These Pennsylvania voters illustrate Harris’ suburban challenge

Bala Cynwyd, Pennsylvania CNN —

Carol Carty misses something in today’s Republican Party and searches for it in her music choices.

“I was young when (Ronald) Reagan was around, but I really miss the ’80s,” Carty said. “I do. I’m now turning on ‘80s songs to go back to the ‘80s more than ever. I do feel like, in my lifetime, the Republican Party has changed with Donald Trump and not in a good way.”

Carty is an attorney who lives just across the Philadelphia line in suburban Montgomery County.

“It was very Republican when I was growing up,” Carty said in an interview in her Bala Cynwyd home. “And it is Democratic now.”

Carty pines for the GOP that drew her in at the age of 18: a party defined by lower taxes, less regulation, respect for the courts and the Constitution. She wishes the GOP would support reasonable gun safety measures, and let women – not politicians or judges – make difficult decisions about reproductive rights.

“A ‘Never Trump’ Republican,” Carty said. “That is how I would best label myself.”

And yet as recently as a few weeks ago, she planned to vote for Trump — and it’s not out of the question that she still might.

She backed Hillary Clinton in 2016 and Joe Biden in 2020. So why the openness to Trump this year? Carty is exasperated with Biden over inflation, immigration and more. She watched the June debate and found herself in a place for eight years she thought impossible.

“When Biden was on the ticket, I was going to vote for Trump,” Carty said. “Now it is a harder call, just because I am not a fan of Donald Trump. … I want to give Kamala Harris a chance because she deserves that chance.”

Carty is part of a CNN project, All Over the Map, to track the 2024 campaign through the eyes