She voted for Trump. He voted for Harris: How one couple navigates a political divide

The result of the 2024 election stoked political divisions not just across the country but within families.

That’s the case for Tracey and Ed Danka. She voted for President-elect Donald Trump and attended the Jan. 6, 2021, rally, though she didn't storm the Capitol. Her husband, Ed Danka, voted for Vice President Kamala Harris.

The couple wasn’t together on election night, but upon finding out the results, Tracey Danka texted her husband, “Trump is our president.”

He replied, “He’s your president, not mine.”

Their views differ on a myriad of political topics, from U.S. involvement abroad to economic solutions. For example, Ed Danka says he’s worried about how Trump will handle foreign policy, specifically the war in Ukraine.

Tracey Danka, on the other hand, doesn’t share that concern. She believes Trump will focus his energy on issues closer to home.

“We are not the checkbook of the world; we have our own here,” she says. “We have homeless veterans. We have children that are going to bed hungry. And I think Donald Trump's going to put a stop to all of this.”

Tracey Danka also supports Trump’s plan to place high tariffs on imports. She says it will encourage consumers to buy more American-made goods.

“If you want to buy from another country, then they're going to need to pay taxes and they're going to need to raise the price of their product, so you need to pay more money for it,” Tracey Danka says. “If you can't buy American, I think that we need to stop the import.”

But Ed Danka doesn’t agree. He says that tariffs imposed on foreign-made goods will ultimately fall to consumers and raise prices across sectors.

“The reason prices have gone down on a lot of products is because they're manufactured overseas. If you're going to bring them back over here and stick a 60% tariff on them, and people want to buy them, they're going to be paying the same price as if it was produced here,” Ed Danka says. “The consumer pays the difference in the tariff, not the company producing the product."

The couple says they don't let disagreements over politics seep into the fabric of their relationship.

"For us, it's always going to be our marriage and our family first,” Tracey Danka says.

They also try to find common ground. Neither Tracey nor Ed Danka thinks their party is perfect. And, they acknowledge some shared beliefs. Tracey Danka has a master's degree in health care administration and is on disability. She has kidney disease and says that without the Affordable Care Act known as Obamacare, she would have lost everything.

Ed Danka, a retired steel worker, says he doesn’t agree with everything the Democratic party does either. Both he and his wife believe that illegal immigration should be curbed, and the U.S. should focus on meeting the needs of its residents before offering foreign aid.

Through their differences, the couple finds ways to get along. They say they try to avoid heated conversations about politics because they aren’t productive.

“If you're having a discussion, have a discussion, but cut it back before it becomes a full-blown argument,” Ed Danka says. “Neither one of us is going to convince the other of our argument. And we know that by now.”

Plus, they say they don’t go to bed angry.

“The rule in our house is we don't go to bed mad. We just go to bed," Tracey Danka says.

Jill Ryan produced and edited this interview for broadcast with Catherine Welch. Grace Griffin adapted it for the web.