PHOENIX — Gary Nelson’s story appears similar to that of Ebenezer Scrooge, the miser from Charles Dickens’ The Christmas Story. Like Scrooge, Nelson was long convinced that hard work and personal responsibility were the only principles to live by. He believed that everyone was the architect of their own fortune and that those who failed — whether poor, sick or desperate — had simply not done enough with their lives to lift themselves out of their predicament.
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But like Scrooge, Nelson would ultimately recognize that the world was in fact more complex. His views on freedom and responsibility, right and wrong, began to crumble. On Nov. 5, Nelson, a longtime Republican, police officer and pro-life activist, will vote for the Democrats for the first time in his life.
It’s unexpected swing voters like him that Kamala Harris needs to win against Donald Trump.
But how has it come to this, that after all these decades, a staunch Republican suddenly prefers a Democratic president?
Gary Nelson lives in Phoenix, Arizona. But because it is around 40 degrees Celcius (104F) almost every day in summer there, the 68-year-old and his wife have bought a vacation home in Payson, a small town in the Arizona mountains, where it’s 10 degrees cooler.
Nelson tells his story here.
Republican Christian values
“I was born in Phoenix into a very conservative family that wound up lower middle class after my parents divorced. My mother struggled with being a single parent. Nevertheless, she was a firm believer in Republican Christian values, which she passed on to me.
I remember being eight or nine years old at my first political event, a rally by Republican Barry M. Goldwater. Everyone said he was a great guy. And when he shook my hand, I thought so too.
Economic freedom meant that anyone who worked hard could succeed.
As a teenager, I began to interpret these conservative values for myself. Most teenagers in the early 1970s were protesting for a more open America. But my environment had taught me that these people wanted to plunge our country into chaos. I was convinced of that too.
For me, economic freedom meant that anyone who worked hard could succeed. Anyone who failed simply hadn’t done enough. So in the end, I decided to become a police officer. I was convinced that a free market economy and a strong police force were the best thing for a functioning and just America.
I joined the Republican Party at 18 and began my career as a police officer in Scottsdale, Arizona, at 22. Over the course of 27 years, I worked my way up from patrol officer to criminal investigator and eventually to chief of the white-collar crime division. The job reinforced my belief that strict laws and harsh penalties were necessary to maintain social order.
For many years, I was also a member of the Arizona Right to Life movement, an anti-abortion organization. For me, the protection of unborn life was one of the most important moral and legal frameworks in U.S. society. My wife felt the same way, as did my daughter, whom we sent to a religious private school.
A change of heart
That all changed when I turned 61 or 62. To this day, I find it difficult to say exactly what it was. In the end, it was many different things. There were my daughter’s experiences. She had spent some time in California with her husband and made many Black and gay friends there.
One morning she went to church where John MacArthur, a major voice in American fundamentalist Christianity for decades, was speaking. I had never liked him. After what she told me, I knew why: he said that all the talk about the church and its involvement in racial reconciliation — improving relations between whites and people of color and fighting racism — was just a distraction from the true purpose of the church.
My daughter suggested a whole series of books for me to read after that moment — about racism in America. I realized how wrong many of the things I had once believed as a police officer had been, and how the church had dealt with it over the centuries.
It’s so simple, isn’t it? But it took reading, listening and reflecting to ultimately be able to change my view of the world — and that had a political impact.
Trump, a wild animal
My wife registered as an independent voter back in 2015 when Donald Trump was nominated as the candidate. She immediately suspected that he would contribute to the downfall of the party. I still voted for him then. I couldn’t help myself. But it was the last time.
The disrespect for political institutions and his narcissistic behavior repelled me
The disrespect for political institutions and his narcissistic behavior repelled me more and more. In 2020, I voted for the first time not Republican, but Libertarian.
I realized how right my decision was on Jan. 6, 2021, when Trump’s supporters stormed the Capitol. As a former police officer, I couldn’t stand the fact that the party I had supported for years was tolerating violence and lawbreaking. Not only that: Trump even promised to pardon most of the attackers if he were to be re-elected president one day. He calls these people “great patriots”.
I know that the people at the top, in the influential organizations, think tanks and in the party itself, still believe that Trump can be controlled despite everything. But I don’t believe that. He is a wild animal, and a danger to us all. The only way to prevent that is to keep him out of office.
A just society
Today, I’m not just a big opponent of Trump. My political stance has moved to the left. A just society can only exist if all people — regardless of their economic status or skin color — have the same opportunities.
Looking back, I was at least always convinced of this goal, a just society. Only my fundamental assumptions were different. That is also the reason why I still have many friends today who would never vote for a Democrat like Kamala Harris on principle. It goes against their identity.
I’ve tried to share my new arguments with them a few times. But that’s like banging your head against a wall.
If the Republican party manages to return to being a serious and uncorrupted party and puts up a candidate whose values and goals I support, I could see myself voting Republican again. But until that happens, I will remain non-partisan.”
