“Now that you’ve got Kamala in there, you’ve got a whole different ballgame,” one independent Pennsylvania voter said.
By Maeve Reston, The Washington PostRepublican nominee Donald Trump walks onstage at the New Holland Arena during a campaign event in Harrisburg, Pa., on Wednesday.
Vance’s comments from 2021 suggesting that Americans without children “don’t really have a direct stake” in the country’s future went viral days ago. But unfortunately for Trump, the maelstrom surrounding his running mate is still stirring in this perennial battleground. In interviews with more than two dozen voters, it was clear that Vance’s views have renewed unease about Trump’s judgment, his past statements about women and his record on abortion.
In a strange stroke of political timing, America’s reintroduction to Harris, now at the top of the Democratic presidential ticket, has coincided with the vetting of Vance. That has meant voters are revisiting the possibility of the first female president at the same time that Vance is drawing scrutiny of his views on traditional marriage, the role of women in the home and his opposition to abortion, including in the case of rape and incest.
Now, Lugo said, she is more heavily weighing how the former president “treats people” and is concerned that Vance and Trump “have the same behavior and thinking.” Disrespect for women – “that’s the one thing I don’t tolerate,” she said. “People got immune to Trump; they just shrug him off,” said O’Connor, who changed her registration from Republican to Democrat after Trump was elected because she no longer felt the party reflected her values. With Vance, she said, “we’re getting a new take on their views.”