sarasota, fla. <u+2014> people started lining up at 4 a.m. to catch one last glimpse of their hero. it was donald j. trump<u+2019>s first campaign stop on his monday push through battleground states, and his supporters here in florida seemed to understand that the whole country would be watching them. so, what are the trump voters in florida thinking, and where does this movement <u+2014> or whatever we should call it <u+2014> go after tuesday? as at any trump rally, the merchandising opportunities outside the sarasota event were plentiful. a man wearing a trump flag as a cape walked down the line of attendees, towing a wagon filled with water bottles. <u+201c>ice cold trump water here! tastes like freedom!<u+201d> he said. another man selling foam fingers called out, <u+201c>give hillary the finger <u+2014> vote trump!<u+201d> a supporter constructed a life-size <u+201c>basket of deplorables<u+201d> made out of interwoven cardboard boxes. a woman stood inside the basket and posed for a photo, giving an enthusiastic thumbs-up. the trump supporters at the rally in sarasota were in good spirits on monday, but when asked how they felt about their state, some brows furrowed. florida voters know the eyes of the nation are on them and their precious 29 electoral college votes. mr. trump<u+2019>s supporters recognize it<u+2019>s possible hillary clinton could win their state, and the whole ballgame, on tuesday night. but in their gut, it seemed impossible to believe anyone wouldn<u+2019>t be voting for mr. trump. all the data they personally collected seemed to reassure them of a trump landslide. every bumper, shirt and sign to be seen was plastered with pro-trump messages. still, that was hard to reconcile with the polls they were seeing on cnn and fox. outside the arena, cathy borden, a retired navy recruiter, said everyone she talks to is voting for mr. trump. <u+201c>that<u+2019>s why you can<u+2019>t go by those polls.<u+201d> dave kraft, in line with his wife, ruth, wrestled with this dissonance. <u+201c>how could he lose, if you look at facebook?<u+201d> no matter what happens on election day, the republican party will be stuck in a bind of its own making. the trump contingency is powerful enough to control the party, but not powerful enough to put a republican in the white house on its own. the more the party caters to its base, the deeper the g.o.p.<u+2019>s 2013 autopsy report gets buried under a pile of <u+201c>make america great again<u+201d> signs. janice gaddy was standing in front of the krafts in line with her two granddaughters. she said she<u+2019>s not just disgusted by mrs. clinton (<u+201c>i hate that woman. she is evil<u+201d>), but extremely disappointed by the republican leadership. ms. gaddy was exasperated by everyone from senator ted cruz, whom she supported in this year<u+2019>s republican primary, to mitt romney (<u+201c>if i could take my vote back, i would<u+201d>) and megyn kelly (<u+201c>she should just go away<u+201d>) for not supporting the republican nominee wholeheartedly. she also expressed frustration at republicans in congress for not going far enough to block president obama<u+2019>s agenda. <u+201c>what have they done?<u+201d> she asked. <u+201c>we gave them a republican senate and we gave them a republican congress, and they have let obama do everything that he wanted.<u+201d> ms. kraft called paul ryan a <u+201c>traitor,<u+201d> and said she might leave the republican party after this election. her husband said mr. romney didn<u+2019>t support mr. trump<u+2019>s presidential bid because he was <u+201c>jealous<u+201d> of his success. <u+201c>if you<u+2019>re a republican, you<u+2019>re part of a team,<u+201d> he said. <u+201c>you<u+2019>ve gotta support everybody.<u+201d> while the race in florida remains tight, some trump supporters could be in for a rude awakening on tuesday night. more than 6.4 million floridians have already cast their votes. and, going by the data, hispanic voters are poised to make up a powerful share of the electorate in ways they didn<u+2019>t in 2012. more hispanic voters have already cast their ballots in the early voting period than in the entire 2012 election. daniel a. smith, a political scientist at the university of florida, noted that more than a third of florida hispanics who have already voted this year did not vote in 2012 <u+2014> a full 12 points higher than the same measure of white voters in the state. <u+201c>something has aroused hispanics to register and vote in 2016, and it doesn<u+2019>t take a rocket scientist to know what that is,<u+201d> he told me. but not all hispanic-americans, of course, will vote against mr. trump and for a democrat this year, especially among florida<u+2019>s cuban-american population. in 1961, cristina dawson and her family fled cuba to the united states as political refugees. she was at the trump rally on monday with her cousin, who had come to the united states on the same plane from cuba. ms. dawson said she felt <u+201c>apprehensive<u+201d> about the election<u+2019>s results. <u+201c>there<u+2019>s so much voter fraud,<u+201d> she said, shaking her head. maria chambers, ms. dawson<u+2019>s cousin, said the prospect of a hillary clinton presidency reminds her of the dictatorship of fidel castro. <u+201c>we already lost a country, and we<u+2019>re on the verge of losing another,<u+201d> she said. at a rally on sunday, mr. trump gave the crowd an ultimatum: the movement he started will end if he loses on tuesday night. it was a poetic antithesis to senator bernie sanders<u+2019>s rallying cry after he lost the democratic primary, that <u+201c>the movement continues.<u+201d> mr. sanders<u+2019>s parting message was, <u+201c>without you, i am nothing.<u+201d> mr. trump<u+2019>s message closing argument so far has been, <u+201c>without me, you are nothing.<u+201d> in the middle of his rally in sarasota on monday, mr. trump spotted his own face in the crowd: a donald trump mask. an audience member passed the mask up to the podium, and he held it up beside his own, slightly less cartoonish visage. <u+201c>is there any place more fun to be than a trump rally?<u+201d> he asked, and the crowd roared its approval. he grinned widely. mr. trump, and the people who have grown to love him over the past year and a half <u+2014> who have stood steadfastly by him as he<u+2019>s weathered attack after attack, and emerged victorious every time <u+2014> were having the time of their lives. but unfortunately for mr. trump and his supporters, all good fun must come to an end. their hero ends his speech, waves goodbye, and after one final thumbs-up, disappears behind a velvet curtain flanked by secret service officers. the crowd files out of the gymnasium to the strains of the rolling stones. leftover signs and empty popcorn tubs litter the floor. the reporters roll on to the next campaign stop, the merchandise tents get packed up and one by one, the cars pull out of the parking lot until it is empty. up in the sky, mr. trump is already flying toward his next adoring crowd. emma roller (@emmaroller) is a contributing opinion writer. follow the new york times opinion section on facebook and twitter (@nytopinion) , and sign up for the opinion today newsletter .
if trump wins florida, it<u+2019>s because of these people
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