It is pay-walled so I copied it below.

Unhappy Republicans juggle tough choices
Trump is ‘kryptonite’ to some middle-class voters but picking Democratic alternative is hard
PATTI WALDMEIR — DUBUQUE, IOWA


Chris Budzisz, centre in fleece, casts a first Democratic caucus vote — Patti Waldmeir

As the caged clock in the school gymnasium flipped over to 7pm on the night of Iowa’s 2020 presidential caucuses, former Republican Chris Budzisz prepared to cast the first Democratic party vote of his 48 years.

His home, Dubuque County, voted Democratic from before he was born until 2016 when it turned Republican to elect Donald Trump as president. Since he could vote, Mr Budzisz, a professor at Loras College in Dubuque, sided with the Republicans. But Mr Trump’s election pushed him reluctantly into the Democratic camp.

Political experts say Mr Trump cannot afford to lose this important segment of the electorate — college-educated, suburban Republicans like Mr Budzisz — and still win a second term. The bespectacled and fleece-clad Mr Budzisz, who used to be so committed to the Grand Old Party that he was a member of its county central committee, makes clear his conversion is less than enthusiastic.

As the seconds ticked down to the 7pm start of the poll, he still had not made up his mind which candidate to back. Handfuls of his neighbours in this suburban, white-collar area of a mostly blue-collar, Catholic town had gathered beneath the gym’s basketball hoops, in groups backing each presidential candidate. So he went from neighbour to neighbour asking for a last-minute pep talk on why he should vote for their candidate.

“The GOP is no longer recognisable to me,” he told the Financial Times. “I feel like the party left me, I didn’t leave it. It seems more focused on feeding the needs of President Trump rather than articulating a firm vision of policy — and the tone and tenor of the party has become so corrosive.

“I don’t blame Trump for that, I think the president is more symptomatic of an underlying illness facing American society, than the cause.”

Mr Budzisz still calls himself a “strongly pro-life” conservative and adds that “there are elements of the Democratic party that I am still steadfastly opposed to. But I see it as a more healthy political institution and it is fielding candidates who I believe would be fit for office while I think the current president is not.”

Aaron Renn, publisher of Heartland Intelligence and an expert on Midwest politics, said voters like Mr Budzisz would be critical in this year’s presidential race, including in the key Midwest “Super Tuesday” primaries in March.

“Trump is kryptonite to a small segment of traditional metropolitan business Republicans, who have defected to the Democrats. With Trump having such razor thin margins of victory in key states, and some of his senior citizen voters having passed away over the past four years, he can’t afford to lose too many people from his coalition if he hopes to win re-election.”

As Mr Budzisz trawled the rival camps, a former colleague who supports Midwestern moderate Pete Buttigieg urged him to join his camp because “Pete is the kind of candidate that can create enthusiasm and his is a more inclusive message” who could reach out to former Republicans. A supporter of leftwing Vermont senator Bernie Sanders tried to win him over with the pitch that Mr Sanders “has always been consistent”, which did not seem to sway him much. A friend in the camp of former vice-president Joe Biden said Mr Sanders was “too divisive”, while Mr Biden stood for “unity and electability”.

With only moments to go, Mr Budzisz sighed and declared: “I think I’m going to go with the VP (vice-president). It’s that traditionalist tug in me.”

As the night wore on, and Mr Biden appeared to lack the votes to reach the 15 per cent threshold needed to reach the second round of caucus voting, Mr Budzisz found himself forced to stump for the former vice-president or risk seeing him eliminated. He ended the night reluctantly agreeing to be a delegate for Mr Biden to the county nominating convention.

But as news emerged that the Iowa Democratic party would be unable to announce caucus results on election night, possibly endangering the future of the controversial poll, he reflected “there is something strangely poetic” about the chaos. “My first Democratic caucus may also be my last,” he said, “because it may be Iowa’s last.”

‘I feel like the party left me, I didn’t leave it. The tone and tenor has become so corrosive’