I have been going back and forth to America every year since I was in my late teens and I have never known the country as divided as it is today.
My immediate family – sisters, nephew, niece, grandmother – all live in Texas and say they feel nervous and sad about what’s happening to their country.
Despite them all voting early, there was never any chance of the Lone Star State turning from Republican Red to Democrat blue.
When I checked in on them on our family WhatsApp group, only one of my three sisters got back to me.
I presumed the other two were too fed up to talk.
My sister said that while she expected Texas to turn out for Trump, she couldn’t believe how close the race was across the rest of America.
She added: “Whoever wins, it’s going to be a nightmare. It will be like Brexit in the UK – if Trump loses, he and his supporters won’t accept the verdict and the arguments about this will go on like this for years. It’s like they’ve already forgotten we’re in the middle of a pandemic.”
In years gone by, we looked to America as a symbol of democracy.
But this year’s election race has been an unedifying mess.
What’s surprised a lot of people is how much of the Latino vote went to Trump.
Texas is a state with a huge Hispanic population.
And despite his early threats to build a wall he still got a large number of their votes.
Similarly, I can’t believe how many women voted for Trump or the increased number of black votes he seems to have received.
The country is divided like never before.
If Joe Biden does win, let’s hope he can immediately begin the process of bringing people back together.
