By Tamara Lush
Shawna Jensen’s moment of reckoning came in March, as she sat in her suburban Fort Worth, Texas, living room next to her fireplace. Her laptop was open to a Zoom happy hour with five girlfriends. She sucked in a breath, gripping her glass of red wine.
“Hey, guys, I gotta tell you something,” she said. The women, all white, Republican, suburban moms, stared back at her.
Jensen’s heart raced. How would they react? What would they think? She never dreamed she would utter these words aloud.
“I’m not voting for Trump this year. My heart will not let me do it. I can’t vote for someone who is that ugly to other people.”
An uncomfortable pause descended over the screen. “Oh, OK,” one woman said, in a strained voice.
Since then, the 47-year-old hasn’t been invited to parties, and the Zoom happy hours have been few.
Jensen is among former Donald Trump supporters who are voting for Democrat Joe Biden this year, breaking ranks with family, friends and, in many cases, a lifelong political affiliation. They say it’s caused them anguish, both to personal relationships and their own identity. They wanted change and disruption, until they found out what that actually looked like under a President Trump.