Sarah, 43, white, Republican, homemaker

Anxious

Michael W., 30, Black, Democrat, fast-food employee

Indecisive.

Kyle, 35, white, Republican, manager

Exhausted.

Peter, 54, white, independent, stage actor

I’d say “anxious,” too.

Aaron, 54, Black, Democrat, janitor

Motivated.

Muhammad, 25, Asian, independent, software engineer

Excited.

Ameera, 24, white, Democrat, lawyer

Frustrated.

Kyle, 35, white, Republican, manager

It’s a nonstop barrage of political ads, political mailers. I just can’t wait for the election to be over.

Michael W., 30, Black, Democrat, fast-food employee

The political ads are abrasive, and they kind of put you in a “What do you believe?” type of place. It’s hard to decide.

Michael W., 30, Black, Democrat, fast-food employee

Power.

Peter, 54, white, independent, stage actor

It’s about democracy and about truth. Is there any kind of objective truth?

Ameera, 24, white, Democrat, lawyer

It’s a power struggle. Right now the candidates are saying: I’m better than this other person. They’re not actually giving us any information about what could change.

Angie, 54, white, independent, I.T.

I think it comes down to America’s values. Freedoms, choices, honesty, integrity, immigration — how much is too much, or how much can we afford to offer?

Aaron, 54, Black, Democrat, janitor

The election is about change. Old guard to a new guard. We need to get back to individual choice, a little less intrusiveness from the government and more personal responsibility.

Sarah, 43, white, Republican, homemaker

It’s about the truth behind a candidate’s words.

Kyle, 35, white, Republican, manager

How do we restart growth? What’s the path forward? We’ve been stagnant for quite some years. My job has been very stable. But there’s a lot of people out there that I’ve seen lose jobs or have to take lower-paying jobs or work in careers that they don’t like to do.

Angie, 54, white, independent, I.T.

The cost of living might have affected me a little bit, but I have two daughters who have recently graduated and are out in the job market, and I see how difficult and how competitive it is to get a good job these days. You can go to college and still not be able to get the jobs that you were once promised were going to be out there, with benefits and health insurance.

Michael W., 30, Black, Democrat, fast-food employee

I would just like to see some plan of action of moving forward with the economy. What is that clear path of how our economy is going to grow?

Muhammad, 25, Asian, independent, software engineer

The American dream is becoming less and less of a reality for most people, at least in my generation. So we definitely need to do something about illegal immigration. One side is denying it’s a problem. You need to take care of Americans first rather than paying for their hotel just because they crossed illegally.

Peter, 54, white, independent, stage actor

Jan. 6 was the big deciding factor for me. I’ve voted for plenty of Republicans. I’ve voted for Democrats. But he tried to overturn the peaceful transition of power. We have someone who just completely denies it. I don’t see how we move forward. I don’t.

Aaron, 54, Black, Democrat, janitor

Since when do we let felons run for jobs in the White House? I don’t understand it. It’s hard to even get beyond that. And the things that he says are just mean-spirited. I didn’t know that we could let people who act like children and hold top offices in our political government. A candidate openly trying to get unchecked power is just unsettling. And he’s clear. He’s not lying. He’s literally telling us what he wants to do.

Angie, 54, white, independent, I.T.

Just because someone wasn’t convicted in a court of law of something doesn’t mean the other side isn’t just as guilty of crimes as well. It’s just really concerning that each side can use that power to abuse it and try to do whatever it is they want to do and lie so forthrightly about it, whether it was Covid or anything else.

Erayna, 27, multiracial, independent, unemployed

No man can really tell you what to do with your body. And I feel like there could be so many reasons behind an abortion. It’s not always the common reason. And if they can’t have one in their own state, then, I don’t know, you’re kind of crazy to me.

Michael W., 30, Black, Democrat, fast-food employee

I’ve been raised by all women. I would hate for any of them to be in a situation where they became pregnant and they don’t have any other options. That’s just a scary feeling to have the law governing a human being.

Ameera, 24, white, Democrat, lawyer

They’re sending billions of dollars every year to Israel, to Ukraine, to all these other countries. A lot of these politicians, they say they care about Americans, but really, we care for people overseas. If they reinvested those billions into our country, it would be in a better position than it is now. I don’t want to see a president who just helps fund war crimes.

Kyle, 35, white, Republican, manager

Ameera, I respect your views, but I’m going to take the opposite position, where I would prefer to see conflicts be managed outside our borders, where we’re not getting directly drawn in. We need to be able to maintain our presence on the world stage. But if there’s other sides that are warring against one another, I think that taking a stance on that rather than being isolationist is the better path forward.

Nicole, 42, Black, Democrat, housekeeper

Not believable.

Ameera, 24, white, Democrat, lawyer

Deceptive.

Angie, 54, white, independent, I.T.

I would agree with “deceptive.”

Sarah, 43, white, Republican, homemaker

Fake.

Peter, 54, white, independent, stage actor

Opportunist.

Muhammad, 25, Asian, independent, software engineer

I would say “incompetent.”

Erayna, 27, multiracial, independent, unemployed

Go-getting.

Michael W., 30, Black, Democrat, fast-food employee

Word salad.

Kyle, 35, white, Republican, manager

Fresh.

Michael B., 35, white, independent, unemployed

Unserious.

Aaron, 54, Black, Democrat, janitor

Change.

Michael B., 35, white, independent, unemployed

I don’t mean that she seems like she’s going to do a bad job. She seems to try and be more relatable to a younger generation, and so it just doesn’t seem to me like she’s taking things super seriously.

Kyle, 35, white, Republican, manager

I said “fresh” because I see her as a break from the establishment. She hasn’t been on the national stage for years on end, she’s not an incumbent who’s run in the past, she’s just a fresh face.

Sarah, 43, white, Republican, homemaker

She’s just always smiling, nodding her head, arguing for things she has no chance of ever delivering on. She’s just trying to get votes. And the jabs. I feel like they go too much for jabs at each other instead of actually saying what they’re going to do. It’s just a facade, if I had to sum it up.

Nicole, 42, Black, Democrat, housekeeper

When you see the commercials and hear her talking, it’s just like they’re saying what they want you to hear to get your vote. And she just doesn’t sound believable to me.

Muhammad, 25, Asian, independent, software engineer

Her recent appearance on “The View.” Trump has capitalized on that, put that in an attack ad. She said nothing comes to mind that she would do differently from Biden. I understand not pushing Biden under the bus, but she needs to be more authentic and actually take responsibility for the failures of her administration. She was the border czar, and that is a failure. All she needed to do was be authentic about that.

Peter, 54, white, independent, stage actor

Republicans lost any high ground on immigration the minute that Trump killed the border bill. I always thought of her pretty much as a lightweight. She wasn’t visibly doing a whole lot during the administration. At the Democratic convention, her speech was quite good. She had some gravitas. Her interviews have been less successful.

Aaron, 54, Black, Democrat, janitor

Dangerous.

Kyle, 35, white, Republican, manager

Rude.

Erayna, 27, multiracial, independent, unemployed

Criminal.

Angie, 54, white, independent, I.T.

Rebellious.

Ameera, 24, white, Democrat, lawyer

Joke.

Michael W., 30, Black, Democrat, fast-food employee

I’d say “mastermind.”

Peter, 54, white, independent, stage actor

Fascist.

Michael B., 35, white, independent, unemployed

Unhinged.

Muhammad, 25, Asian, independent, software engineer

Charismatic.

Sarah, 43, white, Republican, homemaker

Ruthless.

Nicole, 42, Black, Democrat, housekeeper

Fake.

Nicole, 42, Black, Democrat, housekeeper

Donald Trump, after his four years, after all the stuff that he got into, ain’t no way he was supposed to be able to run for election again. And then he’s just doing the same thing as Kamala, saying what he has to say to get to be president. It’s all just for show.

Sarah, 43, white, Republican, homemaker

I believe in a lot of things that Trump has said and done. Other things I wish would be different. But he’s ruthless in that he doesn’t give up. With anything he does, he’s not shy. He doesn’t tiptoe around anything.

Nicole, 42, Black, Democrat, housekeeper

When he went to McDonald’s in Pennsylvania and tried to be an employee, to me, he was mocking Kamala. That was wrong. That was so fake.

Peter, 54, white, independent, stage actor

Policywise, I voted for plenty of Republicans in the past. I just think this man is all for himself. He would sell any one of us out, including the country. Valuewise, I’m not a huge fan of Kamala Harris, but I’m leaning that way because I just couldn’t find myself voting for Trump.

Erayna, 27, multiracial, independent, unemployed

I was just thinking about the whole Project 2025 thing and Roe v. Wade and so many other issues. It’s going to come down to what is right and what is wrong.

Peter, 54, white, independent, stage actor

There’s one about the Ten Commandments, where they talk about voting your conscience. They put the commandment up, “Do not commit adultery,” and then they show the picture of Trump with the porn stars. “Thou shalt not steal,” and then felonies in New York. A lot of Christians want to vote for him, but they’re voting for a man who couldn’t care less about the Commandments.

Muhammad, 25, Asian, independent, software engineer

That ad of Harris on “The View.” It’s not pushing me to Trump, but it’s pushing me away from Kamala.

Muhammad, 25, Asian, independent, software engineer

I wasn’t old enough to vote in 2016, but I was leaning Trump. I voted for Biden in 2020.

Muhammad, 25, Asian, independent, software engineer

Covid happened, and the country needed a stable leader, not someone who you don’t know what they’re going to do next. We needed Biden at that time. Trump is charismatic and all, but he has his faults.

Kyle, 35, white, Republican, manager

I voted for Trump in 2016 and then Biden in 2020. When Trump came in, I saw him as a break from the establishment. The perception that I had of him was that he was a strong business leader, he would help get our country back on track economically, turn around our national deficit, be able to really drive growth in America and really just kind of get the train back on the tracks. Fast-forward four years. I didn’t really see that happen. He became so unpresidential in my mind that I said, “I can’t vote for that. That’s not what the president of the United States should look or should act like.” Donald Trump lost my vote.

Sarah, 43, white, Republican, homemaker

I think it’s going to be similar, just from everything she said. I don’t think she has new, fresh ideas. Everything at the border has just been mass chaos, and she says she’s going to do something about it. But she helped cause it. They didn’t do anything about it.

Michael B., 35, white, independent, unemployed

I think she might be different from Biden because we can’t really predict what someone’s going to do once they’re actually in office. It’s probably a totally different experience once you’re there.

Ameera, 24, white, Democrat, lawyer

When she was helping Biden run for re-election, when his health was just getting worse and worse, she kind of kept it a secret. I don’t think she really has any ideas of her own. I feel like she’s just kind of piggybacking off the Biden administration.

Ameera, 24, white, Democrat, lawyer

I wish I could say yes, but she hasn’t shown me anything through her actions that really shows she’s here to support women and women of color. I love the fact that we could get a woman president. I want to see that happen. But I also want to see a woman president whose values align with my values.

Nicole, 42, Black, Democrat, housekeeper

No. She followed Biden around and was basically his puppet. She would just continue it.

Erayna, 27, multiracial, independent, unemployed

I remember hearing Trump say something about Detroit. He said Detroit looked trashy, put it in a negative light. I did not like that. The governor made a post about it on Facebook, responding to him. We’re not what he said we were.

Erayna, 27, multiracial, independent, unemployed

I supported it. I was very happy she made the statement that she made.

Aaron, 54, Black, Democrat, janitor

For me, Harris understands the working person. I don’t think Trump understands what it takes to struggle, to have dignity while you’re still struggling. I don’t think he represents the spirit of Michigan.

Aaron, 54, Black, Democrat, janitor

We’re hard-working people here. We put the overtime in. We know what it means to struggle, take those food stamps and still work those two jobs and struggle with the day care and rely on friends and family to get by. Every day there’s a challenge. You can still smile through it, and you can still be nice to the person next to you, even if they’re doing better than you, worse than you or different from you. It’s not like that 100 percent, but that’s the overall feeling of Michigan that I have. And we’re just so diversified. I don’t like being pigeonholed into a group based on my financial status, race, religion, anything. And I think Michigan is just — overall, we have fun, and we work hard, and we play hard.

Sarah, 43, white, Republican, homemaker

I agree with everything he said about Michiganders. It’s literally exactly how we are.

Ameera, 24, white, Democrat, lawyer

Trump actually apologized for his Detroit comment a few days ago. Detroit’s just been going uphill in the past few years. I’ve seen all these improvements. Now the QLine is free. If we see these improvements in other areas in the country, I think that’d be great. Do I think Kamala will be able to do that? I don’t think she’s really made any of her stances clear enough.

Michael W., 30, Black, Democrat, fast-food employee

I don’t think she would be able to implement Detroit into other places.

Peter, 54, white, independent, stage actor

I’m in a union. I vote the way I feel. Joe Biden was the first president ever to walk a union picket line. If people are going to assume that she’s going to do things pretty much the way he did it, then we have to then assume that she’s going to be pro-union.

Aaron, 54, Black, Democrat, janitor

I was in a union when I was working, and I’m fourth-generation G.M. Once upon a time, I think the union backing meant everything. But never once have I voted because the union endorsed somebody. I voted because I felt that way.

Angie, 54, white, independent, I.T.

I think Trump was doing well during his presidency until Covid hit. And then the economy shut down. Businesses shut down. And we really saw how much we were reliant upon foreign trade and products from overseas. I think it’s important that we become more self-sufficient, employ our own people.

Angie, 54, white, independent, I.T.

Twenty percent may be too high, but I mean, I think the idea behind what he’s proposing is good. I think there needs to be some kind of incentives for U.S. companies to produce these products that we need.

Kyle, 35, white, Republican, manager

My job has me front and center on everything supply-chain-related. The Covid shocks, the port strikes, the hurricanes, everything has demonstrated how limited we are. But large companies are realizing how fragile the chain is, so that’s helping bring things back. And if we don’t build it here already and then we’re going to put a 20 percent tariff on it, it’s just going to raise prices across the board for the end user. Not to say that that’s not the right nudge, but it definitely will raise prices.

Ameera, 24, white, Democrat, lawyer

I think that’s the point. The point is to show them that they lost your vote. I thought I’d be a Democrat after I voted for Biden, but then I saw what he and Harris did. And that’s not who I want. Jill has really been doing her best to reach out to us in a way that’s more serious. Kamala has been making these TikToks, participating in trends, but we don’t care how cool you are. We care about what you’re going to do for us. Being realistic, Jill’s probably not going to win. But maybe that’ll incentivize them to create more policies that lead toward what she’s doing, because that way, they see what the voters actually want.

Nicole, 42, Black, Democrat, housekeeper

I think Trump is going to win because people think that Trump gave us all this stimulus money. They’re not going to vote for the right reasons.

Sarah, 43, white, Republican, homemaker

I just think that people I know gravitate more toward him. They think that he’s going to do what he says. He’ll make everything bigger, manufacturing, more jobs, all that. It could be really close, but I think Trump will win.

Kyle, 35, white, Republican, manager

I feel like the energy behind Trump in Michigan is much stronger than the energy behind Kamala is. You see Trump signs everywhere. Driving wherever, I hardly ever see Harris-Walz signs. The people who support Trump seem much more energized to vote. And I think the people who would vote for Kamala are kind of apathetic, a little bit.

Michael W., 30, Black, Democrat, fast-food employee

He just has a lot of supporters here in Michigan still. Even aside from Jan. 6, aside from everything that he’s been a part of, he still has people advocating for him very hard.

Michael B., 35, white, independent, unemployed

I just don’t think it’s easy to predict who’s going to do what. Most of the people I know go back and forth like a cat chasing a laser pointer. I don’t really know if it’s really fair to judge a candidate for one reason or another. Until it comes down to that day and you have to make that decision, when you’re standing there in that voting booth, it could go either way.

Aaron, 54, Black, Democrat, janitor

We need a paradigm shift. We need a whole paradigm shift. Burn it all down, rebuild it, and let’s start passing it on to the next generation below us. My generation is stagnant in their thinking, and it’s not going to work. It’s not sustainable.

Muhammad, 25, Asian, independent, software engineer

It just feels like a lot of people in my generation have a feeling that the American dream is not possible for us anymore. That causes a lot of disenfranchisement, like nobody’s listening to us. We definitely need new ideas. And we definitely need some kind of change to actually help the middle class.

Muhammad, 25, Asian, independent, software engineer

She just needs to convince me that she is more for American citizens than illegal immigrants. The few policies that she’s actually come out with are good, in terms of working-class people, but it just seems like she becomes a moderate to get the votes. She needs to show a bit of skin and actually accept her mistakes.

Michael W., 30, Black, Democrat, fast-food employee

I want a solid policy behind what they’re actually going to do, not a Day 1 plan. I don’t feel like we’ve gotten that from either candidate. Where are the policies? Where is everything for America? Where are the things for the American people so we’re not stagnant or worrying about what could possibly embark upon another Covid situation?

Peter, 54, white, independent, stage actor

The border bill — she’s already said she would sign it if it came up again. She has said $25,000 for new home buyers. And she has said $50,000 for new start-up small businesses. Those three things have made a difference to me, policywise.

Michael B., 35, white, independent, unemployed

As a person, a human being, I think he’s awful. But as a president and as a businessman, it seems like when he was in office, whether or not I liked what he got done, he did get stuff done. Some of our foreign relationships with unsavory leaders were actually really friendly. I don’t know if they were afraid of him. No one in our past has really ever had that effect in the office.

Angie, 54, white, independent, I.T.

Personally, I don’t like the man. But I think that his past record showed he could get things done. He does have a business sense. He did do what he said he was going to do. And I really believe if it hadn’t been for Covid, he probably would have been re-elected the next go-round.