Area supporters vow to uphold the GOP
For Bill Long, Republicanism has become something akin to religion.
Long’s conversion came a year ago, when the 60-yearold Democrat grew frustrated by what he believed were President Barack Obama’s unfulfilled promises.
Drawn in by Jeb Bush and later Ted Cruz, Long now considers himself a Donald Trump man.
“Whoever they put up there is who I’ll support,” said Long, who lives in Kingwood and spends dozens of hours each week volunteering for the Harris County Republican Party. “You see, I’m not a me person. I’m a we person.”
For Long and other Houston-area Trump supporters, the release of a video in which
Trump brags about trying to have sex with a married woman and grabbing women’s genitals is not a gamechanger.
November is about the Republican Party first, the New York billionaire second.
Fueled by that partisan commitment and a fierce dislike of Hillary Clinton, Republican faithful have embraced Trump as their agent of change, brushing aside what they view as either mischaracterizations of their nominee, or unfortunate — but forgivable — slipups.
Trump, who apologized for the vulgar comments but called the concern about them “a distraction,” told the Washington Post on Saturday that he would “never withdraw.”
A month before Election Day, Trump trails Clinton in Harris County but is expected to claim Texas’ 38 electoral votes. Even so, his roughly six-point statewide lead through September and early October — before the video’s release — lags behind those of recent GOP nominees. Mitt Romney led Obama by an average of 17 points in October 2012, according to Real Clear Politics, and John McCain polled about 13 points ahead in 2008. The will of the party
Political scientist Jerry Polinard, of the University of Texas Rio Grande Valley, said Trump’s Lone Star State supporters are like those across the country.
“There’s going to be one segment of that support that’s largely rooted in white males,” Polinard said, noting those voters find his bluster and lack of political correctness attractive. “I think that’s going to be true in Houston as well as Cleveland. In that group, you mayhave more support for Trump as the person. And then you add to that support that’s rooted not so much in the personality of Donald Trump, but the fact that he represents the Republican Party.”
Buffie Ingersoll, president of the Village Republican Women, voted for Mar- co Rubio in the primary and flew to Cleveland as a Cruz delegate. But, the Spring Branch West resident said, “as soon as the people chose (Trump), I was 100 percent behind him.”
Her concerns range from border security to boosting the military and improving the national economy — issues she views Trump as better prepared to address.
“You know, he may very well change things that I don’t agree with. But I think he is a huge change candidate,” she said.
Ingersoll, 64 and a retired financial planner, also harbors deep distrust of Clinton. She pointed to the Clinton Foundation’s acceptance of donations from foreign countries criticized for discriminating against women, something she called “very upsetting.”
She said she is not concerned about reports that Trump used money from the Trump Foundation to purchase portraits of himself and settle lawsuits for his for-profit business, or about his disparaging comments toward women, including those captured in the recently released video.
“I obviously don’t like it, but I think the other side of our choice is a whole lot worse,” Ingersoll said, pointing to sexual misconduct allegations made against former President Bill Clinton and Hillary Clinton’s reported role in pushing back on them. “To me, actions speak a lot louder than words.
“She didn’t actually do the fault, but she stood there — stood by him — as this happened … I wouldn’t call that someone who supports women.”
As for Trump’s foundation, she said, “When you’re a multibillionaire, and you have all these different companies and foundations and things, I don’t know that he’s the one that directs his team of financial people where to take what from what.”
Despite the narrative that candidates — particularly Trump — were drawing disaffected residents into the political process, most of Harris County’s Republican primary participants were returning voters. But nearly half had not voted in a Republican primary in the last decade.
“A lot of them are getting engaged politically in a way they hadn’t been before,” said Harris County Republican Party Chair Paul Simpson.
That is consistent with national trends.
“Throughout the primaries, Trump was making the claim that he was bringing all sorts of new voters into his campaign, people who had been Democrats and independents,” Drake University political scientist Dennis Goldford said. “If (he is), we’re just not seeing evidence of it yet.”
Instead, he said, Trump “represents what I’d call the middle finger segment of the American electorate.”
Murray Pawloski, originally a Cruz supporter, now proudly identifies as a “deplorable,” a reference to Clinton’s comment that half of Trump’s supporters could be put in a “basket of deplorables.” Pawloski even ordered a T-shirt to brand himself.
Trump’s business background is a big attraction for Pawloski, a 41-year-old wine distributor who lives in Katy.
“I have not met a stupid businessman,” he said. “They all have something — quick-wittedness, a different way of analyzing the way the world works — that helps them succeed.”
Pawloski also views Clinton as “incredibly dishonest and untrust worthy,” pointing to her use of a private email server and handling of the 2012 attack in Benghazi, Libya, that left an ambassador and three other Americans dead.
He said he completely disagrees with the “offensive comments” Trump made in the video released Friday but has chosen to accept what he called a “quick and unconditional apology.” ‘Won’t risk values’
Goldford expects that Trump’s hard-core supporters will feel the same way and see this as “another media firestorm about nothing.”
What remains to be seen, Goldford said, is “the extent to which this repels some of the people who were supporting him with some lukewarm attitude, or because they don’t like Hillary Clinton. Is this enough to override their dislike of Hillary Clinton?”
Armando Allen, who is 49 and lives in Spring, is among those who have become conflicted about the Republican nominee.
Like many Mexican immigrants, Allen finds Trump offensive.
But he is considering voting for him.
“I will definitely not vote for Hillary,” said Allen, who works as a distribution director for a Christian movie company. “She supports things I am against: same-sex marriage, abortion. I won’t risk values just because the other guy is talking about mass deportation.”
Allen said he’s willing to overlook Trump’s anti-immigrant rhetoric, banking on the notion that Trump would have to tone down his harsh positions on immigration once in the White House.
For him, the prospect of a liberal justice on the U.S. Supreme Court is more terrifying.
Trump’s first debate performance and his lewd comments about women have given Allen additional pause, however. Now he might not vote at all.
“I’m not so sure if he represents the values of my belief system,” Allen said.