Undecided voters explain how the election shakeups have shifted their views

For voters who have not firmly decided which presidential candidate to support, the events of the last month, including an assassination attempt and a new Democratic candidate, have dramatically changed the race. Lisa Desjardins connected with the type of voters likely to decide the election before and after these shakeups.
Geoff Bennett:
And for those voters who have not firmly decided which presidential candidate to support, the events of the last month, including an assassination attempt and a new Democratic candidate, have dramatically reshaped the race.
Lisa Desjardins connected with the type of voters likely to decide the election before and after those shakeups.
Lisa Desjardins:
We heard from thousands of voters across the country, different ages, politics and walks of life, all dreading this election.
Man:
I’m wishing for something, like, normal.
Man:
I feel despondent. I feel that there is no good choice.
Woman:
I just feel overall really disappointed and really hopeless.
Lisa Desjardins:
We will highlight a few now. In June, they were unhappy.
Carlyn Pinkins, New Mexico Voter:
Frustrated, disappointed, let down.
Ana Fernandez, Florida Voter:
A little dejected.
Lisa Desjardins:
But just weeks later…
(Gunshots)
Lisa Desjardins:
… extraordinary events changed the race. An assassination attempt raised a new image of Trump, followed shortly by a new partner in the race, with Trump choosing Ohio Senator J.D. Vance as his running mate.
And just days later:
Joe Biden, President of the United States: I have decided the best way forward is the past the torch for a new generation.
Lisa Desjardins:
Biden was out of the race. Vice President Kamala Harris was in.
But what did all this mean for voters? From our deciders, we have a snapshot of the change. It was large for Ana Fernandez, a 22-year-old in Miami, about to go to law school.
Here’s how she felt over a month ago.
Ana Fernandez:
I have not a lot of confidence that things are going the way that they should in this country, but trying to maintain hope.
Lisa Desjardins:
But her feelings now?
Ana Fernandez:
Like, I feel joyful, excited, like so hopeful, so excited.
Lisa Desjardins:
Ana, who’s finishing a gap year before law school, is herself an immigrant from Cuba. She crossed the border as a 4-year-old and sees her family as part of the American dream. But she also sees immigration policy that is failing both migrants and the border itself.
A Democrat, she trusts Harris more than Trump to improve things. She has questions about Harris, but she’s ready for a new generation and all the memes that Harris has sparked.
Kamala Harris, Vice President of the United States (D) and U.S. Presidential Candidate: Do you think you just fell out of a coconut tree?
Ana Fernandez:
She’s definitely energizing me. While I love to think that I’m a serious consumer of news, I also love when Charli XCX tweeted that Kamala is brat. Like, that made me very happy.
Carlyn Pinkins:
It was almost like a cloud had lifted.
Lisa Desjardins:
In New Mexico, Carlyn Pinkins has a sense of hope too, but it may not help Harris. Pinkins is a graduate student and working multiple jobs. She has a full life, trivia nights and getting outdoors, but rent is high and she barely gets by.
She believes both parties are failing people like her. She wants to vote third party, but in June was worried about that helping Trump. This was her then.
Carlyn Pinkins:
We have these two candidates that don’t care about people in my situation. And I’m steadily year after year watching things for me and my friends and people in my community get worse.
Lisa Desjardins:
And now?
Carlyn Pinkins:
I feel a lot better voting for a party now that I know that the Democrats are putting up a candidate that has a good — a really good chance, I think.
Lisa Desjardins:
What about a group Trump especially needs, unhappy and critical Republicans?
So a few things have happened since we last talked.
Zach Horn, Pennsylvania Voter:
They have. It’s been quite an experience here so far. I told you I wasn’t too excited for this election cycle. And I guess it’s probably been the most exciting one we have had in a while.
Lisa Desjardins:
Zach Horn is a teacher in Western Pennsylvania, a family man and sports fan with two kids. He’s highly tuned in to the election. In June, he was undecided.
Zach Horn:
This is the first year where I’m just not as excited as I would have been in the past. So I think that’s where that disappointment feature comes in.
Lisa Desjardins:
But three weeks later, the assassination attempt, just an hour from his home, put Trump in a more human light for him.
Zach Horn:
It just — it helped to make him more personable, I guess is what you would say. So, in a way, like, in terms of the vote and things like that, it kind of moved me closer to a Trump vote.
Lisa Desjardins:
He watched the Republican Convention thinking perhaps Trump would be a unifier.
Donald Trump, Former President of the United States (R) and Current U.S. Presidential Candidate: Thank you very much.
Lisa Desjardins:
And for 25 minutes, Zach heard a candidate he could support. But then the speech and Zach’s thoughts changed again.
Zach Horn:
It became a stump speech. And it was a lengthy stump speech, at that. And that lost me, to be quite honest. I was going to say, I was hoping for the call for unity. It didn’t happen the way that I expected it to. And so that initial move closer kind of got washed with some of those things later.
Lisa Desjardins:
Now he’s looking at Harris, considering her seriously, and saying her V.P. decision could make the difference. Zach’s experience with Pennsylvania Governor Josh Shapiro has been good.
Zach Horn:
If Josh Shapiro gets selected as the V.P., I’d probably go from a lean-Trump position currently to a lean-Harris position at that point. But I still want to hear what everybody has to say.
Another unsure Republican.
Steve Beck, Alabama Voter:
If it was tomorrow, it would be — well, there would be a lot of prayer.
Lisa Desjardins:
Steve Beck runs his own travel agency in Alabama. In June, he had mixed feelings.
Steve Beck:
On one hand discouraged, but, on the other hand, just encouraged because we have a process that has been around a while, and it still does a very good job.
Lisa Desjardins:
He remains disappointed, but he’s trying to move past it, even as he still doesn’t love the candidates or how they got here.
Steve Beck:
I wish Kamala Harris had gone through a process. I wish there was someone other than Trump. But this is where we’re at. And it’s up to me as a voter to continue to look deeper.
Lisa Desjardins:
One more decider in a swing state. This was Georgia voter Lauren Capie in June.
Lauren Capie, Georgia Voter:
Frustrating.
Lisa Desjardins:
She felt neither Trump nor Biden listens to voters. And now with Harris as a candidate?
Lauren Capie:
I feel differently. I feel more positive. I feel like maybe she’s more in touch than he is. Of course, she’s younger, and she’s female.
Lisa Desjardins:
Capie works for the Social Security Administration and finds joy in travel. And while she had been more anti-Trump before, she now sees reasons to like Harris.
Lauren Capie:
Something feels different. I don’t know what that is. But, yes, I’m a little more hopeful.
Lisa Desjardins:
Something feels different. For voters, for the deciders especially, the race is not over. It’s restarting.
For the “PBS News Hour,” I’m Lisa Desjardins.