Trump, Harris and the end of Roe all collide in closely divided battle for white women
ERIE, Pa. — Dr. Theresa Wheeling had always been a registered Republican.
ERIE, Pa. — Dr. Theresa Wheeling had always been a registered Republican. She voted third party in 2016 and then for Donald Trump in 2020, in large part because she felt it would be “hypocritical” to vote against her kids’ chosen jobs, which were related to various Trump administration policies and promises.
But one day after the Supreme Court upended federal abortion protections previously enshrined by Roe v. Wade, Wheeling changed her party affiliation. And this time around, she is voting for Vice President Kamala Harris.
“I felt embarrassed to call myself a Republican,” Wheeling told NBC News. “Four years ago, I might have said no [to Harris], but now I do think she is more moderate. And I absolutely cannot vote for Trump.”
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Voters like Wheeling, in counties and states like this one — Erie, Pennsylvania, a bellwether in the biggest battleground state — could decide the election. White women are a huge voting bloc, and since 2000, the GOP presidential ticket has won a majority of them. In 2016, the group helped launch Trump into the presidency. In 2020, he improved his margins among them, even though he lost his race for re-election.
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