Washington Examiner columnist Salena Zito said voters she talked to are reluctant to say who they are voting for in the midterm elections, despite being past supporters of President Donald Trump.
“Voters are going to vote, they’re very reluctant to say who they were going to vote for,” Zito said on the Hugh Hewitt Show Monday.
Zito said she recently spoke with voters in Ashtabula, Ohio, part of the Mahoning Valley region spanning northeastern Ohio and parts of western Pennsylvania. She said many voters there were former Democrats who shifted their support in the 2016 and 2020 elections.
Some of those voters are now concerned about gas prices, Zito said, but she did not get the sense they were ready to abandon the Republican Party.
They “have voted for Trump in the past, a little bit upset about gas prices,” Zito said. “But I really didn’t get an indication that they were going to switch allegiances, but they were very unwilling to say, ‘I’m definitely voting for this person.’”
Despite their concerns about fuel costs, Zito said the voters she spoke with understood the administration’s rationale for military action against Iran.
“They totally get the Iran argument,” Zito said.
The war in Iran started on Feb. 28, and since then, the estimated cost has been roughly $38 billion, according to a September analysis released by the Congressional Budget Office.
The war in Iran has lasted more than seven months, raising concerns over the United States’s continued involvement overseas and the resources it has committed to the conflict.
Supply constraints resulting from the conflict are also driving up gas prices to record highs in the U.S.
Still, Zito said the voters she interviewed understood the potential consequences of inaction, including the threat of Iran developing nuclear weapons.
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“They totally understand why it needed to be done. They don’t like seeing it in their gas prices, but they’re very willing to look aside from that because they understand the consequences of not doing anything,” Zito said.
The general election will be held on Nov. 3.