The key issue that could decide the election is an economy that has benefited some but not all — and struggling Florida voters are drawn to candidates addressing the issue, the Washington Post reported.
But at one Democratic debate watch party, voters wished the candidates had given them more reason to back them, the Post reported.
“Our membership is at an all-time high, but enthusiasm is low,” club member Dave Finnigan, 77, told the Post, which noted voters have felt a sense of dread ever since Democrats lost the gubernatorial and U.S. Senate races to Republicans last year.
Another said it’s her economic struggle that she’s concerned about — and wanted to know how the candidates were going to fix income disparities.
“What are you going to do to fix our homeless problem and those families stuck in those [transition] hotels?” Teresa Castillo, 37, asked, the Post reported.
Another watch-party viewer, Aja Mallow, 26, who lives at an aging motel, and relies on the resort economy of Celebration, was more doubtful about whether the debates — or the 2020 election — would help much.
“No matter who you pick, you can’t trust anybody,” she said of politicians. “It’s people like us who need help.”
Finnigan, Castillo and Mallow shared a sense that something in the economy was badly broken, as well as a belief that the candidate who had a convincing plan to fix it had the best chance of winning the presidency, the Post reported.
Finnigan liked California Sen. Kamala Harris’s fight and her flashes of anger, and Vermont’s independent Sen. Bernie Sanders’s proposals to redistribute wealth.
The moment from the debates that most moved Castillo came on the first night, when Sen. Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts delivered her closing remarks, saying, “She reminds me of myself.”
But Mallow lamented, “I feel like everybody is so focused on just beating Trump and not on fixing the problems of America.”
“I was looking for more out of them,” she told the Post.
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