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A longtime Republican stronghold in the heart of San Antonio is shaping up as a partisan battleground.

For decades, ZIP code 78209 the home of affluent Alamo Heights and Terrell Hills was the domain of well-known Republicans, including former Texas House Speaker Joe Straus and Congressman Lamar Smith.

Support for President Donald Trump still is prevalent here. Flags with his name fly from trees and houses. Residents have given so much to Trumps re-election campaign that 09 ranks among the top ZIP codes nationally in fundraising for the president.

But Republicans for Biden signs also are in evidence. The Trump era has stoked Democratic turnout in 09, delivering gains for Democrats in previously Republican neighborhoods. Even some longtime Republicans say theyre uneasy about giving the president a second term.

For Terrell Hills resident Susie Golden, four years of Trump is more than enough. She voted for former Vice President Joe Biden this year and for former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton in 2016.

The list is so long, starting with the misogyny, the racism, just the lying, the craziness the list is endless, Golden said. I just dislike everything about that man.

Golden grew up in a Republican household, she said, and still has residual respect for Republicans in the Straus mold fiscally conservative with a moderate temperament and less eagerness to please a far-right base.

But given sitting Republicans association with Trump, they dont deserve to keep their jobs, she said. She voted for Democrats up and down the ballot.

I would love to see it all flipped blue at this point, Golden said. I want to see them burn to the ground.

Patti Haugen is on the other end of the political spectrum. For her and her husband, a partner in an oil and gas company, a vote for Trump means a continuation of lower income and corporate tax rates passed under his administration.

Despite Trumps widely criticized handling of the coronavirus pandemic, Haugen is sticking by the president.

I don't think really any of it was his fault, she said. He didn't bring a pandemic on.

On ExpressNews.com: These Texas women arent flocking to Trump. They made up their minds weeks ago.

The road to victory in 78209 may prove tough for Democratic candidates, navigating terrain where voters are more educated than the average Bexar County voter and are prone to splitting their ballots between Democrats and Republicans in the same election year.

That makes it a battleground because those are people who are persuadable by evidence as opposed to voting purely based on partisanship, Rice University political scientist Mark Jones said.

In 2016, Clinton narrowly carried 09, winning 13 out of the ZIP codes 25 precincts. But Trump won Alamo Heights and Terrell Hills.

In 2018, Democrats made headway in pockets Republicans won two years before.

In the race to fill Smiths open congressional seat in 2018, Democrat Joseph Kopser, an Austin entrepreneur, picked up seven precincts Smith won in 2016 and carried a majority of the ZIP codes precincts.

But his opponent, Republican Chip Roy, ultimately won the district, which stretches from San Antonio northeast to Austin and north and west into the Hill Country. Roy now is in a contentious re-election battle with Democrat Wendy Davis, a former state senator and gubernatorial candidate.

In his narrow loss to Sen. Ted Cruz in 2018, Former El Paso Congressman Beto ORourke managed to flip five precincts Trump had won two years before, including two in Alamo Heights and one in Terrell Hills.

The Republican senator came away with seven precincts across 09.

But that same year, many areas ORourke and Kopser won also went for Gov. Greg Abbott and Republican state Rep. Steve Allison, a former school board president of the Alamo Heights Independent School District who replaced Straus when the House speaker retired.

In early voting this year, Peggy and Paul Foerster an Alamo Heights couple who tend to vote Republican cast ballots for Biden, Davis and MJ Hegar, the Air Force veteran challenging Republican Sen. John Cornyn.

I dont consider Trump to be a Republican, Paul Foerster said. I consider him to be an autocrat.

Biden, has a better chance of drawing the country together, which is what we really need, he said.

But the couple did vote to re-elect Allison, whom they see as more moderate and good on education. Allison once again faces Democratic challenger Celina Montoya, who lost to Allison in 2018 by less than nine points.

I never thought it was a good idea for people to be able to just pull one lever, push one button and vote all for one party, Peggy Foerster said.

On ExpressNews.com: What Trumps save-the-suburbs pledge means in Texass only political battleground

The president has plenty of support in 09. If Trump signs are less pervasive than might be expected for a sitting president in historically Republican turf, it could be because some of the presidents partisans fear blowback if they advertise their support.

Patti Haugen has signs in her front lawn for Roy, Allison and Trish DeBerry, the Republican candidate for Bexar County Precinct 3 commissioner. But she worries her home and family would be targeted if she stuck a Trump sign in the yard.

Im not going to advertise it, Haugen said.

Nancy Garrett, a 79-year-old former USAA employee, knows about how people react to public displays of support for Trump. For years, she has hung homemade signs backing Trump from her house on North New Braunfels Avenue angering many passersby, some of whom made obscene gestures..

I got so sick and tired of it that I started yelling back, Drop your drawers. Of course, I didnt mean it, Garrett said. But it was irritating. Thats slowed down and we get a lot of thumbs up now.

Garrett voted for Trump in 2016 because he wasnt a politician and plans to do so again. She backs Trumps wall along the U.S.-Mexico border, opposes the notion of spending less on police and more on social services, and feels that Democratic leaders including House Speaker Nancy Pelosi have unfairly maligned the president throughout his tenure.

Theyll spread any lie they can think of, Garrett said. They blame him for everything.

But, Garrett admits, Maybe he shouldve worn a mask more so that people would. But I like him.

On ExpressNews.com: In uncharted waters of competitive Texas politics, can the polls keep up?

Shes not the only one. To date, about $1.4 million has flowed from 78209 residents to a trio of funds backing Trumps re-election bid, raised from nearly 2,300 individual donations. In 2016, Trump raised more than $573,000 from 665 donors.

But fundraising among 09 residents for both sides has surged this election. During the 2016 cycle, the ZIP code accounted for just shy of 20,000 donations to presidential and congressional campaigns, totaling a little more than $5 million.

For all races on the Nov. 3 ballot, residents so far have pumped more than $11 million into campaign coffers, totaling more than 44,000 donations.

Bidens fundraising in the area hasnt been as robust as Trumps. Hes raised about $316,800. But hes amassed that amount from more donors 3,074.

And Democrats in the area are more energized than in 2016. Democratic fundraising platform ActBlue recorded nearly 9,200 contributions back then from 09 residents totaling $194,000, campaign finance records show.

This go-round, ActBlue already has racked up more than 25,000 donations totaling $902,000 and theres still nearly two weeks to go.

Democrats hope they can convince Republicans on the fence about a second Trump term to reject the GOP entirely.

What you see is a lot of those people are turned off by the current Republican Party, the Trump party, Democratic strategist Demonte Alexander said.

In the race to replace outgoing Bexar County Commissioner Kevin Wolff, Democratic candidate Christine Hortick has seized on Republican opponent DeBerrys $1,000 contribution to Trumps re-election bid to try to discourage ticket-splitters.

Jelyn Pizzitola, a lawyer who lives in Alamo Heights, plans to vote for Biden and DeBerry but bristles at DeBerrys Trump donation.

As a female, it kills me, Pizzitola said of DeBerry. But I think sometimes you have people that have to play by the party rules.

DeBerry recently has tried to distance herself from the president while insisting she believes in traditional Republican values.

The DeBerry camp has worked to remind Alamo Heights voters of her community ties including her work for the Alamo Heights School Foundation and Davids Legacy Foundation, an organization dedicated to raising awareness of cyberbullying.

There may be a certain percentage of folks who just say, You know what, I cant go for the antics, said Thomas Marks, a local GOP strategist and DeBerrys campaign manager. So yeah, they may split their ticket.

On ExpressNews.com: I want my vote to count By the hundreds, voters are hand-delivering their mail-in ballots to Bexar Countys elections office. They dont trust the Postal Service.

What drove 78209 resident Monica Flynn to plant a Republicans for Biden sign in her front yard was the U.S. Postal Service.

Flynn had to close her Alamo Heights dental practice for weeks to abide by Gov. Greg Abbotts coronavirus pandemic protocols.

When Abbott allowed dentists to reopen in May, Flynn found medical-grade masks she needed to safely resume her business were scarce and expensive. But the governor made some available for Texas doctors.

I signed up and ordered mine in May, Flynn said.

The cuts in mail service ordered by Postmaster-General Louis DeJoy, a Trump appointee and megadonor, caused delays in mail delivery. Flynn said the masks didnt arrive until August.

Meanwhile, in July, Trump commuted the sentence of longtime associate Roger Stone, who had been convicted of seven felonies for impeding a congressional investigation into the 2016 Trump campaigns possible ties to Russia. Trump acted days before Stone was to begin serving a 40-month prison term.

Flynn was appalled.

A presidential pardon I think of as something you do for some old guy who was in prison because he stole a loaf of bread, she said, not for someone who is in prison because they were convicted of a crime that was directly related to what they did or were accused of doing that in some ways related to the president, she added.

Flynn became more vocal about her plan to vote for Biden. But that doesnt mean shes thrilled about the former vice president or that she plans to back Democrats up-and-down the ballot.

My vote is a vote against Trump, not a vote for Biden, Flynn said.

Joshua Fechter is a staff writer covering San Antonio government and politics. To read more from Joshua, become a subscriber. jfechter@express-news.net | Twitter: @JFreports

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I want to see them burn to the ground Democrats angry with Republicans turning San Antonios 78209 into battleground - San Antonio Express-News