Lifelong Republican, 77, Reveals Trump Regret

A 77-year-old woman who says she has voted Republican her entire life is now considering doing something she once thought was unthinkable — voting straight-ticket Democrat in November.

The woman, identified only as Melanie, called into SiriusXM’s “The Megyn Kelly Wrap-Up Show” and told host Emily Jashinsky that frustration with President Donald Trump and the Republican Party had pushed her to a political breaking point.

“I’ve always been very conservative,” Melanie said, according to an account of the call published by the Daily Beast. She added that she had “never voted for a Democrat in my life.”

Now, she says that could change.

Melanie pointed to the controversy surrounding former Attorney General Pam Bondi as one of the moments that caused her confidence in the administration to begin falling apart.

Bondi served as attorney general during the first 14 months of Trump’s second term before Trump announced her departure on April 2.

Her tenure had become increasingly controversial, including criticism surrounding the Justice Department’s handling of records connected to convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.

Bondi drew particular attention in early 2025 after telling Fox News that an Epstein “client list” was sitting on her desk for review. The Justice Department and FBI later said investigators had found no such standalone client list.

Bondi also oversaw a heavily promoted initial release of Epstein-related records that disappointed some conservatives who had expected significant new revelations.

Her eventual departure, however, came amid several controversies rather than the Epstein dispute alone. The Washington Post reported that Trump had also become frustrated with the Justice Department’s unsuccessful efforts to pursue cases against some of his political opponents.

For Melanie, the Bondi episode appears to have become symbolic of a broader frustration with the Republican Party.

“We’re just, as a country, we’re just screwed because it doesn’t matter who you vote for,” she told Jashinsky.

The caller said she was now considering either staying home on Election Day or voting against Republicans across the ballot.

“I’m so pissed at the Republicans that I just might go and vote straight-ticket Democrat,” she said. “Why should I be loyal to them?”

Jashinsky responded that she believed there were “so many people like you out there.”

One caller cannot establish a broader political trend, but recent national polling does show measurable erosion in Trump’s approval ratings, including among some Republicans.

A Reuters/Ipsos poll conducted Sept. 17 through Sept. 20 found Trump’s overall approval rating at 32 percent, the lowest measured by Reuters/Ipsos across his two presidencies.

Among Republicans, however, Trump remained substantially more popular. Seventy-three percent approved of his overall job performance, although that was down from 82 percent in the previous Reuters/Ipsos survey and from 86 percent in January.

Economic frustration appears to be an important part of that decline.

The Reuters/Ipsos survey found Republican approval of Trump’s handling of the cost of living had fallen from 70 percent earlier in his second term to 44 percent. Fifty-one percent of Republicans in the latest survey disapproved of his handling of the issue.

Another recent survey, conducted for CNN by SSRS on Sept. 16 and 17, found Trump with a 33 percent overall job approval rating and 67 percent disapproval.

The CNN poll also found only 20 percent approving of Trump’s handling of inflation and 27 percent approving of his handling of the economy. Among Republicans, 35 percent said they strongly approved of Trump, compared with 66 percent at a comparable point in September 2018.

The war with Iran has also emerged as a major source of voter dissatisfaction.

Only 26 percent of Americans surveyed by CNN/SSRS approved of Trump’s handling of the conflict, compared with 33 percent shortly after the war began.

Republican support remains much higher than the national number but has also slipped. CNN’s polling found 60 percent of Republicans approved of Trump’s handling of Iran, down from 73 percent in March.

Trump has defended his decision to launch the war and argued during his September appearance at the United Nations that his administration is protecting U.S. interests and confronting the threat posed by Iran.

The political consequences will become clearer when Americans vote in the Nov. 3 midterm elections.

In the CNN/SSRS survey, 49 percent of registered voters said they would support the Democratic candidate for the House in their district, while 41 percent backed the Republican candidate.

Forty-four percent also said their congressional vote would be a way of expressing opposition to Trump, while 19 percent said their vote would be an expression of support for him.

Reuters/Ipsos found a similar eight-point Democratic advantage on its congressional preference question, although polling several weeks before an election is a snapshot rather than a prediction of the final result. Individual House and Senate races can also differ substantially from national polling.

For Melanie, however, the question is far more personal.

After decades of identifying herself as a dependable Republican voter, she says loyalty to the party is no longer guaranteed.

“We’re just screwed no matter what,” she said.

Whether other longtime Republican voters ultimately make the same choice will be one of the questions hanging over both parties as the country heads toward the November midterms.