Ahead of the 2024 presidential election, WUWM asked five conservative-leaning voters to join us for a roundtable conversation. At the time, all of them planned to vote for Republican candidate Donald Trump.
A little over a year into Trump’s term, WUWM checked back in with three of them, to see how they ended up voting and what they think of Trump’s policies so far. We spoke with them before the American and Israeli airstrikes on Iran this past weekend and the subsequent retaliation.
One voter changes her mind
When we talked to the voters in 2024, Gissell Vera was more hesitant than the others about voting for Trump.
“To be very transparent, it was a very hesitant yes [for Trump,]” Vera says now. “And I remember saying, ‘I will doubt it up until the moment I go to the polls, it's gonna be a hard yes.’ And I was like, ‘Well, I don't want to feel that way, like, I want to be proud of my vote. I want to feel confident in my vote, like this is a big deal.’”
Vera is a 25-year-old education advocate. Back in 2024, she was thinking of voting for Trump because of his support for school choice. But by the time the election took place, she had changed her mind. She voted for Democrat Kamala Harris.
Now more than a year into Trump’s term, Vera is glad about her decision. A daughter of Mexican immigrants, she strongly disagrees with Trump’s immigration crackdown.
“Even though a lot of people could say, ‘Well, what are you afraid of? You're an American citizen. If you haven't broken the law, nothing should happen to you.’ We're seeing young kids that are U.S. citizens being dragged out of their workplaces, asking...to ID themselves and really being profiled for being Hispanic, and I think that no matter your status, that should never happen in our streets. It compromises who we are as a country, and everyone should be heartbroken by what is happening.”
Others are mostly supportive of Trump's policies
But the other two voters we checked in with did vote for Trump in 2024, and they are mostly supportive of what he’s done in his second term so far, including his use of Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents.
“You know, you feel bad about people because they're people, sure. But at the same time, they were not invited here by us,” says Rebecca Smith, a school teacher from Milwaukee. “They did not follow our laws to come in. And it's our privilege and right to say to them, ‘Hey, we don't want you here anymore. We didn't give you permission, so we're going to find you and make it happen so that you go back to where you need to be.’”
Smith’s husband immigrated to the United States from Costa Rica, and she is adamant that people who come here need to be properly vetted.
She also likes what Trump’s doing with the economy.
“I feel like prices and things are going back down again,” says Smith. “Gas is not as high as I was remembering it was...You know, it's been a year. I think there may still need to be time for more movement of prices and things. It's really easy to raise prices, but businesses have a hard time at lowering prices when it's appropriate. So, I mean, Trump can't directly control that. I mean, he can make the conditions favorable, and then businesses have to do what they need to do.”
Alex Leykin is chair of the Republican Party of Ozaukee County. He works in mortgage lending.
“[Trump's] deregulation has personally affected me," Leykin says. "I like that.”
Leykin is talking about Trump’s efforts to dismantle and restructure the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB).
Under the Biden Administration, the CFPB expanded lender reporting requirements, asking them to collect demographic data of business owners and home mortgage applicants.
The Biden administration said the primary goals were to encourage fair lending, identify business development needs for minority- and women-owned businesses, and address potential discrimination.
“The CFPB was talking a good game about protecting consumers,” says Leykin. “In fact, the only thing they were doing in the background is promoting the redistribution of wealth and reparations.”
Leykin also likes most of Trump’s shifts on foreign policy. “I find the treatment of Israel by the prior administration appalling and the current administration providing the appropriate support, backup and arms for Israel is a relief, to say the least.”
He says he has family in Israel and is personally affected by this, as well.
Leykin says the main issue where he disagrees with Trump is Ukraine. He wishes the administration would do more to help in the fight against Russia.
