Ahead of President Biden and former President Donald Trump facing off in Atlanta tomorrow in the first presidential debate of the year, The Washington Post spoke to voters in battleground states who supported or were leaning toward supporting Biden in the 2020 election and are considering Trump this election.
Why did they abandon the Democrats? And what do they want Republicans to say in the debates, and what do they not want them to say?
Immigration
Mark Hernandez, a 25-year-old recent college graduate, said he saw communities along the border “ripped apart so quickly” and supported Hillary Clinton in 2016 and Joe Biden in 2020 before becoming a “hard Trump.”
“I grew up in Douglas, Arizona, near the border. Before I went to college it was a quiet, peaceful small town. When I came back the only local grocery store closed, most of the local businesses closed and the town developed a drug problem that it didn’t have before.
“I’m Mexican and my family immigrated to the United States, so in 2016 I believed Trump was racist and hated Hispanics. Now I see he was right and I support building a wall and closing the border,” he said.
Douglas is located in the Tucson area, which has one of the highest numbers of encounters with migrants along the southern border.
Kim Smith, 45, a stay-at-home mom, homeschooler and Turning Point voter from Madison, Wisconsin, didn’t vote in 2016 because she was “so upset that the Democrats gave her Hillary Clinton” and she “slowly transitioned from being a Democrat to being a Trump supporter.”
Immigration is one of her main issues in this election. “The number of people coming across the border is horrifying. It’s more than the population of Wisconsin and it’s putting a strain on our infrastructure,” Smith said.
“In Madison we live in a bubble,” she continued, “and we don’t realize the consequences of our voting behavior until it’s too late.”
Immigration is a big issue for Justin Quinton, a 31-year-old small business owner in Waukesha County, Wisconsin, whose family emigrated from Mexico and became US citizens.
He doesn’t want to hear Trump talk about “building a wall,” but about ways to speed up the immigration process and “how to integrate immigrants and end the stigma surrounding legal immigration.”
economy
“There’s no way I’d ever vote again for the man behind such a weak economy. I’m too worried about my children,” said Sharon, a business owner in Lansing, Michigan. “The economy is my No. 1 issue. I have no confidence that Biden can do better in another term than he has in this one,” she added. “I can’t afford to wait and see if he does.”
She thinks Trump should “talk about his plan to make our economy grow and relevant again.”
“I think Trump will win overall,” she said. “Biden can barely speak.”
crime
“Absolutely,” said Charlene Avgrin, 47, a small-business owner in Milwaukee, when asked if she would support Trump this year. Frustrated with the status quo, she started a Milwaukee movement called Kinfolk, which organizes events to inform people about city, state and federal policies.
“The Democrats have been in power for a long time and we still haven’t made any progress. It’s business as usual. Our cities are in ruins, crime is up and we’re not passing any good laws,” she said.
“We are really suffering, especially the poor, who are struggling to make ends meet.”
Year
“Four years ago, I thought it would be easy to vote for Biden again,” recalled Ben, a student from Akron, Ohio. “I was looking forward to it. Today I’m very disappointed. A leader I was so proud of lost focus and put himself too much first. He had a chance to be a real leader, but I feel like he’s become a politician.”
But Trump has to work to get votes: “I’d like to hear from Mr. Trump about a concrete plan for his first year to really get me on his side. This isn’t the first time, so he shouldn’t start from scratch.”
Quinton, who considers himself a moderate and liked Trump’s policies during his four years in office, said when asked why Biden had lost his support: “I don’t think he’s the right person for the job, to be honest with you.”
“I honestly didn’t think he’d last this long,” Mark, a teacher in Cleveland, said of why he voted for Biden. “Unless Biden does something to keep him awake, Trump is going to win on Thursday.”
Natural
“I’ve always voted Democrat,” said Roslyn Ross Williams, a Black former Democratic activist who is now a right-wing community activist, “just because that’s what you did in my community.”
A Philadelphia native, she led metro Atlanta’s Democratic women’s group for two years before returning to Pennsylvania to work for the party.
“The Democrats have done nothing for our black community,” she said, “yet they’re always pandering to us for our votes.”
She says they will no longer get her hopes: “There is really nothing at this point that this administration, not to say Joe Biden, this administration, can do that will convince someone like me to vote for them again,” which “has set us on a path of destruction and decline.”
Of Trump, she said, “I know his mouth has gotten him into a lot of trouble, and I wish he’d be a little more humble and talk to the public with a little less self-consciousness. But I believe he’s more sincere about the things he’s committed to and what he’s trying to do for America,” including “repairing the border, getting some control over the border, helping individuals.” [Democratic-run] A city like ours [Philadelphia] It has fallen into disrepair.”
“I think this is going to be the most heated debate in American history because the country is really on edge,” she concluded. “I expect it to be a really big fight.”
