Why did Trump win Fall River? The open border, economy and Ukraine among top concerns

For the first time in modern election history, the city of Fall River, Massachusetts voted in the majority for a Republican Presidential candidate, with Donald J. Trump getting 51% of the vote. To get a better understanding of what voters were thinking, I hit the streets and interviewed shoppers at city grocery stores, asking why they thought Trump prevailed in their city.

“We have to turn this around. This economy is killing us” said a Fall River resident who wished to remain anonymous. “Something has to give. The last four years were terrible. We need a change.”

Wearing a Make America Great Again hat, another shopper stopped to share his perspective.

“They lied on the last election and that’s why we won this one. 20 million missing votes? Come on. How did Biden even really win? He got 80 million votes and everyone else got 50 to 60 million. Elon Musk bought Twitter and now that can’t hide sh*t. I bought this hat two weeks ago. I voted for Obama. I said enough is enough.”

As he walked away, he yelled in the parking lot “Donald Trump is going to save the country. Make America great again! Make America healthy again,” as he held up his bag of groceries.

When speaking with an elderly man who was waiting for his ride, the subject of open borders came up quickly.

“Stop those foreigners from coming in,” he told me. “They’re letting them come in and Trump said that’s not gonna happen. That’s very important to me.”

A woman who was worried about being on camera also said that the local migrant issue played a role in her voting for Trump for the first time.

“The migrants get everything for free. They get free rent, and free food. It’s not fair. I’m about to go in here and spend a lot of money. Give me free food.”

Another Trump voter said the war in Ukraine helped him decide. “We don’t need it,” although he thinks change will come in time. “Excited? I don’t know about excited. I’m going to wait. It usually takes a little bit to find out.”

A retired female voter told me that she voted for Harris because she was concerned about women’s rights. When I asked her which rights she was most concerned with, she explained that if her granddaughter were raped, she should not be forced to carry a baby if she became pregnant and that Trump would take away that freedom.

Another pro-Harris supporter told me that “Trump is a thief, crook and the worst thing that ever happened to us.”

One of the last people I spoke with was embarrassed to tell me that he did not vote because he was not a registered voter. “John” told me that he wants to vote, but does not know how to register. If he could have voted, he said there were things about each candidate that he liked and didn’t like.

“I guess we have to pick one or the other.”