BERWICK — Silverware is clattering and fresh coffee is brewing as Emily Sherwood and Linda Davis share a table at Mainely Local Yolks.

The two friends don’t usually talk politics. Sherwood is a Republican and an enthusiastic supporter of Donald Trump for president. Davis said she doesn’t really identify with either party, but she knows one thing for sure: “I do not like Donald Trump,” she said emphatically.

The divide isn’t just at the diner in this town of around 8,000 people in York County. In 2020, Trump won Berwick 51% to Joe Biden’s 45%. However, two years later, Democrat Gov. Janet Mills received five more votes than Republican Paul LePage, carrying the town by less than one percentage point.

Like other places in Maine and around the country, residents here list the economy, cost of living and taxes as among their biggest concerns. Polling has shown Kamala Harris with a big lead in Maine, and especially in the 1st Congressional District, which includes Berwick.

But most Democratic support in the last two presidential elections has been in coastal regions and urban centers. In 2020, Biden made inroads in parts of Maine that had supported Trump in 2016, flipping some coastal towns as well as communities along the New Hampshire border.

Will Harris maintain or build on that support? Or will Trump retain his lead in Berwick and other towns he won in 2020?

Mainers are known for being independent thinkers, and that’s certainly true in Berwick. Democrats and Republicans each account for 29% of the town’s registered voters, while unenrolled voters make up about 39% of registered voters. Statewide, about 29% of registered voters are unenrolled.

At Badwolfe Butcher and Deli, owner Alison Herlihy hears from customers all across the political spectrum. “(Opinions) do kind of run the gamut,” Herlihy said as she placed a few items on a table stocked with fresh vegetables, gourds and pastries.

“We’re a very purple area, as I’m sure you know. It’s like 50/50. We have the same conversations with people every day and I wish people understood how much they have in common.”

Many people have concerns about taxes going up and about the high cost of living, Herlihy said.

“I hear a lot about people wanting good health care and wanting to be healthy and not working a million hours and having two parents working all the time,” she said.

The 32-year-old said that as a small business owner, she shares her worries about high taxes. “I’m really done with constant wars and being involved in things we (as a country) shouldn’t be,” she said. “I want to see money going back to small towns.”

A Democrat, she plans to vote for Harris and said she’s excited about the prospect of Harris possibly being the first woman to serve as president, although there are some things she would like to see that Harris hasn’t taken on, like universal health care.

“She has the presidential demeanor, the knowledge and the experience,” Herlihy said. “I would like to see somebody more progressive, but for the time being she’s my choice.”

Donn Gannarelli sees it very differently.

“I just think we need Republican leadership because we’re dying out here,” said the 65-year-old, a retired veteran who lives in Berwick and is registered as a Republican.

He said his taxes have gone up from around $1,400 per year when he first moved to town in 2011, to more than $5,800 now.

“That will hurt anybody,” Gannarelli said.

Gannarelli was disappointed by the Jan. 6, 2021 attack on the U.S. Capitol by Trump supporters who wanted to disrupt the certification of Joe Biden’s victory.

“What happened on the 6^th, at the Capitol – inexcusable,” Gannarelli said. “It’s embarrassing to this nation. It’s terrible. Every country watches everything we do, and that was a total embarrassment.”

Gannarelli said he knows some Republicans have soured on Trump – his wife doesn’t plan to vote at all this year, he said.

Despite his own reservations, Gannarelli plans to vote for Trump because it’s really the personnel in an administration that have the greatest impact, and not the president, he said.

“He doesn’t really talk about the issues,” Gannarelli said of Trump. “I don’t feel sometimes that he cares about anybody but himself. I watched one of his rallies in Pennsylvania and he basically said nothing. That’s not good. But again, our president doesn’t really make all the decisions like people think they do.”

Jan. 6 also resonated with Kim Taylor, who lives in nearby Lebanon. Also a Republican, Taylor said she didn’t vote in 2020 but was motivated to do so this year following the attack on the capitol. She’s voting for Harris.

“We have to stay true to our Constitution and include everybody or we won’t get anything done,” said Taylor, 56.

But Taylor also worries about taxes and the cost of living. She’s retired from a job in human resources and her husband is a retired police officer. They live on a fixed income, and Taylor said she is frustrated by both political parties.

“It’s the constant pendulum swing between Democrats and Republicans that makes it so we get nothing done, and that’s frustrating to me as a voter,” she said.

Back at Mainely Local Yolks, Sherwood said she likes Trump’s policies – on immigration, on taxes and on foreign affairs. The economy is also a factor for her.

“I like how my husband and I were financially four years ago, even through COVID,” she said.

And, while Davis is quick to say she doesn’t like the former president, she plans to vote for Trump anyway, “under duress.”

“I just think he’s an embarrassment when he gets up and talks,” said Davis, 77. “He needs to take a class on how to behave.”

She said she won’t vote for Harris because she doesn’t think she has enough experience and feels like she was thrust into becoming the Democratic nominee.

“Trump has already been president, and he’s a businessman,” Davis said. “He’s a bully and he’s rude and obnoxious, but he gets the job done.”

In the meantime, the two women both said they don’t usually talk politics with their friends and family. There are too many differing opinions and people are too judgmental.

“My two sisters can’t believe I came from the same family because they vote Democrat, and they just tear me apart,” Sherwood said. “We don’t talk politics.”

Julie Hatch sits at a nearby table with a friend, and politics is a forbidden topic of conversation.

Hatch is an independent who plans to vote for Harris. Trump is “unfit” to run the country, Hatch said, and she thinks women should have the right to make up their own minds about abortion – “It’s your business and not anybody else’s” – while Trump supports the rights of states to impose restrictions.

Her friend, on the other hand, is a Trump supporter.

“We’re good friends and I always say to her, ‘Don’t go there,’ ” said Hatch, 70, a retired nurse from Rochester, New Hampshire. “You don’t talk politics. We’re friends and neither of us are going to run the White House. So we don’t go there.”

Brent Williams says his opposition to abortion is one reason he is supporting Trump.

“I’m a Christian,” said Williams, a 65-year-old driving instructor who was getting his haircut at Ray’s Barber Shop. “I think we should be putting money towards adoption rather than abortion.”

Williams said he also likes Trump’s policies on the economy and immigration, which are the two most important issues for him. But he doesn’t know how many neighbors feel the same.

“I think it’s pretty mixed,” Williams said. “I see Harris signs and I also see Trump signs.”

James Hare, a Harris supporter, said he doesn’t have a good sense of how the election might go, but he has seen more Harris signs popping up lately. Hare, a Democrat, believes Harris could take a stronger stand against the war in Gaza, though he still supports her.

And he dreads the possibility of a Trump presidency. “I’m worried he is going to assert a lot more dominance and he is going to actively thwart democracy,” said Hare, 36.

Like many of his neighbors, Hare has a lot of conflicting emotions and anxiety about the election. “It feels like the stakes are a lot higher than they were in previous years,” he said.

BERWICK AT A GLANCE:

County: York
Population: 8,266
2016 presidential election results: Trump (R) 52% to Clinton (D) 38%
2020 presidential election results: Trump (R) 51% to Biden (D) 45%
2022 gubernatorial election results: Mills (D) 48.9% to LePage (R) 48.77% (difference of 5 votes)
Registered voters: 5,347
Breakdown of voters: 1,542 Democrats (29%), 1,572 Republicans (29%) and 2,092 unenrolled (39%)
Facts: Shares a border with Somersworth, New Hampshire. Home of former Prime Tanning tannery, which closed in 2008.

Copy the Story Link