Two years ago, six White suburban mothers were among the more than 77 million Americans who voted to put President Donald Trump back in the White House. Now, they say they regret it. In a recent focus group convened by Navigator Research, a Democratic polling and public opinion firm, and shared exclusively with The 19th, the six Trump voters discussed their disappointment with his second term — and their mixed feelings about the upcoming midterm elections.
Navigator shared the group with The 19th on the condition that the participants be referred to only by their first names to protect their privacy. Chrissy, a 44-year-old woman from Michigan, said that two years ago, she was “lazy” in basing her vote on political ads and discussions with others instead of her own research. Now, she’s committed to voting for candidates who will check Trump.
She believes Trump “might have his intentions in the right place,” but his second term hasn’t matched his campaign promises. She knows people struggling to afford groceries and turning to public assistance programs to make ends meet, and she thinks things “will get worse before they get better.” “I just feel we’re drowning, and it only started when Trump got in office,” she said. I mean, flag supporter, everything.
Now I feel like I regret voting for him, I’ll just be honest.” Melissa Toufanian, a managing director at Navigator, said their research has found that 1 in 4 people who voted for Trump in 2024 now regret it. Moms are more likely to regret their votes than dads — and suburban women are a critical election demographic for both parties. While all the focus group participants have soured on Trump, they aren’t all sold on Democrats.
Several expressed deep disillusionment with politics and doubted their votes could meaningfully change what they see as a broken status quo upheld by both political parties. I don’t think that they’re in it for the people. I think they’re in it for themselves these days, and it’s really on both sides.” The cost of living consistently ranks as voters’ top concern, and many Democratic candidates are putting affordability front and center in their campaigns.
Polling from The 19th and YouGov found that women are more worried than men about paying for groceries, healthcare, housing and retirement. Even women who weren’t as personally affected by rising prices saw the war in Iran and the resulting increase in gas and fuel prices as a clear about-face from Trump’s 2024 campaign promises to lower costs. But she said she regretted voting for him because of the war in Iran, which “really messed things up.” “If you’re looking at the gas prices versus if I’m going to see a nuclear bomb happen, I’m more concerned with my gas prices than I am with the nuclear bomb, to be honest,” she said.
Extract — continue reading at the source.
