Taking the temperature of Delaware voters
WILMINGTON, Del. — With a line in the water and a beer in hand while fishing creekside in Frederica, Doug Bleakly was catching heck instead of catfish after announcing he is supporting Hillary Clinton for president.
His fishing buddies, all men, ribbed Bleakly about his choice for president, saying he'd be "guilty" of electing the first female president.
Bleakly, 56, a retired Verizon technician, was unswayed by the barbs coming his (and Clinton's) way.
"Hey, I voted for the first black president, and I'll vote for the first female president. I know a lot of people don't like her, but I do," the widowed Rehoboth Beach resident shot back to the peanut gallery while sitting on the side of Frederica Road at Spring Creek.
"We're all friends," said Bleakly, a University of Delaware graduate who moved back to Delaware from Washington, D.C., three years ago to retire. "This is America. Everyone has their own opinions."
In this combustible primary season filled with protests, insults and, in some cases, assaults, the act of simply stating a candidate preference can spark a heated debate, or more.
On Tuesday, voters in Delaware and four other states are going to the polls for what is dubbed the "Amtrak" primary.
The (Wilmington, Del.) News Journal drove up and down Del. 1 and U.S. 13 in the days leading up to the primary, stopping in towns in all three counties and talking to random voters to try to gauge the mood of the Delaware electorate.
While Delawareans are eager to (finally) get their say in this year's emotionally charged primaries, there are plenty who didn't want to share their views publicly, despite their strong views.
Most of those who spoke supported Clinton, with both businessman Donald Trump and Bernie Sanders garnering some support during the informal tour of the state that started in Fenwick Island before winding down in New Castle County.
Delaware leans heavily Democrat, with 312,260 registered to the party versus 185,134 registered Republicans. There are also 153,368 registered independents, none of whom are able to vote in the Delaware primaries Tuesday.
The state is also very much entrenched in the establishment — and not just because Mr. Establishment Vice President Joe Biden calls the First State home. In the past 16 general elections, Delaware voters have backed the winner 14 times, getting it wrong only in 2000 and 2004 when the state rejected former president George W. Bush both times.
Jerry Esong, a 53-year-old originally from Cameroon, has rejected the leading anti-establishment candidates — Trump and Sanders — and will be voting for Clinton. He supported her in the 2008 primary and is ready to do it again.
As an immigrant himself — he came to the United States in 1992 — immigration is a top issue. While he agrees that illegal immigration needs to be fought, his vote for Clinton is not only a vote for her experience, but also a vote against Trump's stance of deporting millions of undocumented immigrants.
"We work hard. Immigration is a good thing," said Esong, who adds that he would vote for Sanders if he ended up winning the nomination.
In fact, all voters we spoke with said they would support their party's nominee even if their own choice did not win.
'Loose cannon' Trump worth the gamble
Nearly every non-Trump voter we spoke with described the New Yorker and his proposals as "scary."
A day before Trump's Friday rally in Harrington was announced, Trump supporter Tim Moeser spoke about the candidate after finishing a long early morning shift hunched over the grill making breakfast at Jimmy's Kitchen in Fenwick Island.
While his support for Trump has not caused him to change his voter registration — he is a registered independent — he will happily vote for Trump if he is the Republican nominee.
Moeser, a 51-year-old Constitutionalist who moved to Delaware from Baltimore 33 years ago, is angry about the direction the country is headed and he sees that mood reflected in Trump.
"Every election I've voted in, it's been the lesser of two evils. We don't want someone on the inside. We want someone from the outside and Trump does that," said the father of two, ages 23 and 18. "If anybody is going to fix our economy, which is in the dump right now, who better than Trump?
"The man went bankrupt three times and still comes back. He knows money. He's a businessman."
Even though Moeser also says Trump scares him a bit, describing him as a "firecracker" and "loose cannon," it's a gamble he is willing to take.
And what if Clinton wins? He says he has already had a "pretty serious conversation" with his wife about possibly moving to Costa Rica to avoid a second Clinton administration in the White House.
Trump's attention-getting proposals, from mass deportations to banning Muslims from entering the country, may have lured some voters, but they have repelled others.
Feeling the 'Bern'
The first 2016 Delaware public poll was released days before the primary by Gravis Marketing.
It showed Trump with 55% of the vote in Delaware, beating Ohio Gov. John Kasich (18%) and Sen. Ted Cruz (15%) on the Republican side. Clinton garnered 45% of the vote over Sanders' 38%. The poll was released ahead of the weekend's Delaware rallies by both Trump and Sanders.
In 2008, an insurgent then-Sen. Barack Obama won the state's primary 53% to 42% over Clinton, buoyed by Obama's rally in Wilmington only two days ahead of the Super Tuesday primary.
Eight years later, Clinton is trying to fend off another insurgent candidate in Sanders — a challenger who has especially captured the imagination of young voters, much like candidate Obama.
St. Andrew's School senior Neva Richardson was hanging out in her hometown of Rehoboth Beach on the Boardwalk in front of the famed Dolle's Candyland when she spoke about her upcoming first vote in a presidential election.
She says she's "feeling the Bern" — and not just because she's under the sun at the beach.
While the 17-year-old is too young to vote in the primary, she is committed to voting for Sanders in November, rattling off the issues in which she agrees with him on: climate change, education and equality.
"It's so exciting to finally put in my say," said Richardson, who sees a lot of Sanders campaign pins and shirts in the halls of her private Middletown boarding school.
Nancy Forsythe, of Ocean View, finds Clnton to be the most knowledgeable and experience candidate of the lot. (Her No. 1 issue is safety against terrorism with an eye on her grandchildren growing up in a safer world than today.)
Sitting on a boardwalk bench in Bethany Beach reading a book, the house cleaner knows Sussex County is the only county in Delaware with more registered Republicans than Democrats. It makes her political views unpopular with some neighbors and clients.
Even though the Clinton name comes with decades of baggage, she hopes a second President Clinton can help unite the country.
"We all came together after 9/11 — everybody — and I think we need that now. We need to unite, heal the wounds, listen to each other, agree to disagree and concentrate on keeping ourselves safe," said Forsythe, 62, a devout Christian and Democrat who thinks Pope Francis would actually be the best presidential candidate.
She has been turned off by the campaign season so far, disgusted at the personal insults and vitriol that has erupted at some debates and political rallies on both sides.
"I'm a Christian first and Democrat second," she said, "and I know He is looking down heartbroken."
Follow Ryan Cormier on Twitter: @ryancormier