A retired homicide cop who’s seen things. An aspiring screenwriter worried that voters will green-light a Donald Trump White House sequel. A steely Air Force vet on his fourth cup of coffee.
They’re among the millions of Americans who tuned into the fiery Tuesday night throw-down between Vice President Kamala Harris and former President Donald Trump in search of information, persuasion, or confirmation.
The election is on a razor’s edge, with Harris and Trump tied in most national polls. As USA TODAY’s Susan Page recently observed, “Likely voters are holding back from Harris largely because they don’t know enough about her, and those same voters are holding back from Trump because they know too much about him.”
Did Tuesday’s debate move the needle?We sent reporters to talk with our USA TODAY Network readers in the swing states of Arizona, Michigan, Nevada, North Carolina, Ohio, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin about what they expected from the debate, which candidate they were leaning toward – and whether the critical face-off changed anyone’s mind.
Here’s what our swing state readers had to say:
Georgia | Nevada | Pennsylvania | Wisconsin | North Carolina | Michigan | Arizona
In North Carolina, wishing Trump would tone it down
Fred Suco has stories to tell.
Some are delivered with a joyful glint in his eye, like the time Shaquille O’Neal − long a friend of the local police − cold-called the former Miami homicide detective at 1:30 a.m. to see if he’d join for a party on the beach, or when Gloria and Emilio Estefan visited the Florida bar and restaurant he later owned to watch their daughter sing in public for the first time.
Others carry the weight of horror, like the elderly man caught in a drug gang’s crossfire, or the murderer he booked for leaving a 5-year-old girl to be eaten alive by alligators.
They feel like a lifetime ago. An accident in 2017 left Suco paralyzed from the neck down.
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He had to sell the restaurant. With limited income and the new caregiving duties his wife, Cara, had to take on, it made sense to relocate to Raleigh, North Carolina, where housing was cheaper.
But since then, he said, it feels like their dollar has had to stretch ever further.
“Economically, it’s gotten bad. Everything’s gone up,” from groceries to property taxes to insurance, he said.
Suco, 66, was born in communist Cuba, so he’s wary of proposals like those from Vice President Kamala Harris that promise to leverage the federal government to lower costs for families.
More: Inside Trump’s and Harris’ starkly different visions for the economy
He prefers the pro-business policies of Republicans. And, while he wishes Donald Trump would think twice before he posts on social media, Suco liked the way the economy worked when Trump was president.
“You know exactly what he’s thinking because he says it,” he said. “You know what you’re going to get.”
Suco watched Tuesday’s debate at his home in a wooded area of Raleigh, surrounded by colorful artworks. When the smoke cleared, Suco was skeptical the debate won either candidate new voters. And it didn’t change his opinion: That Harris hasn’t shown she can make the country a better place, while Trump has four years of accomplishments under his belt.“This country’s gone the wrong direction the last three and a half years, I believe,” he said. “Inflation’s up, interest rates are up. So who do you trust?”
– Riley Beggin in Raleigh, North Carolina
Looking past the flaws for a potential sweet deal in Pennsylvania
Katie Nist isn’t a registered Republican or Democrat − she thinks politics “isn’t a team sport,” even if too many people view it that way.
The owner of a shop in Philadelphia – a short walk from the National Constitution Center, where Kamala Harris met Donald Trump in their only scheduled debate – Nist grew up in a small New Jersey town and attended Purdue University in Indiana.
Shopping for vintage often involves overlooking the occasional flaw to find a good deal on something nice and enduring. Nist is hungry for a little of the same perspective in the presidential election.
In an era of fevered polarization, “You can’t be lukewarm now,” she said, as an employee worked the store’s register.
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The 28-year-old worries people are too tethered to echo chambers and algorithms that reinforce their beliefs instead of compromising on good, if imperfect, solutions.
Here’s what Nist was thinking about as Harris and Trump took the stage nearby: Health care, including birth control; help for small businesses; the crazy rents she’s paying for her apartment and her store; public transit and infrastructure.
She’s also wonders if she’ll ever be able to afford children – and what kind of education will be there for them.
The daughter of a small-business owner, Nist began selling vintage clothes in college, frustrated by a lower minimum wage in Indiana than she’d earned in New Jersey. She’s had to call 911 to save people who’ve overdosed on the street, and she’s had verbal altercations with a homeless man outside her store’s former location. Like many in Philadelphia, she’s trying to balance compassion with her own quality of life.
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A self-described liberal, Nist believes too many people are focused on single issues, or choosing personality over policy.
“We need to be able to care about more than one thing at a time,” she said. “Your not voting doesn’t help anybody. It hurts everybody.”
Nist watched the debate at The Plough & The Stars, a classy bar just a few blocks from the Constitution Center, where the management advertised free Irish sausages for part of the night.
She was planning to vote for Kamala Harris before the debate started, happy to see the vice president’s energy and charisma, and her attention to issues Nist cares about.
When the debate was over, Nist was a little bit in shock over the former president’s performance. “I can’t believe he said immigrants were eating cats and dogs in response to an abortion question,” she said. “I feel like Trump was just given a list of buzzwords and never actually made a single point towards the question asked.”
– Phaedra Trethan in Philadelphia
A Wisconsin veteran says Republicans ‘folded’ against Trump
Pull into Neenah, Wisconsin, off Interstate 41 and the speed limit brakes from 70 to 25 miles an hour, the slower pace extending into the main drag on Wisconsin Avenue lined with two-story law firms, cafes, and boutiques. It’s a tidy town. Kleenex was invented here.
Politically, it’s been a bullseye of light blue ringed by light red for the past two presidential election cycles – not unlike Steve Nash’s voting record. Nash cast his first Democratic ballot in 2016 after a lifetime of voting Republican.
On a recent morning, Nash filled a coffee mug bearing the logo of a “Never Trump” podcast and spoke in the clipped cadence of a retired Air Force and American Airlines pilot.
“Negative,” he replied, when asked if he would ever vote for Donald Trump.
More: VP nominee Tim Walz will return to Wisconsin on Friday after first Harris-Trump debate
Sipping his java, he poured scorn on Republicans he said have abandoned their values to line up behind the GOP’s bombastic leader.
“All the way from Mitch McConnell to the quiet ones who will curse (Trump) behind closed doors but vote for him, the way they fold is unconscionable,” he said. “That’s not a functioning party. We’re not here to anoint some guy.”
Thanksgiving dinners with the in-laws are tense, he said, the opposite of the polite discussions between his Republican mother and Democratic father.
Nash’s distaste for the former president was sealed in 2017 when Trump described “good people on both sides” after white supremacists marched on Charlotte, Virginia, and a counter-protester was murdered. His father’s cousin died a WWII pilot fighting Nazi Germany.
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He topped off his fourth Monday morning coffee in a Ukrainian flag mug. To Nash’s mind, Putin, Hitler, and Trump were all echoes of one another.
“The only things Americans have in common are the Constitution and the ballot box,” Nash said. “Start screwing with that, we’re Venezuela, Colombia — pick your banana republic — with a lot of nukes.”
While the veteran favored Vice President Kamala Harris, he wasn’t big on her policies, either. But, he said, country trumped “a cult of personality.”
Thirty-six minutes into the debate on Tuesday, Nash reached for his bottle of IPA. It was empty. “I’m ready for another one.”
After ninety minutes of often outrageous comments by the former president, Nash was a little in awe of the ABC moderators. “Good God, how do you keep a straight face up there?” he asked.
– Jesse Lin, in Neenah, Wisconsin
Looking for empathy in Georgia
As Marley McDonald’s screenwriting professor talked about character development, the 21-year-old film student stared at her laptop screensaver and its inspirational message. “Make it happen,” the image said, in rainbow block letters.
The afternoon’s main lesson: Have empathy and compassion for what the people in your screenplay are going through.
If empathy was important in writing, it was even more vital for flesh and blood elected officials, said McDonald, a senior at Georgia State University.
“They’re the people who are in a position to make a real change,” she said, swerving and bobbing down a crowded sidewalk in midtown Atlanta. “Some leaders are more concerned about money and power rather than actually helping people who live.”
Empathy is among the attributes pushing McDonald to vote for Vice President Kamala Harris.
More: Kamala Harris leads Donald Trump in 5 battleground states, tied in Georgia, poll finds
Born and raised in Washington, D.C., McDonald grew up in community service. She spent hours cleaning up parks as a Girl Scout and saw the help that government grant money could bring while arranging food baskets at church for families in need.
She believes Harris is dedicated to funding programs that help people she loves, like her grandfather, who relies on Medicare. And she fears former President Donald Trump would gut those programs and further erode rights that she considers fundamental, like the right to an abortion.
“I want her to hold him accountable,” McDonald said, before meeting up with friends to watch the debate at Manuel’s Tavern.
Two thirds of the way through the fiery debate, Marley was impressed. “I salute Kamala for keeping cool despite his ignorant comments about her and others,” she said. “Calling immigrants criminals is ignorant when America is supposed to be the land of opportunity.”
And she praised Harris for hitting Trump over false statements he made about late-term abortions. “It’s insulting to the women of America,” Harris said.
McDonald got what she was looking for.
“I’m proud of her,” she said.
– Karissa Waddick in Atlanta
Baking big dreams in Arizona
The barking of her three dogs, Chunk, Simba and Menchie, filled the silence of Scianna Garcia’s kitchen as she reflected on what her life looked like only a week ago – before the 21-year-old took a “leap of faith” and left a safe 9 to 5 job to pursue her home baking business full time.
“Before, it was like “Okay, I have to wake up at six in the morning, bake this cake so that when I get home at six in the evening, I make dinner really quick and then decorate it,” Garcia said as she smoothed icing over a heart-shaped cake for one of her weekly orders. “Now that I’m focusing a hundred percent on this, I have time to do self-care in the morning and eat breakfast.”
Garcia, an Arizona native, learned baking from a very young age. “I come from a family of panaderos,” she said, using the Spanish word for bakers.
“Sweets by Scianna” first took off in February 2023, and Garcia is booked with orders every weekend.
Garcia identifies as a Democrat. She previously worked at a non-profit supporting working families, where she attended her first-ever presidential rally last month when Vice President Kamala Harris and Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz came to Phoenix.
She’s fired up.
“Ever since the rally, my good feelings towards the Harris-Walz campaign have grown and I now feel so hopeful,” Garcia said. “The energy was so amazing, just hearing all the political leaders and Kamala herself. I think it’s her compassion that draws me so much.”
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Fired up, and nervous. With Harris and former President Donald Trump tied in national polls, “things are very much up in the air still.”
For Tuesday night’s debate, Garcia was waiting to hear the candidates’ economic and immigration policies. She watched the contest at home with the dogs and laughed as Trump tried to explain his changing position on Florida’s abortion rights referendum.
“She ate him up,” Garcia said of Harris.
“He didn’t have any specific answer for any of the questions asked about what he’s going to do during his presidency,” Garcia said. “Whereas Kamala came with the facts, a very solid plan with numbers for her presidency,. So, I think this says a lot about the nominees.”
– Paula Soria Aguilar in Avondale, Arizona
Sweating it out for Harris in Nevada
Almost without fail, Alfonso Chavez’s gray T-shirt, splashed with the slogan “It’s Up to Us,” is soaked with sweat as he makes his rounds in the battleground state of Nevada.
Three weeks ago, Chavez, 25, took a leave of absence from his cushy, air-conditioned cashier job at the Virgin Hotel off the Las Vegas Strip to spend hours in the grueling 100-degree haze, canvassing to help get out the vote for Culinary Workers Union Local 226.
Chavez is inspired by his mother, Anita, a longtime union worker who handles members’ grievances and remembers taking him out to campaign rallies during Barack Obama’s 2008 presidential run.
He knocks on doors – 60 or more a day – asking union the bellmen, bartenders, food and drink servers, cooks, and kitchen and laundry workers if they’re voting come November.
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“They thank me and think I’m brave for doing this,” Chavez said. “I tell them I love informing people.”
He’s also come across those members who say they will spend Election Day on the couch without voting.
“I tell them they shouldn’t squander their rights as Americans,” he said. “It’s a privilege.”
Chavez spent Tuesday’s debate doing double duty, both canvassing among his union brethren and watching Harris and Trump squabble over who should be the next president.
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“I don’t want to hear a lot of shouting and arguing on stage like in past debates,” Chavez said Monday. “I want to hear about clear talking points and policies. I feel like Kamala needs to be a bit clearer on what she’s fighting for. Hopefully, that’s for us.”
Ninety minutes later, Chavez said Harris had given him the clarity and details he’d been seeking.
“She was strong, straightforward and concise. She didn’t get into any back-and-forth,” Chavez said. “When Trump told her to be quiet, she smiled and kept her composure. She didn’t want to fall into any traps.”
– Terry Collins in Las Vegas
Gaza could swing Michigan
Hannah D’Hondt streamed Tuesday’s presidential debate on her college laptop, surrounded by trophies and plaques won by the Wayne State University speech and debate team and wondering if Vice President Kamala Harris could convince her to get off the fence.
D’Hondt knows how to craft a persuasive argument. She’s convinced others of the importance of voting, especially in a battleground state like Michigan.
“It’s a little nerve wracking seeing that almost all the swing states are within that margin of error on polls,” she said.
But D’Hondt herself hadn’t decided whether to vote for Harris or for a third-party candidate as a protest − even as she knew that casting her ballot for anyone other than the Democratic nominee could indirectly vault Donald Trump back into the White House.
More: Here’s where Donald Trump has been in Michigan this year
Holding her back was U.S. support for Israel in its devastating war in Gaza.
The deadly conflict between Israel and Hamas − and its colossal civilian death toll − has been a major stumbling block for Democrats in Michigan, with its large Arab American population. Even without a familial connection, D’Hondt said news out of Gaza is heartbreaking. She’s signed petitions and made small donations to support Palestinian families.
The business management major leans liberal and voted for President Joe Biden in 2020, though she doesn’t consider herself a Democrat and is skeptical of the two-party system. Going into the debate, D’Hondt wanted the vice president to take a stronger stance against the Gaza war.
“Is Harris going to give me a better idea of what her plans are with handling the situation with Israel and Gaza?” D’Hondt wondered.
When Harris was asked about Israel during the debate, D’Hondt jotted down key phrases with a Sharpie.
“’Cease fire’ is what I initially wrote down,” she said. “The biggest thing I really wanted to hear was that she still wanted to push for that.”
It wasn’t the complete plan to end the war and rebuild Gaza that D’Hondt preferred. But the debate also reminded her of what she doesn’t like about Trump.
“I do feel right now very comfortable about voting for Harris,” she said, “mostly off the premise of not wanting Trump to win.”
− Maureen Groppe in Detroit
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Swing state voters embrace and recoil from the Harris-Trump debate
