Steel Country Democrats Who Backed Trump Weigh Party Loyalty In 2018
In Eastern Ohio's Mahoning Valley, thousands of traditionally Democratic voters went for Donald Trump in 2016. The question for 2018 is whether they are now Republican voters down the ballot.
When the phone rings at the Republican Party headquarters in Mahoning County, Ohio, a 77-year-old retired hairdresser and former lifelong Democrat answers.
Connie Kessler is a recent GOP convert with a religious-like zeal to help her hometown elect more local Republicans. Sometimes she answers calls from voters; other times she updates the database — she does the kind of odds jobs she says she used to do for local Democrats.
If Donald Trump hadn't run for president, Kessler says she'd probably still be a Democrat.
"He's the one that turned me," she says at her makeshift reception desk near a giant cut-out of the president, with his signature thumbs-up gesture. "When I walked in here to sign up as a volunteer, I was a Democrat," she said. "I
