'Wish there were better choices': Local GOP voters frustrated over lack of competition

As Republican voters headed to the polls in Tuesday’s presidential preference primary, they appeared united in their opposition to President Joe Biden but frustrated that the GOP contest was already over.

Several GOP voters decried the lack of candidate choices in a primary that came a week after former President Donald Trump clinched the nomination. The lack of competition appeared to have dampened enthusiasm, with voter turnout in Leon County landing at a lackluster 23%.

Six other candidates, all of whom had bowed out by election day, remained on the ballot, including Gov. Ron DeSantis and former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley. In Leon County, more than one in four voters picked someone other than Trump.

“I just wish there were better choices,” said Joe Wood, a retired Panama Canal worker who lives in northeast Tallahassee. Wood, who called Trump “chaotic and divisive,” said he would have preferred it if DeSantis had stayed in the race. “He’s got all the right policies,” he said.

Though Trump won Leon County by an overwhelming margin, picking up nearly 73% of the vote, he was down roughly 8 percentage points from his statewide total of 81%.

Both Haley, who was still in the campaign as mail voting began but dropped out before early voting, and DeSantis outperformed in Leon County compared to their statewide results. Haley finished with 18% in Leon County and 14% across Florida. DeSantis, who dropped out in January, more than doubled a dismal 3% statewide showing to nearly 7.5% in Leon County.

Steve Dean, a retired administrative law judge, and his wife, Patricia Dean, voted for Trump at Celebration Baptist Church, a large northeast precinct that saw more voters, 188, than anywhere else in the county. And while they were eager to do so, both said they would have voted for DeSantis were he still in the running.

“I would have liked to have seen a convention where the two top guys went back and forth with it,” said Dean, who spent 28 years in the U.S. Army and Reserves. “I think our governor is a very fine man. He’s governed the state well. At the same time, I think Donald Trump in the four years he was in office did amazing things. We need somebody that can get things done."

Anne Mason Roberts, a student at Maclay School who turns 18 in June and will vote for the first time this year, waved signs for Haley on Tuesday outside Wildwood Presbyterian Church. She said she was so inspired by Haley that she traveled to Iowa to see her in person at a town hall and even make a speech for her at a caucus site in Des Moines.

“As a woman, she’s someone I looked up to and admired,” she said. “She didn’t come from a wealthy business background, she came from an immigrant family looking for a new start. She’s like any one of us.”

She encouraged everyone to vote in the November election, even if it’s a replay of the 2020 match-up.

“Seventy percent of Americans say they don’t want another Trump-Biden rematch but that is where we’re headed,” she said. “If people don’t participate in Democracy, we can’t complain about what we get.”

Bruce Host, a former Leon County Commissioner, said DeSantis’ decision to withdraw had no impact on how he voted. However, his wife Sandra Host said she wished she had more choices from which to select a presidential candidate this year.

A self-described “middle of-the-roader,” she added that she thinks DeSantis’ short-lived presidential campaign could have been a valuable learning experience.

“I think he now knows his weaknesses, and he’ll probably be a real viable candidate in the future,” said Sandra Host, who managed the Florida Legislature spouse program for 30 years.

Republican voters said immigration and the economy were among their biggest issues. Steve Dean said the country was “suffering an invasion” at the southern border.

“If we had had as many armed people come across our border as we have ‘unarmed,’ there would have been no question about it," he said. "You can’t have somewhere between four and eight million people coming to your country without significant problems. And we’re seeing that. It will change the demographics of this country.”

Kent Reed, an agricultural researcher, declined to say whom he voted for, though he indicated he might have gone for someone other than Trump if the nomination fight hadn’t ended. He said he was definitely not satisfied with current White House policy.

“There’s a lot of turmoil going on in the world,” he said. “And are the candidates the right ones to address those issues? We’ve got the economy going on. We’ve got immigration. We have a lot of activities that need to be addressed.”

Contact Jeff Burlew at jburlew@tallahassee.com or 850-599-2180.

This article originally appeared on Tallahassee Democrat: Tallahassee, Florida GOP voters frustrated over lack of competition