The notso-shy suburban voter

Smart, educated, opinionated, Claire Mahoney is a wealthy 62-year-old who lives in the lush, leafy Eastover neighborhood of Charlotte, NC. She is just the kind of suburban female voter who Democrats hoped to steer away from Trump this year.

A born and raised Texan, Mahoney has led a cosmopolitan life, as her husband’s finance career has taken them all over the country.

“I have lived East Coast, West Coast and now Charlotte — all in cities,” she said.

But her politics have never budged. “I have always been a Republican,” she said, adding that she has spent years volunteering or fundraising for GOP candidates no matter where she has lived. But in 2016, Trump was not her first pick. “Oh, I was a Marco Rubio supporter and Trump’s manner of doing things was very hard for me. But then I realized, wait, this is just what the country is clamoring for.”

And while Democrats flooded North Carolina with ads to sweep the state’s legislature this year, the only seat that turned blue was the governor’s. “They threw all the money in the world at us to shame us from voting for Trump or any Republican for that matter,” Mahoney said. “Especially suburban women. They tried to shame us for just being us. You see, that’s the problem, they underestimate us. They thought we’d just walk away from our values. “It backfired.” Mahoney said she’s optimistic about the future of her party.

“I can’t wait to see what’s next. I think the experts will always underestimate us, always miscalculate who we are. To be honest, I’d rather be us than them.”