The assassination attempt on former President Donald Trump's life has rocked the key swing state town where Democrat voters admit they're afraid to voice support for Vice President Kamala Harris, according to a new report.
Residents of Butler, Pa. — the town where Thomas Michael Crooks fired an AR-pattern rifle at Trump and lost his own life as a consequence — report "unnerving" threats and increasingly violent rhetoric as tempers flare over the upcoming election, the Washington Post reported Monday.
“People that come in are very afraid and very angry,” Barbara Davidson, a manager for United Republicans of Butler County, told the newspaper. “They are angry about the direction the country is going on.”
Rhonda, a 65-year-old supporter of Vice President Kamala Harris who was too scared for her safety to give a last name, reported a frightening response to her political bumper sticker.
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“I walked out to my car and there is a brick on my windshield,” said Rhonda, 65. “This is not the Butler I grew up in … It was a peaceful town.”
Republicans maintain a 2-to-1 voter registration advantage in Butler, a county Trump will need to win by big numbers if he hopes to claim victory in 2024.
But a core group of Harris supporters have begun to band together, despite hostile threats from neighbors, with quiet determination, the Post reports.
Real estate agent Heidi Marie Priest, a Democrat, organized a “Butler County Women for Harris” Facebook group that grew to more than 1,300 members in a county with only 40,000 Democrats, according to the Post.
"The group quickly became a sort of therapy for local Harris supporters who said they had been too fearful to express their political beliefs," the Post reported.
"On a recent afternoon, about 80 people gathered at a small park...They had tried not to draw attention to themselves, but a heckler still spotted the group and yelled, 'Trump 2024!'”
Priest has since received "unnerving messages" at her office warning her she is "a long way from home," according to the Post.
Sue Legacy, a 61-year-old Butler homeowner with a Biden sign on her lawn, told the Post she's grown used to hearing motorists hurl expletives at her as they drive by.
“Tensions are volatile," she said.
Trump's words on the historic day — "Fight, fight, fight" — have been graffitied all over town, according to the Post.
Jennifer Ford, executive director of the Butler County Historical Society, told the Post Butler has witnessed political tension before, but this year's election season stands out for being “outright frightening.”
