How Undecided Voters Are Responding to Biden Dropping Out

For many undecided voters, President Joe Biden’s decision to leave the race opened a new world of possibilities.

Some felt liberated by their nagging concerns that Biden had grown too old for the job. Some were holding out hope for specific candidates to replace him. Some were looking forward to hearing how Vice President Kamala Harris, whom Biden endorsed Sunday, would make her case to the American people.

“I’m curious to see what she comes up with,” said Jon Ward, 55, a police officer from Santa Clara, Utah, who said he is a registered Republican.

For months, many voters have expressed disappointment with their options in November. The question now for some of them is whether a nominee like Harris — or some Democratic wild card — might feel like the choice they have been waiting for.

Alexandria Gasparre, 32, a registered Republican from East Troy, Wisconsin, voted for former President Donald Trump the last two elections. But she said she would not do so again, having soured on what she said was dangerous rhetoric from Trump that she sees as having divided Americans against one another. Trump’s recent comments about Milwaukee being “horrible” in advance of the Republican National Convention, which the city hosted, was the last straw.

“He was dissing us,” said Gasparre, “and I was like, ‘I don’t really like the way you are.’”

But Gasparre did not care for Biden either. And the news that he was dropping out opened her mind to the possibility of voting Democratic, which she was not previously considering. She said she would be most likely to vote for a woman such as Harris.

But she is open to others, too. A fresh Democrat in the White House, she said, is something “I’m OK with,” as long as that person has “an idea of what our country is about. You know, what the people want, what people would like to have. Then I’m not going to sit here and judge.”

At his family dairy farm in Richland Center, Wisconsin, Randy Schmidt said his wife told him about the news of Biden, calling while Schmidt was spraying fungicide on his corn crops.

Schmidt, who took note of Biden’s poor performance at his recent debate against Trump, said he had tentatively planned on casting a ballot for Trump. “Some age better than others,” he said of Biden, “and it was time to move on.”

On Sunday, Schmidt said he was receptive to other options — though only to a certain extent. If the Democratic nominee turns out to be Harris, a Californian, Schmidt said he would stick with Trump. He said he was not keen on electing ”a liberal from the coast.”

However, he said, “I’ll take a fiscally conservative Democrat who’s pro-agriculture.”

Ziad Mourad, a tech worker in Texas, said he does not like to affiliate himself with a political party, instead preferring to go with who he feels is the best candidate.

“I care for whoever makes sense to me at the time, in the moment,” he said.

Mourad, 54, had planned on voting for Trump until Biden’s announcement shook things up. He said he would not vote for Harris. But he liked the idea of Hillary Clinton throwing her hat in the ring. “She’s extremely intelligent, logical and solution oriented,” said Mourad, who recently read Clinton’s memoir and was impressed.

Perhaps most importantly, Mourad also thought that Clinton could win.

Annabelle Collins, a schoolteacher who lives in Mercedes, Texas, near the U.S.-Mexico border, said she was excited about the Biden-Harris ticket in 2020. This year she is unsure who she will vote for, though she is leaning toward Democrats. She said she feared what she has heard about Project 2025, a set of policy recommendations for Trump released by the conservative Heritage Foundation.

Collins, 35, immigrated to the United States from Venezuela when she was 8 years old. Her husband is a border control agent. She said she does not identify with either party, leaning conservative on immigration issues and more liberal when it comes to education. From her perspective, American politics seems to have gone off the rails.

“I worry for our country. I really do,” she said, reflecting on the policies of both parties. “It seems like they’re both crazy.”

On Sunday, Collins said she was open to hearing about Harris’ policies but does not believe Americans are ready for a woman president after Clinton’s 2016 losing run against Trump.

“We’re running out of time,” she said, but she added, “I would be interested in seeing if there’s another option.”

This article originally appeared in The New York Times .