“I’m going to make a very big announcement on Tuesday, November 15, at Mar-a-Lago in Palm Beach, Florida,” Trump told supporters at a rally for Ohio Senate candidate JD Vance. But in a national poll and interviews, voters in three battleground states on Tuesday expressed concerns about the 76-year-old Republican former president’s age, his polarizing personality and his ability to compete in a general election. “I’m going to do everything I can to make sure he doesn’t run,” said Gordon Nelson, 77, who voted overwhelmingly Republican Tuesday in Birmingham, Mich. Nelson voted for Trump twice, but now blames him for the country’s tense political climate. and for the Democratic majority in Congress. “He’s divisive. I don’t like him,” she said. US Midterm Elections 2022: Watch live updates Nelson’s view was echoed by six other Republican voters in Arizona, Georgia and Michigan interviewed by Reuters on Tuesday, most of whom expressed their distaste for Trump without prompting. Although this sample is unscientific, the poll shows that tens of millions of Republicans share the same view. About 60 percent of Republicans polled by Reuters/Ipsos last month said they thought Trump should run again in 2024, with 36 percent saying he shouldn’t. In an exit poll released by Edison Research on Tuesday, six in 10 respondents said they had an unfavorable opinion of the former president. Strategists and party leaders say Trump remains the likely favorite for the Republican nomination in two years, especially if the big Republican gains expected Tuesday night materialize. But that level of dissent could still embolden a potential Republican challenger, with Florida Gov. Ron DeSandis among them, if he decides to run, according to polls. Other possible candidates are South Dakota Gov. Christy Noem and former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley, who many voters believe combine conservative politics and less divisive rhetoric. Among the voters who might prefer either of those names to Trump is Yvonne Langdon, a 75-year-old retired mortgage banker in suburban Detroit. “I want a Republican character who has some of the same policies,” he said. He hoped Trump would change his tune after losing to Democrat Joe Biden in 2020. “I think so [Trump] he would just hold the pot stirring. I thought after he lost the last election he might change his MO He hasn’t. I think his ego is too big for him to handle.”
