Welcome to From the Politics Desk, a daily newsletter that brings you the NBC News Politics team’s latest reporting and analysis from the White House, Capitol Hill and the campaign trail.
In today’s edition, Jonathan Allen shares what he learned after spending a day talking to voters at a Pennsylvania gas station. Plus, our Capitol Hill team provides an update on the talks to end the Department of Homeland Security shutdown.
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— Adam Wollner
What a day at a gas station in Pennsylvania revealed about the midterms
By Jonathan Allen
In just a couple of days, tens of millions of viewers have seen Amanda Robbins giving President Donald Trump a piece of her mind on NBC News, social media, “Jimmy Kimmel Live!” and “The Daily Show,” among other platforms.
The 35-year-old resident of Millersburg, Pennsylvania, is upset with Trump about the price of gas and the war in Iran. So, I asked her what she would say to him if she knew he would see it.
“You are a worthless pile of s---,” Robbins said, looking straight into our video camera. I knew she had voted for him. How many times, I asked.
“Three times,” she said. “That was my bad. Apparently, I’m an idiot.”
Since then, I’ve been asked by friends, colleagues and others how I found myself in Millersburg, 25 miles north of Harrisburg, talking to voters — including the one with the big, bold opinion of Trump, his handling of his job and how she came to turn on him.
In the run-up to any midterm election, reporters fan out across the country and talk to swing voters in swing districts and swing states. I wanted to shake up that model a little bit and talk specifically to MAGA voters in a swing district in a swing state.
When the GOP has been at its strongest in the Trump era, those voters have flocked to the polls to help him, and his party, win control of the White House, the House and the Senate.
Millersburg, one of a series of MAGA enclaves in battleground Pennsylvania’s highly competitive 10th District, looked like a perfect place to find out how Trump voters assess his performance and think about November’s elections.
The local congressman, Republican Rep. Scott Perry, has been a vocal advocate for the MAGA agenda and narrowly kept his seat in 2024. Harrisburg leans heavily Democratic, but much of the rest of the district, including Millersburg, is ruby red. Perry’s race is widely viewed as a toss-up this time.
I figured a gas station was a good place to talk to folks about the war and the price of fuel — it would be fresh in their minds as they pumped and there would be time as the tanks filled to chat with a reporter.
So I met up with photographer Hannah Beier and jack-of-all-trades producer and cameraman Kevin Portilla in Millersburg. We went to the gas station with the lowest prices — because we figured it would be busy and because the manager allowed us to interview customers.
What we found, as expected, was a lot of voters who cast ballots for Trump. Some of them are pleased with the war in Iran and willing to pay more at the pump in service of it. Some didn’t love the war or the higher prices but are still with Trump and the GOP. Others said they aren’t likely to vote in the midterms.
And one — Robbins — hit a political nerve center with her conclusion that her own votes are the reason for the war, the surging gas prices and the economic squeeze she feels. She won’t vote for a Democrat in the midterms, but she won’t vote for a Republican, either, she said.
Republicans will spend much of the next several months trying to make sure Trump voters come to the polls. Their greatest fear is that there are too many Trump voters like Robbins — who aren’t inclined to help him maintain power — across the country to hold control of the House and the Senate.
Bipartisan talks to end Homeland Security standoff get serious as shutdown drags on
By Scott Wong, Frank Thorp V and Brennan Leach
Top Republicans and Democrats trying to end the monthlong Department of Homeland Security shutdown huddled with White House border czar Tom Homan in the Capitol today.
