How Military Vets Affected the U.S. Presidential Election Results
Many people call the victory of Donald Trump surprising, although he had many supporters in various states. For instance, very many veterans supported him across the country and this may have contributed a lot at tilting the balance in Trump’s favor. The image of veterans holding Trump’s supportive banners during his speeches was not a rare one, occurring in a large number of states. This is why it is believed that the votes of the military veterans may have helped Donald Trump win the run for presidency.
In the states where military traditions are rich and which have counties where a large number of veterans live in present, Donald Trump was considered the best choice by far, in comparison with Hillary Clinton. In fact, if we look at the presidency run when Obama tried to reach the White House, the Republican that was his competitor did not manage to earn as many votes as Trump did in the same states. The states we are talking about are Florida, North Carolina, and Ohio. It appears that Trump had something that the veterans liked, so the military communities mobilized and came together in electing their president.
It is not a secret that veterans usually prefer Republican candidates, but this year, they went in this direction even more. Having in mind that Trump was not too diplomatic when he spoke about Senator John McCain, telling everyone that he is not a war hero, making controversial remarks about veterans, mocking the US generals, and even attacking the parents of a military captain that died in Iraq, the support of the veterans was rather surprising. Many of them states that they voted for Trump because, in spite of all the controversies stirred by Trump, he was the better option than Hillary Clinton. The surprised came from jurisdictions that once voted for Obama, not only once but twice, and now changed the scenario completely, going for Trump. This is what happened in the Montgomery County, in Ohio. Here, Obama won in 2008 and in 2012 as well, defeating the Republican competitors each time.
The more conservative counties that voted for the Republicans in the past elections were even more conservative this year, raising the percentage in the favor of the Republicans like never before. In the Walton County, in Florida, McCain won 72.1% of the votes in the detriment of Obama. Trump, on the other hand, managed to win 76.6% of the votes in the same county. This is only an example of the many that happened during this year’s elections, as veterans and military family came together to defeat Hillary Clinton by choosing Donald Trump. It was not the ideal choice for them, as Trump does not have any experience or knowledge in the military field, but, at least, he was a better choice in their vision than allowing Hillary to become president. So, we can say that the veterans and military families in conservative countries were more afraid of having another Clinton as a president than actually being fans of Donald Trump.
