Trump supporters who changed their minds: “I’d rather vote for a tuna sandwich” | Donald Trump

The anti-Trumpers are back, only this time, they are Republicans.

Kevin, a longtime Republican voter and Arizona pastor, says he voted for Trump in 2016 “with high hopes for the future.” He knew that Trump did not have the same political experience as the other contenders, but was optimistic that he could grow in his new role.

Now he says: “I have seen how you have tried to divide our country and that is not something I want, nor what our country should have … This man is an absolute danger to our country.”

Kevin’s experience of voting for Trump and then quickly realizing he had made a mistake is one of many used by Republican voters against Trump (RVAT), who wants to oust Trump from office later this year. . The group searches for testimony from former Trump voters through its website, which proudly displays the best quotes so far. (“I would vote for a tuna sandwich before voting for Donald Trump again,” says one.)

Sarah Longwell, a Republican consultant who co-founded RVAT, said they have received hundreds of testimonials in the past few months.

The group is funded by millionaire neo-conservative expert Bill Kristol, who was previously chief of staff to George HW Bush’s vice president, but uses testimony from clearly non-political voices to make an impact.

“One of the reasons they are so compelling is because you can tell how authentic they are, how deeply they feel this, many of them want to get something out of their chest,” says Longwell. The testimonials are neither written nor paid, but are the result of a great deal of work.

Massachussetts’ Jeffrey Farmer certainly meets the requirements of an unpolished but frustrated voice – he’s immunocompromised and angry at Trump’s response to the pandemic. And he’s certainly not the voice of a politician prepared by the media and prepared for focus groups, just a person who previously supported Trump.

“I don’t even know why I’m doing this stupid, because this is not what I do. I don’t do social media or anything. But I can’t take it anymore, “he says.

Farmer voted for Trump in 2016 because of how much Hillary Clinton disliked him, but describes him as “Like a Tasmanian devil,” who spends all day complaining on Twitter instead of doing his job.

“This guy couldn’t get out of a paper bag,” says Farmer.

Longwell, herself a disaffected Republican, says she initially started looking for answers after Trump won the presidency.

“I’ve been alarmed by him from the beginning,” she says, so around 2017, she began searching for answers. “I wanted to know how Donald Trump took over the party,” she says. She led focus groups with soft Trump voters, who voted for her in 2016 but called it a bad or very bad thing, and tried to understand how to persuade them against her.

She discovered that the key was for them to listen to people like them.

“One thing we found is that the cultural aspect played an important role in [the 2016 election]”She says.” They would have women who would say ‘I voted for him and I cried’ or ‘I voted for him and then I had to take a shower’. But they were surrounded by people who talk about how all the Democrats are socialists or whatever, “she says. she.

But as a lifelong supporter of the Republican Party, do you really want Biden to win? Longwell says that she absolutely, unequivocally does.

“Donald Trump has a negative impact on the future of the Republican Party,” says Longwell. “It has kidnapped and really poisoned the country, and turned it into a nationalist populist party.” There is a section of republicans who do not find it attractive, and I am one of them.

“The best thing for the party in the long run is for it to be completely defeated and for the party to reconsider its direction.”