Houston Cancer Patient Who Backed Trump Three Times Weighs Voting Democratic Over Medical Bills

Cindy Banda backed Donald Trump in each of his three campaigns. Her reason was abortion. She opposes it.

Then came breast cancer. A year ago, surgeons at a Houston cancer center removed her right breast, and she still doesn't know whether treatment cleared the disease. Doctors told her it would be tough to beat.

The bills changed her math. Banda, 46, started to think about voting Democratic for the first time.

The numbers on her phone

Banda is a single mother with six children in her care: her three, plus three she took in after her sister's death. She has been on sick leave from her job selling internet service for a year, and she needs the income to go back.

During a recent appointment, a text lit up her phone: "Please contact TD Auto Finance." The car payment is $1,300. "I have to go back to work," she said.

Her doctor said her reconstruction surgery could be scheduled early next year. She wanted December, "only because I've met my deductibles." Come January, she would have to pay down the $7,500 again. Earlier may be possible, the doctor replied, if the skin around her surgical scar loosens.

She paid $8 for parking on her way out. Her mantra, repeated in the waiting room: "Keep the house. Keep the cars. And just keep the kids stable."

Keeping the household running requires roughly $7,000 a month for utilities, mortgage, car payments and groceries. Even with insurance through her job, the surgeries, chemo and radiation added up to over $25,000 that she has been paying off, making her one of tens of millions of people in the United States in medical debt.

Two weeks after that appointment, Banda was back at work, making door-to-door rounds to sell Spectrum's Wi-Fi in McAllen, her city along the U.S.-Mexico border in the Rio Grande Valley. She hadn't had a sale and commission since October of last year, after the biopsy and diagnosis.

What the polls say about health costs

Banda is one voter. Polling suggests she isn't alone in her worry about cost.

Heading into the Nov. 3 midterm elections, about half of registered voters said healthcare costs are a major problem for them and their families, up from a little more than one-third four years ago, according to a September Fox News poll.

An Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research poll from the same month found registered voters nearly twice as likely to say they trust Democrats over Republicans to handle healthcare. The American healthcare industry takes in over $5 trillion every year.

Those frustrations, combined with broader concerns over rising prices, have sapped support for President Donald Trump and his Republican Party. One anecdote doesn't prove a trend, but the survey data points the same direction as Banda's story.

A tied Texas Senate race

Banda lives in Texas, where the Senate race is a dead heat. A Fox News Poll released Wednesday found Republican Ken Paxton and Democrat James Talarico each at 49% among likely voters. In September, Talarico led 51% to 49%.

The survey of 1,398 likely voters ran Oct. 15-19 and has a margin of sampling error of plus or minus 2.5 percentage points.

The poll also shows the Republican side has not collapsed. Texas voters favor Republican control of the U.S. Senate, 51% to 47%. Talarico leads among Hispanic voters, 64% to 34%, and nearly 3 in 10 Republicans who do not identify with the MAGA movement support the Democrat.

Democrats hold an enthusiasm edge as well: 69% say they are extremely interested in the election, compared with 61% of Republicans.

Abortion versus the bill

Banda's switch, if she makes it, would mean setting aside the issue that made her a Trump voter. A lifelong Christian, she had voted her anti-abortion stance in past elections. In her telling, the scramble to make ends meet was painful enough to rearrange her priorities.

The Fox poll's Senate-control question is the counterweight. Even with the candidate race tied, a slim majority of Texans say they want Republicans running the Senate. Voters can split on the person and the party at once.

The next fixed dates are plain. The election is Nov. 3. Banda's deductible resets in January, and her doctor said her reconstruction surgery could be scheduled early next year.