"Several years ago, this whole region was democratic. And besides I too, I voted democratic", recognizes Junior Kolterman in front of the panels in the glory of Donald Trump installed in his garden for the presidential election of November 3 .

"But if they continue with all of their radical environmental programs, they're going to take our jobs here."

Junior Kolterman is a minor in northern Minnesota.

Like many of his colleagues, he was seduced in 2016 by Donald Trump.

"He is behind the working class, even if he is a millionaire", assures the machine operator.

Defects like that of Junior Kolterman, the miners union USW sees more and more.

"They believe in his promises to revive the mining industry," said John Arbogast, union boss.

"But Donald Trump has done nothing for us in three and a half years."

Miner Junior Kolterman stands outside his home in Iron Range, Minnesota on October 5, 2020 © Jessica Le Masurier

Empty streets, abandoned shops ... Eveleth, at the crossroads of all the mines in the region, is a dead town.

The sites have been closing one after the other since the 1980s, mainly because of international competition.

The workers find themselves unemployed in a region where the prospects for retraining are very slim.

"It's one of the last jobs we have here, so what will become of us? We can't work in tourism for example, and raise a family of four while being paid 8 dollars a l It's hard when you have little ones and you have to find a way to feed them, clothe them, send them to college, while the mine is closed. "

In 2016, many Minnesota voters fell for Donald Trump.

The state remained Democratic, but with only 45,000 votes, thanks in particular to its capital, Minneapolis. 

The influence of the movement against police violence

Four years later, Joe Biden cannot win without the vote of the black population, which is far from being won.

This urban and democratic electorate had not moved in 2016. Things could change this time, especially thanks to the civil rights movement that followed the death of George Floyd at the hands of the police, last May in Minneapolis.

At the crossroads where he died, Rozenia Fuller comes almost every day to meditate.

She prays, she distributes leaflets to encourage her community to go and vote.

"We are fighting for our lives even in this election. We have a president who promotes white supremacy. And so our voice matters more than ever. Now is not the time to give up," said this pastor with passion. Baptist.

>> Read also: As the presidential election approaches, young Americans are giving voice

Wisconsin, a neighboring state of Minnesota, switched to the Republican side in 2016, with only 23,000 more votes for Donald Trump.

The outgoing president intends to preserve this rural state, mainly composed of forests and farms. 

Wisconsin, often referred to as "America's dairy," has the largest number of dairy farms in the United States.

But he holds another record, that of the number of family farms that have gone bankrupt.

This is the case of Lynn Hicks and her husband Nick, at the head of a family farm of 75 animals.

At the origin of their difficulties: the customs war with Beijing led by the Trump administration.

Exports to China fell and caused overproduction, and the price of milk was halved.

Yet Nick Hicks still supports the outgoing president.

According to him, Donald Trump was right to be firm with Beijing.

"In the long run, if he's there for another term, we're going to find that what he started doing was a good thing."

Republicans against Trump

In the United States, the vast majority of farmers traditionally vote for the Republican Party.

This is not the case with the Rosenholm, also settled in Wisconsin.

Unlike the Hicks, they are the head of a very large farm of over 700 heads, and are very angry with the president for his customs war which cost them $ 400,000.

Since then, the Rosenholm have received aid from the federal state: "It's quite funny because the Republicans keep saying that they are against socialism, against communism, that they don't want the government intervene, but every time there is a Republican president, we get help, we get money. "

Farmer John Rosenholm on his farm in Cochrane, Wisconsin October 7, 2020 © Jessica Le Masurier, France 24

A few miles from the Rosenholm's, on the Mississippi shore, Lori McCammon sighs.

At 65, this grandmother still blames herself for slipping a Trump ballot into the ballot box in 2016. She was living in Southern California at the time and was afraid of illegal immigration from Latin America.

But very quickly, Lori McCammon was disillusioned with the president's zero tolerance policy and the separation of families at the border: "When I saw the children, locked in cages, some of whom were still breastfeeding ... It 's is beyond cruelty ", she indignantly.

Lori has since joined a movement that emerged at the start of the presidential campaign: Republicans against Donald Trump, which brings together voters disillusioned by the president's policies and who prefer to support Joe Biden.

Lori McCammon tries to convince those around him who are still undecided, like his friend Frank Zacher.

But this retiree from the restaurant, Republican at heart, is tired of the constant solicitation: "I have a 39-year-old daughter who told me that if I vote for Trump, she won't speak to me again for the rest of my life . Elections shouldn't be like that. Adults should be able to vote for whomever they want and the day after the election, we should find out who won and join forces to make it work, to make things better " .

For Lori, Donald Trump is responsible for this situation: "He created the divided United States of America".

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