PULSE OF THE VOTERS: US voters weigh presidential candidates, concerns over Biden vs. Trump rematch

Incumbent President Joe Biden and former President Donald Trump are careening toward a possible rematch of the contentious 2020 election, with the two frontrunners exchanging blows over the economy, illegal immigration and the Jan. 6, 2021 attack on the U.S. Capitol.

Biden is seeking reelection after a first term dominated by notable challenges — skyrocketing inflation, U.S. troops withdrawal from Afghanistan and wars in Ukraine and the Middle East. Trump, who still refuses to accept his defeat in the 2020 elections, is hoping to reclaim the White House to win a rare, nonconsecutive term, despite multiple court cases.

Before they face off on the general election ballot in November, Biden and Trump will need to survive what promises to be a grinding presidential nominating process that gets underway with the Iowa caucuses on Monday, followed by the New Hampshire primaries just eight days later.

Biden is poised to lock down the Democratic nomination with no major challengers from within his party, while polling indicates Trump is the favorite to win the GOP nomination despite a recent surge in the polls from former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley.

The 2024 election will also be unprecedented because it will play out as Trump faces multiple criminal and civil indictments, and battles in court to keep his name from being scratched off the Republican Party’s primary ballot. Meanwhile, both Biden and Trump are facing criticism that they are too old to hold the presidency. Recent polls suggest few Americans are excited about a potential Biden-Trump rematch. That has some voters saying they’ll hold their noses to vote for Trump or Biden, while others are mulling over a third candidate or planning to sit out the election.

To gauge the mood of voters, CNHI journalists fanned out across nearly two dozen Midwest, Southwest, Southeast and Northeast states to talk with voters for the latest installment of the “Pulse of the Voters” series, which began more than six years ago.

Northeast

Pennsylvania catapulted Biden to victory in 2020 after he wrested the battleground state’s 20 electoral votes back from Trump following the Republican’s surprise victory in 2016. Now the Keystone State is shaping up once again to be a true battleground.

Biden marked the anniversary of the Jan. 6 Capitol attacks with a fiery speech near the historic Valley Forge Revolutionary War site in Pennsylvania, calling Trump a threat to democracy and freedom. Trump, at a campaign event of his own in Iowa, blasted Biden’s speech as “pathetic” and accused him of “fear mongering.”

Cory Veres, 43, of West Middlesex, Mercer County, Pennsylvania, said he isn’t enamored with either of the two major party’s frontrunners. Veres, a Republican, said he won’t vote for Trump, but he doesn’t want to cast a ballot for Biden, either. He wants to see younger candidates on the ballot.

“I don’t think either one of them are good for the country,” said Veres, who is studying cybersecurity at Penn State Shenango in Sharon. “I’m kind of dreading it (the 2024 election) if we don’t have other options.”

Voters in other Northeast states are also mulling over the presidential ballot.

Donna Hopkins, a 65-year-old realtor from Danvers, Massachusetts is most concerned about rising health care costs and the impact of climate change, gun control and anti-abortion laws.

“That anybody should have to choose between utilities and medicine or food and medicine is appalling to me,” she said. “I think we need to be taking care of the citizens of this country and there are so many people who can’t afford the exorbitant costs for health care today. It’s out of control.”

The Democrat said she is also concerned about a second Trump presidency, saying he’s on a “path of revenge.”

“I would rather choose my dog over Trump if he was on the ballot,” she said.

But Jennifer Canales, a Massachusetts Republican, points out that Trump has not been convicted yet and she argues the economy was “booming” when he was president. She’s planning to support him again.

“I find it very interesting that he is the first president in what, 200 something-years to be indicted for things,” she said. “Seems a little personal to me. I know he’s not the first president to commit all the crimes he’s being accused of so it just seems like they are going way above and beyond just to keep him from running.”

Canales said Trump probably “isn’t the most honorable man when it comes to women” but that neither is “most of the world.”

“So I can’t judge him on that,” she said. “I judge my president on what he did for our country, not his personal life.”

The voting begins next week with Iowa Democrat and Republican caucuses beginning at 7 p.m., Jan. 15.

Midwest

One of the biggest stories of the 2016 presidential election was Trump’s victories in the Midwest. He won Wisconsin, Michigan, Iowa and Ohio, all of which Democrat Barack Obama had cinched in previous elections. But in 2020 Biden flipped Michigan and Wisconsin back to the Democrats.

Now the Midwest is back in the spotlight with the Iowa caucuses kicking off the 2024 nominating next week.

Recent polls show Midwest voters are most concerned about the economy, taxes and housing costs, but also thorny issues such as abortion access and gun control.

Chris Kaelin, a 40-year-old Navy veteran from Jeffersonville, said if the only choice is between Biden and Trump, he will vote for Trump, despite his “baggage.”

“Even though I don’t think he’s right as a candidate (Trump) of the party, I don’t feel Biden has been very effective,” Kaelin said.

Marilyn Collier, of Anderson, said the top issues for her are border security and gun violence but also wants the next president to focus on the economy, housing and infrastructure. She’s also worried about Trump winning another term in office. “I’m afraid of what Donald Trump would do if he was elected again,” Collier said.

But antipathy for the two frontrunners has voters like Ronnie Dickson, 47, of Zionsville, looking for third-party candidates to support.

Dickson, a banker and former Arabic linguist for the U.S. Marines, said he is most concerned about efforts to take the reproductive rights of women, illegal immigration and America’s engagement in foreign conflicts. He plans to vote for a Libertarian candidate.

“Everybody’s been voting in the two-party system for the last 40 or 50 years, and from what I can tell, that’s wasting your vote,” Dickson said. “The results are atrocious and everybody is unhappy all the time … I don’t want to participate in that anger.”

Southwest

Micah Stafford, a Republican and political science major at the University of Oklahoma, said he plans to vote for Haley in the March 5 Super Tuesday primary and views her as the least polarizing option among the GOP candidates.

“I see Haley as someone who has not been in politics for 50 years, and has the modern conservative positions,” Stafford said. “I feel she is a traditional Republican. She’s definitely conservative, but it’s a modern taste that you don’t feel from someone who is 80 years old.”

Rico Peterson, 53, a barbershop owner in Stillwater, Oklahoma, voted for Biden in 2020 but says he’s voting Republican this year and is leaning between Trump and GOP challenger Vivek Ramaswamy.

“Before, I was a Democrat,” Peterson said. “I done flipped the script. Especially if Trump is in there, I’m a ’Trump-eteer.’ … Donald Trump is always going to be the front leader. If he’s able to make it to the ballot, I think that he’ll win in a landslide. … and if he doesn’t get there, [Ramaswamy] is my second [choice].”

National security and economics are among Peterson’s top concerns, and he thinks Biden has done poorly on both those issues.

“I think there’s a way to come into the country, and I think there’s a way not to come in the country,” Peterson said. “And when we look at our national security, we’re being threatened right now, because it’s not just our Hispanic brothers and sisters coming over the border, you know, it’s ISIS or whoever else.”

But Donna Woods of Webbers Falls, Oklahoma, who chairs the Muskogee County Democrat Party, said she thinks Trump is a dangerous choice. She argues that Biden has done more in the past four years for the country, especially on infrastructure spending. “Every time I pass a construction site on the roadway right now, I think that has to do with the legislation that was passed to improve our infrastructure,” she said. “I feel the money made available for internet to be accessible to rural America and rural Oklahoma have been well thought out and a good thing for us.”

Southeast

Biden won Georgia in 2020, marking a rare win in a deep South state that hadn’t backed a Democrat for president in nearly three decades. He won the state with help from a growing number of non-white voters who have gradually loosened Republicans’ grip on the Atlanta suburbs.

Marla Hamilton, 37, a small business owner in Moultrie, Georgia, hasn’t decided who she’ll vote for but says she wants the candidates to focus on pocketbook issues such as persistent inflation. “Taxes are killing us,” she said. “Yes, we have the luxury of having our own small business but we also feel like we’re penalized for having our own small business.”

Zach Balkcom, a high school history teacher from Milledgeville, Georgia, is worried about cuts to education but also hasn’t decided who he will vote for this year. He doesn’t like the current roster of presidential hopefuls.

“They are hardly the best candidates. They are just the ones we have,” he said. “It is a further indictment of each party that this is the best they can do.”

Ken Hines, an Alabama Democrat, blames Trump for “needless deaths” during the COVID-19 pandemic and fears he would use the presidency to seek revenge on his political enemies, if elected.

He plans to vote for Biden.

“Our economy has performed much better than predicted and much better than many other countries,” Hines said. “We have re-energized NATO and helped to stymie Russian aggression in Ukraine.”

CNHI editors and reporters contributed to this report by North of Boston’s Statehouse writer Christian Wade.

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