The assassination attempt on former President Donald Trump could mark a pivotal point in the presidential race.
While the Democratic party struggles to find its footing with President Joe Biden, Trump’s brush with death Saturday could bring undecided voters to side with him.
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Images of Trump ducking in the middle of his campaign speech are imprinted in people’s minds.
“Lots of angst, anger, frankly shock,” noted Massachusetts GOP Chair Amy Carnevale
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The consensus among voters in New Hampshire and Massachusetts who spoke to NBC10 Boston: there’s no place for political violence.
“It's not something that should be happening to people,” said Nancy Callan from Massachusetts.
“A person's life was almost taken and I think that's terrible,” said New Hampshire voter Irene Pitsillides of Trump.
The violence broke out at a campaign rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, and left one person dead and three others, including the former president, injured.
For some voters, the shooting adds urgency to the issues that are top-of-mind.
“I'm hoping people realize that we need gun control,” said Hannah Schmider, a voter who doesn’t like either candidate but leans left.
This weekend’s events solidified the unity among Republicans, seeing their candidate rise in defiance despite a bullet grazing his right ear.
“That's the character of Donald Trump that I think many voters have come to know over the years and it certainly kind of doubled down in that moment of crisis and tragedy,” said Carnevale.
“I wouldn't change my vote not at all, I have been with Trump from the beginning, I'll be with Trump until the day he dies,” said Michael Caron of Nashua, New Hampshire.
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Trump’s near-death experience and how he responded in the immediate aftermath gave some swing voters pause.
“I think he handled it very well,” said Callan. “He kind of portrays himself as, you know, a more rugged person a little more hearty.”
“It's going to turn the people towards him that they're going to vote for him I don't know whether it would be for sympathy or what not,” said independent voter Carl Provencal of Nashua.
Scott Spradling, a non-partisan New England political analyst, said the way the Trump campaign handles Saturday’s shooting could define the race and further separate him from the struggles facing President Biden.
“There is that indelible image of the former president standing up with his fist in the air for the bloody face yelling ‘fight’,” said Spradling. “Now the Republican Party and specifically former president trump have the full focus of the country around this convention to be able to set the tone to give maybe some perspective and for all of us to try to figure out where do we go from here.”
