'Speechless': Swing state voters react to Donald Trump's guilty verdict

Wisconsin resident Damon Anderson declared himself “speechless.” Nevada retiree Doug Goodman found the justice system worked as designed. Pennsylvania voter Charles Floray insisted he was unmoved.

Americans reacted Thursday to the historic conviction of former President Donald Trump on 34 felony charges with a mixture of surprise, joy, anger, indifference and expletives.

Some said justice was served. Others echoed Trump in calling it a perversion of justice.

It is the first time in American history a former president or major party candidate has been convicted of a crime, and the momentous decision left many people stunned.

For Trump, it was just the latest and most dramatic development in a political career punctuated by many such moments — a presidential campaign assisted by foreign adversaries, a chaotic four years of governing, two impeachments and three other indictments that are still winding through the court system — that have yet to derail his ambitions.

Trump remains the most dominant force in the GOP and polls from before the verdict indicate another White House term is well within his reach.

Voters are now wondering what will come next. Will the GOP really persist into the November general election campaign with a convicted felon as its nominee?

Trump made it clear Thursday he’s not going anywhere, vowing to seek redemption at the ballot box.

That will make for a rocky, explosive, unprecedented presidential race that could fray the nation’s nerves.

It already is.

“It’s even more confusing than it was before, and I think that’s terrifying,” Anderson said.

USA TODAY interviewed swing-state residents within hours of a verdict many were still processing. They had a lot to say.

‘I’m kind of speechless’: Wisconsin residents shocked by verdict

First-year University of Wisconsin-Madison graduate students Marian Azeem-Angel and Rusal Ferus were sitting at the Memorial Union terrace when they saw the news of the guilty verdicts.

Both voted for Biden in 2020 and plan to again in the fall.

“My friends from out of state just texted me, saying, ‘It finally happened,’” said Ferus, who grew up in Georgia. “Thank God something came out of that and it wasn’t just a whole lot of deliberation for nothing.”

During their conversation, a woman at an adjacent table reading the news for the first time audibly exclaimed, “Holy s---.”

Hannah Neece of Green Bay believes the jury “made the right call” but was shocked by the verdict.

“I truly believed he wouldn’t be found guilty, let alone guilty on all counts,” said Neece, 31, who voted for Hillary Clinton in 2016 and for Joe Biden in 2020.

Anderson, 27, also didn’t expect Trump to be convicted.

“I’m kind of speechless,” said the Milwaukee resident, who didn’t vote for Trump in 2016 or 2020 but said “I was rooting for the guy, a little bit.”

Anderson doesn’t plan to vote in this election. He can’t imagine Trump continuing to be the GOP nominee.

“They can’t (nominate him) anymore, right? Now he has a conviction. He can’t become the president,” Anderson said, adding he thought Trump shouldn’t have run in 2024 with a case pending against him. “If they allow Trump to still run, now what game are we playing? What’s really going on? It’s even more confusing than it was before, and I think that’s terrifying.”

Appleton resident Dorothy Ternes, 84, and Waupaca County GOP chair Joel Bartel illustrate the polarized reactions to the verdict.

“Justice must prevail, and it has,” Ternes said, while Bartel called the verdict a "misuse of our judicial system" that could lead to conflict.

'How it’s designed to work': Nevada voter says verdict must be 'respected'

Doug Goodman, a nonpartisan voter from Sparks, emphasized that the verdict "was handed down by 12 people who were agreed to by both sides."

“From a nonpartisan point of view, I think it's critical that we look at the American system of justice and that this is how it's designed to work so the verdict has to be respected,” said the 75-year-old who voted for Clinton in 2016 and Biden in 2020.

For Tom Daly of Reno, a 76-year-old Republican, the verdict Thursday is not the last word.

Daly voted for Trump twice. He thinks the case has many aspects that can be appealed, something the former president has every intention of doing.

“The appellate court will certainly reverse this, and I think they will do that before the election because it's obviously a significant issue,” he said. “I don't think they're going to take months to do it, I think they'll do it in weeks.”

If the verdict is reversed, “I think it’ll be a positive for Trump in the election,” Daly added.

Sparks resident Diana Mackey was drinking champagne at a local casino Thursday to celebrate Trump’s guilty verdict.

“It’s wonderful,” the 78-year-old Democrat and retired human resources director said. She paused to move locations where she was talking by phone because someone pulled up in a truck with a Trump sign flying the Confederate flag.

Mackey worked in New York City in the 1980s when Trump was everywhere.

“There was always something about Trump going bankrupt, stiffing people, cheating, lying,” Mackey said. “I'm so happy that he finally has been found guilty of things he's been doing for years.”

'It doesn't change my mind': Pennsylvania independent unmoved by trial

Floray, a 73-year-old independent who lives near State College, said his view of Trump’s trial is “it's just all bull s---.”

“It doesn't have any impact," Floray added. "It doesn't change my mind any on how I feel about Biden or Trump."

Though Floray was vague about his presidential preference this year — "anybody but Biden" — he noted that he and his wife supported Trump in 2016 and 2020 before leaving the Republican Party to become independents two years ago. He thinks Trump's guilty of the same thing a lot of politicians are guilty of: Trying to save face before people vote.

"It's New York," Floray said of the trial. "What the hell? You would expect it from them."

Jeff Sperrazza, a 52-year-old independent from the Pittsburgh suburbs, is planning to vote for Trump's Democratic opponent just as he did in 2016 and 2020.

The guilty verdict had no impact on his decision.

"A salacious trial gets a lot of headlines ... but the trial doesn't move the needle much," Sperrazza said. "It's not a topic that comes up. The minds are made up for the most part."

Sperrazza said he believes the upcoming debates will do more to impact the presidential race than Trump's conviction.

"You've got two candidates who've got one term each under them," he said. "You've got a body of work to compare."

Asked what has him leaning toward Biden, he replied: "Honestly there's not a lot, but I think that Biden will surround himself with quality people and experts in their fields and listen to them."

"I'm okay with four more years,” he added. “It hasn't been that bad."

Gilbert Jacobs, a 78-year-old retired U.S. Army officer, businessman and college professor in Erie County, voted earlier this year for Nikki Haley in the GOP primary despite the former Trump-appointed United Nations ambassador dropping out of the race against her former boss a month earlier.

Jacobs said he liked Haley's credentials, but his choice ultimately came down to temperament."I don't like his character and of course he just got convicted on 34 charges today," Jacobs told USA Today hours after the jury delivered its verdict. "It just reinforced my original issue with, that I don't think we can trust him."

Still, even with Thursday's outcome, he's not entirely ruled out voting for Trump in November. He did, however, openly wonder if the GOP would keep him as its nominee."I like the Republican platform," he said. "I just don't like Trump. This puts me in a really difficult dilemma."

'Persecuted': Michigan Republican says Trump didn't get fair trial

Thomas Roy, a Republican and Trump supporter in the bellwether Michigan county of Saginaw, said his own vote might have been influenced if he thought the trial was a fair one.

But Trump never should have stood trial in the Democratic stronghold of New York, and his defense team's request for a change of venue should have been granted, Roy said.

"It's just remarkable that all of this stuff is happening," said Roy, who owns a landscaping company. "I can't think of any other president who's been persecuted as much as Donald Trump."

Angel Holbrook, an Independent voter who lives in Taylor, about 17 miles southwest of Detroit, said the guilty verdicts won't affect her vote, and she doesn't think others will be influenced, either.

Holbrook said she votes for the candidate she thinks will do the best job and what party they belong to is not a primary concern for her. She voted for Biden in 2020 and expects she will again this year, largely because she has a low opinion of Trump and believes his return to the White House would bring back racial divides and other controversies that she believes became more pronounced during his presidency.

"The MAGA (Make America Great Again) supporters, this guy can do whatever he wants, and they're still behind him," Holbrook said. "It's unfortunate. I don't think there's going to be much of a sway."

Even Andy Silk, a Saginaw-area men's clothing store owner who plans to vote for independent candidate Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., said he doesn't think Trump's convictions will significantly influence the election or cause many other independents to shift away from the Republican and toward a candidate such as Kennedy.

"I just don't think it's that big of a deal," he said. "I don't think voters are too worried about it."

Part of it is the nature of the crime, Silk said. Falsifying company records is largely a victimless crime, and the underlying allegations about covering up an affair with a porn star also don't move the needle with many American voters, he added.

"I think Americans want good leadership and we don't really care as much what goes on behind closed doors," he said.

Silk said he feels neither Trump nor Biden are properly addressing the most important issues, such as the economy, the national debt and inflation.

'No one … is safe': Arizona Republican slams Trump verdict

Linda Carpenter, a 61-year-old barista from Mesa, identifies as a "conservative" Republican, having "never wavered her opinion on him" since even before Trump's first election win in 2016."I disagree one hundred percent with the verdict, but I also disagree one hundred percent with the trial itself. It was a sham to me and to a lot of people," said Carpenter. "This is to keep him from actively campaigning and trying to get re-elected. In my opinion, this man has become a human punching bag and a scapegoat."Carpenter, who voted for Trump in both the 2016 and 2020 elections and intends to vote for him again in 2024, said she believes the trial will have the "opposite effect" for voters this fall, citing that the final verdict will drive Trump to a White House victory.  "If they can do this to a former president, then no one in the citizenry is safe. We will never have a republic again… if they're sending ex-presidents to jail because they don't like his politics."

Erin Dickey, a 21-year-old student at Arizona State University, was not old enough to vote in the 2020 election but says she now follows national politics. She is unsure if she will vote in this election, saying she “doesn’t love either option.”

Reflecting on Trump’s conviction, she said, “I’m not surprised, but I am looking forward to seeing how it all plays out. That’s a lot of things to be found guilty on.”

'They're incensed by it': Georgia Republicans predict anti-Biden backlash

Tim Waters, a 62-year-old Georgia resident and the chair of his local GOP chapter in Peach County, first saw the news through an alert in his group chat with other Republican leaders.

“People are just — to say ‘undeterred’ by this wouldn't be accurate,” Waters said. “They're incensed by it.”

Waters, who is a retired electrical engineer and conservative activist, doesn't believe support for the former president will falter in the wake of his conviction.

“Ordinarily, you would think that a president being convicted of 34 felonies would be a drag,” he said, adding the conviction may ultimately increase Trump’s appeal with voters. “I think it's good. I mean, from what I've understood, donations tripled overnight. People are upset, they see right through this.”

Steve Sanders, a 43-year-old attorney and chairman of the Richmond County GOP in Augusta, Georgia, also found out about the verdict through a group chat with friends.

“I think the general consensus and feeling is that this is basically a sham trial, a show trial,” he said.

Though Sanders was not initially a Trump supporter, he voted for the former president in 2020, and says he plans to vote for him again this year. He sees the trial as proof of Trump being “unfairly singled out” by Democratic leaders.

“It seems very clear to me that this is a political campaign strategy that Democrats are using to employ ‘lawfare,’ if you want to call it that, and to use the justice system to hurt your political opponent instead of getting it the old-fashioned way through winning the hearts and minds of the voters,” he said.

Within his community of conservative voters, Sanders said, Trump’s supporters fall into a few different camps, ranging from die-hard fans to those who are more ambivalent. But even among conservatives who have a more tenuous allegiance to the former president, Sanders said the verdict may ultimately increase support for Trump.

“I think there's a group of folks that may not love everything that Trump does and may not have always been big supporters," he said. "But just seeing how everything is going and how Trump's really being treated in these court cases is rallying a lot of those voters to support him more than they otherwise would. I think that's a very big, important group in the party, and so I think it's sort of backfiring.”

This article originally appeared on Des Moines Register: Trump's guilty verdict brings mix of emotions in swing state voters