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Domestic Politics: What Happens If Your Spouse Supports A Different Candidate?

AUDIE CORNISH, HOST:

Ahead of the many caucuses and primaries votes to come, we wanted to hear some of the political debates happening at the domestic level, as in your house. We called out on social media for couples divided over their presidential primary candidate of choice. We're going to hear from a few of them over the coming week - first, a pair of Democrats in Colorado.

ROBIN GARRISON: I'm Robin Garrison.

DOUG GARRISON: And I'm Doug Garrison.

R. GARRISON: And we live in Englewood, Colo., and we work in the financial services industry.

D. GARRISON: We're both 29.

(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC)

R. GARRISON: We met when we were both working in the Caribbean. Doug's a scuba instructor, and I was leading snorkel tours.

D. GARRISON: We're here in Colorado.

R. GARRISON: It's very different.

D. GARRISON: We have big-kid jobs.

R. GARRISON: (Laughter) You're not supposed to call them big-kid jobs. They're just jobs.

D. GARRISON: They're just jobs, OK.

(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC)

D. GARRISON: So I will be supporting Bernie Sanders on caucus day.

R. GARRISON: And I ardently support Hillary, and I wish that he supported Hillary because it makes me sort of wonder, how are we different? How are our opinions different, and what does that really mean?

D. GARRISON: It's a long drive to the office every day, so we have lots of time (laughter) to hash it out.

R. GARRISON: (Laughter).

(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC)

R. GARRISON: Oh, this morning, it was an interesting one. Doug said something about Bernie Sanders' free college platform. And I said, how are you going to pay for that, moneybags?

(LAUGHTER)

R. GARRISON: Let's talk about how Bernie Sanders is going to pay for that.

D. GARRISON: It's going to come down to closing tax loopholes for corporations, raising taxes on the wealthiest of America. She comes at me with moneybags. I come at her with evidence.

R. GARRISON: Evidence, and I say that with air quotations - theoretical evidence.

(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC)

D. GARRISON: I want to be romanced a little bit in primary season. I want to hear a well-articulated vision for what this country should and can be. And I believe that what Sanders has to say can come about in this country.

R. GARRISON: I'm not interested in pie-in-the-sky discussions. I'm a realist. I don't want to have discussions about unicorns and rainbows. And I don't want to talk about that. I want to talk about the reality of the situation, and the reality is Bernie Sanders is way far left, which normally I support, but you're not going to get him working with Congress.

D. GARRISON: I think that realism or pragmatism is just a way out of doing the hard thing.

R. GARRISON: Affable disagreement is where we landed.

(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC)

CORNISH: Thanks to Robin and Douglas Garrison in Colorado. If you're in a divided house this primary season, get in touch with us on Twitter @npratc or email nprcrowdsource@npr.org. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.

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