Considering the Trump HQ for south-east Pennsylvania sits smack bang in the middle of purple territory in Conshohocken, in the outer suburbs of Philadelphia, any visitor would expect a flurry of activity so close to the election. But on Thursday morning, I find it locked at 9.10am. Only Daniel Mills, an 18-year old from nearby Bala Cynwyd, is hanging outside.

Mills delayed attending community college in order to volunteer for Trump’s campaign. He treats it like a full-time job, although his parents tell him he’ll need a paid gig after the election.



Campaign office staff begin turning up soon after, and we head inside. Handmade signs litter the office walls. “We want an indictment.” “We can stop her.” “Deplorable votes matter.”

Just near the front desk is a Hillary Clinton-themed Halloween decoration, a wooden basket emblazoned with the words “True basket of deplorables”, with a Clinton mask lying in it. Plastic rats, snakes and spiders spill out, along with notecards, written in black and underlined in red pen. “Pneumonia? Dehydration?” reads one. “Benghazi,” says another. “Pantsuits!” has the most underlines of all.



In the last days leading up to 8 November, Trump is desperately hoping to win over many middle-class women in the outer Philadelphia suburbs. And here, most of the half-dozen staffers are women who have been working together on Republican campaigns for years. Not that they enjoy being reminded of that fact: “I hate when anyone refers to me as being a woman,” said one, rolling her eyes at “identity politics” after I noted the office is female-dominated.

The hot topic of the day is a Fox News report stating that Clinton was “likely” to be indicted due to an FBI inquiry into the Clinton Foundation (the Fox News host backtracked on his comments later, calling them a “mistake” on Friday).

Around half a dozen volunteers turn up to go door-knocking most days, although I’m told that number can jump up to 50 on weekends. “There’s less infrastructure than I expected,” says Ernie Pozzi, a former public school teacher and new volunteer who had started the day before. It’s Pozzi’s first time working on a presidential campaign. He responded to a volunteer callout on Twitter and drove up from his home in Washington DC, planning to stay at a nearby hotel until election day.

“Donald Trump is not my first choice,” says Pozzi as he steers his Buick through the suburban streets. A registered Democrat (he voted for Obama twice) and former Bernie Sanders fan, he’s now an active member of the alt-right. But rather than the Twitter troll stereotype, he’s friendly and open, immediately willing to let me tag along with him and regularly cracking jokes.

Ernie Pozzi: ‘We have owners.’ Photograph: Amber Jamieson

Pozzi believes the entire system of government is corrupt, and this election has radicalized him. “That’s why I’m here. We have owners,” he says. Pozzi believes certain billionaires – such as the Rothschild family and George Soros – are the “owners” of society and chose Obama as a candidate because he was black and therefore guaranteed to lose, ensuring Clinton would become president. He thinks a similar thing happened in this election: the owners chose Trump as a candidate, assuming he had no chance of winning against Clinton.

I head out with him and Mills to “survey” voters in nearby East Norriton, a predominately white middle-class neighborhood. They take to the streets armed with two questions: “Can Donald Trump, Senator Pat Toomey and the rest of the Republican ticket count on your vote this election?” and if the reply is yes, “What time of the day are you planning to vote?” (Campaign staff can then follow up throughout the day with voters who haven’t cast their ballots.)

At the first few houses we try, no one is home – although every home seems to have a vicious guard dog inside barking at us. Mills, wearing a “Proud to be a Trump deplorable” T-shirt, leaves pamphlets hanging from their door handles.

If they took to the streets, I’d go and and fight with them. We did it once Martin Dowell

Real estate websites show dozens of homes in the neighborhood in pre-foreclosure, although average incomes are higher than the rest of the state. Most houses are decorated with pumpkins, scarecrows and leftover Halloween cobwebs. Redundant exercise bikes and strollers sit on balconies. Lawns are tidy.

Finally, someone answers our knocking. A woman in her early 40s opens the door. Is she backing Trump? “Probably not. I don’t like him”.

The list of voters we’re working from comes from an app that doesn’t always show the homes in logical geographical order. Even though it’s just days before the election, our list includes people who range from “hard Democrat” to “hard Republican” (with “weak Democrat”, “swing voter” and “weak Republican” the other available categories).

After we knock on a dozen doors, jumping in and out of the car continuously, we finally find a Trump backer. A man says he’ll head to the polls early on Tuesday morning and asks if we have a Trump sign for his yard. After the voter closes his front door, Mills notes the app says that “Mary”, a “hard Democrat”, lives there. Moments later, a woman down the street tells us: “Sorry, I’m voting the other way. I’m a Republican, but I’m going that way.”

The anti-Trump Republican appears just as often as the pro-Trump Democrat.

“He’s a scumbag, almost as bad as Hillary. I’ll never vote for Trump. I’ll vote for Toomey but Trump’s not a real Republican,” a preppy guy in his 30s tells us. His point of contention? That Trump is “pro-abortion”, or at least was pro-choice in the 1990s.

A Donald Trump yard sign in Abbottstown, Pennsylvania. Photograph: Mark Makela/Getty Images

Shortly afterwards, we come across Martin Dowdell, 72, a salesman who lives in Plymouth Meeting and despises Clinton. He calls the system of government “broken”, saying he believes the Department of Justice, Obama and the White House “control everything” and that Clinton should be indicted for illegally taking money.

“I’d like to put them all in jail,” he says.



Dowdell says older people are backing Trump because, like him, they fear for the future of their grandchildren. “There are too many Muslims in the government,” he added, noting that he was worried about the introduction of Sharia law. He canceled a trip to Italy and Greece with his wife because of fears over Isis. And if Clinton wins next Tuesday? “If they took to the streets, I’d go and fight with them. We did it once,” replies Dowdell.

He may not know enough about the politics, but he’ll improve Yvonne Cipperly

As we get back in the car, Pozzi is fired up by the conversation with Dowdell.

“I really feel none of this is accidental – this is an intentional imploding of western civilization,” he says, adding that Edward Snowden and Julian Assange should win Nobel prizes for their work leaking the inner workings of the US government.

“It’s almost like a French revolution at this stage. People everywhere are waking up. We’ve lost freedom of speech through political correctness. All of a sudden you’re scared and you can’t say what’s on your mind,” he adds.

We stop for hoagies for lunch, and then continue door-knocking, driving around and around the same 10 streets. A middle-aged woman in front of a large home tells us she’s with “Trump all the way”. “I just don’t put the signs out cause I don’t know how other people are voting,” she says.

Yvonne Cipperly, 64, says that she’ll back Trump but doesn’t know how she’ll vote down ballot, because she’s always been a Democrat. “It’s a hard election,” replies Pozzi, his line to help coax people to discuss their politics.

Cipperly, who is retired from her career in banking, calls Trump “the lesser of two evils”. “He may not know enough about the politics, but he’ll improve,” she says, noting she believes Clinton will be impeached if she becomes president.

We speak about Trump’s actions towards women and the Billy Bush video. “He didn’t kill anyone,” she shrugs. “I’ve been keeping up with the fact-checking lately and she can’t tell the truth. Why did she have a teleprompter during the debate? She gave herself away, always looking down,” says Cipperly, explaining she gets all her news from Facebook.

“If she gets in and isn’t prosecuted, I can almost guarantee she will be assassinated,” adds Cipperly.



In seven hours of door-knocking, 14 people confirm they are voting Trump. At least eight say they are not, and at least three are undecided. Dozens and dozens were not home.

Pozzi, who takes the Trump stickers off his car out of fear of repercussions, calls next Tuesday’s election the USA’s “Waterloo”.

“I’m more concerned about what will happen if Trump wins. What will Hillary’s owners do?”