6/19/2023 0 Comments Political wire hillary india![]() ![]() On transgender rights, “it doesn’t make a difference to me what they do,” said Stowers. Mark Stowers, 57, works in the coal industry and pointed to economic issues as a key concern for him at the ballot box - even as social issues such as transgender people’s health care and participation in school sports become a political flashpoint. At the same time, only two out of the six largest industries in rural areas saw job growth since 2001. ![]() A 2022 report from the Department of Agriculture found that a decline in population has been weighing on the job market in these areas. McDowell County is typical of many rural counties across the US. There is a sense among rural voters “that Democrats don’t understand the pain they’re in,” said Jeanne Zaino, a political science professor at Iona University and a contributor to Bloomberg Television and Radio. Trump won every county in the state during the 20 elections, in part thanks to his promise to repeal “job-killing” restrictions championed by Democrats. Many residents blame the region’s decline on Democrats and their attempts to regulate the coal industry. The poverty rate is nearly triple the national average. Only 27.5% of McDowell County residents were in the labor force as of 2021. The county’s population today sits at about 18,000 and economic opportunity is scarce for the people who remain. But the mechanization of mines made for fewer jobs and spurred a mass exodus of residents. In the 1950s, McDowell County was the state’s coal capital, where a booming local economy supported a population of nearly 100,000 at the beginning of that decade. In McDowell, where the empty houses and abandoned storefronts along Coal Heritage Road make for visible reminders of economic devastation, voters say they want politicians to speak primarily to financial hardship. Some of the highest-profile Democrats have stepped on the proverbial rake when talking about this group, such as when former president Barack Obama spoke of people who “cling to guns or religion,” or when 2016 presidential nominee Hillary Clinton referred to some of Trump’s coalition as a “basket of deplorables.”ĭemocrats "have given middle America the middle finger,” said Republican Senator Joni Ernst, speaking last weekend at an event in her home state of Iowa. The party’s trouble with the voters runs deep, reflecting Democrats’ focus on progressive social priorities and the sense that they did nothing to stem job losses in rural areas. “You don’t have to carry these places you just have to lose them by less.” “There’s no reason that Democrats shouldn’t be more competitive in rural areas,” said veteran Democratic strategist James Carville, the architect of former President Bill Clinton’s 1992 campaign. The presidential contest will hinge on results in swing states including Wisconsin, which has a significant rural population. US Senate races in places such as Montana and West Virginia also will help decide control of that chamber. With Democrats losing their grip on some of the non-White voters who have powered their recent victories, rural residents could prove crucial in the 2024 election cycle. Now, there is fresh urgency for the party to try to win them back. That perception of abandonment, particularly on economic issues, has contributed to a decades-long erosion of rural voters from the Democratic coalition. “I felt like weren’t ever doing nothing for the lower class down here,” said Patrick, 57, a former miner who lives in McDowell County, designated by the US Census Bureau as being in “persistent poverty” - a poverty rate of more than 20% for more than 30 years. (Bloomberg) - When Danny Patrick cast his ballot for former President Donald Trump, it was in part to spite the party that had once counted his West Virginia coal country vote as a given. ![]()
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