Trump voter faces cancer bills
Archived — this story has rotated out of today’s deck. It is kept here in full.
The gist
Cindy Banda, a 46-year-old Texas mother with breast cancer, cast her first Democratic vote for James Talarico.
Her medical debt past $25,000 puts healthcare costs at the center of the midterms.
Background
Cindy Banda is a 46-year-old single mother in McAllen, Texas, caring for six children, including three she took in after her sister Melissa was killed by her ex-husband. A three-time Trump voter, she was diagnosed with breast cancer and over more than a year had a mastectomy, chemotherapy and radiation, stopped working and saw medical debt pass $25,000. She returned to selling internet services door to door before the midterms and cast an early ballot for James Talarico, a Democratic U.S. Senate candidate in Texas, saying her first Democratic vote came as medical bills outweighed her anti-abortion stance.
How it unfolded
- date unknownBanda, 46, is diagnosed with breast cancer; over more than a year she has a mastectomy, chemotherapy and radiation and stops working as medical debt rises beyond $25,000.
- date unknownTwo GoFundMe fundraisers raise near $30,000, high school classmates sell food from a roadside tent, and she gets help from the father of her 9-year-old and from her own father.
- date unknownBanda returns to work selling internet services door to door just before the midterms after a year on sick leave.
- date unknownAt a Houston cancer center appointment she receives a text from TD Auto Finance; she says the car payment bill is $1,300.
- date unknownHer doctor says reconstruction surgery could be scheduled early next year; Banda says she hoped for December because she has met her deductibles, and in January she would have to pay down the $7,500 again.
- date unknownBanda casts an early ballot for Democrat James Talarico, her first vote for a Democrat.
- Sep 15, 2026Banda visits her sister Melissa's tomb at a Weslaco, Texas funeral home and memorial park and drives past the McAllen house from where Melissa was abducted by her ex-husband before he killed her.
- Sep 16, 2026Banda drinks a home remedy after side effects from the targeted therapy pill Kisqali at her house in McAllen.
- Oct 25, 2026The Associated Press publishes a photo essay on Banda by Julia Nikhinson and Jesse Bedayn.
- Nov 3, 2026The midterm election is held.
Who’s saying what
- Public
- Banda says her goal is to keep the house, keep the cars and keep the kids stable, which she says costs roughly $7,000 a month, and that "sometimes I think, and I shouldn't think like this, but I'm worth more gone than here."
- Public
- Banda says she voted for Talarico because "it's what I'm living," and of him: "Imagine if he can do that for the cancer."
- Analysts
- About half of registered voters called healthcare costs a major problem for them and their families, up from a little more than one-third four years ago, per a September Fox News poll.
- Analysts
- Registered voters were nearly twice as likely to trust Democrats over Republicans on healthcare, per a September AP-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research poll.