Opinion | Kamala Harris and Donald Trump: 15 Swing State Voters Discuss

Who will win the presidential race? For our last Instances Opinion focus group of the 2024 election, we spoke with late-deciding voters — People who had been seesawing between Kamala Harris and Donald Trump just lately and making up their minds on the final minute. With Harris and Trump supporters so energized and polls exhibiting a really tight race, we needed to discover the occasions, points and vibes which may sway these voters a technique or one other.

All of our 15 late deciders had been from swing states like Pennsylvania and Michigan, and plenty of of them voted for Mr. Trump in 2016 and for Joe Biden in 2020. No shock, most of them had considerations and hang-ups about each of the candidates, however it rapidly grew to become clear that Mr. Trump, specifically, was doing himself no favors with these voters.

Whereas a few of them recoiled over his Madison Sq. Backyard rally, his larger downside was coming throughout as the identical outdated, usual to those voters, with no new or clear options to their issues and his acquainted grievances concerning the 2020 election.

As for Ms. Harris, most of those voters thought she can be “extra of the identical” as president, somewhat than a pacesetter who pursues modifications, and noticed her as much less genuine than Mr. Trump.. A lot of them in contrast her much less favorably with Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama. However in the long run, years of misgivings and doubts about Mr. Trump outweighed the uncertainty about Ms. Harris with a number of members, and extra of them noticed her successful than Mr. Trump.