Trump inspires some first-time voters — for better or worse

Marie Leffingwell got fed up.

She’s been voting for years, but she had never cast a primary ballot until this year. She thinks President Barack Obama has been driving America into the ditch for the last eight years and she didn’t like what she was hearing from most of the candidates.

So she voted in the Texas primary for Donald Trump — the voice of angry, disenfranchised voters nationwide who are turning out in droves to demand change.

“I’m now interested,” said Leffingwell, 50, of Georgetown, a small-business owner. “It has taken the past eight years of watching the country I love be destroyed.”

She is among the many thousands of voters showing up in mass at polls nationwide, as they did in Texas and are expected to do this week in New York, casting primary ballots for the first time in this extraordinarily unusual election year.

Some worry about the future of the country. Others are frustrated, anxious, even downright mad.

“The Trump phenomenon is driving a significant amount of the participation among first-time voters — both those who love and hate him are turning out to vote,” said Brandon Rottinghaus, an associate political science professor at the University of Houston.

Trump has taken credit for propelling many — particularly the “millions and millions of people [who] have come to the Republican Party over the last little while” — to the polls.

Some Texas first-timers say yes, they did turn out to vote for the former reality TV star and New York businessman.

Others say they headed to the polls to vote for anybody but him.

“I, like a lot of people, didn’t take his candidacy serious as first,” said Dalton Goodier, 26, an admission counselor at TCU and first-time primary voter who cast his ballot for Republican Ohio Gov. John Kasich. “As it grew in legitimacy, I started to pay attention to his message and at some point, it reached a tipping point.

“I thought if this person is very serious about doing some of these things he’s talking about, I felt it was my obligation and my responsibility to vote and make my voice heard.”

The Trump effect

Texas and other states saw an increase in both Republican and Democratic primary voters this year. Statistics don’t show how many were first-time voters, but political observers say there likely were quite a few.

“A common denominator between many of the first-time Republican and Democratic primary voters is a shared frustration with the political status quo and a Republican and Democratic political elite that they believe does not represent them,” said Mark P. Jones, a political science professor at Rice University in Houston.

This year, 2.8 million Republicans voted in the March 1 Texas primary, compared with 1.4 million in 2012 and 1.3 million in 2008, state election records show.

At the same time, there were 1.4 million Democratic primary voters this year, up from the fewer than 600,000 who headed to the polls in 2012. But those numbers fall far short of the 2.87 million Democratic voters who cast ballots in Texas’ 2008 primary, records show.

“The Democrats are losing people,” Trump has said. “This is a trend that’s taking place. It’s the biggest thing happening in politics and I’m very proud to be a part of it.”

Leffingwell voted only because Trump — the man she believes can turn the country around — was on the ballot. And she will head back to the polls in November because of him.

“I would crawl through broken glass to vote for Mr. Trump,” she said. “If his name isn’t on the ballot, I will write his name on there. If they try to put someone else on the ballot, I’m still going to write in Donald Trump’s name. I think there’s a lot of people who will do that.”

She said she’s tired of the verbal attacks she and other Trump supporters receive from the media and other Republicans, which likely is why a number of Texans who voted for Trump are staying quiet right now.

“Now a lot of people don’t want to talk about it,” Leffingwell said. “I believe they are afraid.”

A 34-year-old Fort Worth man who identified himself only as Drake said he was a first-time primary voter who also supported Trump.

He headed to the polls this year because he was “tired of career politicians and PC” to give Trump his vote because “we need a president with a backbone.”

“Trump presents questions and ideas other politicians are too afraid to tackle,” Drake said. “Just based on that alone, I will give Trump a chance.”

Other Republicans

Trump was part of the reason Zach Taylor, 23, of San Angelo voted for the first time in the Texas primary this year.

“We have the opportunity to stop a man like him,” said Taylor, an administrative assistant at a San Angelo body shop who voted for Democratic presidential hopeful Bernie Sanders.

“Sanders is the antithesis of the hate-filled Donald Trump and that’s why I was motivated enough to do my part and vote.”

Sean Commons, 24, of Fort Worth said he was going to cast his first primary vote this year whether or not Trump was on the ballot.

Commons decided to back Ted Cruz, who he believes will “bring us back to what this country was made on.”

Commons said Trump isn’t a conservative.

“For the majority of his life, he’s been concerned about two things: himself and money,” he said. “A lot of people think that’s going to change on a dime. That’s not the case.

“But he struck a chord with a large base and he knows what kind of grip he’s got on a large number of people,” Commons said. “I wish he would channel this into something more constructive. It’s a circus right now.”

Democratic pull

Trump also wasn’t a factor in Anna Schiller’s decision to become a first-time primary voter this year at age 40.

The Dallas real estate agent, who is originally from Iran but became a U.S. citizen in 1993, realized she had a duty to vote.

“I decided that if I am going to complain about politics, I also need to become a part of the process,” she said.

So she cast her first ballot for Bernie Sanders, who she said appears to be “the ‘least’ corrupt of the choices.”

As for Trump, Schiller said the only impact he’s had on her has been “pure entertainment value.”

“Donald Trump is a master at branding and media manipulation,” she said. “He knows how to work an audience and the camera, as he should. … He is treating this like a reality show and it ‘sells.’ ”

Cole Harper, 18, a senior at Paschal High School in Fort Worth, also headed to the polls for the first time this primary election.

But his vote was reserved for Democrat Hillary Clinton.

“There’s a lot of hate in the election,” he said. “I think she’s one of the candidates who can unify the country. She has a lot of experience and I agree with most of her policies.

“Keeping in mind that Donald Trump will probably be the Republican nominee, I will vote for her again,” Harper said. “Donald Trump has a message I feel is hateful, attacking different minority groups and other groups in the nation. I don’t feel it’s right.”

Finally a chance to vote

Ryan Dixon, 18, a senior at Colleyville Heritage High School, said he voted for the first time in Texas’ primary this year to do his civic duty.

DIxon said he chose Rubio because Trump “is a little too outrageous for my liking” and Cruz “is too right-wing.”

Even though Rubio is no longer in the race, Dixon said, he will still vote in November.

And he will keep an eye on political developments till then.

“Trump has definitely made the election more interesting to watch with how outrageous he’s been in the debates,” Dixon said. “He definitely makes it more interesting to follow.”

Aaron Sanchez said there was no way he was going to miss voting in this year’s Texas primary election.

For years, Sanchez — who was born in Juarez, Mexico, and has lived in Fort Worth since he was 5 — cried on Election Night.

He saw so many people voting and was sad he couldn’t do the same until he formally became a citizen.

That happened last year, making this year’s primary the first election when he could vote.

“It was bittersweet,” Sanchez, 30, said of proudly heading to the polls for the primary. “I was filled with excitement. But when I showed up to vote, … there were no lines, no one else was there.

“It didn’t seem to be that big of a deal,” said Sanchez, who voted for Sanders. “I guess I was hoping to see a line of people waiting to have their voices heard.”

This story was originally published April 15, 2016 at 4:31 PM with the headline "Trump inspires some first-time voters — for better or worse."