A cancer patient in the waiting room

Cindy Banda, a single mother of six, sat in a Houston cancer center waiting room after surgeons removed her right breast. Doctors said it would be tough to beat.

Healthcare costs reshape voter priorities

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 Fox News poll from September.

Democrats gain trust on healthcare

Registered voters are nearly twice as likely to say they trust Democrats over Republicans to handle healthcare, according to an Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research poll from September.

Banda's three Trump votes

Banda backed Trump in each of his three campaigns, motivated by her opposition to abortion. But when cancer came, the scramble to make ends meet rearranged her priorities.

The monthly cost of staying afloat

Banda needed roughly seven thousand dollars a month for utilities, mortgage, car payments and groceries. Even with insurance, surgeries, chemo and radiation added up to over twenty five thousand dollars.

The deductible trap

Banda's doctor said reconstruction surgery could be scheduled early next year.She hoped for December because she had met her deductibles.Come January, she would have to pay down the seven thousand five hundred dollars again.

Back to work with no commissions

Two weeks later, Banda returned to work selling Spectrum Wi-Fi in McAllen, her city along the U.S.-Mexico border in the Rio Grande Valley.She had not had a sale and commission since October of last year.

Help from family and strangers

The father of Banda's nine-year-old paid four hundred dollars a week for a nanny.Her father sent seven hundred dollars.High school classmates fundraised by selling grilled chicken.Two GoFundMe fundraisers raised nearly thirty thousand dollars.

A sister's death and faith restored

A lifelong Christian, Banda had voted her anti-abortion stance in past elections. When her sister was kidnapped and murdered by her ex-husband in twenty twenty, Banda retreated from religion. Cancer brought her back to church.

Three Trump votes, then Biden and Trump again

Banda voted for Trump in twenty sixteen and twenty twenty.She voted for Trump again in twenty twenty-four because Democratic President Joe Biden's tenure felt like bedlam.

Talarico's diabetes and insulin work

James Talarico, a Presbyterian seminary student running for U.S.Senate as a Democrat, visited one of Banda's fundraisers speaking about his diabetes and his work in the Texas Statehouse to lower the price of insulin.

“Imagine if he can do that for the cancer.”

Two different healthcare visions

Talarico wants all Americans to be able to join Medicare and supports a law guaranteeing abortion access nationwide.

Abortion concerns superseded by costs

Talarico also supports a law guaranteeing abortion access nationwide, which Banda has voted against for years.

“Because it's what I'm living. I'm living it.”

First Democratic vote cast

Banda cast an early ballot for Talarico. She had never voted Democrat before. She will find out on Election Day whether the cancer is in remission or whether it has spread to her organs.

“Never voted Democrat before today!!”