Texan cowboys await coronation of Trump on Super Tuesday
Nowhere in the United States is celebrating the unstoppable resurgence of Donald Trump more loudly than Texas and at the Houston Rodeo | WATCH
Nowhere in the United States is celebrating the unstoppable resurgence of Donald Trump more loudly than Texas, and at the Houston Rodeo, big-hatted Texans say he is all but certain to win a second term in the White House.
“He’s gonna win by a landslide,” says father of four Stacey Touchet as he takes his daughter Lydia to a rodeo pageant. “Our economy was the best ever under Trump and now it’s all screwed up. The Mexican border needs to close and everything is falling apart. We need Trump back to get this country straightened out.”
Trump’s quest for a second term in office will take its biggest leap on Tuesday when Texas joins 14 other states to effectively anoint Trump as the Republican Party’s presidential nominee, capping off one of the most astonishing political comebacks in US history.
If the polls are right, Trump is expected to sweep all 15 states in the Super Tuesday Republican primaries, making it all but impossible for his last opponent, Nikki Haley, to win.
It comes as new polls show Trump surging to a 48 per cent to 43 per cent lead over Joe Biden in the presidential race, sparking panic in Democrat ranks, with Biden’s disapproval rating soaring to 47 per cent, the highest of his presidency.
Texas is Trump country and from the tumbleweed desert towns in the north to Trump’s border wall in the south, you will find a fervent belief that he can go all the way and defeat Biden in November’s presidential election.
Ask a Texan if Trump’s 91 felony charges are a problem? Hogwash, they say because they are trumped-up charges invented by Democrat prosecutors. What about Trump’s outlandish comments on just about everything? Nope, he’s the only one telling it like it is, they huff.
At the Houston rodeo on the eve of the polls, it was all but impossible to find a supporter of Biden or the Democrats.
“Trump is the one for me,” says cattle rancher Randall Perrin. “He has proven before that he can do what he promises to do, and that’s good enough for me.
“He’s assertive, he doesn’t like to take no for an answer and he sticks to the people. Those felony charges against him are horrible, it’s shameful that they would do that to him for political reasons.”
He believes Trump could defeat Biden in November but doesn’t believe that the election will be fair.
“The Democrats will manufacture as many votes as they need to win and we (will) let them, shame on us,” he says.
Small business owner Grant Qualls says he will vote for Trump against Biden because his life was easier under Trump.
“Trump supports small business guys like me, he protects us and he understands us,” he says. “We’ve gone from being great to being a country going downhill with all the border problems and the economy.
“I like that Trump wants the US to stand on its own feet, without help from other countries.”
Many of those interviewed by The Australian cited the surge of illegal migrants across the nearby Mexican border as their biggest gripe against Biden.
Texas-born private investigator Derrel Sims says his friends will all vote for Trump mostly because of the out-of-control situation at the border.
“You’ve got more than 10 million people in the United States and nobody has a clue who they are,” he says. “How do you want 10 million people in Australia tomorrow and you can’t find out who they are and you have to pay taxes on all the food they eat, everything they do? Ask any illegal alien who invited them in and they will say ‘Biden’.”
But for air-conditioner mechanic James Kelley, it’s all about the economy.
“Trump did a great job as president with our economy and he was much better for my business,” he says.
“Under Biden inflation has been crazy. A tub of ice cream has gone from $US3.50 to $US8.50 and you can’t get out of the supermarket without spending $US140. I have stopped eating meat because it’s so expensive,” he says.
Non-profit worker Angela Fessler says she will vote for Trump because she wants a strong president.
“Trump will kick butt like he did the first time. What he says he is going to do, he gets done. He is a no nonsense president and I prefer a strong decision-maker to someone like Biden who just goes with the flow.
“I have conservative values, the church and things that move families forward. I am pro jobs, pro life and pro the wall. That’s why I am pro Trump.”
At the rodeo, The Australian found only a handful of supporters of Trump’s last remaining opponent, Haley, a former South Carolina governor. But none believed that she would win the Republican nomination after losing in every primary contest so far.
“I prefer Haley,” says digital equipment salesman Casey Schulin as he strolls through the rodeo grounds with his wife Melanie and children Casen and Ellie.
“I just think Nikki Haley would be a better look for the United States. Trump has great policies but most people don’t like him as a person.”
Schulin says he voted for Trump in 2016 and 2020 and, despite his reservations, he will still vote for Trump in any contest with Biden.
Retired schoolteacher Robert Robertson also says he prefers Haley, describing her as experienced and sensible. “I’m tired of Trump, I think he’s crazy and, like Biden, he is too old. But I think on Super Tuesday Haley is going to get trounced, so Trump will be the nominee yet again.”
Healthcare worker Sharon Normand cradles a margarita under a longhorn skull at The Ranch bar at the rodeo and says she will vote for Trump because she no longer trusts the US government and its institutions.
“With Trump I know what I can count on,” she says. “He doesn’t trust the government either so I would prefer that he be the president. And all those charges against him don’t worry me because to me they are just grey areas and when you are as successful as Trump you will always step into grey areas.
“But for me, the best thing about Trump is that he’s not going to take shit from anyone.”
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