St. Petersburg, Florida (CNN)John Dudley, a retired banker, proudly cast his ballot for Donald Trump in 2016, excited at the prospect of sending an entrepreneur to the White House on a pledge to change Washington.
It's a vote he regrets, he said, and a mistake he hopes to correct in November.
"He blew it," Dudley said, not mincing words as he assessed Trump's first term. "We were so excited in the beginning. A businessman to run our country like a business and it hasn't happened."
The searing sentiment of Dudley, 77, illustrates one of the rising worries inside the Trump campaign: losing the senior vote, a reliably Republican constituency for two decades.
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"We've got to get a new guy. Our President is erratic," said Dudley, who has largely voted Republican for nearly six decades. "All he's succeeded in doing is juicing up the stock market. Now that's gone to pot because of the coronavirus."
"I hoped that I would be wrong in not voting for him and that he would turn out to be a great president, but it didn't happen," said Marsha Lundh, 77, a Michigan retiree living here and a lifelong Republican who plans to vote for Biden in November.
She said that defeating Trump would add stability to the country and the world.
"We're very divided in every way," she said. "Everything could have been handled better and should have been handled better. Now is a chance to change things."
Paula Schelling left the Republican Party because of Trump, after voting for GOP candidates for much of her life. She changed her registration to "no party affiliation" and also plans to vote for Biden.
"I had to change parties. I could not do this anymore," said Schelling, 74, a retired teacher. "As I saw his interactions with foreign countries, how they were laughing at us, it just fortified my thoughts."
Jim Donelon, president of the Democratic Club of St. Petersburg, said he cannot recall another election in his lifetime when he felt as much enthusiasm among Democrats. Much of it, he said, springs from a disgust for the President and a demand for change.
"Trump is our biggest ally, as far as I'm concerned," said Donelon, 77. "He's turning out people who have never been interested in politics before."
They warned time and time again. I don't give a shit. lol
Post not giving a fuck/shit pics if old
