CHURCHVILLE, Pa. — A few of the voters who remain undecided in the 2024 election were moved by Tuesday’s debate — but it might take more than a debate to fully make up their minds.
A handful of Arizona voters previously turned off by both candidates expressed interest in Vice President Kamala Harris in an NBC News panel after the ABC News debate. All three undecided voters assembled for a similar exercise in the Philadelphia suburbs remained on the fence, with Harris getting a look from two and former President Donald Trump from one. And while they generally though that Harris had a good debate, but they want to hear more from her about some key issues.
Undecided voters only account for a few percentage points of the electorate right now, according to public polls, with a closely divided country getting behind Trump and Harris. But in a close election, a few percentage points could matter, as it did in 2016 and 2020.
The three undecided Pennsylvania voters from Bucks County — one Democrat, one Republican and one independent — seemed to feel more certain in their frustration with one candidate than in their interest in the other, delivering withering assessments of the debate: “Manipulated.” “Lies.” “Fluff.” “Same old, same old.”
Lynne Kelleher, a registered Republican who voted for Trump in 2016 and for the libertarian candidate in 2020, believes this election comes down to a choice: “Do you vote your pocketbook or do you vote your morals?”
“I think Kamala had a good debate,” she said. “I feel more favorably towards her than to Donald, but I’m not still 100%.”
“I wish that there was another candidate besides these two. I’m not happy with either candidate. That’s why this is so hard for me,” she said.
Kelleher felt frustrated that Trump talks in “such extremes” and said that while Harris had “great taglines” like “opportunity economy,” she did not get a sense of what those phrases mean.
Hannah Reed, an independent who backed Trump in 2016 and Joe Biden in 2020, feels similarly. Reed said she wants to like Harris but does not think she has “actual policies that are going to be effective.”
After hearing Trump talk about abortion on the debate stage, Reed said she could not vote for Trump — but is still unsure who she is voting for.
“There is absolutely no woman who is carrying a child to nine months that walks into an office and asks a doctor to give her an abortion. There is no woman doing that, and there is no doctor that would do that. If that is happening, it is a medical emergency,” Reed said. “These are talking points that his supporters genuinely believe. That is why he is saying it. And it’s not true. It’s misinformation. It’s disinformation.”
Reed believes a majority of Americans are not happy with the choices in the election.
Andrew Wallace, 41, a registered Democrat who voted for Trump in 2016 and Biden in 2020, said after the debate that he is leaning toward Trump — “51-49,” as he described it. He said he was hoping to hear more about the candidates’ policies during the debate.
Wallace described the change at the top of the Democratic ticket from Biden to Harris a “subversion of democracy” and said he “would like to have a say in the primary, and they didn’t give me that.”
In Phoenix, Denise Lewis, 57, wrote her name for both the 2016 and 2020 presidential elections in frustration with the options presented. Going into Tuesday night’s debate, the Scottsdale resident was planning on writing herself in again. After the debate, she’s now considering voting for Harris.
A moment that stuck with Lewis came when the two presidential candidates jousted on the topic of abortion.
“For years, we’ve had men legislators tell us we can’t have abortions. We have to do this with our bodies. We have to do that with our bodies. We’ve never had control,” Lewis said. “Finally, we have someone who’s a woman who gets that it’s about us.”
But Lewis said Harris didn’t fully seal the deal with her last night.
“I would like to know more. And as we were talking before, here’s Trump, who’s been campaigning this long, long time, and now Harris is finally thrust in the spotlight,” said Lewis.
As for Jeff Herr, a publisher from Tucson, Tuesday night was less about Harris’ performance and more about Trump’s. The self-described “McCain Republican” didn’t like how the former president answered questions about the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol riot as Congress was meeting to certify his 2020 election loss.
“For two and a half hours when he’s prancing around in the White House, and it just seemed like, how can you not take responsibility at some point for for the whole thing?” Herr said of Trump’s refusal to take responsibility.
Herr, who showed reverence for the late GOP Sen. John McCain, said the recent endorsement of Harris by McCain’s son was meaningful to him.
Herr also saw a contrast between how Trump and Harris conducted themselves on the debate stage. “That’s Trump the bully,” said Herr of the former president’s rhetoric on stage. “Harris came out showing some decorum, some presidential nature about her,” Herr added.
Romeo Navarro, 22, voted for Biden last cycle but came into the debate leaning toward Trump. After the debate, Navarro said he’s still leaning toward Trump, but Harris has given him more to think about.
“I will say after this debate, she’s definitely piqued my interest,” said the Phoenix resident. But, like Lewis, he said there are still too many unknowns about the vice president.
“I think with Harris, there’s just a lot of question marks,” he said. “I didn’t really know a lot about her, other than she served as vice president, and today, unfortunately, she didn’t get to talk about a lot of her policy.”
Navarro plans to take it upon himself to research Harris before making his final decision about his vote.
“I need to step away from this, now that she’s piqued my interest, to kind of do my own research and look on her website,” he said after the debate.
But despite his increased curiosity, Navarro made clear that if the election were held today he’d be voting for Trump because of his stances on the economy and immigration.
Emma Barnett and Kate Snow reported from Churchville, Pa.; Alex Tabet and Jacob Soboroff reported from Phoenix.
