I’ve got a confession to make: I’m from Michigan. That’s right. I am from a state that is in the middle of the Rust Belt, a state that went red in the 2024 presidential election. The reaction that I get from other USC students when I disclose that I live about a 10-minute drive from Detroit is often a confused look, and once, even a gasp. 

Growing up in such a politically diverse area, I was constantly reminded that the people around me had differing views. Being in Los Angeles, at USC, it can honestly be fairly easy to forget how prevalent the Republican viewpoint is. I remember going home for the first time after the 2024 election. The results of the election caught me off guard. When I landed in Detroit, just two weeks later — greeted with a horde of red MAGA hats — I realized I shouldn’t have been surprised. 

The extreme political rhetoric of President Donald Trump is so different from the conservative viewpoints that I grew up surrounded by. So, ever since the election, I have had a question in the back of my mind: How did my neighbors who rallied around Sen. Mitt Romney and former Sen. John McCain become supporters of Donald Trump? Do my childhood neighbors really want to see the Department of Education dismantled? And do they really want all the immigrant communities that make Detroit a truly interesting and diverse city sent back to their countries of origin?

It seems to me that the entire Republican party has bent the knee to Trump. One of the clearest examples of this is Vice President JD Vance. 

When Vice President Vance first emerged onto the political scene, riding the coattails of his memoir, “Hillbilly Elegy,” he was a self proclaimed “never Trump guy.” At the time, Vance represented a faction of more traditional Republicans who saw Trump as a threat to the Republican platform. It is hard to understand how Vance, a man who once called Trump “cultural heroin,” now stands beside him, as his faithful second in command. 

Vance is not the only Republican to have rallied to Trump’s side. Even the holdouts in the recent Senate confirmations of Trump cabinet members, senators like Thom Tillis and Susan Collins, supported Trump, clearing the way for the appointments of Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and Tulsi Gabbard. 

It appears that moderate Republicans cannot exist in this world, a world where Republicans who are not supported by Trump can’t be elected to office. The simple desire to be elected and stay in office can explain the Vance, Tillis and Collins shift to support President Trump. But this doesn’t mean that the non-MAGA Republican voter has disappeared too.

One of the largest demographic swings of the 2024 election was the swing of politically disengaged voters toward Donald Trump, meaning people who are the most likely to pay little attention to politics shifted from narrowly favoring Joe Biden in the 2020 election to largely favoring Trump in 2024. 

This demographic shift, something that is prevalent in Michigan, is very relevant in understanding this election. People who do not closely follow politics are more likely to vote based on economic shifts. These shifts are the things they experience at gas stations, grocery stores and in their workplaces. These shifts lead them away from the party that is currently in power. 

Not everyone has a strong desire to be politically engaged. It is a sign of a strong, well-functioning government to have people who are able to pay little attention to politics. The government is meant to allow people to live their lives, as freely as possible, while also providing support to those who need it. If that is not happening, people will look for a change. Those who are not very attuned to politics may find this in whatever is most different than the status quo.

However, Trump’s recent dismantling of the federal government is making it inherently harder to ignore politics. As this trend continues, and as the economy continues to be negatively impacted, many of the people who voted for Trump are beginning to turn. It is these Republican voters that I am hoping to see more of.

In Republican-held town halls across the country, many Republican politicians have been feeling the anger of their constituents, as they begin to deal with the consequences of a frozen job market, a struggling economy and the cutting of federal programs. It is these constituents that I am now looking to save this country, by giving their elected officials the confidence to stand up to Trump.