Dateline travels to the Rust Belt of middle America, where old industries are dying, jobs are vanishing, and people feel cheated out of the great American dream. Could their anger still carry Donald Trump to the White House?
As Donald Trump struggles to keep his Presidential campaign alive, there’s one key battleground state that’s getting behind him. Ohio has gone has gone from ‘likely Democrat’ to favouring Mr. Trump, and I’m hanging out with some of his recent converts…
SHOMORE DENIRO: During his um rally in Vienna when he came to Ohio um we actually got to meet him, he shook our hand, we actually got a kiss on the cheek...
REPORTER: How was that?
SHOMORE DENIRO: Oh, it was amazing. It was great, well not like that but it was great. It was really awesome.
Being young, female and African-American, ShoMore and Justis are not typical Trump supporters… but, like many in Ohio, they’ve turned...
REPORTER: What's your political history?
SHOMORE DENIRO: Um, my political history... I, during high school um I was a democrat and I did door to door for President Obama.
REPORTER: What do you think Mr Obama would think about you supporting Mr Trump?
SHOMORE DENIRO: I don’t he’d hold anything against me … I honestly don't um maybe probably think I'm a little crazy. I don't know, a lot of people do.
REPORTER: What would you tell him, how would you justify your decision?
SHOMORE DENIRO: I would tell him that everything, a lot of things, that Mr Trump is actually saying is what I believe in, we were a really good country and I don't know what happened through the years but I'd like us to get back to where our jobs were here and that our education was back on top and he actually supports all that and I feel and what I believe so he's my guy.
ShoMore's shifting vote is a thing here. Ohio is a place known for picking presidents. Win Ohio, win the White House or so the saying goes, making this a key election battle ground. Ohio is also defined by steel. This place was America's great manufacturing heartland for more than a century, now it's better known as the Rust Belt. An area full of people who want that great history back and, I'm learning, swing voters can also be full of contradictions.
SHOMORE DENIRO: Now, I'm a Republican. I'm for Trump. But I will always have a love for my Michelle Obama. Akron University, to see Mr Trump! How exciting. Whoo! Look at that truck.
Here, outside Ohio's main cities, people are mostly white - Donald Trump's biggest fans. But it's staff at the rally tonight are not neglecting another key demographic that Mr Trump needs to win over. African Americans are mostly rejecting the Republican candidate. So, ShoMore and Justis are a rarity and welcomed enthusiastically into the fold.
CROWD: USA! USA! USA!
REPORTER: You guys have got amazing...
In fact, the young women are given a spot right behind the main attraction.
SHOMORE DENIRO: And the home of the brave! Whoo!
Then the man himself walks in, right in front of the girls. These rallies are known for spectacle. It's difficult to forget the scenes of violence that defined earlier Trump rallies.
DONALD TRUMP: I love the people of Ohio.
But today candidate Trump is here to offer hope to an area defined by its dying industries.
DONALD TRUMP: We are going to put the miners and the steelworkers back to work.
His other key message today, in front of a mostly white crowd, is for minorities.
DONALD TRUMP: Our government has totally failed our African American friends, our Hispanic friends. What the hell do you have to lose? Give me a chance.
CROWD: Trump, Trump, Trump! Trump, Trump, Trump!
This "What do you have to lose?" angle has been described as both patronising and fearmongering by Mr Trump's critics, but it's hit home for ShoMore and Justis.
SHOMORE DENIRO: The Democrats were actually the true racist ones when it first started out and Republicans were completely supported off not continuing slavery.
JUSTIS HARRISON: The Democrats do not care about the African Americans, they do not care about the African American voters.
There's also plenty of ill will defected towards Donald Trump's opponent.
MAN: If you can read this. The bitch fell off. Life's a bitch, don't elect one. Hey. We've had enough of the Clintons. Come on. Another four to eight years of the same stuff? Please! You know? What are people...
MAN 2: Hi, Mom!
MAN: What are people thinking?
And Mr Trump's more disciplined approach today hasn't gone unnoticed.
MAN 3: And there weren't any personal attacks other than Hillary and Obama. And he's getting better.
I was quite surprised by the Donald Trump rally last night. It was a very inclusive speech. He was incredibly disciplined. He was using a teleprompter. He was appealing to African Americans and Hispanics - groups that he knows he needs. And what we really saw was an incredibly slick performance by a man who knows how to work a room. And 7,000 people who were lapping up every word.
With Candidate Trump heading off on his private jet, I'm hitting the road. Travelling north to a town call Lorain. Built on 120 years of steel tradition, the last mill shut down early this year and already decay is spreading.
ELIZABETH PEREZ: Back in the days when I was here in the '80s, '87, '88, we used to have a line form all the way out the door from lunchtime. We don't even have that no more. So, it's sad and it's gone down a lot.
Elizabeth has been working at the grill at this local institution for 28 good years. But there's a harsh new reality and she struggles to talk about it.
ELIZABETH PEREZ: It is sad, because the community is really going down. Every other company is going down with... I mean, we have nothing in Lorain. We don’t even have barely jobs…we have nothing. Am I done? I almost cried there for a minute. It's sad.
REPORTER: I tell you what, the hash still looks pretty good.
ELIZABETH PEREZ: Thank you.
Carlos and his buddies were all laid off from the steel mill this year. They worked there for decades and have always voted Democrat. Most of them are still not sure about Donald Trump, but Carlos is on the turn.
CARLOS HERNANDEZ, FORMER STEELWORKER: When the economy went bad for the auto industry, for all the places, the banks, they all got bailed out, they got help. Us, they left us sink. We were like the Titanic, nobody came to save us, we had to fend for ourselves and I think maybe we need a businessman.
NELSON: For me, Trump, he just - he's off the rockers. He says some things out there that are just...you just don't know what's going on with him.
GIL: Listen, he's one bad hair day away from nuclear war.
CARLOS HERNANDEZ: Hey, maybe the other countries need to think that he's a nut.
GIL: He doesn't have a plan.
CARLOS HERNANDEZ: You know, to maybe stand up.
GIL: He doesn't have a plan.
JOE: Being a military guy that I am, I don't think I want that guy to have those codes that are used for nuclear weapons. All he wants to do is have war with everybody, we'll be having another war that can never stop. We already had Iraq and Iran. We don't need another one.
The steel mill job allowed Carlos to build a good life in his adopted homeland. He migrated to America from the Dominican Republic as a child but now he's a 56-year-old grandfather with an uncertain future.
CARLOS HERNANDEZ: Listen to my words. We've gotta vote for the same guy.
AUREA: No. No. No.
CARLOS HERNANDEZ: Guy.
AUREA: No. Girl.
Kitchen debates with his wife, Aurea, are spirited, and no doubt being echoed in millions of households right now.
AUREA: And I think we need a woman up there.
CARLOS HERNANDEZ: Is that all the qualifications you need. I'll get Trump to wear a dress!
As well as Carlos losing his job, he and Aurea now have their hands very full at home. They've stepped in to look after two of their grandkids to help out their daughter.
AUREA: She is for family, she is for parenthood. How are you even thinking about somebody who's against your race?
CARLOS HERNANDEZ: Because you've gotta be open-minded.
AUREA: I am open-minded. Is he? Oh, my God. Help me.
CARLOS HERNANDEZ: What?! Jacob, say Trump. Say Trump. I love messing with your grandma. Say Trump, Trump, Trump, Trump, Trump. Trump, Trump. There you go. Say Trump, Trump.
There's a sense of desperation here, but Carlos is staying up-beat. It can't be easy. He's also keeping himself busy, volunteering for late-night shifts at the local auxiliary police force.
CARLOS HERNANDEZ: You can't complain about your situation unless you're willing to help and Lorain has been good to me as far as I've worked here, I've made a living here for a very long time. You know? And it's a way of giving back.
But as the night rolls on, Carlos starts to open up about just how precarious his situation is.
CARLOS HERNANDEZ: My house right now, I've still gotta pay my mortgage. You know, I took a buyout from the mill and I'm good till the end of the year. After, because I put that in the mortgage to be paid, after that, you know, I don't know what I'm gonna do.
Around every corner in Lorain, are reminders for Carlos about his broken dreams.
CARLOS HERNANDEZ: You getting ready for your winter coat? Good boy. My old stomping ground is there. It breaks my heart every time I see that place.
REPORTER: This place?
CARLOS HERNANDEZ: Yeah.
REPORTER: How long did you work there?
CARLOS HERNANDEZ: 28 years.
REPORTER: What was the most amount of people that place employed?
CARLOS HERNANDEZ: 13,000.
REPORTER: 13,000?
CARLOS HERNANDEZ: Yeah.
When Carlos first came to Lorain as a young migrant 30 years ago, he said it wasn't unusual for him to scrounge through rubbish bins for food and it's something he doesn't rule out, even now.
CARLOS HERNANDEZ: I'm not a proud guy. If I have to dig through the trash, I'll dig through the trash. If I have to pick cans, I'll pick cans. Whatever I have to do to make my family, eat, survive, that's what we do. That's what you do to help your family out.
MAN: Don't be taking pictures of us, man.
CARLOS HERNANDEZ: Shut up and move on.
REPORTER: Maybe Mr Trump will have some policies to bring things back and make the town a better place again?
CARLOS HERNANDEZ: Do I have faith that he will do the right thing? No. You know, they're gonna do whatever they're gonna do. They're not gonna consult me. I'm not gonna get a call in the middle of the night, "Hey, Carlos, what do you think about this?" They can care less, I think, once they get elected. I'm just a flea on a donkey's butt, you know? Meaningless.
I find Carlos' fatalism about his future unsettling, a proud grandfather, 28 years at the steel mill, and still no financial security after the end of this year. 90 minutes down the line from Lorain, another piece of America that was once great. In the 1940s, Youngstown Steel built America's huge war machine, but a third of Youngstown is now in poverty. Times are so tough there's even a Bruce Springsteen song about the place. Is this what Carlos' town will look like in 20 or 30 years?
Overlooking the old steel mills, in a bar that feels like a time capsule of Youngstown's glory days, I meet Tony, a local with a voice for the ages.
TONY: When the mills were working here, it was no worry and it was really no problems. Everybody made money, the stores, the mills, the bars - everybody had nice homes, at that time, and I have been here all my life. Now things are kind of like getting a little deteriorated. But that's the way life goes. So, when the mills left, it was kind of, like, killed Youngstown.
Despite enduring Youngstown's slow decline, Tony is one local not responding to Donald Trump's promises.
TONY: I like to see a woman in there, we’ve had Caucasian presidents all through history, we have had one black president. It didn’t work out bad, a lady president I don’t think it would work out bad either.
A rare voice for Hillary Clinton in a town that's been hurting for a long time. American Football was invented near Youngstown, a rough-and-tumble sport for a tough place, a place that takes pride in its tradition. Voting Democrat was one of those traditions. But for people who have seen glory days disappear, old loyalties are evaporating.
MAN: Yeah, I'm registered Democrat. My parents have been Democrat forever.
REPORTER: Yeah?
MAN: And, you know, but I'm gonna vote Republican. I'm voting for Trump. It's a guarantee. I can't vote for Hillary. I can't trust her. God.
The mood for Trump seems to have captured imaginations at the local Republican Party HQ.
MAN 2: Build that wall. Build that wall. Build that wall.
Mark Monroe is the chairman of the Mahoning County Republicans and he's a supportive leader.
MARK MONROE, MAHONING COUNTY REPUBLICANS: It is starting to look good, yes. I think there's hope.
REPORTER: So, people around here are excited about this idea that Mr Trump has about putting steel back into the centre of the American economy?
MARK MONROE: You know, locally, I know we've heard those commercials. I don't know that the folks around here expect that the steel mills are gonna come back. Maybe not here, but certainly in other parts of the country that may be true. What excites them about Donald Trump is the fact that they think that finally there's somebody who goes to Washington, who can actually bring about some fundamental change to the system.
With a 3-D-printed Donald Trump watching on, much of the creative energy here focuses on his opponent.
MARK MONROE: Often times, often times people think, "Well, what did we really think about Hillary?" Well, I think this sign sums it up very nicely.
REPORTER: Yeah. Do you think some of the attacks on Hillary, not necessarily these ones, but some of the attacks are more intense because she's a woman?
MARK MONROE: No. I don't think so. No.
REPORTER: In fact, all this talk about...
MARK MONROE: If anything, I think they might have - they might be a little bit softer than they might have been otherwise because she's a woman.
REPORTER: Right. What's the male equivalent of 'bitch'? 'Bastard', isn't it?
MARK MONROE: Uh, that's an Australian question. I don't know what the right answer is.
REPORTER: That's good. I was just thinking to myself, because I think it's interesting, because I've never heard a presidential candidate call another presidential candidate a bastard, whereas it seems to be okay to call Hillary a bitch.
MARK MONROE: Um... You know, I don't hear people calling Hillary a bitch. That's not...
REPORTER: Right. I just see it on stickers and T-shirts and...
MARK MONROE: Um, I don't see that. And I don't think that's the issue. I think there's just concern about her temperament. She seems to be maybe the most ethically challenged candidate who's run for president in my lifetime, certainly.
The distrust of Hillary Clinton is palpable in the Rust Belt and key to Donald Trump's survival in this campaign. Mr Trump sharpened that attack in the second presidential debate.
DONALD TRUMP: And you think it was fine to delete 33,000 emails? I don't think so.
HILLARY CLINTON: It's just awfully good that someone with the temperament of Donald Trump is not in charge of the law in our country.
DONALD TRUMP: Because you'd be in jail.
WOMAN: Secretary Clinton...
I've driven quite a lot around this country, but it's my first time in the Rust Belt and probably some of the hardest-hit towns economically that I've ever seen. Coincidentally or not, there's also more flags than I've ever seen anywhere, and it makes you wonder when times get hard, whether one digs in and holds on to the national pride almost as an act of defiance. There's something going on. Flag. Flag, flag.
It's as though this part of Middle America is collapsing into a hole. Old industry hasn't kept up globally. Jobs have vanished. People feel cheated. But why does this look like a hole Middle America can't dig itself out of? I've come to a small town just across the Ohio border. It's coalmine country here. Bobby Erjevik is showing me around his beloved home town of Waynesburg, Pennsylvania. Also a battle ground state.
REPORTER: So, what do you like about Waynesburg?
BOBBY ERJEVIK, FORMER TEACHER: Oh, it's everything a small town should be. Great people, very clean town. The schools here, we got plenty of stores, restaurants.
I admire Bobby's affection for Waynesburg, but it's also a place going through tough times. A few months ago, the coalmine right next to town closed down.
REPORTER: So, you'd rather not leave, even though the teaching job stuff is...?
BOBBY ERJEVIK: No. This is where I want to stay the rest of my life, in this town.
REPORTER: Does the economy make living here more difficult, though?
BOBBY ERJEVIK: I think for a lot of people, it will. You'll see, uh, people moving out of the area, houses for sale.
REPORTER: How does that make you feel?
BOBBY ERJEVIK: Sad. Sad. You never want to see people leave a town that I think is a great town.
REPORTER: That's a shame.
Bobby's story gives a clue to a deeper problem here, which could partly explain why this part of Middle America seems so stuck in a hole and it's to do with school funding. Today, Bobby works long hours in a road maintenance crew.
BOBBY ERJEVIK: That's the biggest thing that gets to me, is the heat.
But Bobby isn't shovelling asphalt by choice.
BOBBY ERJEVIK: I taught three years in a public school in Pennsylvania, and then the last week of school I was told I did not have a job the following year due to budget cuts.
REPORTER: How did that make you feel?
BOBBY ERJEVIK: I-I literally cried. I cried as I left the office. To have something taken away from you that you worked for, you go to school for and you have a passion for, to just be taken away without you even knowing it's gonna happen, it just crushed me.
Bobby lost his teaching job after major cuts to school funding in Pennsylvania. Incredibly, these funding cuts are because of coalmine closures. Missy Wilson has been living and breathing the issue as the head of the local teachers' union.
MISSY WILSON, CENTRAL GREENE TEACHERS UNION: So, the state of education in Pennsylvania is in a crisis right now. From 2011 to 2016, we've lost 20,000 teachers in five years and so we are most definitely in crisis mode.
REPORTER: It's a heck of a number.
MISSY WILSON: Mm-hm. And the way it is in Pennsylvania, every business has - they pay their school taxes, their property taxes, and that goes into our, you know, what the school can - what the district can pay, its teachers can pay for resources, you know, student supplies and so when businesses shut down or go bankrupt, they can't pay their property taxes or their school taxes and therefore that leaves the district short of what they can pay, you know, in their budget.
REPORTER: And it's a spiral, isn't it? because the funding of the education to get people out of the generational coal structure is dependent on the coalmines going out of business?
MISSY WILSON: Right! Exactly! It's a double-edged sword, a vicious cycle.
Things are so delicately balanced here, something fundamental like education relies on the success of the insecure local industry like coal. And so that decay keeps spreading and the Rust Belt digs in. No wonder people cling to big promises.
BOBBY ERJEVIK: I think we - the area and people here want somebody in there that is gonna push for education and not be afraid to use money for education, and as well this area, I mean, not closing down coal mines...
REPORTER: And there's a feeling that some of Mr Trump's policies would be the way forward?
BOBBY ERJEVIK: I really feel that way. I do. And I don't think I'm the only one in this area. I think there's a lot in this area that feel like that.
Clearly the Rust Belt is a proud place. Every street reveals feted glories. But hope is slow to move on. Here, at the annual King of Coal Parade, everyone I speak to favours Candidate Trump and whilst teenage parade queens still sit atop beds of coal, their parents and their communities seek change. Perhaps their rusted American dreams will decide the next leader of the Free World.
Reporter
Dean Cornish
Story Producer
Ronan Sharkey
Camera
Dean Cornish & Ronan Sharkey
Story Editor
David Potts
Aerial Footage
Tim Robertson
Thanks to
Brian Sealy & Fritz Fekete