HOULTON, Maine — Wanda Drew of Houlton said she has “never voted Democrat in her life” but one presidential candidate has ultimately changed her mind for the first time in 42 years — Donald Trump.
“Once they nominated him at the Republican National Convention, that was it,” she said last week. “I realized that I could not support a candidate who had made so many statements that were contrary to my beliefs, such as being unsupportive of women and against immigration. I knew that I just had to vote my heart this election cycle, which is what I am planning to do.”
Several recently interviewed Aroostook County residents similarly expressed dismay with having to choose between Republican Trump and Democrat Hillary Clinton, or as one Presque Isle man put it, having to choose between “the lesser of two evils.”
No one in the informal local poll mentioned either Gary Johnson of the Libertarian Party or Jill Stein of the Green Party, who also will be on the Nov. 8 presidential ballot.
Trump and Clinton met in their first debate on Sept. 26 and continued to spar on matters of national security, the war in Iraq, and immigration.
Seth Henderson of Presque Isle said that he is voting for Hillary Clinton, although he is doing so “with reservations.”
“I am really doing this because it is the lesser of two evils,” he said last week. “To be honest, I would rather vote for Bernie Sanders. Back when the caucuses were going on, I was fully supporting Sanders, just like the majority of the people who caucused with me. But it was not to be, and I am certainly not going to vote for Trump.”
Henderson said his main concern about Clinton is “the email scandal,” referring to March 2015 when it became known that Clinton was using her family’s private email server during her tenure as secretary of state for official communications, rather than official State Department email accounts, which are maintained on federal servers.
“I don’t think that she has been as upfront as she claims to have been,” he said. “I think that she is a smart woman, and I think that she had to know that what she was doing was questionable, but she just won’t admit it.”
David Sharpe of Caribou and his girlfriend, Monique Tucker of Limestone, are Trump supporters. Sharpe said he feels Trump will produce jobs in the country, something the nation “needs desperately.”
Tucker said that much of the time as he campaigns, Trump is speaking like he is in charge of a business.
“I don’t think he realizes that he will have cabinets and secretaries and Congress around him vetoing his orders if he is elected president,” she said.
Heidi Nickerson of Presque Isle said Friday that she was leaning toward voting for Trump until news developed last week that in 2005, he was captured on a live mic talking about groping women or making untoward sexual advances on them in years past.
Trump has apologized and called those remarks untrue, characterizing them as “locker room talk.”
As of presstime, nine women had accused Trump of touching them inappropriately, according to the Washington Post.
Nickerson said she could no longer support Trump after hearing about the women’s experiences.
“That is just something that I can’t ignore,” she said. “When I was in college, I volunteered at a domestic and sexual violence center, and I saw women speak about experiencing such violations on a daily basis. There is no way I could support a man like that to serve as our commander in chief.”
Mark Watson of Caribou said that he still is a Trump supporter, but admits that his support is “not as strong” as it was even a month ago.
“I find the statements that he made reprehensible,” he admits. “And I don’t buy that it was locker room talk. He wasn’t in a locker room. He was a businessman, a powerful businessman, about to give a televised interview. But I am definitely not a fan of Hillary Clinton, either. I could never vote for her because of the way she handled Benghazi or her email scandal. So I have a lot to weigh before Election Day.”
