Miranda Blair didn’t vote for Donald Trump in 2016 because he scared her.
This week, she was wearing a bright red “Make America Great Again” hat as she waited in sub-freezing temperatures to hear him speak in Manchester, New Hampshire, as he rallied Republican voters to choose him as their nominee.
A lot happened in between to change Ms Blair’s thinking.
“Just a few years ago under Donald Trump, I felt like I could afford groceries and bring my girls skiing, and do all the things we wanted to do,” she said.
The 40-year-old sales manager voted for Barack Obama, a Democrat, in 2008 and found Mr Trump’s lack of political experience disqualifying in 2016. Disliking the options, she didn’t vote that year.
This is the best summary I could come up with:
This week, she was wearing a bright red “Make America Great Again” hat as she waited in sub-freezing temperatures to hear him speak in Manchester, New Hampshire, as he rallied Republican voters to choose him as their nominee.
Ms Blair’s evolution towards Mr Trump, spurred by the soaring cost of living in recent years, US involvement in new foreign conflicts and a belief that the Biden government has abandoned people like her, helps explain why the former president looks near certain to win the Republican presidential nomination.
In New Hampshire, the second state to choose its nominee, Mr Trump has opened a double-digit lead over former UN ambassador Nikki Haley, and his other big rival, Florida governor Ron DeSantis, has dropped out.
In interviews across the state before voting began on Tuesday, at campaign headquarters and pubs and diners, Mr Trump’s supporters said returning him to the White House was, as Ms Blair put it, “our last shot at restoring our beautiful country”.
On Sunday, dozens of supporters gathered at Tempesta’s, a pub in rural Keene modelled on a grand Dublin bar, to hear Congressman Matt Gaetz, a key Trump ally, make his pitch for the former president.
After his speech, he fielded a question from one man about the January 6 “hostages” - how Mr Trump has started referring to the individuals who were jailed, convicted, or pleaded guilty for their participation in the Capitol riot.
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