A farmer from rural Georgia who voted for President Donald Trump in 2024 says she will back Democratic Senator Jon Ossoff in November, citing the human toll of the administration's immigration crackdown as the reason for her change of heart.

Laura Leigh Taylor, a 37-year-old farmer from Smithville, Georgia, told KFF Health News that she now regrets voting for Trump after seeing the effects of his administration's immigration policies on people in her community. Ossoff's Senate seat is on the ballot in November's midterm elections.

According to Taylor, the father of a friend — a man she described as hardworking and devoted to supporting his family — was deported as part of the administration's wide-ranging enforcement campaign. said she can understand the idea of removing violent criminals from the country, but believes the crackdown has gone far beyond that.

Taylor said she now intends to vote for Ossoff because Democrats have spoken about families being separated as a result of immigration enforcement.

“Just because of that simple fact, I’m going to go with him,” Taylor said.

Her decision comes at a time when a new KFF-AP survey shows that voters in rural areas — a core voting bloc of Trump's political base — are deeply divided over his signature immigration policies. That split matters for both parties heading into November, given how central rural voters are to Trump's coalition.

The survey, which interviewed 2,241 registered rural voters, found that about one-third think Trump's immigration enforcement has had a positive effect on their community, while another third believe the effect has been negative. Roughly three in ten respondents said it has had no impact.

Immigration remains a significant issue outside the major cities. About three-quarters of rural voters said it is extremely or very important for candidates to address immigration ahead of the midterms, though an even larger share want candidates to focus on the cost of living, health care costs and fraud in government programs. The gap between those two sets of priorities is one dynamic to watch as campaigns tailor their appeals to rural voters in the run-up to Election Day.

The study also indicates that rural voters understand the extent to which local economies rely on immigrant labor. Around seven in ten respondents said immigrants who are legally residing in the United States are at least somewhat important to their local economies. The same proportion said temporary and seasonal agricultural workers are important, a view held with particular strength among voters connected to farming, many of whom consider those workers essential. Even 45% said immigrants who are in the country illegally are at least somewhat important economically. Taylor, as a working farmer, sits within the very constituency the survey found most convinced of agricultural workers' importance.

Trump continues to enjoy considerable support among rural MAGA Republicans. Two-thirds of that group said his immigration policies have benefited their communities, and about half said the administration has not gone far enough in carrying out deportations.

Taylor's case illustrates the other side of that divide. In Smithville, a community of about 600 people, she said, seeing a family affected by the crackdown influenced how she will vote when she casts her ballot in November.