WASHINGTON โ
In a U.S. presidential race that features a deeply polarized electorate and a sharp contrast between the two candidates, most voters have known for months which side they are on.
Then there are people like Faith.
A middle-aged manager of a substance abuse treatment center in southern Pennsylvania, she voted for Donald Trump in 2016 and Joe Biden in 2020.
This year she is among millions of voters in swing states who are still wrestling over which way to vote โ or whether to vote at all. They are likely to decide the outcome.
In a focus group of swing voters, Faith said she disliked Trump for the reasons she turned against him four years ago โ โthe bullying and the arroganceโ โ but that she wasnโt sure what she thought about Kamala Harris.
Harris โsays all the right things, but I need to know a little bit more about who she is,โ said Faith, who, like others in the focus groups I observed last week, participated on the condition that her last name not be disclosed. โShe talked about an โopportunity economy.โ I want to know what that means.โ
The precise number of voters still up for grabs is hard to pin down, because most polls donโt offer โundecidedโ as an option. But pollsters estimate itโs between 5% and 10% of the electorate.
That stubborn minority is more than enough voters to determine the outcome of an election that could be decided by razor-thin margins in seven swing states.
Who are these indecisive people who find it hard to choose between vividly different candidate?
They fall into several categories.
Some, but not all, are โlow-information voters,โ people who are only now tuning into the campaign.
โA lot of them are people who donโt follow politics closely, or at all,โ said Whit Ayres, a Republican pollster. โThey only get around to thinking about politics when they have to make a decision on who they will vote for โ if they vote at all.โ
Others are so-called double haters โ voters who dislike both candidates. As many as 15% of the electorate fell into this category in polls last month, although that number is probably shrinking.
โThey are people who do pay attention to politics and donโt like what they see,โ Ayres said.
In 2016, they were a decisive factor in swinging the election to Trump; in 2020, they helped swing it back to Biden.
Still others are independents, focused mostly on economic issues.
โTheyโre looking for the answer to their question: What are you going to do to get the country on a better track in terms of the economy?โ said GOP pollster David Winston.
And a few, like Faith in Pennsylvania, are moderate Republicans who donโt like Trump but still hesitate to vote for a Democrat like Harris who has sometimes veered toward her partyโs progressive wing.
โThereโs a part of me that longs for Dick Cheney, Mitt Romney, John McCain,โ Faith said.
I sat in on three focus groups, all drawn from voters who had supported Trump in 2016 and Biden in 2020. Two of the groups were assembled by Engagious, a public opinion consulting firm, for the media organization Axios. The third was put together by the GOP dissident group Republican Voters Against Trump; the participants were not members.
Most of the 20 swing voters werenโt entirely undecided, but almost all said they needed more information โ especially about Harris โ before they make up their minds.
โI do not want Trump back in office,โ said Jennifer, who works for a nonprofit in Wisconsin. But โwith Harris, I just donโt feel as if I know enough about her .. and what she stands for.โ
Bryan, 39, who lives in Atlantaโs western exurbs, said he initially leaned toward Trump, but Harrisโs strong performance in last weekโs debate gave him second thoughts. He still wants to hear more about Harrisโs economic plans.
โI think she needs more well-defined policy,โ he said. โI feel like sheโs been vague.โ
The economy โwas better under Trump,โ he said, but the Republican candidate โneeds to act presidential and come in with facts that arenโt lies.โ
Rich Thau of Engagious said he has noticed several patterns in the dozens of similar focus groups he has convened.
โItโs a contest between someone they donโt like and someone they donโt know,โ he said. โThereโs a huge lack of awareness on Harrisโ economic plan, a huge fill-in-the-blank that she is just starting to fill.
โVoters who are struggling in this economy often remember the Trump years fondly,โ he said. โThey think he can do the job on the economy better, but they canโt stand the guy. So for them, this choice is a 50-50 proposition.โ
The lessons for the candidates, at least from these voters, are clear.
To appeal to undecideds, Trump needs to tone down his rhetoric, stop spreading myths about migrants eating dogs and cats, and reinforce his economic credentials. Instead, he appears to be leaning deeper into falsehoods and conspiracy theories.
And Harris needs to talk in more detail about her economic plans. The good news for her is that those undecided voters are listening โ and many are looking for a reason to move in her direction.