How Bulgarians in LA Vote in Presidential Elections

Donald Trump or Kamala Harris: that is the question that millions of Americans are currently asking themselves, still undecided about which of the two candidates for the White House to vote for - or whether to go to the ballot boxes at all. 

The Republican Party's nominee and former US President, Donald Trump, and the Democratic Party's nominee and current US Vice President, Kamala Harris, have staged intense election campaigns, but the focus was mainly on seven key states, where the race is tied.

Harris is sure to win California but the Bulgarian community in this state is divided over which of the two candidates is more worthy of being the next resident of the White House.

Evgeni Veselinov, editor-in-chief of BulgariCA in California, told BTA that the Republicans in America are more restrained and more secretive. Democrats, on the other hand, much more openly show who they support and much more openly show dislike, he added. 

An architect and a longtime Republican supporter, Atanas Baker, who has been living in Los Angeles for 40 years, has voted early by mail for Donald Trump. “Not only because he is the representative and the candidate of the Republican Party, but also because we have lived under his presidency for four years, and in those four years, economically and in every respect - not to mention the cases of people from all over the world illegally crossing the border now, not to mention inflation, the prices which are unaffordable for the ordinary Americans - it was much better in those four years than it is now”, Baker said.

According to him, Kamala Harris "ruined" California during her term as its attorney general. “The pinnacle of everything, though, was when the big riots, demonstrations took place here in the States and houses were set on fire, and she [Kamala Harris], as Vice President already, refused not only to punish those people, but she was also a big advocate for defunding the police. Without order, without law and order, no society can move forward”, the Republican added.

Bistra Pashamova, who has been living in the US for 30 years, is of the opposite opinion and finds Trump to be “an incompetent, unstable and narcissistic man focused only on himself, and a populist who offers no solutions for solving people’s problems”. Pashamova said that Harris is intelligent and ambitious, and expects her to do a much better job, if elected.

Veselinov stressed that there were no wars during Trump’s term. “Whereas the last two years were brutal. A redistribution of the world is happening and who is paying? People are dying”, he said.