The global news organization Reuters claimed on Friday that women voters in Pennsylvania may now have second thoughts about voting for former President Donald Trump after he was convicted in the controversial New York hush money trial on Thursday.
Reuters claimed to have conducted 22 interviews with female voters in Pennsylvania in the hours after Trump became the first former president convicted in a criminal trial in U.S. history.
According to the outlet, 12 of the women are Republican voters and 10 are Democratic voters.
The publication claimed just two of the Republican women said the conviction would make them reconsider supporting the former president’s campaign, but confirmed the “other 10 described the trial as a political witch hunt and said they would back Trump no matter what happened in court.”
According to one woman repeatedly quoted by the outlet, a 72-year-old former opera singer and Trump supporter who immediately declared she was likely “moving over to Biden” after the conviction, a vote for the Democratic incumbent is worth the moral vindication despite her concerns over illegal immigration and the country under Biden’s stewardship.
Reuters explained, “She said she worries about illegal immigration and the country’s general direction under Biden,” but nonetheless reported she told the outlet, “He’s been found guilty in all of this and maybe it’s his time to learn.”
Despite the interviews suggesting only a marginal drop in support, Reuters noted the slim advantage Trump has shown in polls of Keystone State voters could be diminished by the conviction. The Real Clear Polling aggregate of surveys shows Trump ahead 2.3 percent in Pennsylvania.
The interviews and article questioning whether the conviction will hurt Trump’s support come despite Reuters acknowledging its own analysis of polling found 57 percent of voters say a conviction will not change their vote.
It also follows a series of polls and interviews from a number of battleground states that suggest a conviction is ultimately either meaningless to voters or beneficial to Trump.
On May 17, Republicans in Georgia told MSNBC the legal machinations against the former president made them more sympathetic to his campaign, with one explaining, “It’s actually caused me to support him more.”
Just weeks prior, analysts determined that even voters who believe Trump is guilty are unlikely to change their vote after a conviction.
Yet another survey, released at the end of March, found 84 percent of self-identified Trump supporters told pollsters they would continue supporting the Republican if he were convicted. This is contrasted by just 8 percent who said they would vote for Biden or a third party candidate and 9 percent who remained unsure.
In fact, the data referenced by Reuters seems to mirror one survey from Tennessee in January, where 58 percent of Trump supporters told pollsters they would still vote for Trump even if he “were to be convicted of one or more of the crimes that he has been charged with before the next election.”
An additional 28 percent said it would depend on the circumstances of the conviction.
In remarks delivered immediately after receiving the verdict on Thursday, Trump dismissed the trial as a “rigged” effort “by the Biden administration in order to wound or hurt a political opponent.”
“The real verdict is gonna be November 5, by the people. And they know what happened here, and everybody knows what happened here,” said the former president. He added, “We didn’t do a thing wrong. I’m a very innocent man. It’s okay. I’m fighting for our country. I’m fighting for our Constitution. Our whole country is being rigged right now.”
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Tom Pappert is the lead reporter for The Tennessee Star, and also reports for The Pennsylvania Daily Star and The Arizona Sun Times. Follow Tom on X/Twitter. Email tips to pappert.tom@proton.me.
Photo “Women for Trump Rally” by Women for Trump.
