As a Nebraska native, I’d been picking up signals in recent months from my conservative family and friends that they’re uncertain how they’ll vote this November. And when I’ve asked why, they said they are simply appalled. I wasn’t surprised, but it didn’t match up with the narrative of diehard Trump voters dominating the 2020 coverage. So, on an extended trip back home, I decided to see just how widespread this sentiment was. I asked legislators I knew from my years covering the statehouse, and they had no trouble pointing me to constituents, which is how I found Elaine Dlouhy, a 57-year-old client services manager at a Lincoln staffing agency who is now planning to vote for Joe Biden. She’s hesitant about the Democrat’s stance on late-pregnancy abortion, but that’s not enough to dissuade her.
“It’s comical and it’s embarrassing,” she said of the current commander in chief. “I used to try to support him, to see something good in something he said. I can’t do that anymore.”…
But their distaste might be a telling indicator of why Trump is floundering in polls across the country. It isn’t necessarily about a policy or a broken promise, it’s about Trump as a person. Trump’s bare-knuckled personality—which was on full display at the Tuesday debate—has been his calling card. He has said things that no one else dares, and his base loves him for it. But for this group of former supporters, Trump’s personality has become his biggest liability.
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