In the political year of the “cat lady,” retired Michigan teacher Carrol McElroy is a feline lover who’s ready to pounce at the mere mention of Donald Trump.
“I wouldn’t vote for him even to be the dog catcher. I don’t like him as a person. I think he’s a liar and a con man and I don’t trust him,” she tells DailyMail.com as she stocks up for her 8kg tiger cat.
McElroy wears a pink T-shirt with a cat on it as she walks down the cat litter aisle at Magoo’s pet store in Flint, Michigan, and is aware of recent animal controversies on the campaign trail, including a debunked theory pushed by Trump about Immigrants eat people’s dogs and cats in neighboring Ohio. “What a lie,” he says.
For campaigns looking at demographics for an edge in battleground states, their dislike of Trump should come as no surprise.
According to a new DailyMail.com poll, almost a majority of cat owners support Kamala Harris over Trump, 47 percent to 32 percent.
And single women who own cats — the group Trump’s running mate, Sen. J.D. Vance, referred to — are one of the most enthusiastic groups. They support her by a whopping 59 percent to 21 percent, according to the poll by JL Partners.
Cat owner Carrol McElroy says she wouldn’t vote for Donald Trump as a dog owner. Polls show female cat owners leaning toward Kamala Harris
“Single women with cats appear to be a deeply Democratic group: our data shows they back Kamala Harris by a staggering 56 points. This is not a tiny minority, but a blue army: our data suggests ‘single women with cats’ may make up as much as 18% of the electorate,” said pollster Joe Alder.
“That suggests there may be something deeper at play in the choice of mascot that also drives the choice of politicians,” he added.
Scratch the surface of the survey of 1,000 likely voters and you’ll find even more animal data about who’s on the hunt.
Male dog owners support Trump 54 to 38, while female dog owners support Harris 45 to 37.
Trump’s team is criticizing Harris for her past leftist stances, but it is her own supporters who are ready for the Age of Aquarius.
Male fish owners support Trump over Harris by a whopping 82 percent to 12 percent in the poll. The results are closer for female fish owners: Trump leads her by just 37 percent to 34 percent.
Trump wins big margins among reptile owners and people who keep fish as pets
Single, never-married women with cats back Kamala Harris by an overwhelming margin
Birds of a feather: There are distinctions by pet and by gender in the results of the animals
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As befits a candidate who repeatedly tells a parable about a snake at his rallies, male reptile owners support Trump by 67 to 22.
Harris has the edge among female reptile owners, 39 to 34. Trump, the first president in years not to own a pet, also leads her among small mammal owners.
At two pet stores in Genesee County, Michigan, a swing state won by Joe Biden in 2020, the data is all but confirmed.
Mitch Ryan of Grand Blanc has a Boston Terrier-French poodle cross, a high-end animal favored by some celebrities. He likes Trump’s outspokenness.
‘Maybe he doesn’t think before he speaks. I can’t say he’s a liar, really. He’s not blowing smoke up your ass.
“I enjoy honesty and, honestly, I prefer someone who is honest than someone who is completely dishonest,” he says.
Ryan wishes Trump and Vance would not talk about people eating pets or “women with cats and no children,” which has become a prominent theme of the campaign.
“I wish he hadn’t said anything about it,” he said, calling it an “easy target” that could be used against him. Not that he’s willing to dismiss the rumor entirely. (Another DailyMail.com poll by JL Partners found that a third of voters believe the rumor about Haitians eating dogs and cats.)
“I know for a fact that there have been many reports from people saying this is happening. Is there evidence? Currently, not much.”
Mitch Ryan of Grand Blanc, Michigan, who owns a Boston terrier-French poodle mix, likes Trump’s candor but says he sometimes “doesn’t think before he speaks.”
Michigan cat owner Joanne Stevenson bucked the demographic trend and is a staunch Trump supporter. “I feel like he’s still my president,” she said as she shopped for her tan cat.
John Tomlin spends several thousand dollars each year to stock his 90-gallon tank. He’s all for shark skeptic Donald Trump
Dog owner Donny Russo plans to cast his first vote for Trump in November, but was only tempted by dog chews that resemble Trump or President Joe Biden.
Fish owner John Tomlin spends several thousand dollars each year stocking his 90-gallon fish tank, putting him in tune with government business.
He says Trump has some flaws, but he supports him anyway.
“Trump is a businessman. He talks like an idiot, but he’s a businessman.”
His comment drew support from one Harris supporter who heard it.
“Thanks for at least saying that,” he said.
“He can’t speak for anything. He’s the worst person to speak for. But when it comes to running the country, he knows what he’s doing when he’s running the business,” Tomlin continued. “You can see that. Does he find loopholes and things like that? Of course he does.”
Not all cat owners are on Harris’ side. One Trump supporter is Joanne Stevenson, who came to buy a new collar for her dilute calico cat, a breed that does not have black coloring.
“He did a lot for our country and I don’t think he ever lost. I feel like he’s still my president. I don’t think Biden is,” she said, echoing Trump’s false claims, which he repeated in Michigan this week, that he didn’t lose the state in 2020.
“It’s a headache,” she said of Biden. “Look at how we’re living through everything: you go to the supermarket and everything is more and more expensive.”
If Vance’s comments about “cat ladies” bothered her, Stevenson isn’t saying it. “I like him, so I’m not going to say anything bad about him,” she said.
Donny Russo is 22 years old and will be eligible to vote for the first time in November.
Their dogs, a Doberman Pinscher named Asia and a German Shepherd-Labrador mix named Zoe, have a tough reputation, but their main concern is keeping the peace in America.
“I support anyone who doesn’t try to get us into another war or get us killed,” he said. For Russo, that person is Trump, who repeatedly talks about being able to keep the country out of World War III.
He said many politicians are “afraid to tell the truth because of the consequences that could come with it. And it seems that Trump is not afraid of that. If he tells the truth, he could possibly be killed for it,” he said, invoking the latest assassination attempt.
There’s one metric in store that isn’t as scientific as the DailyMail poll, but could still provide a clue to the political leanings of pet owners in a critical battleground state.
A box of dog toys shaped like Trump and Biden is on sale. Store employees say the idea is for customers to buy the candidate they hate so the dog can chew on it.
There hasn’t been time to stock up on Kamala Harris chewy candies. But as of Wednesday, there were 12 Trump candies and 13 Biden candies. That gave the Democrat the edge, at least in this pet store.
