{"id":34233,"date":"2026-02-09T00:02:20","date_gmt":"2026-02-09T00:02:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/investmentbankingrules.com\/?p=34233"},"modified":"2026-02-09T00:02:20","modified_gmt":"2026-02-09T00:02:20","slug":"david-marcus-in-rural-virginia-mixed-signals-for-trump-and-the-gop","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/investmentbankingrules.com\/?p=34233","title":{"rendered":"DAVID MARCUS: In rural Virginia, mixed signals for Trump and the GOP"},"content":{"rendered":"

LEXINGTON, Va. \u2013 President Donald Trump\u2019s poll numbers are a bit all over the place these days. The averages have him about seven points underwater, while some surveys show him down as much as 19. And then, one poll, the most accurate of 2024, has him up one point at 50%.
\nLikewise, large majorities of Americans say in polls that they want all illegal immigrants deported, but large majorities also say that the Trump administration is going too far in executing this policy.\u00a0
\nSo, what do the American people actually want?
\nI traveled to Lexington, Va., to get a feel for what the reality is on the ground, below these shaky and inconsistent poll numbers, and what I found was good news and bad news for both parties and a midterm that is still wide open.<\/p>\n

Brian, from nearby Lynchburg, was visiting town with his wife Erin. A chef in his early 50s and a former Republican, he finds Trump\u2019s coarseness, and what he would call his racism, such as the recent social media post featuring the Obamas as monkeys, to be a dealbreaker.
\nBrian was very interesting because, while he knew he could not tolerate Trump, he was also quite forthright about the negative tradeoffs in voting for Democrats. When I asked him, as a business owner, about Virginia\u2019s new governor, Abigail Spanberger, his response was telling.
\n\u2018I voted for her,\u2019 Brian told me. \u2018Part of me wishes I hadn\u2019t had to, but I did, given the alternative.\u2019<\/p>\n

The alternative here seemed to be Trump, not Spanberger\u2019s actual opponent and former Lt. Gov. Winsome Earle-Sears, something that any Republican thinking of running by distancing themselves from Trump should consider. It probably won\u2019t work anyway.
\nI pressed a bit on Spanberger, asking Brian if the wave of new taxes she supports worries him.
\n\u2018Absolutely it worries me,\u2019 he said. \u2018I\u2019m a fiscal conservative. I have to balance my budget, and the government should too. But if the alternative is racism, then I have to reject that.\u2019<\/p>\n

Never mind that Sears is African-American. Brian was the perfect example of why Democrats focus so much on race and racial issues. For some voters, alleged racism on the president\u2019s part will trump even their own policy beliefs and preferences and taint the party he rules.
\nThis phenomenon can also look like fools gold to pollsters who see a voter with some conservative leanings who should be obtainable, but some, like Brian, just flat-out will never support Trump or the GOP so long as Trump leads it.
\nAs Brian bluntly put it, \u2018If it\u2019s men in women\u2019s sports or racism, I have to go with men in women\u2019s sports.\u2019<\/p>\n

But it wasn\u2019t all bad news for Trump in rural Virginia. Alice, who is in her 40s and works in real estate, thinks the Trump\u2019s economic measures are starting to pay off.
\n\u2018I can just feel it,\u2019 she told me. \u2018Gas prices are low, more stuff is on sale at the grocery. That\u2019s what we voted for.\u2019
\nWhen I asked about Trump\u2019s gruff manner, the one that bothered Brian so much, she just said, \u2018If you aren\u2019t used to it by now, you\u2019re not getting used to it.\u2019<\/p>\n

Others, like Peter, in his 70s and retired, are feeling a real political fatigue. Apathy is the wrong word, but perhaps frustration fits.
\n\u2018Today, it\u2019s like who you vote for is your whole identity,\u2019 he said. \u2018But I can\u2019t fall out of a tree every time Donald Trump opens his mouth.
\nOn Friday afternoon, a small protest of mostly older White people was gathered on a street corner in pretty-as-a-picture Lexington. Annette, the leader and spokesperson, was handing out cookies. Unlike their peers in Minneapolis, they were happy to talk with the press.<\/p>\n

\u2018This is what we feared all along,\u2019 one man holding the Virginia state flag with its motto, \u2018Sic Semper Tyrannis,\u2019 told me of the Trump administration\u2019s handling of Minneapolis. \u2018It\u2019s why we have been out here protesting for a year.\u2019<\/p>\n

Generally speaking, the huge shifts that pollsters are so ardently looking for appear to exist more in the world of numbers than that of flesh and blood, where it continues to be very rare to meet anyone who has changed their mind politically in the age of Trump.
\nNo, the fear for Republicans today is not that Trump or the party are bleeding support. It\u2019s that the Democrats on the ground seem far more motivated to stop Trump than the Republican voters are to reward slow and steady progress.
\nImportantly, there does not appear to be anything that Trump could do, any position he could soften, be it on immigration enforcement, tariffs or his own rhetoric, that will sway the third of voters who just detest the man. But both Trump and the party have proven they can win without them.
\nFrom now until the midterm, we will be in the field with our ear on the ground, listening to the things that voters never tell the pollsters. And if Lexington is any indication, this is still anybody\u2019s ballgame.<\/p>\n

This post appeared first on FOX NEWS<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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