With just days left until Election Day 2024, Vice President Kamala Harris and former president Donald Trump are head-to-head in polls across the country, especially in the seven swing states that are expected to decide the winner. Only an estimated 3% of likely voters are undecided, while the vast majority are clear on why they support their chosen candidate.
Kyiv Post attended political rallies of both candidates to talk to voters about what has pushed them to choose Harris or Trump – and what they think about Russia’s war in Ukraine.
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No matter who wins on Nov. 5, America’s next president will be a historic choice: The US will have in the White House either the first woman or the first convicted felon – with Trump still under investigation for attempting to bring down the government on Jan. 6 after he lost the 2020 election. For Ukraine, the US election may determine the country's future by impacting continued financial and arms support from NATO.
“I will end the war in Ukraine. It should have never started,” Trump continues to claim, the only time he mentions Ukraine during his 90-minute speeches. “I will stop the chaos in the Middle East, and I will prevent World War III from happening.”
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The Republican candidate has been accused of holding a grudge against Ukraine after he was impeached over a phone call with President Volodymyr Zelensky while in office. Meanwhile, the Democratic candidate is largely expected to continue leading Biden’s international coalition supporting, Ukraine and combatting the expansion of Russia.
In conversations with over a dozen voters who attended a Trump rally in Georgia, most conservative Americans said they supported Ukraine and believed Russia needed to be stopped. However, many MAGA voters were not sure the US should continue footing the bill and said they thought that Trump was the only person who could end the war quickly.
Americans need help
Although Republican voters expressed sympathy for the plight of Ukrainians going into the third year of full-scale war with Russia, many pointed out that Americans are suffering from back-to-back natural disasters, the opioid crisis, homelessness, and other domestic ailments.
“I think that our money should be going to the [hurricane] victims in North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee, Florida,” Cameron, a 43-year-old mother and Trump supporter, told Kyiv Post.
“Instead, they get $750, which they’re getting turned down for, while we give another country billions of dollars that has nothing to do with us. I say America first. Take care of us,” she said.
Another MAGA fan expressed similar frustrations.
“My biggest frustration is not that we’re helping Ukraine, it’s that we are helping Ukraine before our own people,” a 25-year-old Trump supporter named Hunter said. He talked about the economic troubles facing Americans and his own struggle to be able to buy a new home. “And we know directly who it’s benefiting – the Biden family.”
Corruption
Aid given to Ukraine has not been well-managed, Hunter claimed. He said he believes that aid money is being stolen by President Joe Biden and other officials in DC and is being taken by some allies in Ukraine.
“All this funding that is supposed to be going to help the Ukrainian people… and it’s just going back to help the politicians and pad their pockets. Who’s benefiting here?” he asked.
Trump is a “businessman, not a politician,” Hunter said, and is the only candidate capable of fighting the “corruption in DC” under the Democrats he thinks have made it untenable for the US to continue supporting Ukraine.
“Where has all the money gone?” Jim, a vendor who travels to Trump rallies across the country, told Kyiv Post. “Just look at Biden, Pelosi, and the other Democrats – they are lining their pockets.” He said that Trump would put an end to the corruption at home and abroad. “Zelensky can learn a thing or two from Trump,” he added.
No more wars
Although the former president has said again and again that he would be willing to withdraw aid if Kyiv did not consider giving up occupied land in exchange for a peace deal, all the interviewees said they did not believe that Trump would allow any part of Ukraine to be permanently annexed by Russia. Many said that they saw Trump as the only option to end the war and prevent WW III.
“Trump is for the military,” Cameron claimed. “I don’t want a war to happen, especially under this administration when he doesn’t even care about our soldiers.”
“I travel a lot – I don’t want the US to turn into a Third World country… We need to get leadership in,” Leonard, a 26-year-old Black man from Atlanta, told Kyiv Post.
When asked about Trump and Putin’s relationship, in which Trump has said he highly respects the dictator, many voters said they believed the former president was in a better position to manage his Russian rival than Harris. They believe that Trump will end the war in Ukraine’s favor.
“Putin… seems to respect Trump,” Leonard said. “So, if he gets on the line and tells Putin we must resolve this and get it ended, I am sure that’ll happen. He talks about that a lot.”
Leonard said he did not believe that Trump would force Ukraine to give up large swaths of territory to negotiate any deal with Putin. “I haven’t heard that,” he said. “I don’t think he would.”
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