Gayle McCormick is a self-described “Democrat leaning toward socialist,” and she was absolutely floored when she heard her husband tell a group of friends that he was going to vote for Donald Trump.
“It totally undid me that he could vote for Trump,” the 73-year-old woman said. She had never considered leaving her conservative husband before, but she said that she felt “betrayed” by his support for Trump.
“I felt like I had been fooling myself,” she said. “It opened up areas between us I had not faced before. I realised how far I had gone in my life to accept things I would have never accepted when I was younger.”
— Oprah blamed for 53 percent of white women voting for Trump —
Now, McCormick has separated from her husband of 22 years and is rethinking where she wants to go from here.
McCormick isn’t alone in finding that her personal relationships have suffered from the incredibly divisive election. A Reuters/Ipsos poll taken from Dec 27 to Jan 18 showed that 39 percent of people had argued with a friend or family member over politics, and 16 percent have stopped talking to a friend or family member because of politics. And 13 percent said that they had ended a relationship with a friend or family member because of political differences, though the number was higher for supporters of Hillary Clinton, at 22 percent.