JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – Jacksonville residents gave their thoughts on the presidential race after the assassination attempt on former President Donald Trump at his rally in Pennsylvania.
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Some people said they think the incident will not change Trump’s or President Joe Biden’s campaigns.
Others said the Republican Party will lean on the incident to help push Trump’s campaign.
“I honestly just think his campaign might be on a bit of a high from that yesterday, and it might kind of fuel the fire in his favor,” Rebecca Hewlett said.
Max Jacoby said he’s hopeful that the attack will unify the country.
“Online, I’ve seen a lot of people calling for unity so I’m hoping that it will unify Americans against violence. I don’t think it will at the end of the day, but I’m hopeful,” Jacoby said.
Hewlett said she was unsure about how much unification the event would bring.
“I think maybe there will be some sort of impact on gun control and stuff like that, but I don’t know how much unification it’s going to bring,” Jacoby said.
Another resident said she hopes federal gun control comes about as a result.
“I’d like to think this will point that we need federal gun control, seeing as this happened to a Republican candidate that has not been as strict as the Democrats. So maybe this would have some betterment for the public going forward,” Brestan said.
Government law attorney Chris Hand gave his perspective on what the focus could be at the Republican National Convention.
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Political science professor Mike Binder said poll numbers typically increase when situations like this occur.
“You would expect that this coupled with the upcoming convention in a couple of days when you always see a bump, related to conventions that you can expect Trump to add a handful of points and polling after in the next week or two, that could really put some pressure on the Democrats,” Binder said.
Binder said this could be a chance for Trump to gain sympathy from voters.
“I know that this is weird sounding after yesterday’s events, but in a lot of ways, this is a really good opportunity for the Republican Party to shift the focus for Trump to appear presidential, and for him to generate sympathy amongst voters,” Binder said.
He said Biden and the Democratic Party could possibly have a chance in the polls, but overall, he feels this is good for the Republicans.