Story written by: Spotlight PA’s Stephen Caruso, Kate Huangpu and Katie Meyer

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HARRISBURG — The 2024 presidential election is over. And after months at the center of the political universe, the country now knows how Pennsylvania voters feel politically: Top picks Donald Trump.

Trump beat Kamala Harris by just under two percentage points in the state. It was a decisive victory that he repeated in all the major states.

So what made voters choose him?

Spotlight PA before the election He spoke to 10 Pennsylvania voters One way or another, they were having difficulty choosing a candidate. We followed four undecided voters to find out who they chose, why they chose it, and how they’re feeling right now.

Nicole Banta, Chester County

When Nicole Banta first spoke to Spotlight PA, she was torn between Trump and Harris and decided to pray for the decision.

He thought both had drawbacks: Trump seemed too fixated on various personal grievances, and Harris had not impressed him as vice president.

Banta made his decision the day before the election. The next day, the 40-year-old mother and registered Republican voted with her party and supported Trump.

One of the deciding factors, he said, was that he started paying more attention to vice presidential candidates.

“I kind of like J.D. Vance,” he said. “His whole history, Peasant Lament thing. … I was just thinking about the future and … who I support more in this.”

He also cited other reasons, such as not liking the way Harris campaigned.

“I was watching every candidate leading up to Election Day and thought Harris was spending a huge amount of money on celebrities,” he said. “I think it reflected his mood of being out of touch with ordinary Americans.”

Banta is happy with his decision. He also said he was pleased that this election was much more peaceful than 2020.

For example, Trump’s claims of widespread fraud were quickly dispelled when it became clear that he would win.

“I feel at peace about this,” he said. ‘I mean, we don’t have any crazy riots or anything. This gives me some peace and hope. “I hope we can unite on some level.”

Ilya Pribyshchuk, Erie County

Ilya Pribyshchuk was undecided in the final weeks of the election, but said he decided to vote for Trump based on two interviews; one in which Harris participated and the other in which she did not.

Pribyshchuk, a 42-year-old construction manager from Erie, said he didn’t like Harris’ interpretation of the issue. Appearance He said he couldn’t think of anything he would have done differently than President Joe Biden in the last four years.

Pribyshchuk said that as a manager, he knows people will make mistakes. Instead, he values ​​“the ability to admit your mistakes and correct them.”

From that perspective, he said, Harris’ comment is incompatible with many people struggling with inflation.

“I don’t expect Donald Trump, Joe Biden or anyone else to be perfect. “They are not Jesus, but I expect them to be real,” Pribyshchuk said.

Pribyshchuk was also upset that Harris decided not to meet with podcaster Joe Rogan. Although not a regular Rogan listener, Pribyshchuk appreciated Trump’s willingness to sit down for three hours and chat with the host in an unscripted conversation. Harris’ refusal to do the same made him doubt his ability to pull off the job.

“My client is constantly interviewing me and I don’t shy away from it,” Pribyshchuk said. “I interview my new employees all the time. And if a new employee doesn’t want to sit down and chat with me for half an hour… I won’t hire them.”

Looking forward, Pribyshchuk, an independent, said he hopes Democrats will learn from this defeat and be ready to compete in the 2026 midterm elections because he likes the balance within the government. “They both go crazy when they have total control,” he said.

He currently votes for some Democrats, including local state Rep. Ryan Bizzarro, and likes some of their policies.

He said Democrats are more willing to help the poor and he likes parts of the immigration platform. Pribyshchuk immigrated to the United States through a program for Soviet refugees created by Democrats in Congress. But he also hopes Democrats get it right on some issues, such as “keeping school for education, not for indoctrination.”

As for Trump and Congress, he has a simple message: If you want to tackle an issue like immigration, do it.

“He will have full authority,” Pribyshchuk said, referring to Republicans who hold the presidency and both the U.S. House and Senate. “No excuses in 2026.”

Muhammad Qureshi, Philadelphia County

In the days before the election, Muhammad Qureshi, a registered Republican, was not exactly undecided. He had planned to vote for Trump, but changed his mind later in the game when he heard Republicans’ rhetoric about the war in Gaza and thought the former president was a racist.

He voted for Harris and also mostly downvoted Democrats. But although the favorite candidate did not win, he told Spotlight PA he was not without hope.

“One must remain optimistic that something better will come,” Qureshi said.

“We have no choice here,” he added.

Qureshi, a nurse who immigrated to the United States from Pakistan, said she hopes Trump will find solutions to rising costs in higher education and health care. He also wants his neighborhood to become safer, inflation to slow down, and the Trump administration to give tax cuts to ordinary people.

He said he would feel more optimistic if Harris were elected, in part because the vice president represents a new generation of leadership. He also thinks he will be more loyal to his voters because he will be eligible to run for a second term, unlike Trump, who is term-limited (though he implied that he was attempting to use an evasion to run again).

Qureshi said he hasn’t heard much from Trump since the election, but he is concerned. Criminal convictions Trump faces.

“I hope it doesn’t destroy our judicial system,” Qureshi said. “As a president, if he were convicted, that would be a huge problem.”

His main concern is whether Trump is focusing on his “personal agenda” rather than improving the quality of life for ordinary people.

Qureshi noted that Trump’s “goodness” towards leaders with authoritarian records, such as Russian President Vladimir Putin and Hungarian Prime Minister Victor Orbán, also worries him.

“I hope someone will tell him that he should now pay more attention to the issues within this country,” Qureshi said.

Selami Veseli, Lehigh County

Selami Veseli, an independent, told Spotlight PA two weeks before the election that she was open to voting for Trump, but that she could change her mind if the former president made a “mistake”.

Veseli ultimately voted for Trump, but he did not expect the Republicans to win so decisively.

Veseli, who emigrated from Albania in the late 1990s, believes the Democrats lost the election because of their hodgepodge platform focused on “cancel culture, woke agenda” rather than focusing on more important issues.

He believes attempts to form a coalition with Republicans like former Vice President Dick Cheney have silenced voters.

“It was funny,” Veserli said of the move. “It was desperation.”

Veseli described himself as ideologically more right-wing than Trump, saying he supported the president-elect’s appointment of a “border czar” but was more concerned with basic rights such as voting and freedom of expression.

He believes these fundamental freedoms are threatened by establishment politicians who make policies and deals “behind the scenes” without public scrutiny.

To that end, Veseli supports Trump’s desire to use the Justice Department to prosecute his political enemies, whom he calls “enemies within.”

“I definitely want him to do that,” Veseli said. “He’s not going to do himself any favors, but some people need to get out of there.”

He believes Trump can get rid of established politicians, making room for new political leadership in both parties. Veseli hopes this will lead to debates based on ideology rather than backroom deals.

Veseli warned that he would not support Trump’s failure to follow due process. He doesn’t want the president-elect to try to obstruct or undermine work like the work the U.S. House select committee did to investigate the Jan. 6 insurrection.

“You have American support, use it wisely. “You have two years to do what needs to be done,” Veseli said, adding that Republicans will hold both the House of Representatives and the Senate until at least 2026.

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