Photo Essay of Trump Voters in Swing States

Trump voter Rick Trudo, foreground, ice fishes on a frozen portion of the Mississippi River.

Trump voter Rick Trudo, foreground, ice fishes with his friend and Clinton voter, Mark Kleinow, on the Mississippi River in Prairie du Chien, Wisconsin. (AP Photo/David Goldman)

Voters in the Midwest, many unsatisfied with President Obama despite voting for him 2012, surprised the nation by casting their ballots for Donald Trump in the 2016 election. While there was a wide array of reasons driving their decision, promises of an economic renaissance and frustration over health care costs and stagnant wages was a resonant theme.

To shine a light on these issues and the people confronting them, Associated Press photographer David Goldman traveled through the Upper Midwest after the election documenting supporters of President Trump. He visited a column of 50 counties stretching along the Mississippi River, a crucial bastion of support that decided the election. See them below.

An ice fisherman walks out on a frozen portion of the Mississippi River in Prairie du Chien, Wis., Friday, Jan. 20, 2017. In this corner of middle America, in this one, small slice of the nation that sent Trump to Washington, they are watching and they are waiting, their hopes pinned on his promised economic renaissance. And if four years from now the change he pledged hasn't found them here, the people of Crawford County might change again to someone else. (AP Photo/David Goldman)

An ice fisherman walks out on a frozen portion of the Mississippi River in Prairie du Chien, Wisconsin. (AP Photo/David Goldman)

Jackie Suelflow, right, and Mikey Clanton, left, dance and sing during a ladies bowling night in Prairie du Chien, Wis., Wednesday, Jan. 18, 2017. Here in Crawford County, residents often recite two facts about their hometown, the first one proudly: It is the second-oldest community in the state. The next is that it's also one of the poorest. There are no rusted-out manufacturing plants to embody this discontent. The downtown main street bustles with tourists come summer. Just a few vacant storefronts hint at the seething resentment that life still seems harder here than it should. (AP Photo/David Goldman)

Jackie Suelflow, right, and Mikey Clanton, left, dance and sing during a ladies bowling night in Prairie du Chien, Wis. Their hometown is the second-oldest community in the state and also one of the poorest. (AP Photo/David Goldman)

Bernard Moravits walks on his farm in Bloomington, Wis., Thursday, Jan. 19, 2017. Moravits works on his 10,000 acres at least 12 hours every day, and usually a lot longer. He diversified to minimize risk and now farm dairy cows and beef cows, corn, beans, alfalfa. The price of milk and other agricultural goods has plummeted, and it's getting harder to keep things running, he said. Change is what he looked to Obama for and now expects from Trump. (AP Photo/David Goldman)

Bernard Moravits walks on his dairy farm in Bloomington, Wisconsin. (AP Photo/David Goldman)

President Donald Trump is sworn in during a live broadcast of the inauguration as Denny Riebe, from right, Doug Dickman, Scott Reilly, and Bill Winter, play cards at the Sawmill Saloon in Prairie du Chien, Wis., Friday, Jan. 20, 2017. The men who meet here for cards every morning and call themselves the Corner of Superior Knowledge are made up democrats, Trump supporters and another described as agnostic. The campaign vitriol that has cleaved apart the country has not left the same scars here, a place where talking politics is considered impolite, where wives reported not knowing how their own husbands voted and husbands said they never asked their wives. (AP Photo/David Goldman)

Donald Trump is sworn in as president as Denny Riebe, from right, Doug Dickman, Scott Reilly, and Bill Winter, play cards at the Sawmill Saloon in Prairie du Chien, Wisconsin. (AP Photo/David Goldman)

Kreig Holt, left, and his wife, Lydia, stand in their kitchen in Wauzeka, Wisconsin. They both earn about $10 an hour and, with two kids, there’s always one or two bills they have to skip. At this rate, Lydia says they’ll be paying these same bills for 87 years. (AP Photo/David Goldman)

Jeff McCullick, left, stands next to his son Dylan, 18, in their home in Ferryville, Wisconsin. A recent high school graduate, Dylan said he’s worried about the lack of job opportunities in the county and is considering going to technical school to become a diesel mechanic. His father works in maintenance in a federal government job. (AP Photo/David Goldman)

Mark Berns sits in his small engine repair shop in Prairie du Chien, Wisconsin. Thursday, Jan. 19, 2017. “We’re tired of living like this. We’ve been railroaded, run over by the politicians and run over by laws,” said Berns in the shop he can barely afford to keep open anymore. He drives a 14-year-old truck with 207,000 miles on it because he doesn’t make enough profit to buy a new one. (AP Photo/David Goldman)

Bernard Moravits inspects cows being milked at his farm in Bloomington, Wisconsin. Though he’s struggling financially, Moravits doesn’t support Trump’s “stupid wall” and his plan to deport Hispanic laborers. He has Hispanic workers who have been with him 15 years and he says he trusts them to do a dirty, difficult job that he said white people aren’t willing to do anymore. (AP Photo/David Goldman)

Brothers Todd, right, and Scott Yeomans, owners of a custom sportswear company, stand in their store in Prairie du Chien, Wis., Friday, Jan. 20, 2017. They said they're trying to do the right thing by making their products with American-made fabrics and American labor, but they're competing against companies that use factories overseas. They'd like to provide health insurance, but they've run the numbers and it would cost $200,000 a year, far more than they can spend. Recently, a longtime worker left for a job with benefits. (AP Photo/David Goldman)

Brothers Todd, right, and Scott Yeomans, owners of a custom sportswear company, stand in their store in Prairie du Chien, Wisconsin. They try to make their products with American-made fabrics and American labor, but must competing with companies that use cheaper factories overseas. (AP Photo/David Goldman)

Marlene Kramer stands for the national anthem at a high school wrestling meet in Prairie du Chien, Wisconsin. “I said to myself, ugh, I can’t stand him.” And when he announced his candidacy, she thought it was a joke. “Then my husband said to me, ‘Just think, everything he touches seems to turn to money,’” she said, and she changed her mind. “I’m hoping he’ll make this country really rich.” (AP Photo/David Goldman)

A cardboard cutout of President Donald Trump sits in a window as pedestrians notice it from below in McGregor, Iowa. Some 50 counties along the Mississippi River in Minnesota, Wisconsin, Iowa, and Illinois, switched from blue to red in November. (AP Photo/David Goldman)

Read an essay about Trump supporters’ reasons by AP reporter Claire Galofaro here.

—RealClearLife Staff