Frederick Westbrook, a former Las Vegas hotel worker, voted for President Biden in 2020 to unseat Donald J. Trump. He now calls it “the biggest mistake of my life.”
“As a black American, I felt he was doing an injustice,” he said of Trump. “He has a big mouth and is not a nice person.” In his view, nothing has changed. However, there is one thing.
“It's all about economics,” Westbrook said. He started working at Lyft to support himself on a fixed income after his retirement. “I don't trust Donald Trump at all. I think the cost of living has gone up: housing, food, cars, insurance, everything.”
A series of recent polls showed Trump leading Biden in five of the six battleground states, including Nevada. Statewide, Biden received less support from 14% of respondents who said they voted for him in 2020. Voters like Mr. Westbrook now say they support Mr. Trump or a third-party candidate, or say they do. Undecided or not voting.
In subsequent interviews, many poll respondents said they were passionate about specific issues, and that the issues Democrats do best, such as abortion rights and preserving democracy, were also important to Democrats. They disliked Trump's personality, which is why so many voted against him in 2020, but they weren't necessarily determined to vote.
But other issues came to the fore, particularly inflation, immigration, and foreign policy, and he was dissatisfied with the way things were progressing.
A new study from The New York Times, Philadelphia Inquirer, and Siena College found that defectors make up just 6 of the registered voters in Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, Nevada, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin. It is only %. But they could play a crucial role.
That includes Democrats, Republicans and independents who voted for Biden in 2020. Many still support Democrats in the Senate, suggesting Biden still has a chance to win back support from some of them.
Jared Johnson, 25, who works in marketing in Atlanta, said he supported Biden in 2020 because he hoped he would return the country to pre-pandemic normalcy. said he thought that was not the case. Despite his concerns about Trump, Johnson plans to vote for him.
He said he was concerned that priorities abroad were distracting from priorities at home. In conversations with his friends and family, he said, he understands the importance of supporting Ukraine and Israel, sending aid to Gaza and helping migrants.
But, he said, “all of a sudden our conversations stopped being about what was happening overseas and started talking about how we are struggling here as well.”
Biden defectors are more likely than others who voted for Biden in 2020 to be in a bad economic situation and want a fundamental change in the way things work. They are often young and Hispanic, a group that has historically voted Democratic in large numbers but is trending to some extent Republican. (There is no significant difference in the level of education between voters who are loyal to Biden and those who are not.)
The survey found fewer voters moving in the opposite direction. The number of Trump defectors in battleground states was less than half the number of Biden defectors.
Biden defectors do not necessarily like President Trump
Christopher Sheffield, 61, a veterans counselor in Thomasville, Georgia, said he was concerned about Mr. Trump's stance on race, but not as concerned as he was that conflicts overseas could turn into world wars. Told.
“I'm African American, so of course I'm concerned about racism,” he said. “But guess what? I've been dealing with that all my life.”
Mr. Sheffield said Mr. Biden is “a good man.” “But when I look at him, he looks weak. With North Korea, Putin, and all of them ready to act, they're a little bit more reluctant to challenge Trump compared to Biden. He plans to vote for Trump.
they are dissatisfied with the economy
Although the economy is doing well by many traditional measures, half of all registered voters surveyed say the economy is in bad shape, including nearly three-quarters of Biden defectors. . By contrast, only one in six people who planned to vote for Biden again rated the economic situation as “poor.”
Biden defectors repeatedly brought up price in interviews. Inflation has slowed considerably from its peak in 2022 (9%), but remains at 3.4%.
Virginia Faris, 54, of Wisconsin, is very happy with her situation. But her four adult children are struggling financially. She denounces “Biden's spending and money printing policies” and plans to vote for Trump. But she said there was a slight chance she would change her mind depending on how her campaign goes. (Wisconsin was the only battleground state in the poll where Mr. Biden led among registered voters. Michigan was the only state where Mr. Biden led among likely voters.)
they want big changes
Biden leavers were more likely than Biden supporters to say the country needs big, fundamental changes. Nearly 6 in 10 asylum seekers believe so, while a similar proportion of Biden supporters say they want politics to return to normal.
“All of our core values ​​are gone. I'm not happy at all,” said Amelia Arwood, 47, a safety trainer for the U.S. Postal Service in Georgia.
She believes the U.S. political and economic systems need to be dismantled, and her list of grievances is long, including inflation, illegal immigration and the Biden administration's recent postponement of arms exports to Israel.
She called Trump a “terrible human being,” but added, “I'm voting for his policies. I think he's going to fix this country, but Biden has thrown this country into a tremendous mess.” “I fell into it,” he added.
Some people don't support Trump or Biden.
Like Arwood, most Biden defectors said they weren't excited about either candidate.
Joseph Drobena, 63, a field engineer and military veteran from Salem, Wis., said he lost confidence in Biden because he thought Trump was too friendly with Russian President Vladimir V. Putin. I voted for Biden in 2020. Trump's involvement in Russian interference in the 2016 election.
He said he still worries about that, but is “reluctantly supporting Trump” because he doesn't like the Biden administration's response to domestic concerns such as crime and homelessness.
However, he does not think that Mr. Trump is strong on social policy either. Discussing his views, he said his support for Mr. Trump was wavering, and that if he had enough support to be a viable candidate, he would favor independent candidate Robert F. Kennedy.・He said he would consider voting for Mr. Junior.
“We have to make something better than one of the two,” he said.