Undecided voters lean toward Trump after debate: "I lived much better with him in office"

Donald Trump and Kamala Harris clashed in their first presidential debate, hosted by ABC News. No sooner was the event over, which took place on the evening of Tuesday, Sept. 10, than pollsters began publishing voters' perceptions of what they had seen. Here the position of independent and undecided voters, who for the most part were slated to vote for the Republican candidate, was striking.

With the moderators in the spotlight, both candidates sparked as they talked about the economy, immigration, security, abortion and geopolitics. Quickly, some media outlets such as CNN, Reuters and The New York Times reached out specifically to undecided voters, who are set to decide the election in November, to get their perspective on the debate.

Amid speculation about a possible second meeting, Fox News offered to organize it and even proposed some tentative dates: Oct. 9 in Arizona, Oct. 15 in Georgia or Oct. 16 in North Carolina.

"He lived much better with Trump in office"

Among the undecideds who spoke Reuters, 60% of them said they would vote for the Republican after the presidential debate. One of them was Robert Wheeler, a Nevada security firm executive. Although the 48-year-old claimed before the debate that he would vote for Kamala Harris, his view changed.

"I felt like the whole debate was Kamala Harris telling me why not to vote for Donald Trump instead of why she's the right candidate," he explained.

He was joined by Mark Kadish, a 61-year-old businessman from Florida, whom Harris didn't end up convincing. ""I still don't know what she is for. There was no real meat and bones for her plans," he added.

As for CNN, the network conducted a focus group during the debate with a group of undecided voters in Erie County, Pennsylvania. At the end of the debate, one woman remarked on the fact that voters have already experienced the respective administrations of the two candidates.

"We're voting for the leader of our country, and not who we like the most or who we want in our wedding party, but who's really going to improve our country. We're in an incredibly unique situation, where we've already had both candidates in office and we've been able to see what they're going to do. And, when the facts are the facts, my life was better when Trump was in office," she explained.

"There was nothing Harris did that made me think she's better"

The New York Times also interviewed a group of undecided voters from different states to get their perspective, which, pretty much matched what the other media outlets published. According to the NYT, independents and undecided voters had been "asking for weeks for more content. While some, Bob and Sharon Reed, retirees from Pennsylvania, were 'disappointed'," others drew different conclusions.

Keilah Miller, 34, a Milwaukee resident who has previously voted Democratic, confessed that "Trump's speech was a little more convincing than hers. When Trump was in office — not going to lie — I was living way better. I’ve never been so down as in the past four years. It’s been so hard for me," she added.

In the same vein, Jason Henderson, a defense contractor who lives in southern Arizona added, "Trump had the more commanding presentation. There was nothing done by Harris that made me think she’s better. In any way," noted the man, who also added that he voted for Barack Obama in the past.

"I was extremely surprised by the intensity of independent support for Donald Trump"

Finally, there was the work of journalist Faulkner Focus with a group of independent voters on Fox News. The journalist was joined by Lee Carter, a pollster and president of Maslansky + Partners, to analyze the results of the group in question, which consisted of seven Democrats, five independents and five Republicans.

A New York independent voter directly remarked on the impact of the border crisis and Kamala Harris' apathy about it.

"When asked directly by the moderators, Kamala didn't even make an effort to defend the administration's policies at all. She can't. It's indefensible, so she pivoted… but they totally rewrote all of Trump's immigration policies year one. I would've liked to have seen an explanation for the country as to why they did that," the woman remarked.

"I was really, really surprised because the intensity of the independent support was there for Donald Trump and I didn't expect it. Independents are tracking very much with Republicans. They're looking for a couple of things. They're looking for answers on immigration, they're looking for answers on the economy. (...) One of the most important things they were looking for last night from Kamala Harris is how are you going to make it different?" Carter said.

In turn, he explained that independents agreed with Republican reactions on issues such as fracking, the economy and abortion.