A key bloc of President Donald Trump's coalition broke toward Democrats in this week's midterms, and several told a reporter exactly why.
White voters without a college degree moved toward Democrats in Tuesday's elections, The New York Times reported Saturday. A majority still backed Republican House candidates, 59 percent to 40 percent, but that margin was 14 points narrower than Trump's 2024 edge with the group, according to the Times' voter analysis.
The group, which made up 39 percent of the electorate this year, has been central to Trump's coalition for more than a decade. In several key Senate contests, including Iowa's, the swing was even sharper.
Kylee Wilson, a 29-year-old bartender in Prairie City, Iowa, voted for Trump three times before backing Democrats this year. She told the Times the president had grown too combative and too entangled in the war with Iran while her family wrestled with rising costs and health care cuts.
"Trump put a target on America's back," Wilson said.
Alan Abramowitz, a political scientist at Emory University, told the Times that while many of these voters still oppose Democrats on abortion, LGBTQ rights and immigration, "people were really focused more on what was happening to their standard of living."
Kenneth Hessen, a 69-year-old retired truck driver, said at a Council Bluffs polling station that he had voted Republican since he was 18 but backed every Democrat on his ballot this year, angered by Medicaid cuts in Trump's tax and spending bill.
"If there was one under a rock, I'd vote for them today," he said.
Kevin Chadwick, who owns a towing and repair business in Harlan, Iowa, still supports Trump but voted for Democratic Senate nominee Josh Turek. He told the Times he was troubled that Republican nominee Rep. Ashley Hinson had grown millions of dollars richer in office, which Hinson has attributed to the sale of her husband's business.
Chadwick said the Democratic sweep "proves that money can't buy everything" after Elon Musk and other wealthy donors poured record sums into Republican campaigns.
Trump has blamed the Republican losses on not being on the ballot himself, an explanation other Republicans have rejected. Tim Charls, a longtime GOP voter who stuck with the party this year, wasn't buying it either.
"He's a drama queen," Charls said. "No, you lost. Like in 2020."
Republican strategist Alex Conant told the Times that working-class voters "thought Trump would fix the economy," but still see themselves slipping behind two years on.
Chadwick was uncertain his vote would change much. "I hope it gets better," he said. "But we hope that every election."