vote Democratic.

“I live in a state where (abortion is) not protected, but they’re not going to prosecute me… there are plenty of states that will,” she said outside the Alerus Center.

“That’s the way us Americans are… If it doesn’t go our way, we always seem to throw a fit.”–Brent Amerine

Grand Forks resident Brent Amerine said, “I just like Trump,” after voting for the former president at the Alerus Center.

Amerine said he thinks that no matter who wins, there might be civil unrest similar to the Jan. 6, 2021 attack on the U.S. Capitol after Trump lost the 2020 election.

“That’s the way us Americans are,” he said. “If it doesn’t go our way, we always seem to throw a fit.”

Out of 594,140 eligible voters, at least 96,742 cast their ballots in early voting, the North Dakota secretary of state’s website shows, compared with 36,513 in the 2022 midterms and 87,891 in the 2020 election.

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Shirts. Tank tops. Posters. Bumper stickers. Pins. Playing cards.

The temporary store along Highway 10 east of Moorhead, Minn., in the tiny town of Lake Park sells just about every kind of merchandise related to the 45th president.

Books authored by Trump’s wife Melania, his vice-presidential running mate JD Vance and supporters Elon Musk, Rob Schneider and Tulsi Gabbard are perched atop racks of clothing.

Outside, an inflatable tube dancer flails its arms next to a professional-quality “Trump Store” sign urging people to “Take America back!”

An area conservative group opened the store on July 4 to raise funds for Minnesota candidates.

Democrat Hillary Clinton defeated Trump by a surprisingly narrow margin in consistently blue Minnesota in 2016, but it is not considered a swing state in this election.

Detroit Lakes resident George Frankberg, 80, was behind the counter Saturday afternoon.

“This is the most important election I’ve seen in my lifetime, I can tell you that,” he told a customer. “We have so much to gain and so much to lose.”

Frankberg said people from all over the U.S. — and beyond — stop at the store regularly. T-shirts are the top seller.

“We have had so many Canadians in here, and they have purchased a lot of Trump gear,” he said.

One shirt at the front of a rack featured images of Trump and a cartoon donkey, the symbol of the Democratic party. “I’d rather vote for a felon than a jackass,” it stated.

Another bore an image of a cross over the American flag and stated, “Jesus is my savior” above the words “Trump is my president.”

People regularly pose for photos beside one of several cardboard cutouts of Trump.

“We figure we’ve had at least a thousand people take a picture with Trump,” Frankberg said.

A garbage bag was placed on one cutout, a reference to Biden’s seemingly having called Trump supporters “garbage.” The president later said he was referring to a comedian who made controversial remarks at a Trump rally at Madison Square Garden that were deemed racist and inappropriate.

Frankberg — who wore a high-visibility safety vest, as Trump did during a garbage-truck stunt after Biden’s remark — called the president’s comment “fairly stupid.”

“He’s just a hair older than I am, but I’m just a hair sharper than he is,” he said.

Tammy Marshall, 63, drove past the store several times before stopping. She bought a Trump dress, hat and drink holders.

“He’s a businessman, and I just think he’s done so many good things for our country,” said Marshall, who also lives in Detroit Lakes. “He’s just a real human being, you know?”

Marshall said she would take no comfort in a Minnesotan becoming vice-president if Harris and Walz prevail.

“I don’t know that that would be a consolation,” she said. “I’m not a fan.”

Fargo residents Patrick Millard, 69, and Rebecca Millard, 67, bought a red Trump flag and a T-shirt related to the first assassination attempt on the former president, among other items. Both had already voted.

Patrick said border security is among his main political concerns.

“Illegal immigration’s got to stop,” he said.

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On the final Saturday of the campaign, Democrats gathered at the party’s Cass County offices in Fargo to discuss get-out-the-vote strategies, targeting supporters who have not yet cast their ballots.

U.S. Senate candidate Katrina Christiansen was among the speakers at the “Roe-vember” event. She told volunteers and staff members that the U.S. Supreme Court decision overturning Roe v. Wade “put us on a path of no return, where we have to fight for our reproductive rights.”

Kylie Oversen, a 35-year-old lawyer, chair of the national party’s rural council and a former member of the North Dakota House of Representatives, was there with her 18-month-old daughter Adelyn.

She is worried in vitro fertilization could be threatened under a Trump administration.

“I’m someone who has gone through IVF, and (Adelyn) is a result of IVF,” she said. “And so, protecting access to that is really important to me.

“But on the flip side, protecting access to abortion is important because if I am pregnant again, it’ll be a high-risk pregnancy, and so I need to make sure that I have access to a full spectrum of health care if I need it.”

No Democrat has won a statewide election in North Dakota since former U.S. senator Heidi Heitkamp in 2012.

Christiansen told the Free Press she’s heard from Republicans who said they voted for her, including one who phoned her recently.

“She said, ‘Just because you’re a Democrat, you’re not a bad person.’ And that is the national narrative, right? If you’re a Democrat, in some circles, you’re (considered) a bad person. But I’m not a bad person,” she said.

“I’m not a bad person.”–Katrina Christiansen

Margaret Tinnes and her friend and neighbour Cindy Jordet were excited to go door-knocking, something Tinnes had not done before. She’s hoping down-ballot Democratic party candidates can win.

“We’ve been a Republican state for quite a long time…. It’s been Republican solid for many years. We need to get it back,” Tinnes said.

Late that afternoon, a campaign bus transporting Minnesota candidates and other Democrats around the state pulled up to a rally in Moorhead, across the Red River from Fargo. Pictures of Harris, Walz and U.S. Sen. Amy Klobuchar adorned the blue bus, but the politicians were not inside.

Rob Kupec, the area’s state senator and a former TV meteorologist, urged volunteers to help win the county where the city is located.

“We want to make sure that Clay County is not a red on that map of who voted for what in the presidential race. We want to make that go back to blue because that will send a message to a lot of people across the state that we are the blue island in the west, and we are growing,” he said.

Heitkamp was among the people who spoke to a rally of about 50 to 60 supporters.

“Do you want Donald Trump in your life for four more years? Honestly, do you want him in your life? Absolutely not,” she said, adding people want a return to an era where people can “be bored” by politics.

“You want to wake up every morning and learn about some farm program that somebody’s promoting,” she said, drawing laughter from supporters.

“This is, literally, the most consequential election of our lifetime.”–Heidi Heitkamp

She said Walz called her when he was being considered for the vice-presidency and asked her to give interviews about the “rural values” he would bring as a candidate. She said rural residents often feel overlooked in places such as Minnesota.

“They really have a sense that they’ve been left behind, and putting Tim Walz on this ticket speaks to the values of Kamala Harris in trying to represent the entire country,” she said.

Heitkamp said Democrats have been accused of “catastrophizing” a possible second Trump term, but she said people should be very concerned.

“This is, literally, the most consequential election of our lifetime because it is the election that’s going to decide whether the (Make America Great Again) movement is a permanent movement in this country, or whether it is personality-driven, because (Trump has) picked the next leader of the MAGA movement,” she said, referring to Vance, whose political experience extends only as far back as his 2022 U.S. Senate victory in Ohio.

adam.treusch@freepress.mb.ca