Mary Milton, a lifelong Democrat, grandmother, and woman of faith, says she experienced a fair share of criticism for her outspoken support for President-elect Donald Trump’s candidacy.
“It’s been African American people, it’s been white people, it’s been Hispanic people,” Milton said, according to the Tallahassee Democrat.
The 60-something-year-old said she voted for President Obama in 2008 and in 2012, but now believes black people have been “let down” during his time in office.
“When we voted for Obama we pulled together, and he made a promise to all the people,” she said. “The people he let down was the African American people.”
Milton said the black voters have been “thrown under the bus” by the Democratic Party — which is why she overcame her fear of reprisal for showing public support for Trump.
“We were afraid to tell people who our vote was really going for, but I know for a fact a lot of the African American votes went for Trump,” Milton said.
Milton says she has been in constant contact with the Trump campaign throughout the cycle and has the phone messages, a “Make America Great Again” hat, and other pro-Trump paraphernalia to prove it.
Celebrating an unprecedented victory, Milton says she is not surprised Trump won because he ran as a candidate who “represented all the people. Not just one gender, or this race.”
As for Hillary Clinton, Milton believes the former secretary of state’s White House bid was a big waste of money.
“Hillary Clinton had enough money to take care of everybody in the United States, and that’s what she spent to lose,” she said.
Milton says the presidential campaign strained some of her friendships with members of her congregation at Anderson Chapel AME Church.
“Some of us butted heads, they were for Clinton. But we value each other’s friendship and we put politics aside,” she said. “We made a promise to each other to not discuss it while we were in church because there was so much tension.”
With the election behind them, Milton and her fellow parishioners are getting ready to give away food for Thanksgiving. And there’s been no love lost.
“She was very committed and I applaud her for that,” said Mariah Blake, a church member and friend to Mrs. Milton. “To me, this is a democracy and whatever you believe in your heart, that’s what you go with — so I’m not against anybody in what they believe.”
Follow Jerome Hudson on Twitter: @jeromeehudson.
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