“ERIE, Pa. — Mark Graham, a real estate appraiser in this faded manufacturing hub, sat with friends at a gym named FitnessU on the morning after the Democratic debate in mid-September. He had voted for Barack Obama, but in 2016 he took a gamble on Donald Trump. Although he called the president’s conduct in office “a joke,” he was unwilling to commit to voting Democratic in 2020, unconvinced by the 10 party hopefuls the night before.
Jump ahead to October and Democrats in Congress are investigating evidence of President Trump’s possible abuse of power. Mr. Graham has had an electoral conversion.
“Things have changed in the last couple weeks: More stupidity has come out,’’ Mr. Graham, 69, said in a telephone interview last week. He hopes Democrats nominate former Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr., but he is not particular. “I’d vote for the Democratic nominee no matter who it is at this point,” he said. “If Mr. Trump gets into another four years, where he’s a lame duck, it’s going to be like adding gasoline to the fire.”
Heading into 2020, there is intense focus among campaign strategists on the weakest element of the Trump coalition: the millions of voters who disapproved of both major candidates in 2016 but took a chance on Mr. Trump. Whether an impeachment inquiry moves Obama-Trump voters like Mr. Graham off the fence, one way or the other, is a major narrative arc in the 2020 script that is rapidly unfolding and updating.”
David Lindsay: The article reports that 6.7 million voters supported Obama, then Trump. They made up 5% of the total vote, and they alone allowed Trump to win. One commentator said that the article shows they were mostly sexist men (and women), which might be an accurate summary. Which leads to my insistence that our nominee to knock off Trump has to be a centrist male, which suggests strongly Joe Biden, or Buttigieg, or Booker.
Here is a comment I chose to respond to:
He’s “a really conservative family guy,” who sent four children to Catholic schools. He voted for Trump. Might again. I don’t understand how people can compartmentalize their values like this.
I live in an area of Pennsylvania where people voted for Herr Trump, or any other GOP candidate for one reason and one reason only, they are deathly afraid any Democrat will take away their guns. Many of my neighbors disliked Herr Trump and thought he was not capable of doing the job, but they wanted to keep their guns more.
