Strongest Candidate, A take on the GOP from GOPers..

The Strongest Candidate Is the Strongest Candidate

What do GOP voters want? “Testicular fortitude,” among other things. Conversations with 100 Republicans in Iowa and New Hampshire.

By Gabriel Sherman

On February 1, Iowans will cast the first votes of the 2016 presidential election, and the only thing that’s clear is that this Republican primary is the most unpredictable and surreal campaign in recent memory. But why? To understand the swirl of forces buffeting the party, we traveled across New Hampshire and Iowa and spoke to more than 100 Republican-primary voters. We met them in their homes and at town halls, at a motorcycle dealership and an auto-body shop. We attended a Christmas-themed Trump rally and a gun show where AR-15s were being sold alongside “historical” Confederate flags. (You’ll notice that there are no noticeable faces of color on this page; this is because we did not come across any nonwhite GOP voters in our travels.)

We tried to discern not just their candidate preferences but their worldviews. National security and the economy ranked among their top concerns, and health care, immigration, and gun control were important. But issues didn’t really seem to be the point. It was common to hear voters say they could choose any of the candidates across the ideological spectrum. “I like Christie because of his executive experience,” said Greg Mason, a 59-year-old IT engineer from Manchester, New Hampshire. “Carly Fiorina impresses the living death of me. I like Marco Rubio. Cruz. And Trump, I don’t agree with his positions, but he’s got the testicular fortitude to come out and say people are desperate.”

The phrase seemed telling. If there was anything almost all of the respondents sought in a candidate, it was that testicular fortitude — or, in less colorful terms, strength. It’s why Trump has steamrolled his rivals despite his ideological inconsistencies as a Republican. And it’s why Jeb Bush and Marco Rubio have failed to connect: Being labeled a nerd in this GOP primary is the kiss of death; being cast as a sissy is even worse. Machismo even seems to be Carly Fiorina’s best selling point.

This attraction to strength seems to be connected to an inchoate sense that the world is falling apart. The voters we spoke to were concerned about a lot of potential threats — terrorist, economic, and cultural — and hoped that a strong president would protect them from dangers within as well as from abroad. Voters said they no longer felt free to be themselves in their own country — policed in their speech, unable to pray publicly or even say “God bless you” when someone sneezes. “Everything’s so p.c.,” said Priscilla Mills, a 33-year-old hospital coordinator from Manchester. “And then the second you do say something, you’re a racist.” Trump, who had 21 percent of the vote in our small sample, has capitalized the most on the political-correctness grievance, which is likely to surface in the general election no matter who becomes the nominee.

The culture wars clearly aren’t defined along the same lines that they used to be. Almost everyone we spoke with said they were pro-life, but few talked about restricting abortion as their main issue. And gay marriage barely even registered as a cause for concern. “I feel like I don’t wear a black robe, so I don’t have the right to judge anybody,” said Tina Vondran, 49, of Monticello, Iowa.

Certainly, there were voters turned off by the polemical style of the more extreme candidates. And 48 percent were still undecided as of late January. But their leanings, which crisscrossed ideological positions, seemed to confirm the conventional wisdom that the GOP-primary voter is more motivated by mood than by policy. “Donald Trump has the best tagline of all, ‘Make America great again,’ ” said Rubio backer Russell Fuhrman of Dubuque, Iowa. “The country just seems to be in a severe decline. Insecurity’s so high; pessimism and political correctness are running rampant. It’s sad.”

Ultimately, what Republicans want to pick is a winner (even if their assessments of strength didn’t necessarily reflect pundit views of who is most likely to prevail in the general election). As much as they dislike Barack Obama, there is a bogey­woman they fear more. “If Hillary wins this election, the country’s either going to roll over and play dead,” said Iowa voter Fred Grunder, “or I could see some kind of revolution.”

 Here are a few comments:

George Lambert
From: Litchfield, NH
Age: 47
Occupation: Computer-software executive
Supporting: Trump

I grew up as a strict constitutionalist. Let’s say my brother got caught with a pack of cigarettes in his room and my mom went to punish him. My dad said, “What are you doing in his room? You can’t punish him, you didn’t have jurisdiction to do the search.” I call myself a liberty Republican. I supported Ron Paul in the last two elections. I got interested in Donald Trump back in February. I put 32 liberty Republicans into a boardroom with him, and I drilled him for 25 minutes on tough issues. Even when you didn’t agree with him, you knew that he was going to do exactly what he thought was right and that he cared about the country more than he did feathering his own nest, which is not the feeling I get from Marco Rubio. And I would actually vote for a dead cat before I’d vote for another Bush — I would vote for Hillary over Jeb. I think Trump is going to do a better job even than Ronald Reagan.

Allison Doyle
From: Cedar Rapids, IA 
Age: 24 
Occupation: Student
Supporting: Trump

Our system is so backwards. Nothing has been working for the past eight years. Something big has got to change so people are safe and financially okay. I’m going into law enforcement. And look at the war on police. We have a war on everything — war on gender, war on police, war on race, you name it. We’re just way too politically correct as a country. And you got to do what you got to do to keep your country safe. If it’s banning Muslims … I don’t know. I think Trump would make an awesome president. I love that people have tried to knock him down so many times and he’s still going strong. I really admire that.

Toni Pappas
From: Manchester, NH
Age: 72
Occupation: County commissioner
Supporting: Christie

I’m extremely concerned about the economy, and like everyone else I’m concerned about the terrorist attacks and the safety of our country. I debated between Jeb Bush and Christie for a while. But I think Chris Christie is the best suited to lead us in the area of keeping our country safe, because of his background as a prosecutor and because as a Republican he’s run a blue state. I don’t think he knew about Bridgegate. He said that the people who worked for him didn’t tell him that they were doing this. It was a terrible thing to do.

Merchon Andersen
From: Delaware, IA
Age: 50
Occupation: Operations assistant
Supporting: Trump

I work at a lip-balm factory. I used to work for Ricoh, the copy-maker. When my area lost two contracts, there was no need for my role anymore. Six months of wondering if I was going to get a job. It was really difficult, especially when you’re in your late 40s. I went on unemployment. My health care has gone to shit. I had to go to a high deductible because I can’t afford $240 a month. This is Obamacare.

I’m also an Army mom. My daughter was a Kiowa-helicopter tech, served for nine months in Afghanistan. But she is not finding a job now. Taking care of veterans is at the top of my list.

I really care about getting our country back to where it’s supposed to be. As soon as Trump came on the field, I was there. This is who I want. I didn’t look at anybody else. It’s just been The Donald. He speaks to the Americans that are genuine Americans at heart, that get what our country was based on. And Trump’s for the ­military. He’ll straight up tell you that.

Trump reminds me of Reagan. Reagan really lived what he believed. We have a president now that doesn’t believe what he lives. He made promises and gave us great hope. Now we’re getting that hope back. We’re trying to get that change back to the way this country should’ve been, where we can say “Merry Christmas” and “God bless America.” I’m tired of political ­correctness all the time. We have contract workers that work with us, and a lot of them are Muslim. We have to honor their rituals. If they need to pray during the day, we have to allow that. There’s something wrong. It’s harder to be a Christian now in America. We’re now the minority, and I’m hoping Donald can bring us back to being the majority again.

This is the other thing that I can’t get my Democratic friends to understand: Bringing in these refugees, why are there so many men? If you want to convince me, where are the women and children? I don’t have a problem with women and children. But we’re not vetting them. There’s just so much that I don’t trust. “We just have to open our hearts.” Open our hearts for what?

My other daughter is mixed race. She is pretty much a liberal. She has been ripping me up one side and down the other. She goes, “Trump is an atrocity.” I’m like, “You don’t understand him. He is for the people.” She thinks he’s racist. I told my daughter, “What you don’t like is he’s just like you: He tells you like it is.”

She believes that the Democrats have been doing so much more for the black culture. She keeps believing that the Republicans are the ones that are blocking this and I’m like, “No. They’re not.” She goes, “Well, it’s white suppression.” I go, “There’s no white suppression. You need to get out more.” Yes, black lives matter. All lives matter. There’s a lot of black-on-white crime that doesn’t get reported. And black-on-black crime is so huge. I mean, we can’t go a day or a week in Cedar Rapids, Waterloo, or Dubuque without shootings.

I did vote for Obama the first time around. Because I really was not happy with the Bush administration towards the end. The weapons of mass destruction were proven false; you kind of go, Okay, who’s telling the truth? I met Obama in Dubuque. I got two hugs from him. I was very impressed. They were trying to move him along, but he really wanted to hear what I had to say. I said, “I’ve been a Republican for many, many years. I think it’s time for change.” But the man I’m seeing in Washington now just doesn’t strike me as the person I talked to. He wasn’t doing what he said he was going to do. He was not ending what was going on in the Middle East.

The gun-control issue is huge for me. I’m getting my permit this month. I’ve had a lot of bad stuff in my past. I was a victim of a sex crime 12 years ago. The police did nothing for me, said they couldn’t prove anything. No matter how much therapy you get, you never feel completely safe. I need my own protection. It’s not because I’m going to shoot. I just want to say, “Hey, you’re not going to mess with me.

Jamie DeLancey
From: Anamosa, IA
Age: 43
Occupation: Business owner
Supporting: Trump

I used to be a Democrat, but — I’m sorry about my language — I’m ready to put boot to ass. Trump’s ideas and my ideas are pretty in tune. I had an epiphany 15 years ago when I said, “God, I want to own my own business, be a millionaire.” It took me ten years to make my first million, and then that exponentially grew.  People say Trump’s not nice. Well, I’m not nice, either. Sometimes harsh words will motivate people. If you don’t want to get in that ditch and sweat and dig a mile for a couple thousand bucks, then don’t yell at me because I have money and you don’t.  It feels like we’re just roller-coasting down, down, down, and I’m waiting for the climb back up, man, and I haven’t seen it yet. Everybody is scared when they’re going down and not going up. I’m sick of being scared.

Andrew Freund
From: Manchester, NH
Age: 25
Occupation: IT consultant
Supporting: Undecided

One of the biggest issues for me is gay marriage. I considered switching to the Democratic Party because of that alone. The Republican Party has been on the right side of social issues for the last 200 years, and this is just the one time when they’re on the wrong side. It’s a generational issue. I’m not going to let it define me politically.

I’m deciding between Jeb, Kasich, Trump. Jeb, being a governor from Florida, dealing with disaster recovery, dealing with significantly large budgets … If there’s one person who really knows how to actually work within the bureaucracy of the federal government, it’s Jeb. And Kasich, when he was in Congress, he was on the House Finance Committee, working with Newt Gingrich and President Clinton to actually balance the budget. It’s difficult for me, personally, to get behind Rubio. I think it should be difficult for the party to do the same. This is a candidate who criticized Obama for being a one-term senator who lacked leadership experience. And he’s a one-term senator, yet there’s no one criticizing him for hypocrisy.

Trump’s unique. He’s qualified. He has executive experience. He’s created jobs — not just on a national but on an international level. A lot of people are worried about some of the things he says. And rightfully so. But it’s difficult to overlook the fact that people are supporting what he’s saying. I mean, when it comes to the Muslim temporary ban, 80 percent of those polled actually agreed with what he said. That’s a strikingly large number. I think he’s a serious contender. I personally think we have bigger issues to deal with right now. But what he’s saying does spark a debate. It does allow the country to talk and ideas to flow.

Thom Lavoie
From: Manchester, NH
Age: 52
Occupation: Insurance broker
Supporting: Christie

Trump’s dangerous. If he wins the nomination, I would do a third-party protest vote. Having a religious test for who comes here — like he is proposing — is embarrassing. Especially for a refugee scenario. Those people are running for their lives. The Muslim people in this country should be completely separated from Islamic terrorism. They are an easy target to blame everything on. Trump has taken that anger and used it.

I started out supporting Carly. She’s very articulate and very strong. I think she would be a really tough matchup with Hillary. I don’t think she’s friendly enough, though. People are starting to go, “Would you have a beer with this person?” and I probably wouldn’t.

I wouldn’t vote for Cruz — just too conservative. Rubio was very strong in the debates. I think of him and the future, the younger generation. I think he’d be a great V.P. candidate.

I like Jeb, but he’s not dynamic enough. And he’s had to carry that baggage of being the third Bush. Kasich’s politics are right next to mine, but I didn’t get the same hee-ha I got from Christie. I like Christie best. I think people are over the bridge issue. He passed the sit-down-and-have-a-beer test.

Earle Kolb
From: Salem, NH
Age: 34
Occupation: Unemployed
Supporting: Cruz

Ted Cruz is the most conservative guy in the bunch and he’s frankly the smartest guy in the bunch. I was leaning toward Rand Paul until Rand started to give me the impression that he was a little soft. Largely, the reason why I’m a conservative is because I’ve been on public assistance my whole life, and I have always felt ashamed of it. I have two major health conditions — cerebral palsy and an injury to my left hemidiaphragm. The whole idea of welfare and entitlements is to create a permanent underclass. They’ll give you plenty of handouts, but they won’t give you any hand-ups.”