While here at home we have to stay up all night if we want to closely follow the US presidential election, the clock has not yet struck midnight in Washington DC. At the Norwegian embassy, ​​Norwegians from business, politics and the media have gathered to follow the election campaign.
One of them is Julie Melfald Berg, who is a speech writer in the Ministry of Education and Culture. But in recent weeks, she has been working as a grassroots volunteer for the Harris campaign.
– Do you think that Kamala Harris will become America’s first female president?
– I got chills when you said that. I hope so. I’m an optimistic person, but I don’t have the best feeling. I don’t know if it’s nerves or the gut feeling, she says.
Hans Høegh, former chief of staff for Republican Thomas Massie, who has won re-election to Congress in the state of Kentucky for the seventh time. Høegh does not have any gut feelings “at this stage”.
– What I can say is that of these seven swing states, there are 20 combinations that lead to a Harris victory, and there are 21 combinations that lead to a Trump victory. But 71 percent of Trump’s combinations go through Pennsylvania, so if he doesn’t win Pennsylvania, then he’s out of the running.
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The final sum
Berg went around knocking on doors in Milwaukee, Wisconsin and Pennsylvania. Along with Michigan, these three states are said to be crucial to Harris’ path to victory. Berg says that she met many different people, but also many negative feelings behind the doors.
– A lot of frustration, anxiety, nervousness and anger. There is certainly someone slamming the doors in your face. But there are also many on both sides who need to vent. I have had many good long conversations with voters who explain why they choose to vote the way they do, she tells Dagsavisen.
Berg has a clear answer to the biggest topic for voters.
– It is the economy. Macroeconomically, the USA is doing well, but when people go to the store to buy the food they usually buy, the final sum on the bill is much higher than it has been in the past. It is difficult for many to make ends meet.
Food prices in the Philadelphia area rose significantly from 2021 to 2022, by almost 14%. In 2023, prices continued to rise rapidly, and Pennsylvania had the highest grocery inflation in the United States.
– People feel it on their bodies. You vote according to what you feel, not according to what you are told you should feel.
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Obscured politics
Høegh, who has previously reported on deep corruption in American politics, isn’t really that dismayed about who runs away with the win.
– After what I have experienced on the inside in Congress, I am not too horrified by the outcome of this presidential election. It will have far less to say than what we fear, he says.
– What do the Republicans you know think about the state of democracy in the USA?
– They feel that there is something wrong. That’s why they elected Trump to begin with. They felt that they sent their representatives to Washington, and that they had made election promises, and six months later they did not recognize the person. They don’t know what’s going on in this city, because it goes dark, and I also experienced that on the inside. That gave Trump fertile ground, because they just wanted a guy who was willing to kick all the “trash people”.
Trump has promised to carry out a large-scale deportation of millions of people without legal immigrant status in the United States, if he wins another term as president.
– I don’t think it’s feasible. He probably means it on a certain level, but in practice I don’t think it will happen that way.
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