Switch voters weigh in on 2024 election and what issues matter most to them 

Charlene Abughrin, an entrepreneur who lives in Milwaukee, was an enthusiastic voter for Barack Obama in 2008. An African American woman, she was thrilled to see the first Black person elected president. 

But Abughrin was disappointed by Obama’s leadership.

“From a Black person’s standpoint, when Barack got into office we had so much hope that he would right a lot of the wrongs that had been carried out with the Black community. He didn’t do anything that was specifically for the Black race,” Abughrin said.

In 2016, Abughrin voted for Donald Trump for president. This year, she is backing Trump again for office. 

Although it might seem that just about every citizen in the country is deeply entrenched in one party or the other, a significant number of voters switch from party to party in each election. 

The election forecasting site FiveThirtyEight estimated there were about 10 million voters who switched from one party to another from the 2012 to 2016 elections, about 7 percent of all votes cast. 

Wisconsin is one of six or seven states considered battlegrounds that will likely decide the election; a small number of switch voters here could make a huge difference. “Wisconsin Today” spoke recently with three Wisconsin residents, including Abughrin, who have changed their allegiances to learn how they’re weighing the 2024 race.

The Reagan Republican

Steve Clark of Madison considers himself a “Reagan Republican.”

“When I was in college, I tried hard to be a Democrat, and I just couldn’t do it,” he joked. Clark wrote-in Mike Pence for president in 2016. But he ended up being surprised by Trump, who he said did a “pretty good job” as president. So he voted for him in 2020. But his opinion of him quickly soured after that election. 

“His response to the election and the Jan. 6 insurgency and the continued denial of the election results, despite all of the evidence, was a big put off,” he said. 

He sees problems in the world growing and doesn’t believe Trump is up to the task of forceful leadership of American interests. Republicans like President Ronald Reagan and U.S. Sen. Barry Goldwater stood against tyranny, especially against Soviet tyranny, Clark said. He remembers the role that Reagan played in confronting the Soviet Bloc and its eventual dissolution. 

He doesn’t believe Trump would provide similar leadership in confronting Russian or Chinese aggression. 

“China is looking at what’s going on in the Ukraine and licking their chops and saying, ‘Hey, Taiwan is out there for the taking.’ I’m afraid that the world is going to get even hotter and Trump won’t stand up for that.”  

He also sees many of the positions of Trump — and his running mate, U.S. Sen. JD Vance — as anathema to traditional Republican free trade policies. 

“I don’t know what’s going on with Trump. I just don’t trust the fellow,” he said. 

Wanting someone to turn the country around

Abughrin says the most important issues to her are crime and the economy. 

“Crime and poverty (are) just everywhere, and it is hitting all walks of life, and you can’t escape it,” Abugrhin said. “And there’s nothing meaningful that is being done that will have an impact that is going to help this generation, and the next generation after that. So much debt. My grandkids’ grandkids’ grandkids will still be paying for some of the poor decisions that have been made under the current leadership.”

Abughrin skipped voting in 2020 because she felt her vote wouldn’t make any difference. But, she’s backing Trump again this year. 

“Trump actually did what he said he was going to do. He came to lower inflation — he did that. He brought more jobs — he did that. He brought more money into the community for small businesses — he did that.”

Inflation did increase while Trump was in office and grew more for a period under President Biden. And while job growth was healthy during both Obama and Trump’s time in office, it’s been faster under Biden than during any of his four predecessors, according to Poynter.

But overall trends are little comfort to people who are experiencing crime or poverty. Abughrin said that she wants a president who can get things done, regardless of what party they belong to. 

“Nobody cares about party anymore,” she said. “They just want to know who’s going to put the policies in place that will turn this country around.”

A Republican voter against Trump

Switching party support is nothing new for Lori McCammon, an Alma resident. She was a big fan of Republican John McCain when he ran for president in 2008. “I really liked John McCain. When he picked Sarah Palin, he lost my vote,” she said. 

So she voted for Barack Obama in the 2008 and 2012 elections. In 2016, she cast her ballot for Donald Trump, thinking a businessman’s perspective might be good for the country. 

Instead, she was horrified by Trump’s leadership. “There was total chaos,” McCammon said. “What I had such a tough time getting past was all of the lies that he told.” 

She said he thought many of his actions were treasonous, like his siding with Russian President Vladimir Putin over U.S. intelligence agencies at a summit in Finland. She also thought his handling of the pandemic was disastrous. 

“He does not care about any of us,” McCammon told the show. “He would chew us up and spit us out if it would help him. I was so disgusted by the end of his term, that I thought we cannot endure another four years.”

She has since come to oppose any Republicans for office. She’s joined a number of Republican voters — including Steve Clark — to support the efforts of Republican Voters Against Trump, a partisan group trying to keep Trump from another term. 

McCammon hopes the next president will restore reproductive rights for all Americans, fight climate change and inflation, and strengthen NATO. She also hopes that Congress and the next president will do something to counteract the broad immunity that the U.S. Supreme Court gave Trump for any crimes he might have committed as part of “official acts” as president. 

“I almost wanted to cry when I heard that,” she said. “We really will lose this country if Trump gets in. The Supreme Court has given him free rein to do just about anything he wants to do.”