The presidential election is less than three weeks away, and former supporters of President Donald Trump in Pennsylvania are experiencing voter’s remorse. These white women regret having cast their ballots for this president and plan on voting for Joe Biden instead in November.
Trump shocked the political establishment in 2016 when he carried the state of Pennsylvania to victory, propelled by 50% of white women in the state. However, recent polls have indicated that the now-swing state may revert back to the column of the Democrats.
CNN recently interviewed four white women who expressed frustration with Trump’s handling of the coronavirus and social unrest.
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“I got it wrong. And it hurts my heart. I mean, it truly hurts my heart,” Joan Smeltzer said. “I feel like I’ve been duped. I really do. I wanted to believe that he was better than he is.”
Julie Brady, Smeltzer’s sister, was drawn to Trump because he would not be pushed around. She valued that he would put up a fight.
“I think I liked the idea that he was a little hardcore. He wasn’t going to put up with anybody’s nonsense. I felt like he would never let anyone walk all over us,” Brady said.
Brady has changed her view since Trump’s election.
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“I think he’s a bully,” Brady continued. “He represents everything that I don’t want my children to grow up to be.”
Smeltzer and Brady, both registered Democrats, acknowledged there was a time they would’ve found Trump’s tweets containing screeds like “The Suburban Housewives of America…Biden will destroy your neighborhood and your American Dream. I will preserve it, and make it even better” funny. Four years into his presidency, his lack of decorum is no longer a laughing matter.
“It irritates me that he thinks that I and other people like me are stupid enough to believe that. It’s insulting,” Smeltzer said.
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Nin Bell confessed her “embarrassment” that she chose to ignore Trump’s vulgarity. Just before the 2016 election, an Access Hollywood tape leaked in which he was shown bragging about grabbing women by their private parts. There were also allegations of sexual misconduct against Trump.
“I literally ignored it, just like every other woman who voted for him. We ignored it. I just kept saying it’s locker room talk,” Bell said.
She was also in awe of his celebrity.
“I loved his show, the Celebrity Apprentice. Never missed it,” she says. “I had my blinders on. No one could say or do anything to change my mind. I was voting for Donald Trump. Period,” Bell added.
Holly Geitner is a lifelong Republican and prioritized the economy in the last presidential election. She now feels “shame” and was affected by the death of George Floyd.
in Henderson, Nevada. (Photo by Ethan Miller/Getty Images)
“Sadly, it took his killing for things to make sense for me,” Geitner contended. “I recognized my own white privilege. I recognize that — I work with and know women, Black women, who are mothers who have to have conversations with their kids that I will never have to have with my kids. And that was powerful for me. And to see what’s happened since, I feel like he’s added fuel to the flames of hatred. And that really bothers me.”
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Bell, a Democrat who switched parties to vote for Trump, claimed that Trump thrived on the division in the country.
“I think he’s got a lot to do with that,” she said.
Above else, the women maintain that the coronavirus pandemic and the administration’s handling of the crisis have swayed their votes away from Trump. Brady lost her job as an executive assistant due to COVID-19.
“He didn’t create the virus, but he hurt a lot of people by not doing what he should have done when he found out about it,” she said. “He kind of left us all in the dark guessing what was going on. And that wasn’t fair to us.”
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