Maga’s regret voters were all-in for Trump’s racism. Then they found out they couldn’t afford it
For the first time in a decade, election predictions far exceeded public expectations. What pollsters anticipated as a blue wave billowed into a blue tsunami. Wins that held ground for already blue seats eased nerves, and the flips of swing states like Michigan, Georgia, North Carolina and Ohio energized the blue base. But red-belt-busting wins in Republican strongholds like Texas, South Carolina and Kansas alongside pending races in Alaska and Mississippi left mouths agape. The explanation was that Democrats turned out far more supporters than their regulars, and that the “regret voter” (both swing voters and partisan Republicans) expanded the wave across districts Trump previously won. Elation and sighs of relief rolled over consistently Democratic voters who suffered multiple sucker punches from recent years of Republican upsets. Regret voters, who run the gamut from gen Z men to Latinos, farmers and the white working class, hope a different party can deliver on the economy Trump promised them.
Blue voters look at the dismantling of democracy, multiple wars, mass deportations and Trump’s unchecked power in these last two years and see how it all could have been avoided. Regret voters, however, either co-signed or conceded to Trump’s naked racism and brutish bullying of marginalized people, but switched their votes as soon as the consequences hit their pockets. While some of the president’s backers may have been turned away by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) gunning down American citizens, the final straw for most wasn’t ICE’s brutality, but rather the price of eggs. Some may have been upset by the Tomahawk missile assault that killed 120 schoolgirls in Iran, but most fumed at the rocketing costs at the gas pump that followed. Few demanded answers for the nearly 60 deaths of innocent people detained in DHS detention centers since the start of 2024, but many felt scorned by lost immigrant labor that cut into owners’ profit margins. Maga’s regret voters were all-in for Trump’s racism. Then they found out they couldn’t afford it.
