Mood swings across party lines for Santa Cruz County voters

Mike Lelieur spent Monday evening waving pro-Donald Trump flags along the summit of Highway 17 with other members of the local Republican party. He said this election has felt noticeably different for local Trump supporters. 

“You hear that?” he said into the phone, acknowledging a series of loud supportive honks from passing drivers. “There’s been a lot less hate this year, a lot of honks in support, not as many middle fingers.” 

Lelieur, who’s been involved in county politics since 2010, said he is concerned about election fraud and “nefarious stuff going on like what happened last time,” referencing the 2020 election but admitting that “I can’t prove cheating.” His worries, however, are not local: He complimented Santa Cruz County Clerk Tricia Webber for having the county’s process “pretty dialed in.” 

“There are rumors going around that if Trump wins, groups are going to go around burning down the town,” Lelieur said. “We lost in 2020 and we weren’t out there burning anything down.” 

The Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol invasion was not on Tom Decker’s mind Monday night, either. Decker, who launched an unsuccessful primary bid for District 5 supervisor in March, said he has been proudly wearing his Trump-Vance hat around town, something he didn’t do in 2020. 

“I’ve been wearing my hat everywhere, airports, county buildings, banks, and I forget I have it on until someone comes up to me and compliments it,” said Decker, who has voted for Trump in the past three elections. “Not one person has flipped me off, or said something shitty to me. And I’ve had my comebacks ready, but haven’t had to use them.” 

Decker said he’s “not anxious at all” about the national election and, actually, “feels really good about it.” 

Down in South County, Tony Nuñez, communications manager for nonprofit Community Bridges and a board member of the Pajaro Valley Health Care District, characterized the atmosphere in the community as “a little tense.” His employer, and Watsonville Community Hospital, which the board oversees, serve many undocumented residents. 

“You just don’t know how that population will react, whether they will continue to come in for their health care and other social services,” Nuñez said. “If Trump wins, it’s going to be an all-hands-on-deck response for people who work with vulnerable populations and the undocumented.” 

Tony Russomanno, communications manager for the Democratic Central Committee of Santa Cruz County, said he was “relieved and excited” about the prospects of the presidential election. He at once acknowledged and bucked the broader anxiety that seems to be settling over the country. 

“Where does my optimism come from? From the same place everyone else’s pessimism comes from,” Russomanno said. “It may not be a landslide, but I think it’s going to be a landslide, and the election of Kamala Harris will be due to women crying and realizing what this election means for their daughters and granddaughters.” 

Peggy Flynn, co-chair of the Democratic Women’s Club of Santa Cruz County, said she’s been carrying around a “low level of anxiety and fear for weeks,” and feels the dark mood around the country has taken away from “what should be a joyous moment that we have a serious woman candidate for president.” 

“We just don’t know what’s going to happen,” Flynn said from the UC Santa Cruz campus on Tuesday, where hundreds of students were still lined up to vote around 5 p.m. “There is a lot of anxiety. I went home earlier and turned on the television. CNN came on and I just turned it right off. He’s winning states we expected him to win, but it’s just hard to watch.” 

To fight the doldrums, Flynn said she’s manifesting. She made a reservation to be in Washington, D.C., for the January inauguration, a personal “statement of hope” that she also made during the election cycle in 2008. 

Will she still make the trip to Washington if Trump wins? 

“Absolutely not,” Flynn said.

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