U.S. President Donald Trump looks up as he participates in a roundtable on antifa September 22, at the White House in Washington (REUTERS)
Bulwark founder Sarah Longwell conducts frequent surveys with Trump supporters. And her latest reveals many of Trump’s 2024 fans are now either having a difficult time supporting their Republican Party senatorial candidate or they’re outright voting for the Democrat.
“I wasn't the biggest fan of [Texas senatorial GOP candidate] Ken Paxton and I know it's going to sound really feminine, I guess, because when the report started coming out of the affair the money laundering+ all of that and I was like that's who we have an office are you kidding me?” said one Texas woman.
“I'm not a fan of either of them but that’s your options here,” said another Trump-voting woman. “You got two candidates: Here's this one that's under money laundering and affairs and all that extra stuff and then here he is [The Democrat]. Two options. It's either the former, you know, criminal, or this.”
“I will be voting for Texas Democratic senatorial candidate] James Tallarico,” another Trump voter declared in the survey. “I like him a lot, even though I disagree with him on some things. I strongly prefer him to Ken Paxton. He supports transgender people being in sports with people of their born genders. And he would vote for kids being able to transition, which I disagree with. Things … like God is non-binary. Obviously, that's amplified because his opponents think that that will sway people to me. Whether he's a Christian or not is not a huge deal that really doesn't influence it me at all,” said another Texas Trump voter. “I'm looking for integrity and character and at this point I think I really like that [Tallarico] has agreed not to take any PAC money and he has no scandals or like he seems like a really honest fellow.”
“I gotta say just the way … the ‘god’s non-binary’ stuff you hear has landed,” said Longwell, speaking to guest host and CNN reporter Patrick Svitek. “It is imprinted like ducklings on their mother. It is imprinted in people's brains, and yet the majority of the group was still gonna vote for Tallarico anyway. These are Trump voters and they're gonna vote for Tallarico.”
The biggest question Longwell had, however, was if Paxton was enough of a “scumbag … to depress Republican enthusiasm at a time when they're already mad at Trump.”
“Some Texas Republicans I speak to acknowledge that they are going to have a base mobilization problem in this election,” answered Svitek. “And how do you combat that?”
Over in Maine, Republicans’ situation was no better — or even worse, as the party heads into punishing midterms that run the risk of removing the Senate from their power. Losing GOP Maine incumbent Susan Collins would be a tremendous loss, but surveys reveal many Maine Trump voters are abandoning her.
“I voted for Susan Collins since 1996 [but] I will not vote for her again. Period. End of story,” said one Trump voting man in the survey. “She is letting this [Trump] stuff happen. She let the two Supreme Court justices on. They weren't qualified. And what the national pundits are missing is they just don't understand Maine. [Democratic senatorial candidate] Graham Plattner is Maine. He's a Mainer. We understand that. We recognize that. We understand what that means. And we're going to vote for him. She's going to lose.”
“I voted for her ever since I was 18 and allowed to vote because back in the 90s my mother could not walk from MS and she got denied her disability. So … [Collins] helped my mom get that, so from that moment on I was only like five or six years old when this happened she was like my loyal love lady the whole way through,” said another Trump voting Maine woman. “But then, like, that Kavanaugh thing happened. I'm like, wait a minute. Like, where are your values, lady?”
“I voted for her because she gets a lot of funding for veterans and disabled people. She brings a lot of money into Maine, so that's important. She's supposed to be more bipartisan, but as of recent, she just kind of votes whatever way [Republicans] want her to sway things. And she's been like really pro-war, which is not great,” admitted another Maine man.
“I'm leaning more towards [Platner] only because he's the Democrat. And I think it is time for a change as far as Susan Collins,” said yet another Maine Trump voter.
Svitek said voters in Maine are possibly even more convinced that Trump needs reining in from his abuse, and Collins is about to become collateral damage to get it.
“Since Trump returned to power [he has] has shattered so many norms and tested our government and democratic system so dramatically. … And that's why I think Plattner has such an opening with these voters, even though he has this long list of personal political vulnerabilities that we've all spent the last several weeks going through,” said Svitek.
