On the Madison Road from Chicago lies a well-kept secret that, in these tense and violent political times in the United States, is perhaps worth revealing: Harmony Township.
Located on the outskirts of Janesville, Wisconsin, on the border of Illinois, the small community of 2,500 souls lives up to its name, with its electorate divided 50-50 between Democrats and Republicans, who have coexisted for years in a climate of peace, respect and tranquility worthy of note.
“They say that everyone in Harmony lives in harmony,” says township clerk Lisa Tollefson, who we met a few days ago at the local government offices, set amid the fertile farmland for which the area is known. “And it’s true. People grew up here, they went to school together. Everyone knows each other. Sometimes they talk politics, agreeing with each other’s political views. And they never let it ruin their relationships.”
In the Starview Heights neighborhood, a constellation of bungalows follow one another under mature trees, up to the house of Valerie Grover, a young Democrat in her thirties whose neighbor Gordon has come to help her with a little water damage in the garage.
“We have polar opposite political views,” she says of him as he quietly heads back to his house across the street, reluctant to stake his political claim that day. “But we are able to talk about it and talk to each other because we are good neighbors. A lot of bridges have been built between all of us here. It would be a shame to destroy them over politics. This neighborhood is very peaceful, why add tension and division to it?”
Jeff Klenz, a 68-year-old former police officer and chairman of the canton, has just finished a videoconference meeting in the room where the council meets every week, in an atmosphere that is “always cordial,” he assures. And he enjoys talking about his “very special” canton.
“Politics is important, but in everyday life, we have many other things to manage,” says the man behind his long white beard that gives him the look of a defrocked biker. “There’s the cost of groceries, work on the farm and the constraints of running your business. Of course, the choice of president or governor is on our minds. But that’s not the most important thing here.”
And he adds: “This is how politics should be done all across the country. People seem to forget that we are all Americans and not just Democrats or Republicans. And even if you don’t like other people’s ideas, the main concern that we should all have is the good of the country as a whole and the well-being of its people.”
A canton that sees things right
In Harmony, election seasons follow one another and are similar, with, unlike other parts of the country, a total absence of signs planted on the grounds to display one’s political colours and to announce them, sometimes ostentatiously, to one’s neighbours. “It’s a question of respect,” assures Joe Kincade, owner of a small organic market garden located on the edge of enormous fields reserved for intensive corn and soybean agriculture. “We don’t want to offend others with our political positions,” he assures, while saying that he steers clear of the political issues of the moment and prefers the company of his garlic, which is starting to emerge from the ground.
And the consistency in political cycles in Harmony goes even further.
In the last 13 elections for presidents and governors in the state of Wisconsin, voters in Harmony Township have systematically voted for the winner, John Johnson, a public policy researcher at Marquette University, recalled last April on the X network. A “prescience” that is also shared by Merrimac, a small village of 500 inhabitants located north of Madison.
With a demographic that includes the same percentage of whites as the rest of the state (86%), slightly more citizens identifying as being of multiple ethnic origins in the last census (12%, compared to 2.2% statewide), but no Black communities, Harmony chose Donald Trump by a 36-vote margin in 2016. That year, the populist became the first Republican to win Wisconsin since Ronald Reagan, with a 22,748-vote advantage over his opponent, Hillary Clinton. And then, in 2020, it was Joe Biden who won the popular favor in the district, with 78 more votes than the Republican, included in the 20,682 votes that brought the state back to the Democratic camp.
But the game of predictions for 2024 is quickly entering uncertain territory.
“I was a Republican, but I’m going to vote Democrat,” said Kent Shea, a retired firefighter, as he loaded bikes into the back of his car in preparation for an upcoming vacation. “Donald Trump is a criminal, he’s arrogant. That’s a resounding no to me.”
A little further on, in the shade of a majestic tree that cools the patio of her house, Cathy Klenz, wife of the president of the canton, first denounces the anger and violence that prevail on the national political scene by saying she does not understand all this hatred. But she assures that she will vote for a return of Donald Trump to the White House. “The price of my groceries has doubled in the last few years and I buy nothing more than what I need to make hamburgers. He will win the election in November. That’s for sure. And we will be able to get back to our old life.”
In the shade of his garage, Robert Lund, a former worker at the GM Janesville auto assembly plant that brought the region (and locals) a century of prosperity before it closed in 2019, hesitates. “It was pretty Democratic at the plant, I still am a little bit. But I find this election campaign really weird.”
“I’ll be Kamala Harris,” says Valerie Grover. “That’s who I’m campaigning for.” Inwardly, of course, and with respect for others.
Township Clerk Tim Tollefson, husband of the clerk, is sure of one thing: the election should go well, as in previous years, and with a high turnout that generally hovers around 90%. “There is a festive atmosphere here on election day. People are happy to be together, many of whom have not seen each other for weeks. There is no tension, no suspicion about the electoral process, as you see elsewhere in the country. No one talks about politics while waiting to vote. They check in on each other and show pictures of their children and grandchildren instead.”
And he dares to make a prediction.
“Republican or Democrat? It’s going to be close. But I can tell you one thing already: the party that’s going to win the election here in Harmony is the one that’s going to receive the most votes,” he said with a smile.
This report was financed with the support of the Transat International Journalism Fund-The duty.