Republican voters in Georgia told MSNBC in a segment aired on Wednesday that former president Donald Trump’s legal battles have made them more passionate about voting for him.
A recent poll shows Trump beating Biden by 9% in Georgia even as he faces an election interference case in the state among other legal issues, such as an ongoing trial in New York. The voters told MSNBC the cases have increased their support for Trump as it seems like persecution to them, with the former president appearing to be a fighter.
WATCH:
“No. It’s actually caused me to support him more,” a voter named Antonio Jones told NBC News correspondent Blayne Alexander in response to a question about whether his support has changed or lessened due to Trump’s trial. “I just don’t believe that it’s a coincidence we have a trial happening in Atlanta, we have one happening in New York, so the question people are beginning to ask themselves like I did, is like, why now?”
Trump narrowly won Georgia in 2016, but lost it to President Joe Biden in 2020.
“I think always fighting,” Thaden Rumbaugh, who will vote for the first time in 2024, told Alexander about why he backs Trump. “I mean he’s taking so much just defense from news and everything, but he still hasn’t given up. He keeps fighting to do what’s right.”
Several polls published since the beginning of jury selection in Trump’s New York trial have found that a conviction would not deter voters from casting ballots for the former president. Many Americans also say they do not feel Trump did anything illegal or is receiving fair treatment during the case, polling shows.
“I’ve talked to many people who formerly identified as a Democrat,” a voter named Lisa Babbage told Alexander. “They have changed their political persuasion to independent and they are looking forward to voting for Trump. Because now they find something in common with a political candidate at that level.”
“They have felt persecuted by the system of American injustice. It’s not a stretch for them to think that Trump may be a victim as well,” Babbage said. “The people see that there’s some kind of commonality between himself and maybe all the black men who have been incarcerated and the families that have been impacted by black male incarceration.”
Trump’s support with black men has surged in seven battleground states to 30%, over double his backing nationwide among this same group in 2020’s contest, according to an April poll published by The Wall Street Journal.
“It’s pretty much everybody says they’re picking on him,” Sammy Baker, who is the Gwinnett County GOP chairman, told Alexander. “People are tired of going after him and you see it in so many areas. It’s really not a big issue in the party. Actually, they’re really making everyone mad and they look at a big bully and the government is the bully.”
