Rick Carroll is changing his vote this year. The 71-year-old Roxbury, New Jersey resident said he’s voted ”straight line Republican all the way” for most of his life, including two consecutive ballots for his current member of congress, Republican Rep. Tom Kean, Jr.

Roxbury Township has been good to Kean, delivering him his highest 2024 vote count in all of Morris County, the most populated of the six counties in New Jersey’s 7th Congressional district.

That was before the Trump administration purchased a warehouse in Roxbury earlier this year with plans to transform it into a 1,500-bed ICE detention facility, one of the largest in the country. The move has been met with bi-partisan opposition from locals who say the warehouse is unfit to hold human beings. Roxbury’s all Republican township council condemned the plan, which is on hold pending a lawsuit.

But Kean was largely absent from the fight, and it’s left many longtime Roxbury Republicans like Carroll and his wife Paula rethinking their votes, questioning whether Kean is willing to stand up to the president on issues that matter to them.

“ I just think he does what Trump says, so he won't go against him,” Paula Carroll said.

The ICE-owned warehouse is a three minute drive from their house they’ve lived in for 36 years. They support strong borders, but Rick Carroll said “throwing” undocumented immigrants into a converted warehouse is “not the way to go about it.” He’s also worried the facility will “destroy my property value.” Both plan to break from their party and make an exception in this year’s midterm elections.

“I'm leaning just for that one Democrat,” Rick Carroll said.