Despite the fatigue the 2016 presidential election may have stirred, there’s no doubt that all eyes will be watching tonight. Even foreign newspapers have sent reporters to cover the election here, and even one radio station from Denmark found itself in Waco.
This week, in the intro for Danish radio program "The Tue and Tony Show", a single word in English stands out: Texas.
The Danish program is broadcasting live from Waco this week for the 2016 election.
Hosts, Tue Bladel and Tony Scott brought their show because of the elections' international importance.
“People have been asking, ‘What? Why are you here?'" host Tony Scott says. "We say it’s a big, big deal in Europe and it’s a big news story in Denmark.”
Originally the duo thought of taking their program to New York. But they decided to come to Texas, to Waco in order get as far away from Denmark and a Danish way of thinking. Bladel says that while his show wanted to reach a diverse electorate, they mainly wanted to reach out to Republicans.
“People don’t really understand who [Republicans] are in Denmark, those Americans and why they think like they do," Bladel says. "So the idea was to meet some of them and maybe get our listeners to understand them a little bit more.”
Coming to Texas was a good idea then.
The Lone Star State has been reliably red. The last time Texas voted for a Democratic candidate for president was in 1976, when Jimmy Carter edged out Republican Gerald Ford by some 3-percentage points. Given that history, the group thought they knew what they’d encounter.
“We came with a very clear-cut idea of about who’s going to vote demographically for what. We thought white male? Okay, Trump. The Hispanic vote – all Clinton.”
But that idea was called into question when the program’s crew started talking to people on the ground. In Texas, they say they’ve received a variety of responses on who’s voting for which candidate. Even last night, says Bladel, one of their interns met a group putting up signs for democrats.
“And one of the guys helping voted for trump. But he was just a personal friend of one of the Hillary campaigning. People. So that was just a good experience to just see, of course, people come together because of family, football teams, friendships and all other things. So I’m pretty sure you guys will be all right no matter what happens."