Camila Cabello headed into the 2018 MTV EMA as the most nominated artist, with six noms, while Ariana Grande and Post Malone trailed close behind with five apiece. But the EMA are nothing if not unpredictable — host Hailee Steinfeld summed it up best when she said “anything can happen” — so those shiny trophies could find a home with any of your fave artists.

What we do know is that the star-studded awards show will feature explosive live performances from Nicki Minaj, Halsey, Little Mix, Panic! at the Disco, Alessia Cara, and more. Not to mention, Global Icon Award recipient Janet Jackson will hit the stage in Bilbao, Spain. No big deal.

We’re tracking all of the winners, including key categories like Best Song, Best Video, and the especially stacked Best Artist, which finds Cabello, Grande, Malone, Drake, and Dua Lipa vying for the prize. Keep it locked here as the winners are announced Sunday night (November 4) — and catch the celebration at 7pm ET on MTV or stream on MTVEMA.com!

BEST ARTIST

Ariana Grande

WINNER: Camila Cabello

Drake

Dua Lipa

Post Malone

BEST VIDEO

Ariana Grande — “no tears left to cry”

Camila Cabello — “Havana” ft. Young Thug

Childish Gambino – “This Is America”

Lil Dicky — “Freaky Friday” ft. Chris Brown

The Carters — “APES**T”

BEST SONG

Ariana Grande — “no tears left to cry”

Bebe Rexha — “Meant To Be” ft. Florida Georgia Line

WINNER: Camila Cabello — “Havana” ft. Young Thug

Drake — “God’s Plan”

Post Malone — “rockstar” ft. 21 Savage

BEST POP

Ariana Grande

Camila Cabello

Dua Lipa

Hailee Steinfeld

Shawn Mendes

BEST NEW

Anne-Marie

Bazzi

Cardi B

Hayley Kiyoko

Jessie Reyez

BEST LOOK

WINNER: Nicki Minaj

Cardi B

Dua Lipa

Migos

Post Malone

BEST HIP HOP

Drake

Eminem

Migos

Nicki Minaj

Travis Scott

BEST LIVE

Ed Sheeran

Muse

P!nk

Shawn Mendes

The Carters

BEST ROCK

5 Seconds Of Summer

Foo Fighters

Imagine Dragons

Muse

U2

BEST ALTERNATIVE

Fall Out Boy

Panic! At The Disco

The 1975

Thirty Seconds To Mars

twenty one pilots

BEST ELECTRONIC

Calvin Harris

David Guetta

WINNER: Marshmello

Martin Garrix

The Chainsmokers

BIGGEST FANS

WINNER: BTS

Camila Cabello

Selena Gomez

Shawn Mendes

Taylor Swift

BEST WORLD STAGE

Clean Bandit — MTV Crashes Plymouth, UK 2017

Charli XCX — MTV Crashes Plymouth, UK 2017

David Guetta — Trafalgar Square, UK 2017

Jason Derulo — Isle of MTV Malta 2018

Post Malone — Wireless Festival, UK 2018

Migos — Wireless Festival, UK 2018

J Cole — Wireless Festival, UK 2018

Nick Jonas — MTV Spotlight @ Hyperplay, Singapore 2018

WINNER: Alessia Cara — MTV Spotlight @ Hyperplay, Singapore 2018

BEST PUSH

PRETTYMUCH (October 2017)

Why Don’t We (November 2017 )

Grace VanderWaal (December 2017)

Bishop Briggs (January 2018)

Superorganism (February 2018)

Jessie Reyez (March 2018)

Hayley Kiyoko (April 2018)

Lil Xan (May 2018)

Sigrid (June 2018)

Chloe x Halle (July 2018)

Bazzi (August 2018)

Jorja Smith (September 2018)

BEST U.S. ACT (BEST LOCAL ACT)

Ariana Grande

Camila Cabello

Cardi B

Imagine Dragons

Post Malone

Image: Rich Polk/Getty Images for MTV

Rebel Wilson caught some heat on Thursday for declaring herself the first plus-sized woman to be the lead in a romantic comedy. (Her new film Isn’t It Romantic comes out next Valentine’s Day.) 

She was wrong: Queen Latifah and Mo’Nique, for example, have taken on such roles in the past.

Instead of admitting her gaffe and moving on, though, it appears that Wilson is blocking people who’ve pointed out her mistake on Twitter. In particular, numerous critics of color — many of whom brought up Queen Latifah and Mo’Nique in their comments — reported being blocked by Wilson over the weekend. (Mo’Nique herself encouraged Wilson to “take a moment and know the history,” but as far as we know, she was not blocked.)

Film and television critic ReBecca Theodore-Vachon even gave it a hashtag: #RebelWilsonBlockedMe. (There are plenty of tweets about this that don’t use the hashtag as well.) 

Wilson did tweet in a reply to playwright Claire Willett Saturday that she will address what happened “while promoting [Isn’t it Romantic] in the proper forums.”

“It was never my intention to erase anyone else’s achievements and I adore you and Queen Latifah so so much x,” she also tweeted in response to Mo’Nique’s criticism. “I support all plus size ladies and everything positive we are doing together.”

So maybe an apology is forthcoming, but this is still a disturbing sequence of events for a few reasons. First, it is clear from a quick Google search that Wilson’s original statement wasn’t true — did she do any research at all? Next, Wilson’s choice to block people of color for criticizing her also makes her seem not only unwilling to listen, but unwilling to listen to voices different from her own.

“We gotta lift each other up,” Willett wrote on Twitter, “and that means fairly crediting the women who got there first.”

So much of the fascination with the whirlwind romance (and failed engagement) between Ariana Grande and Pete Davidson comes from our own appetites. We love a good celeb love story! And often, the breakups are even better. They fell in love, shacked up, brought a ring into it, then parted ways all in a five-month span — and we can’t get enough.

That’s why fans mind so much when Pete seems to make light of the whole thing in a promo for Saturday Night Live, or when Ari seemingly disappears from social media to (wisely) take some time to herself, away from too many voices. That time away did her well, though, as we can all hear on “Thank U, Next,” the new song she dropped Saturday night (November 3) that seems to punctuate this saga of her life with an uplifting message of self-love.

First, Ari sets the scene for us by mentioning her past loves by name, including Big Sean and Ricky Alvarez (who apparently heard the song before it came out), as well as Pete and the late Mac Miller, whom she calls “an angel.”

Thought I’d end up with Sean

But he wasn’t a match

Wrote some songs about Ricky

Now I listen and laugh

Even almost got married

And for Pete, I’m so thankful

Wish I could say, “Thank you” to Malcolm

‘Cause he was an angel

This is all to show her own personal growth from each relationship she had, Ari instructs. “Look what you taught me / And for that, I say / Thank u, next,” she sings to lead into the chorus. “I’m so fucking grateful for my ex.”

What some were perhaps eagerly awaiting as a final kiss-off to Davidson ended up being a sweet, thoughtful song about learning to love yourself above anyone else. All in all, it’s a fantastic move by Ari. And it sounds great! Her voice is clear and bold, except for maybe the one line where she sings her own name (as people enjoyed on social media).

Plus, I met someone else

We havin’ better discussions

I know they say I move on too fast

But this one gon’ last

‘Cause her name is Ari

And I’m so good with that

Saturday night, too, Davidson addressed the end of their relationship on SNL seemingly to put a pin in it as well. His words were also gracious: “The truth is, it’s nobody’s business, and sometimes things just don’t work out, and that’s OK. She’s a wonderful, strong person, and I genuinely wish her all the happiness in the world.”

Whatever the circumstances that led her here, Ari is indeed here, with this song, and with clear eyes about her path forward. It’s great! And it’s a nice example to follow. Check out “Thank U, Next” above.

Something new happened in Fortnite and no one knows what it means yet.

The purple cube, which was nicknamed “Kevin,” is gone. The area around its former home, floating above a lake, is altered. Everyone who witnessed the cube’s disappearance got zapped into a floaty space filled with white lights and some weird kind of butterfly.

If you don’t play Fortnite, none of this makes sense. Let’s back up.

Fortnite is one of the most popular video games on the planet in 2018. It pits up to 100 players against one another in a massive “battle royale” map where the last person or squad standing wins. Everyone starts on even footing, with no gear; a big piece of the game involves gathering resources during a match and using them to propel your victory.

That’s the basic explanation. But Fortnite is much bigger than the game you play. It’s a live experience driven by seasonal shifts. There’s just one playable map, but it’s changed again and again as one-time events (like June’s rocket launch) mark those key moments.

Sunday’s cube disappearance finished a journey that started in August. That’s when the giant purple cube first appeared in the game. It had weird symbols scrawled all over it and repelled anyone who got too close.

It also moved.

No one noticed it at first because it happened so slowly. But starting in late August, the Fortnite cube moved a short distance once every two hours (roughly). It’s path across the map eventually led it to “Loot Lake,” where it stopped and appeared to melt into the water. This was in mid-September.

When Season 6 of Fortnite kicked off about a week later, the cube reappeared. It rose out of the lake, floating up into the air along with an island that had once lived in Loot Lake. The island fell back to ground level a few days later, breaking into smaller pieces in the process. Meanwhile, the cube started to crack.

All of that set the stage for Sunday’s in-game event. Here, just see it for yourself:

After leaving the white space, players returned to find their Fortnite map transformed.

One thing: Kevin’s disappearance marked the end of an ongoing “Fortnitemares” Halloween event which saw players dealing with Cube Monsters trying to kill them in addition to all the other human players.

The space below Kevin, an area formerly known as Loot Lake, was also transformed. Instead of it being a mostly empty lake, the area is now populated by a number of smaller islands. There may be other terrain changes too.

This is the kind of stuff that makes Fortnite so magical. The fact that it’s playable on pretty much any modern machine capable of playing video games definitely helps, but the event factor is strong. 

What happened on Sunday is never going to happen again in Fortnite. The people who were there, the ones who know the game well, they recognized that and cut the fighting so they could watch Kevin’s exit unfold. They stopped playing so they could bear witness.

That’s a powerful thing. Fortnite‘s events captivate audiences inside and outside the game like few others can. Even if you missed it in the moment, it’s a cool thing to behold.

It is the final stretch of the all-important US midterm elections. Enthusiasm is high and voter turnout could reach record numbers.

So far, in early voting, more than 30 million Americans have cast their ballots. But it is one group of swing voters that is expected to play a crucial role, and that is female voters, particularly white women.

Many are outraged by the antics of President Donald Trump and his approach towards women.

Last month, that anger turned into rage – after the nomination of Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh – who is accused of sexual assault by several women.

Now, with all 435 seats in the House of Representatives and 35 of the 100 Senate seats up for grabs, the midterms will certainly shape the final two years of Trump’s first term in office.

So, what will be the role of swing voters – especially women – in this election?

Presenter: Richelle Carey

Guests:

Ashley Pratte – board member of Republican Women for Progress.

Kira Lerner – political reporter with ThinkProgress covering voting and election rights.

Scott Lucas – professor of political science and American Studies at University of Birmingham.

  

Source: Al Jazeera News

Image: Win McNamee/Getty Images

The young people have prevailed. 

After a back-and-forth battle with the Trump administration, the U.S. Supreme Court decided Friday that a group of 21 11- to 22-year-old climate change activists can sue the government for harming their futures with a national energy system that produces dangerous amounts of greenhouse gases.

The highest court in the U.S. had previously halted the trial after the Donald Trump administration’s Department of Justice requested to hold off on hearing the group’s arguments against the country’s climate change policies.

The trial was supposed to start last week in Juliana v. United States. But just days before, the Supreme Court effectively said “hold up” in response to the DOJ request. The government said the trial would bring “irreparable harm” to the country.

Then, on Friday, the Supreme Court denied the stay — meaning the trial can go forward. The suit is filed in a U.S. district court in Oregon. Now the trial could start this month, according to NPR. 

The 22-year-old plaintiff named in the case, Kelsey Juliana, retweeted a post about the SCOTUS trial news Friday evening.

The nonprofit group Our Children’s Trust celebrated the news and, in a statement, Juliana said, “…these defendants are treating this case, our democracy, and the security of mine and future generations like it’s a game. I’m tired of playing this game.”

“These defendants” is the U.S. government. The climate fight moves forward.

Bohemian Rhapsody is a box office champion, my friends. (Sorrynotsorry for that pun.)

The Rami Malek-led journey into the life and times of Queen frontman Freddie Mercury scored an estimated $50 million in its opening weekend. That’s even more than the $45 million it was expected to pull in as of Friday.

It’s the best box office start for a music biopic since 2015’s N.W.A. story, Straight Outta Compton. That earlier movie, which opened with $60.2 million, had the best start ever for any movie in the genre. Bohemian Rhapsody now falls in at #2.

Notably, this could be one of the last 21st Century Fox movies released before Disney closes its big deal to acquire a number of key Fox holdings in film and television. The deal is expected to be finalized sometime in 2019.

Bohemian Rhapsody hasn’t exactly won over critics. A review from Mashable’s own Queen superfan, Christ Taylor, included this not-exactly-glowing endorsement: “[I]t is best to treat Bohemian Rhapsody as an extended music video. Don’t expect much more and you’ll have a fine time.”

(Chris still adored the movie and had a lot of very kind, positive things to say about it in his review.)

More broadly, the move has just a 60 percent Fresh rating on Rotten Tomatoes (and, importantly, an audience score of 95 percent). Crowds are loving it, which isn’t exactly a surprise. 

Queen is seriously huge, a world-renowned name on the level of David Bowie. This combination of beloved star (Malek), eye-catching title (does anyone not love the song?), and fascinating subject (Queen rules!) feels like a ready-made crowd-pleaser.

All box office data provided by comScore and BoxOfficeMojo.

New York City – A strong economy usually favours the party in power. This year’s US midterm elections could be an exception.

Many regard Tuesday’s elections as a referendum on President Donald Trump and his policies. If the Democrats retake control of the House of Representatives, it would threaten Trump’s ability to carry out his agenda.

Pollster FiveThirtyEight gives the Democrats an 85 percent chance of doing just that.

Yet, the headline indicators on the economy couldn’t be better for the Republicans going into Tuesday’s vote. Some 250,000 jobs were created last month, beating expectations. Unemployment is holding at a 49-year low, wages are going up and economic growth clocked in at a slower but still robust 3.5 percent last quarter. 

Little wonder the latest reading on consumer confidence from business researcher the Conference Board is at an 18-year high. And though the stock market shuddered last month due to concerns over rising interest rates, the US-China trade war and a handful of disappointing earnings reports, American consumers expect the happy times to continue into early next year. 

So why aren’t the Republicans poised to take better advantage of the thriving economy?

Anxieties over healthcare

Healthcare is top of the agenda for many Americans this midterm season. Though it’s a separate issue from the economy, the main concern surrounding it is economic in nature, specifically affordability.

The United States spends around twice as much on healthcare as other high-income countries and spiralling costs can deter those with and without health insurance from accessing it. 

A recent survey by the Kaiser Family Foundation found that 71 percent of voters ranked healthcare as a “very important” issue in their voting decision for Congress, slightly higher than the percentage citing jobs and the economy. Around a third said healthcare was their “most important” issue. 

Much of the debate has centred around safeguarding protections for people with preexisting conditions. 

Before the Affordable Care Act (ACA) became law under former President Barack Obama, health insurance companies could deny coverage to people with preexisting medical conditions in many states, or charge them more for it. The ACA put paid to those practices and many voters want to keep it that way.

That’s why Democrats have been hammering their Republican opponents over the party’s repeated attempts to dismantle the ACA and pave the way for insurance companies to once again raise premiums on people with preexisting conditions.

President Trump has tried to shore up his party’s Achilles heel, tweeting that Republicans would do a better job at protecting Americans with preexisting conditions. But that doesn’t square with efforts by his administration to have such protections declared unconstitutional.

Mind the gender gap

A record number of women are running in the midterms and some could score historic firsts.

Democratic candidate Stacey Abrams could become the first African American woman in the country to be elected governor when she faces off against her Republican opponent, Brian Kemp, in Georgia. Democrat Rashida Tlaib, running unopposed in Michigan, is set to become among the first two Muslim women and first Palestinian American to be elected to Congress, while Democrat Deb Haaland of New Mexico could become the first Native American woman elected to Congress.

That so many barriers still need smashing, especially by women of colour, underscores the pernicious sexism and misogyny in American life that’s received renewed scrutiny under Trump. 

The #metoo movement, which exploded during Trump’s first year in office, has heightened awareness of the gender wage gap. So have moves by the Trump administration to undo Obama-era policies designed to redress wage discrimination.

As of 2017, women working fulltime and year-round in the US were paid on average only 80 percent of what men were paid.

Not surprisingly, confidence in the economy has started to split along gender lines. Polls conducted by Pew Research Center dating back to 2004 showed little gender variation among Americans who felt “good” or “excellent” about the economy. But when Trump took office, attitudes diverged as men started feeling much better than women about the economy. The divide even crosses party lines.

“While many states are updating decades-old pay equity laws, there has been no progress in strengthening federal equal-pay laws – and in fact, there’s evidence we’re moving in the wrong direction,” said Kimberly Churches, CEO of the American Association of University Women which has conducted extensive research on the gender wage gap in the US.

“The wage gap exists in almost every field of work – even occupations like nursing that are historically predominantly female,” she told Al Jazeera “And when women are making inroads into traditionally male-dominated professions, such as law, medicine and finance, they are still paid less.”

Dog whistles

In a final bid to refocus voters on the economy, President Trump’s campaign committee released a TV ad on Monday splicing images of darker times with scenes of renewed economic growth. The 60-second spot features a woman voting Republican as the narrator warns, “this could all go away if we don’t remember where we came from”. 

Clearly aimed at white, suburban, affluent women whose votes could prove critical in congressional races, the ad makes no mention of Trump, who polls poorly with the demographic.

But the ad was quickly eclipsed by the president himself.

Rather than laud the economy in the final stretch of campaigning, Trump doubled down on immigration, threatening to end birthright citizenship, vilifying a caravan of Central Americans making their way through Mexico, and deploying troops to the US-Mexican border to deal with what he calls a “crisis”.

The rhetoric could help get out the conservative vote.

In a recent Pew survey, Republicans ranked “illegal immigration” as the biggest problem facing the nation.

Democratic voters named healthcare. 

Image: blizzard entertainment

Warcraft III is making its triumphant return with Warcraft III: Reforged, and it feels so good to jump back in.

I had a chance to play Warcraft III: Reforged — a remaster of Blizzard’s indelible 2002 real-time strategy game — at BlizzCon, running through the Culling of Stratholme and being transported back to one of the most impressive stories to ever grace the genre.

The thing that immediately struck me when I started the Warcraft III: Reforged demo was the aesthetic. It’s probably been about 10 years since I last played what I consider to be my favorite RTS game, and Reforged manages to capture that old Warcraft III vibe while updating it to something that looks more modern.

Warcraft III: Reforged doesn’t take character models from World of Warcraft or try to mirror that game’s aesthetic. Instead, it keeps the exaggerated features seen in Warcraft but polishes them with much better detail and lighting.

You can see how the game has been transformed in the gameplay trailer:

After watching a cutscene where Arthas Menethil decides he’d rather kill the innocent citizens of Stratholme now than watch them be consumed by the Scourge, and seeing Uther Lightbringer and Jaina Proudmoore abandon him over this atrocious task, I jumped right in.

I haven’t played many RTS games in the past 10 years, just a few here and there (and usually not for very long) so it took a minute to get re-acquainted with the genre and start building up my army for the grisly task at hand.

Soon I was tearing through building after building, killing doomed citizens one after another while maintaining my base and keeping an eye on resources and soldiers.

Image: blizzard entertainment

The Culling is a pivotal moment in the Warcraft series, showing the descent of Arthas and the fall of the human kingdom of Lordaeron. But it isn’t just a big plot point, it is a difficult mission that makes you question your morals and maybe do something that you’re not exactly comfortable with.

As the Dreadlord Mal’Ganis works his way through the infected city of Stratholme, converting humans into mindless, evil Scourge grunts, Arthas and his followers are trying to kill the humans before they turn. Uther and Jaina refused, showing just how inhumane Arthas’s decision is, but you still have to carry it out and destroy one of the biggest human cities on Azeroth.

The Warcraft III: Reforged demo at BlizzCon was just a tiny slice of the whole game, but it reminded me of what makes Warcraft III — a game that still holds up — such a successful title: The lore is deep and interesting, the stories are unparalleled, and the gameplay is fun and dynamic.

Image: blizzard entertainment

The rest of this remastered classic will be playable sometime in 2019 along with some of the other features that made Warcraft III so great: an improved map editor and the ability to create custom games.

Irvine, Kentucky – President Donald Trump is not on the ballot next week in Estill County Kentucky, but for some residents, he might as well be.

When Trump ran for president two years ago, promising more jobs, a crackdown on immigration and to “make America great again”, it resonated with 27-year-old construction worker Cortland Wilder, who joined 70 percent of fellow rural county voters helping to sweep Trump into office.

Just days before the US midterm elections widely viewed as a referendum on Trump, Walker is among conservative voters in Trump-supporting states such as Kentucky headed to the polls in local races to show they have not wavered and believe the US president has done a good job since he was elected two years ago.

Kentucky, which twice elected Democrat President Bill Clinton, has become reliably red, giving Trump 62 percent the vote in 2016 largely on the strength of rural residents like Wilder.

“Every one of my friends and family wants to vote for him more than they did the first time,” Wilder, a father of two who lives in a district where Trump-backed Republicans have argued that residents “forgotten” by politicians before Trump came to power.

Wilder hasn’t been put off by Trump’s pugilistic style. He knows Trump has angered allies, opened a trade war with China, criticised the “fake news” media, regularly provoked outrage on Twitter and dismissed as a “witch-hunt” a federal investigation into his campaign’s relationship to Russia’s alleged 2016 election interference.

Every one of my friends and family wants to vote for him more than they did the first time.

Cortland Wilder, Trump supporter

More important to him, he said, is jobs. They are plentiful in nearby cities where many work, even though unemployment around the small brick downtown stood at 9.4 percent in July. Walker attributes a recent $3-an-hour raise to Trump’s tax cuts, despite criticism it will balloon the national debt. He believes Trump’s policies mean fewer undocumented immigrants taking jobs. 

Add to that Trump’s two conservative Supreme Court justices who will favour conservative causes for years to come. It is propelling Wilder to vote in the bellwether 6th District Congressional race that’s drawn Trump and high-profile Democrats to campaign for the candidates.

A Morning Consult/Politico poll taken in late October found that 43 percent of voters approved of the job Trump was doing, while 54 percent of voters disapproved. But few Trump supporters that Al Jazeera has been following since the election have changed their minds.

‘A package deal’

On the other side of Kentucky from Wilder, the story is much the same – even among those weary at times of Trump’s social media outbursts.

“Do I love Trump? Nope. I wanted him in the White House in order to fix our most pressing issue, which was economic security. So far, so good; things have gone as well or better than I thought they would,” said Robert Berry, 42, of Owensboro in western Kentucky who buys and sells used car parts online.

He added, “Just as most in marriages would change things about their beloved spouse, I would change things about Trump. However, like a marriage, this is a package deal.”

In Simpsonville, Kentucky, located just West of the Bluegrass state’s renowned horse farms, Sovanna Chhan, 61, a retired Cambodian American factory worker who now works at retail store Wal-Mart, said he voted for Trump because of his stance on immigration – even though he’s an immigrant himself.

Trump has stoked fears about immigration as he campaigns for the midterm elections that could determine whether Democrats retake the US House or Senate. At a recent rally in Kentucky, Trump warned that “Democrats want to open America’s borders and turn our country into a friendly sanctuary for murderous thugs from other countries who will kill us all.” 

Chhan does not mind that Trump has not built a giant wall on the US-Mexico border as promised, or gotten Mexico to pay for it.

“They want to get him, because they don’t like his policies on refugees. But I support him. Some refugees are good, come to work and pay taxes. But some immigrants come to destroy America, to hurt Americans, and hurt our economy,” he said.

‘There are jobs’

To the south, just 30 miles north of the Tennessee border, Sherry Perdue, a 56-year-old retired teacher who lives on a farm near Breeding, Kentucky, said she thinks Trump has done a good job, too. She recently attended a Trump rally, wearing a “Kentucky Deplorable” T-shirt and standing in a line of thousands who chanted, “USA!” and “Trump!”

She voted for Obama in 2012 but found that the Affordable Care Act was not as helpful as she’d hoped. Two years ago, she voted for Trump and is now an ardent supporter of his positions ranging from immigration to trade deals.

She said the wrenching confirmation battle over Justice Brett Kavanaugh, who she believes is innocent accusations that he assaulted a woman in the 1980s, galvanised her desire to vote next week. While coal industry jobs have not come rushing back despite Trump’s promises, she said the nation’s economy, in general, was strong. 

“There are jobs – you might have to travel a ways, but there are jobs. There are factories that have stayed, and I give him quite a bit of credit,” she said, noting that her support of Trump in such divided times has cost her friendships including some former teaching colleagues. 

“I’ve been blocked on Facebook, I’ve been cussed,” she said.

In Spencer County, Kentucky, located outside of Louisville, real estate agent Linda Greenwell, 69, said the economy is also driving continued support for Trump. She said she’s had her best year ever, doubling her salary. 

She’s involved in the local Republican party and said voter registrations have gone up. In fact, across Kentucky, Republicans have added more than 58,000 registered voters since Trump took office while Democrats have lost more than 2,500 registered voters, The Associated Press reported, giving Republicans the majority among registered voters.

“Obama helped us a lot. And now we are going gangbusters with Trump,” she said of the new registration. “For the first time, we have a Young Republicans club in the high school.”

She hopes that Trump fever that swept Kentucky in 2016 will keep Congress in the hands of Trump and the Republicans. “Every person we put into office who supports him gives him one more tool to do his job,” she said.