Even Iowa Republicans who initially wanted to move on from Trump see hope — and a mandate — in his win

By John King, CNN

Kellerton, Iowa (CNN) — Shanen Ebersole believes if people better understood her life they would better understand her unapologetic vote for Donald Trump.

“The majority of people who voted for Trump are not the far-right crazies,” Ebersole said in an interview. “That is not who we are. We are simple Americans who want to live our lives and do our jobs and make our own choices in our own homes.”

Ebersole and her husband have a cattle ranch in southwest Iowa, in a little town of rolling hills and gravel roads.

“DoorDash isn’t a thing,” Ebersole said with a smile. “Pizza delivery is not a thing. You can’t even get pizza delivered where we live.”

Kellerton is in Ringgold County, along the Iowa-Missouri border. Trump won 75% of the county vote. Ebersole said the reasons why are straightforward.

“Care about all of us, don’t prioritize small individual groups first,” she said. “We felt as though Washington and the far edges of our country were governing the rest of middle America.”

Ebersole wasn’t as bullish about Trump at the outset of the presidential campaign. Yes, she voted for him in 2016 and 2020, but she supported former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley in the Iowa caucuses because while she approves of most Trump policies, she believed it important that Republicans find a new leader who could be both president and role model.

“He wasn’t as respectful as I think our president should be,” Ebersole told us when we first met in December 2023. “Because he didn’t bring us together. Because of the divisiveness. Because of my liberal friends who were literally scared for their safety.”

Once Trump clinched the nomination, Ebersole said her choice was easy because of Biden-Harris administration farm and climate policies she says punish small operators like her family business. “Those policies made it a no-brainer for me,” Ebersole said. “My only reticence was wanting to bring us together.”

Now, with Trump preparing to return to the White House, Ebersole again stressed her hope for a less confrontational politics. But her tone about Trump and the sources of division is different.

“They are still scared,” she said of her liberal friends. “The fear tactics of the left make them more afraid of Trump. … The point that I would really tell my liberal friends to understand is just because we voted in a very conservative president, that means that we don’t want to put rules on you either. We just care about our own liberties.”

Ebersole is among the voters who participated in our All Over the Map project, an effort to track the 2024 campaign through the eyes and experiences of voters in key voting blocs or from key campaign battlegrounds. Iowa was our first stop, back when the first question of the 2024 campaign was whether Trump retained his grip on the GOP. We visited three times during the campaign, and then returned after the election to get a sense of what these Republican voters want and expect when Trump returns to the White House in January.

Ebersole said she hopes the president-elect reads his mandate as an urgent call to focus on the economy and immigration.

“Deportation is necessary because we have allowed way too many undocumented people to come in,” Ebersole said. “But we also need a path, a path for those people to become Americans.”

She is an unabashed fan of Trump’s call for tariffs on foreign products.

“Why are we bringing Argentinian beef in?” she asked. “Why are we bringing in New Zealand and Australian beef in and then exporting some of our beef? Why don’t we first just feed our beef to our Americans?”

And she hopes Trump looks at his victory in the popular vote and understands that voters like her want him to set aside the campaign talk about rooting out “the enemy within” or seeking retribution. “We are not letting him be a bully, but we want him to stand firm,” she said.

After considering Biden, she’s trusting Trump

Like Ebersole, Betsy Sarcone began the election cycle believing it was time for Republicans to move on from Trump. She was so adamant that she initially said she would vote for President Joe Biden if it came down to a rematch of the 2020 race.

“I just can’t put my rubber stamp on Trump having more influence over this country,” Sarcone told us in August 2023. “Because I view Trump as not having any personal accountability.”

But Sarcone viewed Vice President Kamala Harris as too liberal and inauthentic and ended up “actually excited” to cast her vote for Trump.

“I’ve come to the conclusion that I don’t love Donald Trump as a person, but I do think he is right for the country right now and that he is going to chart a different course.”

“I’m feeling relieved,” she said in an interview at her home in suburban Des Moines last week. “Honestly, it’s nice to not have to feel like you are silent anymore.”

That last part is instructive; Trump’s win in the popular vote alongside his battleground state sweeps is emboldening to his supporters

When we first met Sarcone, Trump’s toxic language and temper were reasons she cited in searching for a different Republican candidate. Now, though, when asked about Trump’s angry words at campaign rallies, she offered a different take.

“What I see is him being mad at an open border, being mad at the crime rates, being mad at the economy,” Sarcone said. “I’m completely OK with that.”

Her priorities: lower interest rates to help her real estate business, and lower grocery prices. “I’m a mom, single mother of three kids,” she said. “So that does make a huge difference in my life.”

She does not have amnesia about Trump’s first term. “When Trump gets off track, off his train of thought, that’s when we get in trouble. If we are focused on the goals, focused on what we really need to fix this country, I think we are going to be OK,” Sarcone said.

Her patience is already being tested, though Sarcone said she has a different perspective on how to cope.

Some early Trump Cabinet picks, especially former Florida Rep. Matt Gaetz for attorney general, have triggered eye rolls or worse.

“Not necessarily excited,” Sarcone said. “Worried? I wouldn’t say I am worried. … I’m just going to put my trust in him at this point.”

She stays calm by remembering she could not vote for Harris.

“I voted for change, as did the majority of people, and that is what we are going to get,” Sarcone said. “So I don’t think worrying about it every day is going to do me any good.”

Excited for Trump even if business takes a hit

Chris Mudd is a Team Trump original — going back to 2015.

He owns Midwest Solar and his vote could hurt his business; the startup has benefited from Biden administration clean energy incentives.

“It’s possible,” Mudd said of taking a hit if Trump ends those incentives. “I sell value. I sell saving money, not selling the green energy side of the business.”

But he urged Trump to go full speed ahead, including with tariffs that could raise prices on Chinese components he needs for some big solar installations.

“Most of our stuff is tariff free,” Mudd said in an interview at his Waterloo office last week. “So, I want to see more products and services get built in this country. I want to see our pharmaceuticals get produced here instead of China.”

Mudd believes Congress should confirm Trump’s personnel picks and quickly act on his policy priorities as well.

“It’s important that we round up every illegal and ship them out,” Mudd said. “And we have to figure out a way to get them back to work. I do believe that we need immigration. A country needs immigration. It just needs to be legal.”

Mudd said the mood among Trump supporters is “excitement and optimism. … The stock market is jumping up. I think business is going to get good.”

And he took issue with Trump critics who see his agenda as mean spirited.

“I would say, ‘Get over it,’” Mudd said. “I don’t believe there is anything to be scared of. There are people who are scared. But I believe it is false. I believe they are scared over things that are not real.”

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