None of this is normal. Food-stamp benefits have never been cut like this in the current program’s more-than-60-year history. “It is a significant inflection point in the program’s history,” Christopher Bosso, a political scientist at Northeastern University who wrote a book on SNAP, told me. “Where we go from here is anyone’s guess.”

For some voters on Tuesday the trimming and delay of benefits under the federal food aid program known as SNAP was helping inform who would get their support.

The Trump administration said today that it will provide partial food stamp benefits for November by tapping into the program’s contingency fund amid the ongoing government shutdown.

While the political and legal wrangling continues, the bottom line for thousands of families, including the 1 in 20 in Utah who rely on food stamps for at least part of their food, is uncertainty about the future and no benefits at the moment.

The action comes two days after states sued the federal agency that administers SNAP benefits. Funds were set to stop flowing Saturday.

Many online claimed Vance himself benefited from food stamps as a child, and accused him of hypocrisy, while other posts claimed members of his family benefited from food assistance programs.