Eastern NC voters face presidential election with fear, uncertainty and divided families

Tina Caruso wasn’t expecting to cry while shopping for jewelry in Selma at the 301 Endless Yard Sale last month.

But she wasn’t expecting to talk about politics, either.

As she stood in the middle of North Carolina’s largest “yard sale,” stretching through five counties along U.S. 301, the weight of the past four political years caught up to her.

“I would like democracy to continue,” Caruso said. “I would like somebody in the White House that is respectful; has integrity. Somebody that I can trust and honor as our president of the United States.”

She stopped.

Tears formed in the corners of her eye.

She was surprised by her own emotions.

And then she apologized.

“I’m just tired of all the fighting and anger and hostility towards everybody,” Caruso said.

Caruso spoke after former President Donald Trump’s convictions on 34 felony counts of falsifying business records connected to hush money payments made to adult film star Stormy Daniels — but before President Joe Biden fumbled his first debate, ramping up speculation about whether he would drop out of the race. McClatchy and Border Belt Independent spoke to voters in rural Eastern North Carolina in June and early July, both before and after the debate, about their views of the election.

Neither Biden nor Trump impresses Dayla Sullivan, 26, of Rowland.

Biden, 81, “just seems too old for me,” Sullivan said in an interview on June 28 after the debate. “He should be in his grandpa phase, just hanging out with the grandkids and chilling. Not trying to run a country.”

As for Trump, “You can tell he seems like he’s on a higher horse, and he feels like he’s better than everyone,” Sullivan said. “But that’s anybody who has money.”

The Republican National Convention kicks off the general election on Monday. In the last weeks before that moment, rural voters had mixed feelings about who should be president.

A voter divide

Voters across Eastern North Carolina were torn on the election. Even within families, their views could have sharp differences.

And some were too fearful to speak, citing safety concerns.

But there were three central points most people seemed to agree on:

• Biden’s mental capacities left them concerned;

• Trump talks too much;

• And a third-party candidate is unlikely to get elected.

Caruso, 68, who lives in Pender County, said even the thought of putting up a yard sign to support Biden left her scared.

“I live in an area that I know they’d go by and shoot the sign, which could be shooting into my house or with my grandkids,” Caruso said. “Everybody is so angry and uptight, and there’s two sides that aren’t even close and nobody’s listening.”

In 2020, Pender County residents were separated by more than 10,000 votes when they chose Trump to be president. But just to the south, in New Hanover County, Biden led Trump by less than 3,000 votes.

And if you assumed Caruso was a Democrat, you’d be wrong.

She was a registered Republican until 2016, when Trump became her party’s nominee. Caruso said she never cared for him, even before he entered the political arena, so she switched her registration to unaffiliated.

North Carolina the swing state

Caruso’s unaffiliated registration aligns her with more than 2 million North Carolinians who haven’t chosen to side with either major party. They now make up the largest voting group in the state.

North Carolina is considered a battleground state. That’s not because the state elects presidential candidates from both major parties — former President Barack Obama is the only Democrat elected since 1976 — but because the state has chosen its winner by less than 4% since 2008.

And in 2020, Trump won North Carolina, securing the smallest margin, at 1.3%, between the two candidates than any other state won by Trump.

The Biden campaign is working hard to change those results in the 2024 election. Surrogates have stumped for Biden on a near weekly basis. And Biden has made frequent appearances as well. Raleigh was the first place Biden visited following his debate against Trump hosted by CNN.

Trump has had less of a presence in the state.

Caruso, who watched the debate, still stands behind Biden and chalks what happened up to a bad night. She added that it was “awful to see him so weak and disoriented,” but believes he knows what he is doing and has the best people working with him.

“I tell people I’ll take the old, slow guy who has worked his butt off to get this country back on track any day over someone that did nothing but lie every time he opened his mouth,” Caruso said.

Trump’s support

But that hasn’t stopped Trump’s loyalists from continuing their support.

Not 10 minutes after Caruso left, Kathy Levinger walked up to the same booth in Selma wearing Trump’s mug shot on her T-shirt with words declaring that Trump is wanted — not for crimes, but as president.

The 71-year-old Four Oaks resident said she believes “Biden doesn’t stand a chance.”

Among her chief complaints against the current president is how much groceries cost. At the yard sale, she purchased a package of toilet paper for $4.

“And this is from the flea market here,” Levinger said, calling the increase in price “insane.”

Levinger said she believes that Obama is secretly running the country and that Biden is his front man. This was a conspiracy theory started by Trump in an October 2023 speech.

Levinger said Obama first tried to run the country using former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton when she unsuccessfully ran for president in 2016, and when that didn’t work Obama turned to Biden.

Her proof?

Obama still lives in Washington, D.C., and feels his work isn’t done, she said.

Hush money payments

As for Trump, she said he’s not worried about “this jail thing.”

She said he’s not the first president to make hush money payments. She accused former President Bill Clinton of doing the same thing.

In 1994, Clinton paid an $850,000 settlement to end a lawsuit that accused him of propositioning and exposing himself to a woman when he was governor.

Levinger added that the hush money payments are none of our business.

“The thing about Donald Trump, he’s not an alcoholic,” Levinger said. “He’s not a smoker. He goes to church. He believes in God.”

Trump is largely supported by Christian conservatives and considers himself nondenominational. He grew up attending the Manhattan-based church of Pastor Norman Vincent Peale, who wrote “The Power of Positive Thinking.”

Biden is a Catholic, only the second in U.S. history, and regularly attends services.

Trump the businessman

The charges against Trump haven’t deterred 62-year-old Jeff Deaver, a Deep Run resident, from supporting Trump, either. He called the trial a “witch hunt.”

Deaver, a registered Republican, said Biden is “not for the average worker.”

“Donald Trump, he is not a congressman,” Deaver said. “He’s a businessman. And to me, you can tell the difference between a businessman and a politician.”

Biden served as a U.S. senator from 1973 until he became vice president in 2009. Biden then served in that role until 2017, when Trump began his four years in office and Vice President Mike Pence succeeded Biden.

Deaver adds that a businessman knows how to put money in his constituents’ pockets.

“With Joe Biden, he’s more with the big man,” Deaver said. “But he’s leaving the middle class out. And I feel from past experiences with Donald Trump, things were going great, because you could get a loan for around 2-3% and they were begging you to borrow money, but now, today it’s now 7-8%.”

This affected Deaver’s daughter and son-in-law in trying to build their own home. And Deaver said he and his wife are treading water trying to stay afloat.

Trump’s rhetoric

But Deaver isn’t completely immune to Trump’s antics. He was quick to add that he doesn’t believe anyone is perfect, and he sometimes wishes Trump would keep his mouth shut.

That would become a running theme among voters from both sides.

Latonia Jones, 59, of Wilson, a vendor at the Wilson County Fair Grounds, said she supports Biden.

“I like his policies,” Jones said. “I like the things that are going on. Despite how they’re displaying him, that he’s old and doesn’t know what’s going on, I think he’s getting a lot more accomplished.”

Jones added that when Trump was president, “it was kind of scary.”

“He doesn’t seem coherent and some of the things he says are just wild,” Jones said.

She said under Biden, the country has run smoothly.

Trump’s vision

But Terry Benhoff, a 61-year-old Republican from Selma, said Biden “seems like he lets other people make his decisions for him.”

“I have full faith in former President Trump,” Benhoff said, “so I’ll be the one voting for a felon.”

Benhoff believes Trump’s trial was part of a smear campaign. And she felt safer under Trump.

“No one’s going to mess with us as long as Trump is in there,” Benhoff said. “I feel like we need a very strong leader so all these other countries won’t feel that we are a pushover and come after us.”

Benhoff doesn’t always agree with Trump. She wishes he would tone down his rhetoric.

“I like his leadership and everything, but there are times when I wish he would shush. He’s his own worst enemy.”

But she said she also believes Trump is used to making the calls in business, so he has a hard time taking direction from others.

And she believes he would run the country like a business, and not for personal gain.

“He has a vision for this country and he wants to see it succeed,” Benhoff said. “And I don’t think he’s gonna back down to anybody. But I don’t think he’s a bad person. I don’t think he’s a violent person. I think he is a president to be feared, and that’s what we need.”

Debating whether to vote

Robeson County is a former Democratic stronghold that has swung sharply toward the GOP.

Once a hotbed for tobacco and manufacturing, the economically depressed community has long held socially conservative ideals rooted in Christianity. Some said Trump is a better man of God than Biden.

“I feel like we need God back in our country,” said Teresa Bullard, 32, a Lumbee.

Bullard recently voted for the first time, “because the Lord laid it on my heart the severity of, I really needed to vote. It’s nothing I really thought of honestly, to do, because it didn’t matter, it didn’t count.”

Bullard said she was discouraged when Biden won. This time, she said, “I really think that God is going to be in the midst of the election and whatever God sees fit is what’s going to be what, regardless of who likes it or who doesn’t.”

Bullard said she was discouraged when Biden won. This time, she said, “I really think that God is going to be in the midst of the election and whatever God sees fit is what’s going to be what, regardless of who likes it or who doesn’t.”

Angela Mathis, 41, of St. Pauls said she voted for Biden in 2020 but did not plan to vote this fall. Biden is too old, she said, and 78-year-old Trump is “racist.”

“So who’s left?” she said.

A third-party candidate

Jennifer Hess and her husband, Philip, who don’t want Biden or Trump, think they have that answer. The couple from Middlesex say they’ll vote for Robert F. Kennedy Jr., the nephew of former President John F. Kennedy.

Kennedy is an environmental lawyer and anti-vaccine activist who has flirted with the idea of running for public office on and off since 2000.

He announced his bid for president as a Democrat in April 2023, but switched to run as an independent candidate in October 2023.

“We need another Kennedy,” Hess said. “Both of the others are problematic.”

A family divided

Sisters Pat Handy and Roberta Lane were sitting outside their campers with their husbands, Don Handy and Joe Lane, at a Tractor Supply in Roanoke Rapids when they were approached to talk about the election.

They had stopped for Burger King on their way to Kerr Lake where they planned to spend time together camping.

Roberta sat quietly as Don, Pat and Joe discussed their views. None of their opinions completely aligned, though they were able to hold a discussion without arguing or diminishing each other’s perspectives. They actually laugh at the differences and say they cancel each other out.

The Handys, from Hobbsville, were the most outspoken of the group, especially Don.

“Trump is dead to me,” he said. “When I saw that guy (a Jan. 6 rioter) walking through the Capitol building, I said, ‘He’s dead to me,’”

For Don Handy, a retired Navy veteran, Jan. 6, 2021, is what changed his opinion of Trump, though he said he was never an ardent supporter. Instead, he tolerated him.

But his wife doesn’t believe Biden won the 2020 election.

“Yes, he did,” Don interrupts. “He won.”

“And I don’t believe he did,” Pat reiterates.

Don said that in January 2020, he believed Trump would not have a problem getting reelected. But he said by April 2020, after COVID-19 hit the United States, and Trump began holding news conferences with his chief medical advisor, Anthony Fauci, his opinion changed.

“He looked like an old man who was completely mystified by what was going on,” Don said of Trump. “I thought to myself, he’s in big trouble.”

Pat disagreed.

“People were mad because of COVID and all the inconveniences it caused,” Don continued. “And he happened to be president at the time. It was nothing personal against him. They blamed him, rightly or wrongly.”

That was enough to get Joe Lane, of Edenton, to finally speak.

He agrees with Pat Handy that Biden wasn’t legally elected. Instead, he believes people who hadn’t voted for years to vote Biden, or people were voting in the name of someone who had died. It’s not clear where Handy believed the people had been brought in to vote from.

Lane added that Biden is not sharp enough to be president.

And like Levinger, he believes someone else is running the country — either Obama or Clinton.

“And that’s why we are where we are now,” Lane said. “They didn’t want Trump because he was actually making progress, and politicians can’t stand progress unless it’s actually in favor of them, that they’re going to benefit from them.”

He will vote for the Republican nominee, like he has since 1980, he said.

Pat Handy groans in the background. She’s considering voting for Kennedy, she says, despite her husband saying he has no chance.

Voter frustration

Two days later, back in Selma, Caruso stood in the middle of a large group of yard sale booths.

Scenes of Trump supporters breaking into the U.S. Capitol in an attempt to stop the election of Biden flashed through her mind. She said she feels anger every time she hears someone say it didn’t happen.

She had collected herself, but was still clearly frustrated by the election.

She questioned out loud whether she should even vote, before reminding herself that it could be her vote that made the difference.

“I’m just praying that the right side wins,” Caruso said. “And it shouldn’t be a side. Democracy is about both sides working together and they’re not working together. That’s a problem.”

Ben Rappaport and Rachel Baldauf of Border Belt Independent contributed to this report.

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