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2 Oklahoma GOP Voters Reflect On Their Party's Nominee Donald Trump

Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump gives a thumbs up as he arrives to introduce his wife  Melania during the Republican National Convention, Monday, July 18, 2016, in Cleveland.
Evan Vucci
/
AP
Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump gives a thumbs up as he arrives to introduce his wife Melania during the Republican National Convention, Monday in Cleveland.

On the eve of Oklahoma’s presidential primary in March, KGOU gathered a group of undecided voters for a program we called "Super Tuesday Speed Dating." We found five undecided voters and put them in a room with surrogates from seven presidential campaigns, and our voters peppered them with questions.

As the Republican National Convention enters its third day, we decided to check back in with the GOP?leaning voters from the program.

Keith Lough

Keith Lough is a Republican and a teacher in Norman (Full disclosure: He’s the father?in?law of KGOU’s All Things Considered host Paige Willett Lough). When we first met in February, Lough was a scorned Jeb Bush supporter. 

The former Florida governor had just left the race, and Lough was looking for a new favorite. He was leaning toward U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz (R?Tex.).

In February, Lough said he wouldn’t rule out Trump, but he was concerned by the lack of details in Trump’s plans. Now, Lough has come around to Trump and intends to vote for him in November.

“I always took him as kind of a circus act kind of a deal. He makes a big show but there’s not a whole behind there,” Lough said. “But at the same time, if you read through [presumptive Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton’s] website, you’re going to see a lot of the same thing: A lot of bravado, but not a lot of substance. At this point in the campaign, I think that’s the way it’s always been. The candidates always say, ‘I’m going to do something really great, fantastic. America is going to be better because of me.’ But they don’t really outline their plan yet. That will be done after the convention, I think.”

To Lough, Trump has proven himself by showing that he would stay in the race. At first, he thought Trump would lose interest and go back to the business world.

“But he stayed with the game and he seems to be serious about trying to fix some of the problems that he perceives and I think that he’s a legitimate candidate now,” Lough said.

Sam Flowers

Sam Flowers, a student at the University of Oklahoma, also participated in our panel in February. When we spoke before the primary, Flowers was leaning toward Marco Rubio, and he was disappointed when the Florida Senator suspended his campaign.

“I thought first and foremost he was one of the few candidates in the race that had a positive outlook for America,” Flowers said. “He wanted truly to build, I believe, a new American century and wanted move our country forward and I just didn’t see that from anyone else at the time.”

In February, Flowers had few favorable things to say about Trump:

My parents taught me that America was inclusive, that we fought for liberty and we didn’t sacrifice in all these wars for nothing. And just to throw it away with a president that will make derogatory statements towards minority voters, towards foreign migrants. I mean, I just don’t believe in that. I don’t see that as the America that I know and love and as such I would not vote for that.

His views on Trump haven’t changed. “I’ve decided I’m going to vote for Hillary Clinton, which was about one of the last things I thought I would do going into this season,” Flowers said.

Flowers thinks Clinton and Trump offer two very different choices for the United States, and this election is about defining the path the country will take going forward.

“Are we going to take forward the nationalist path that Donald Trump is proposing or are we going to take the inclusive path that Hillary Clinton is at least saying that she’s going to follow,” Flowers said.

Flowers says he might agree more with the views of a Libertarian candidate like Gary Johnson, but he thinks the kind of change that party wants need to start at the local level and work its way up. Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton both have unfavorability ratings above 50 percent, according to Real Clear Politics. And Flowers, a first?time voter, says he’s disappointed to be “stuck” a choice between the two.

“I’ve always heard people talk about politics, picking the least?deadly poison, so I guess that’s what I’m doing,” Flowers said.

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Jacob McCleland spent nine years as a reporter and host at public radio station KRCU in Cape Girardeau, Mo. His stories have appeared on NPR’s Morning Edition and All Things Considered, Here & Now, Harvest Public Media and PRI’s The World. Jacob has reported on floods, disappearing languages, crop duster pilots, anvil shooters, Manuel Noriega, mule jumps and more.
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