Trump voters say his views on issues were ‘common sense’
CHICAGO — The voters who made possible Donald Trump’s victory included people who consider themselves moderates and came around to Trump after supporting other candidates.
Here’s a look at three voters who helped usher in a Trump presidency, and why they did so:
In Michigan, Patrick Burke supported Ohio Gov. John Kasich in the GOP primary but “jumped on in full support” of Trump as he bested the field.
The 60-year-old automotive and business consultant lives in suburban Detroit’s Macomb County, which was home to the “Reagan Democrats” in the 1980s. In 2012, Obama carried Macomb County by 4 percentage points. Trump enjoyed an 11 point-plus margin there.
Trump stands for “making sure that if you work hard that your government is there to help you rather than hurt you,” Burke said, noting that Trump’s message “of prosperity and reducing the debt and a strong military and reforming immigration really resonated” with blue-collar workers.
Burke said Trump isn’t perfect, but he believes the most divisive and vulgar rhetoric “was just all talk.”
“I like the fact that he’s been successful. He has built some incredible things. He has had his failures but he’s had huge successes,” he said. “I think that Trump has the vision that we need to have now to get us pointed back in the right direction.”
Eileen Barlow, a 56-yearold small business owner and part-time bartender, voted for Trump because he’s a businessman and not a politician. He’s also not a Clinton.
“My grandfather always said that what we need is a businessman in the presidential office, and that’s what Donald Trump is,” Barlow said as she stood behind the bar at the local American Legion post in the Chicago suburb of Naperville, readying for a busy night.
In her voting lifetime, Barlow says she supported Republicans about 60 percent of the time and Democrats 40 percent. Most of her family members are Democrats. But Bill Clinton was her “tipping point.” Barlow voted for him twice. Then came the scandal over his sexual relationship with Monica Lewinsky
“After what happened with him, it turned me off the Clintons permanently. Not just that he did it. But admit it. Don’t stand there and lie to us,” she said.
Obama’s signature health care law was another reason.
Both Barlow and her husband are small-business owners, and between them have three adult kids. Come Feb. 1, they will be paying just shy of $1,400 per month in health insurance premiums for the two of them, with a $2,500 deductible per person.
“The Affordable Care Act is a mess,” she said.
At Anthony’s Barber Shop in Middletown Township, Pa.. owner Anthony Canamucio’s customers range from doctors to lawyers to retired steel mill guys of all races. Most of them, like Canamucio himself, voted for Trump.
“We were sick and tired of elitist and career politicians,” he said.
Canamucio, 50, who typically votes for Republicans, supported Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker early in the crowded GOP primary, but as that battle stretched on, his choice shifted.
“You could see who was just a career politician trying to move up the ladder — Walker included,” he said. “And then there was Trump.”
Trump “spoke like people speak here when they’re in my barber chair” and had positions on issues that mirror most of “middle America.”
Take immigration: Canamucio said it doesn’t make sense to him that states are issuing driver’s licenses to immigrants who are in the U.S. illegally or that Syrian refugees are coming to this country rather than going to neighboring Arab states. In Trump, he found someone who felt the same way.
“He was the first person who seemed to have some common sense,” he said.
Now, it’s important for Trump to follow through on his promises, he said. “I think people are expecting him to do what he says he’s gonna do. They’re just sick of having smoke blown up their you-know-what.”