"I am with her," said a woman at the next table of the Front Street Cafe in downtown Philadelphia. My fellow canvassers and I were discussing the rough day we had had in North Philadelphia while knocking on doors in an immigrant Russian community.

Armed with names of voters, I had knocked on doors to make sure they had the right information about voting times, the place to vote, IDs to carry and transportation to get there. For the undecided, we tried to give more information to help make up their minds.

"Liar, liar, liar," a Russian woman shouted as she followed me down the road from her door. Misha Battiste, a young Black campaign worker, and our canvassing trainer had told us to be polite if we came across Trump supporters and to leave quickly as they sometimes got aggressive. I had left when the Russian lady said she was voting for Donald Trump. But when she followed me down the road, I turned and asked, "Is Trump not a bigger liar?" "No, he will do business with Russia, she will make war with Russia."

Her neighbour, who had voted Democrat in the past, agreed. I tried to explain that Hillary Clinton had never once said that she would make war with Russia. But the lady's argument was that Bush Junior had completed the wars that his father had started, and that Hillary would complete what Bill Clinton had started.

But Bill Clinton did not start any war, I said. In fact, he created more jobs and raised wages. Hillary Clinton had clearly stated that she would reduce gun violence, raise the minimum wage, ensure affordable healthcare, make college accessible, protect social security and medicare, rebuild infrastructure, increase jobs, invest in clean energy and advocate equal pay for women and their right to take medical decisions over their own bodies. Did the lady not want all this as an American citizen? "I don't believe her. She is a liar." That is when I realized that this election was not based on facts but on perceptions.

Of the other Trump supporters I met, one held a sign saying 'Hillary4Prison' and called her a b**ch, while a drunk man called her a monster. That is when I began to grasp fully what Hillary was up against - a deep-seated misogyny. These men feared female authority more than they feared Russia or China. The Russian women believed Trump more easily because he was a man. They had been conditioned to accept what a man said loudly more easily than what a woman said politely.

Worried, I continued knocking on doors, talking to more people, and I was reassured. Philadelphia would vote for Hillary. Women, Latinos and Blacks were solidly behind her. The young Black driver of my Uber said he was taking the day off on Tuesday to ferry friends and supporters to polling stations in Philadelphia."Gun control and social security are the two things that can protect Blacks. If Donald Trump wins he will reverse both. Do you know that the Ku Klux Klan has endorsed him? Black lives will not matter."

I understood his anxiety as I drove past boarded factories, office buildings on sale and dilapidated houses to the Hillary Clinton campaign office on Frankford Avenue. Unemployment, militarized policing, homelessness, the cost of health care and access to college education were issues that Black families were thinking of.

My spirits lifted to see the vigour and energy of the young women I met at the Katy Perry concert for Hillary. Women had decided that they would wear pantsuits to the polling stations to show solidarity against the sexist comments made against her. While Hillary may not make magic, she will promote women's rights in domestic and foreign policy. Her own career came into greater prominence when she had said, "Women's rights are human rights", in Beijing 21 years ago.