In the past several months, voters have been privy to several significant events.
Some were typical of an election year, like the presidential and vice presidential debates. Others, though — a major shift at the top of the Democratic presidential ticket and assassination attempts on former President Donald Trump — were not.
While California isn’t a swing state and will likely solidly back Vice President Kamala Harris, Orange County is a purple region where independent and third-party voters constitute nearly 30% of all registered voters. How have these major events made an impact — if any — on those voters who typically lack longstanding loyalty to a political party?
We’ve been following three of those voters from different backgrounds this election cycle as they determine who to support up and down the ballot.
Less than three weeks out from Election Day, none are on the fence about which presidential ticket they will support.
“I’m 100% in on Trump,” said Chris Jannuzzi, a business executive who has primarily supported Republican candidates at the top of the ballot.
Jannuzzi changed his party registration from Republican to Libertarian during Barack Obama’s second term — he said both the Democratic and Republican parties had shifted too far to the left and right, he said. Republicans’ hardline stance on abortion, for example, could alienate a significant portion of the country, said Jannuzzi, who believes abortion should be “safe, legal and rare.”
Trump may not be an ideal candidate, the Corona del Mar resident said, but Jannuzzi felt there was a stronger economy and more peace around the world during his presidency.
“No troops were dying in Afghanistan, he did the Abraham Accords, Vladimir Putin hadn’t gone into Ukraine, which has been a huge suck on U.S. funds,” said Jannuzzi. “I just think he did a better job.”
But for Fullerton resident Eugene Hung, Trump is the worst possible candidate.
Hung, who switched his voter registration from Republican to no party preference in 2010 — coinciding with the rise of the conservative Tea Party movement — and has been primarily supporting Democrats since, said keeping Trump and other like-minded candidates out of office takes precedence over everything else this cycle. He will continue his recent voting trends and back Democrats in the presidential, U.S. Senate and congressional races, he said.
“It doesn’t seem like there’s a lot of courage in the Republican Party to say no to Trump. And if he were to be re-elected, a Republican Congress would roll over for him,” said Hung. “There aren’t enough people with a backbone there to stand up to him. Most people who have one have been chased out, like (former Wyoming Rep.) Liz Cheney.”
Abri Magdaleno, too, plans to vote for Harris and her running mate, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz.
It was Harris’ debate performance against Trump that sealed the deal for Magdaleno, a Yorba Linda resident who uses they/them pronouns.
“I feel renewed with Harris,” said Magdaleno. “I think she’s going to do great, especially because Trump talked about Haitians eating dogs among other sound bites.”
Magdaleno, 23, started off the cycle as an independent voter instead of aligning with a party right off the bat. They chose not to affiliate with either party because they felt neither truly represented their best interests.
As a member of the LGBTQ+ community, Magdaleno expressed concerns that a second Trump term could lead to discriminatory policies targeting queer individuals and students. They emphasized that protections for the LGBTQ+ community are important to them this election cycle.
When it comes to down ballot races, the two Harris supporters said education is a key issue. Both said they are wary of the “culture war” permeating the local political landscape.
“As a teacher, that’s very disturbing to me,” said Hung, a math teacher at Foothill High School in Santa Ana. “Anybody who wants to come in and ban books and ‘out’ the trans kids and roll back any truthful discussions about America’s racial history, that’s a definite no-go for me.”
Over the past year, several Southern California school districts, including Orange Unified and Chino Valley Unified, implemented what are referred to as parental notification policies, which require school employees to disclose information about a student’s sexual orientation, gender identity or gender expression, possibly without the student’s consent.
And in Huntington Beach, city leaders this year directed librarians to relocate children’s books considered inappropriate to restricted shelves designated for adults.
Like Hung, Magdaleno said they’ll support candidates who oppose “outing” transgender students to their parents.
The Orange County Board of Education recently mounted a legal challenge to a new California law that prevents school districts from requiring school officials to notify parents if their child’s gender identity may have changed.
“Seeing that being talked about made me realize how much of a local issue it really is, and how important it is,” they said.
Hung said he’ll also do a deep dive into how candidates plan to address homelessness.
“Unfortunately, everybody has to deal with unhoused populations right now,” he said. “Helping folks get off the street and into housing and stable jobs, helping them with their mental health — that takes a lot of work and a lot of patience.”
“I would want to see folks who aren’t just going to throw people in jail or just scoot them along to the next city in Orange County,” he said.
Meanwhile, Jannuzzi said he has been much more focused on local races this cycle, including the Newport Beach City Council contests. Going into the election, he said his top priorities are the economy, inflation and transparency around taxpayer dollars.
In November, he’ll back local and legislative candidates who commit to responsible spending, he said.
