By Jess Sharp, live news reporter in Allentown, Pennsylvania
As thousands packed themselves inside Muhlenberg College Memorial Hall to hear Kamala Harris speak, a group of Trump supporters gathered outside.
Holding signs and decked out in Donald Trump merch, the college students shouted the former president’s name.
“I wanted to come out and support Trump, our future president. Nothing hostile. We just wanted to have a peaceful showing of our support,” 20-year-old Payton said.
He was joined by Robert, Sean, Nick, Stoney and Vin – all of them students and football players.
Robert told me he would rather not say why he supported the former president, while Sean said he strongly believed in the 78-year-old’s economic plans.
As they were speaking to me, two women and a man walked behind them.
“Smart kids, go Trump,” they yell.
Nick said life in the US was better under Mr Trump, and his foreign policy plans will “put America first”.
“Prices of milk, eggs, gasoline are just way high. Things need to change,” he said
He thought Ms Harris was a “more polarising figure” and the country would be “more divided” under her leadership.
“If Kamala really was the right president, she would have done what she says she is doing in the past five years,” Vin added.
This is the first election these young men have been allowed to vote in.
Speaking about Ms Harris, Payton said: “She is definitely not my president and I’ll leave it at that, she’s not the type of person I would want as president.”
He said voters have been influenced by social media and they need to “look at the facts”.
Sean agreed: “The current state of the media is so divided and there is so much mudslinging going on from both the aisles. I think that it’s more important to look at what he’s done for the country,” he said.
“Whatever it takes for him to get us back to where we were, that’s what I support.”
