Two Views On Trump: An Elector Says Opponents Should Lay Off, A Foe Says Protests Are Worthwhile

With a touch of ceremony and some outcry, Tennessee’s 11 Republican electors sealed Donald Trump’s victory in the state Monday morning.

It was an event that brought to the Tennessee State Capitol people representing the breadth of opinions among the state’s voters — from those who say they still do not support the president-elect to those who took the final steps necessary to make him the country’s leader.

Perhaps as many as 50 people turned out in freezing temperatures in a last-ditch effort to convince those electors not to endorse Trump’s election. Most of those protesters were still outside the state House of Representatives chambers when those electors chosen by the Tennessee Republican Party voted for Trump unanimously.

One of them was at-large elector Beth Scott Clayton-Amos. She says she’s received tens of thousands of messages — email, letters, phone calls — urging her to renege on her promise to support Trump.

Clayton-Amos describes the volume and tone of those messages as “harassing.” That energy could’ve been better spent, she says, trying to help the nation come together.

“Eight years ago, it wasn’t my choice. But President Obama was my president,” Clayton-Amos says. “Still is, up until President-elect Trump takes office. You do the right and honorable thing. It’s time for people to act like Americans.”

Clayton-Amos urged opponents of Trump to lay off the demonstrations and give him a chance. She, for one, says she’s praying for the incoming president.

That view was not shared by Thomas Tucker, a retired schoolteacher who lives in East Nashville.

Tucker says, when he first became eligible to vote in West Tennessee, African-Americans like him couldn’t do so freely. He believes he still wouldn’t have that right were it not for protesters willing to fight for his ability to go to the polls without fear.

“So, you know, the system is not perfect. It never has been, probably never will be. But we need to call them out on it when we find out it’s not,” he says. “We don’t need to sit silent and not say anything, you know?”

Demonstrators say they wanted their presence to be a reminder to the state’s leaders: Though Trump carried Tennessee in a landslide, the majority of Americans remain opposed to him.