Meet The Trumpers

They spoke. Here’s what they said.

They were the Donald Trump voters: Democrats, independents, Republicans, who voted for a first-term presidential candidate who won the nation’s highest office while breaking all the rules of American politics

Their voices carried the day, if not in Connecticut, in the country. Like the underestimated Brexit voters who upended Great Britain’s politics, Trump’s voters ushered in a new day that the media, the political establishment, and the rest of the world didn’t see coming.

Until they voted, their voices often got filtered through the media. On Tuesday we at the New Haven Independent and Valley Independent Sentinel decided we needed to remove the filter. We focused our time at the polls on Election Day time talking to Trump voters, and only Trump voters. We asked them to tell us in their own words what motivated their decision. And what will motivate them in elections to come.

We didn’t argue. We just listened.

A Last-Minute Defection

After following the interminable presidential campaign, Democratic voter Edward Walsh didn’t make up his mind on a candidate until he walked to New Haven’s Celentano School to vote at 6:15 a.m. Tuesday. Washington — as in the city that houses the federal government — made up his mind.

Walsh, a local attorney, decided he needed to send a message to that city. So, while sticking with Democrats for other offices, he voted for Republican Donald Trump for president.

“The deciding factor was based on my frustration with the lack of movement in any direction in Washington, certainly for the past four years,” I didn’t blame it on anyone. In the end, I thought that the election of a non-politician to the office would have the best chance” of getting work done in Congress.

Disgruntled Dems On New Haven’s East Shore

On the East Shore — Ward 17 in the Annex and Ward 18 in Morris Cove— Trump drew support from many Democrats, some of whom otherwise continued voting their party for other offices.

A half-dozen Trump voters interviewed at Morris Cove’s polling station, at Nathan Hale School, acknowledged some dissatisfaction with their choice. Like Ed Walsh, Bob Trotta saw his vote as a message to a dysfunctional federal government. Trump didn’t carry the ward, but in ultra-blue New Haven, he had strong support here: He received 768 votes on the machines compared to Clinton’s 993. (Clinton clobbered Trump in most other districts in the city.)

“It’s ridiculous that these are our best two candidates,” said Trotta, a retired language arts and computer teacher and a registered Democrat. He voted for Democratic U.S. Rep. Rosa DeLauro and U.S. Sen. Richard Blumenthal. But he found himself filling in the Republican slot for president. Trump, he concluded, is a needed ​“outsider. Not the same old, same old.” He said he voted for change — but not ​“Obama change.”

A retired Sikorsky blade engineer, a registered Democrat who declined to give his name, echoed Trotta’s sentiments. He said he finds Trump ​“flawed and a little mouthy.” He voted for him because ​“I really believe he’s for the average person and Washington D.C. is dysfunctional.”

As an example of federal government incompetence, he cited La Guardia, ​“a Third World airport.” He said he wants to see the government attend to infrastructure, and to financial infrastructure, specifically pension and insurance systems. ​“The average person is getting screwed. How do you retire without a pension?” He described himself as ​“not poor,” but still the insurance he receives, through Sikorsky, has a $4,000 deductible. He said he voted for Trump out of those concerns — and hopes but doesn’t know if Trump will solve the problems: ​“If he ever got in and was a real asshole, I’d say, ​‘Impeach him.’”

Like Bob Trotta, retired supermarket manager Frank Esposito, a longtime Morris Cover, split his ticket voting for Trump and down-ballot Democrats. More than any particular position of Trump’s, ​“change” was the main reason he cited for his vote for the Republican nominee. Pressed, he said stopping illegal immigration was high on his list, too.

At the Woodward Avenue firehouse, the Ward 17 polling station, retired firefighter Ed Flynn Jr., who worked 38 years in the department, voted, like Ed Walsh, for all the Democrats on the ballot except Hillary Clinton.

Immigration was at the top of Flynn’s list of reasons for voting Trump: ​“The borders are a very serious issue. No one keeps their door [on their house] unlocked in New Haven. It should be the same way with the country. Illegal immigration is a big issue.” Flynn also cited the threat from ISIS, and faulted the current administration, of which Clinton was a part, because ​“we took troops too soon out of Iraq.” He also expressed concern about the U.S. Supreme Court tilting liberal with the death of Antonin Scalia.

“Black-on-black murder has to stop. You’ve got to give people jobs. And the national debt too, you can’t just keep giving away,” he added to the list of concerns that backgrounded his vote.

Another Ward 17 voter concerned about the debt and particularly the future for his four grandchildren was Robert Castiglione, Jr., a semi-retired marine mechanic. Another registered Democrat and Trump voter, Castiglione cited fixing the economy as his number one issue that pushed him to Trump, particularly altering the trade treaty NAFTA.

A Class Divide

Of course, lots of Republicans voted for Republican Trump, too. Like Joe Bomba, a former Republican alderman who lives in Derby, where Trump defeated Clinton by 51 to 45 percent.

Bomba said he voted for Trump because there is a massive gap between wealthy professional politicians and the common man trying to scrape by every day to make a living.

“When I was a kid I was taught the government is about the people. We are so far from our politicians, especially on the federal level. And I’ll say that for both sides,” Bomba said. ​“They’ve forgotten about a lot of people in this country.”

Bomba was a making a living as a landscaper until 2008, when the economy collapsed.

Since then finding full-time work has remained elusive. And the full-time work available doesn’t pay enough to make ends meet.

“Since 2008, it’s been losing a job, trying to find jobs in between, working two-to-three part-time jobs to make up for a full-time job,” Bomba said. ​“And with taxes in Connecticut, you’ve got to be making at least $30 an hour just to be able afford a two bedroom apartment.”

Trump speaks to the middle and lower classes in a way other candidates don’t, Bomba said.

When Trump formally announced he was running for president, the candidate’s priorities matched Bomba’s concerns — immigration and the
economy.

“I think he can make a difference. I believe a businessman in the political world today holds more water than it did 50 years ago,” Bomba said Tuesday afternoon while standing outside the Irving School polling place on Seymour Avenue in Derby.

Bomba, along with former Derby Mayor Anthony Staffieri, were there holding Trump-Pence signs.

Throw Obamacare into the conversation, and you can see the frustration in Bomba’s eyes. He’s had some health problems for the last year. He eventually learned his longtime doctor was no longer accepting his insurance.

“There was some good ideas with that law. But it wasn’t thought out. You need both sides on the same page,” Bomba said.

While Bomba has deep connections to the city’s Republican Party, he’s voted for Dems in the past.

Not this year.

“This is one of the first times in my life I actually went straight across the road Republican,” Bomba said as a woman driving a SUV honked her horn and said ​“go Trump.”

Two other motorists did the same in the next five minutes.

Win or lose Tuesday, Bomba said Trump has tapped into something that won’t be forgotten Nov. 9.

“I honestly think he’s opened many Americans’ eyes,” Bomba said.

He offered journalism as an example.

“Honestly, the way we see things through the media is not through neutral eyes,” Bomba said. ​“The news media today has taken a side, whether people want to admit it or not, and it’s not for the good.” Trump clobbered Clinton 59 to 37 percent in Seymour.

Another active Republican, Seymour GOP Town Committee fundraising chair Richard Demko, also talked about class. Class, the economy and guns.

Demko, 36, is a surgical assistant and a pistol permit instructor. His wife’s a teacher. They live within their means, he said. But, ​“just because of the economy,” they’re still finding it hard to get by.

He predicted that Trump, based on his business record, can bring in needed jobs.

“We’re not bringing in the wages to offset what’s going out, because of the high cost of everything,” Demko said. ​“I think if we start bringing jobs back to the area and we start putting people back to work, we get our tax situation under control, I think that things are going to be a little more affordable.

“I look back at my grandparents’ generation. They paid off their mortgage by the time the retired. They had a savings account. They were able to afford to go on vacations, do things of that nature. And I know that many grandparents of my friends were in the same boat. And one major thing that has changed between then and now is our economy and the loss of jobs. We just keep farming our jobs out to other countries.”

IOUs

Outside Ansonia’s Holy Rosary Church, unaffiliated voter Brian Barrett (pictured) said he ended up voting for the ​“lesser of two evils” Trump in part because of his support of Congressional term limits.

“I think what happens when people become entrenched in Congress, they have a lot of IOUs,” Barrett said.”… It’s time that politicians be held more accountable.”

Barrett, a 65-year-old financial adviser and unaffiliated voter, said that representatives in Washington also have to spend too much time perpetually fundraising for their re-election bids.

“There’s so many different issues, but I would like to see more integrity with our politicians because we elect them to represent their constituents,” Barrett said. ​“The Clintons have been in this position for 30 years and they’re so self-serving. It’s incredible the things that they have gotten away with.”

The Rev. Walter Oliver of Seymour, 79, of Bible Speaks Ministry, voted straight Democratic except for Trump. He focused on Trump’s criticisms of Clinton: ​“I won’t use the term crooked Hillary, but I would use the term the feds used, which is she was extremely careless with delicate mail.” And as a veteran of the armed forces, he held Clinton resopnsible for the death of four Americans in the attack on the embassy in Benghazi.