Die-hard Democrat reveals why she’s changing her vote: ‘It feels like a bad breakup’

There’s one issue turning a die-hard Democrat against President Joe Biden as a leader and Vice President Kamala Harris as his successor.

Dawn Allen said her enthusiasm about Joe Biden during the last election cycle ‘was probably greater than any other president that’s ever run.’ 

But that was before her son Benjamin died from a fentanyl overdose last year at just 22 years old.

She has grown frustrated with what she sees as Biden’s blasé approach to the opioid crisis. So much so that she now says she won’t vote for a Democrat. She has gone from a loyal Democrat door knocker to someone who is much more in line with former President Donald Trump, the candidate who talks much more about fentanyl.

Trump has frequently criticized the Biden administration – including Harris who served as its ‘border czar’ – over record-breaking illegal immigration which he argues is fueling crime and the fentanyl crisis. 

‘It feels like a really bad breakup,’ the 47-year-old mother of three other children told NBC from her home in a Chicago suburb. ‘I’m really, really hurt.’

Allen has gone from a loyal Democrat door knocker to someone who is much more in line with former President Donald Trump, the candidate who talks much more about fentanyl

Allen is part of a group of families who’ve lost relatives to opioids that are pushing government officials to do more to address an epidemic that killed more than 81,000 people last year alone.

Many people in that group say Trump talking tough on stemming the flow of drugs into the US resonates with them. 

That’s despite the fact that during Trump’s four years as president, opioid deaths increased by 47 percent, according to CDC data.

In 2017, 47,600 people died from opioid overdoses, and in 2020, Trump’s last full year in office, more than 70,000 died.

Fentanyl deaths increased even more during Trump’s term. 

Andrea Thomas, who lost a daughter in 2018 and has become a leader in the movement, told NBC that the fentanyl awareness crowd ‘leans to the right – no question.’

‘Our US government is almost complicit, and now there is such an unlimited supply of this poison here it’s indicative of stockpiling,’ she said.

The GOP convention in July by contrast featured a mother whose 15-year-old son died of an accidental fentanyl overdose. Anne Funder, pictured, gave a tear-jerking speech memorializing her son Weston

By contrast, the Democratic National Convention never had a prime-time speaker even mention the opioid crisis, let alone fentanyl specifically

Republicans are seizing on the energy present with this movement – which put signs raising awareness about the fentanyl crisis outside the Democratic National Convention last month – and have decided to make this a cornerstone issue of the campaign.

The DNC never had a prime-time speaker even mention the opioid crisis, let alone fentanyl specifically.

The GOP convention in July by contrast featured a mother whose 15-year-old son died of an accidental fentanyl overdose. 

Anne Funder blamed her son Weston’s death on Democrats.

‘I hold Joe Biden, Kamala Harris – the border czar, what a joke – Gavin Newsom and every Democrat who supports open borders responsible for the death of my son,’ she told the crowd at the RNC.

Trump himself frequently talks about fentanyl, while Harris has largely stayed quiet on the issue.

Pictured: A billboard in Chicago that was up during the DNC to pressure Democrats into taking the issue seriously 

Trump has called for expanding the death penalty to drug dealers, using the army to target Mexican cartels and dramatically cutting down on border crossing to stop drug smuggling

‘We’ll bust up and dismantle the gangs, savage criminal networks, and bloodthirsty cartels. And we will stop the fentanyl,’ Trump said during a recent campaign appearance in Michigan.

Trump has also called for expanding the death penalty to drug dealers, using the army to target Mexican cartels and dramatically cutting down on border crossing to stop drug smuggling.

Experts have tried to put a damper on Trump’s proposed fixes to the problem, with some of them saying most fentanyl is smuggled in by Americans, through lawful points of entry.

A DEA report from 2020, while Trump was still president, said China was ‘the primary source’ of fentanyl and related substances, not Mexico. 

Nonetheless, fentanyl activists say Trump is at least drawing attention to the issue, whereas Biden isn’t.

Allen, who lost her son Benjamin last year, has his picture up on the wall

Allen said she and other parents don’t feel seen or heard by the Biden Administration

‘We don’t feel seen, we don’t feel heard,’ Allen said.

‘I’m surprised that somebody hasn’t realized or figured out that this is a huge population of people, that if we believe that you were going to respond to this and do something about it, you could very easily earn our favor.’ 

The Biden Administration has countered by saying they’ve met with hundreds of opioid-affected families, made historic investments in treatment and seized record amounts of fentanyl at the border.

 But there’s no getting around the fact that Biden oversaw a giant increase in fentanyl deaths.  

In 2021, during Biden’s first year of office – when many Americans were locked down at home during the pandemic – fentanyl deaths rose by 23 percent to more than 70,000.

In 2019, Trump was able to convince China – long the biggest source of fentanyl smuggling through international mail – to regulate production of the drug.

But Mexican cartels adapted and began importing the ingredients from China to make fentanyl pills from scratch.

Fentanyl is often included as a filler for illegal drugs like ecstasy and cocaine. It is commonly pressed into pills 

Experts say the increase in fentanyl deaths since then are a direct result of this, since the incredibly powerful substance is laced into nearly all illegal drugs and counterfeit pills. 

This means that if a person thinks they’re buying cocaine, methamphetamine or Percocet, it’s likely they could ingest a lethal dose of fentanyl without ever knowing.

Biden has targeted sanctions at Chinese makers of the chemicals that go into fentanyl, but that hasn’t stopped the flow to Mexico.

Biden has also made Narcan, a drug that reverses overdoses, more widely available. 

Experts say this likely contributed to fentanyl deaths declining by 2 percent last year.

April Babcock, who lost a son in 2019 and started an advocacy organization, said she’s glad that Narcan has helped but doesn’t think its the end all be all.

‘We’re not going to Narcan our way out of this,’ Babcock said.

Babcock said the parents in her organization, Lost Voices of Fentanyl, have already set a date for their Washington D.C. rally in 2025.

‘Whoever gets in that office, we are going to hold their feet to the fire,’ she said. ‘Even if it’s Trump.’