Tar Heel family explains why they support Trump

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  • Editor’s Note:

    In our report Tuesday night on a North Carolina family that's supporting Donald Trump, we were continuing a long NewsHour tradition of talking directly to voters.

    We want to hear from them, in their own voices, speaking about what motivates their political preferences.

    Regrettably, none of us at the NewsHour recognized the questions that could arise from Grace Tilly's tattoos, and we didn't raise them with her until after the report aired. At that point, our producer contacted Ms. Tilly and she insisted the tattoos are religious in nature and have nothing to do with a neo-Nazi theme or white supremacy.

    We referenced her comments in an editor's note, posted on our website.

    Many of our online commenters have since let us know they reject that explanation. We're now posting this note as a follow up.

    We at the NewsHour remain committed to being as transparent as possible in covering this election.

    We talked to one family with differing politics spanning three generations to hear why they're going all in for Trump.

  • GRACE TILLY:

    This is my first time voting. Being 33, that's kind of crazy, but it says a lot.

  • FARRON TILLY:

    I'm actually a registered Democrat, but I'm voting for Trump this time.

  • PETE TILLY:

    This is my first time I have ever worked on political campaign. My family members are joining me, my son, my daughter-in-law, and my grandchild. It's been such an awesome experience.

    And, father God, we just thank you that you're going to use Donald Trump for your glory in your kingdom, oh, father God.

  • MAN:

    Amen.

  • PETE TILLY:

    My biggest point is, if you want to be here, conform to the country. If you don't want to be here, go home. I was born in Montreal, Canada. And when I started school, for us, we were told, look, you either speak English or you're not going to pass your class.

    And in today's society, it's like we cater to the people, whatever language they speak. I came in the States, I joined the military, and then I even went and got naturalized, and I'm very proud to say I'm an American citizen.

  • GRACE TILLY:

    Hello. My name is Grace. And I'm a volunteer for Donald Trump's presidential campaign here in North Carolina.

    Fayetteville is a very big military town with Fort Bragg being right there. My father-in-law and my husband are both veterans, and the whole idea of the care of the veterans being subpar is very true. My whole family is supporting Trump, down to my 11-year-old.

  • BOY:

    No other candidate stands up for Americans like Donald Trump.

  • GRACE TILLY:

    It was both our idea for him to stay home from school today, so that he can see democracy in action.

    DONALD TRUMP (R), Republican Presidential Candidate: Do we love North Carolina? Do we love it?

    (CHEERING AND APPLAUSE)

  • DONALD TRUMP:

    Beautiful. Beautiful.

  • GRACE TILLY:

    I definitely think, with Trump's business savvy, his mind, I think that he's going to be the best one that's going to be able to help us.

    Our family has been impacted in a very big way by the recession. We definitely at times are living paycheck to paycheck. And my husband is having hard time finding work as well.

  • FARRON TILLY:

    It hurts my pride. I'm a person that is used to being able to take care of my family. One of my biggest goals in life is to give my children an easier life than my own, send them to college, get them good degrees.

    And right now, with what I'm making and how little I'm working, I don't know if I'm going to be able to do that.

  • DONALD TRUMP:

    We built a massive company. Oh, no. Get out of here. Go home to mom.

  • PETE TILLY:

    All these protesters and all this stuff, and people saying he's racist, and then the Black Lives Matter, you know what? Red lives matter, because, when you bleed, we all bleed red.

    MITT ROMNEY (R), 2012 Republican Presidential Nominee: He cheers assaults on protesters. This is the very brand of anger that has led other nations into the abyss.

  • GRACE TILLY:

    What Mitt Romney is doing is only solidifying our reasons why we love Donald Trump, why we're going to vote for him.

  • PETE TILLY:

    Donald Trump is on point when he says this is for the people, this is not for him, that he represents the people, and without his people, he wouldn't have nothing.

    So, now we're ready for another day of riding and going out and helping Donald Trump.

  • GWEN IFILL:

    You can follow all of today's races on our live results page and on our home page, PBS.org/NewsHour.

    The headline on this transcript has been updated to more accurately represent the video segment.

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