Why the poorest county in West Virginia has faith in Donald Trump | Anywhere but Washington

this was a County as paid its dues to the state and the state has deserted us you don't have food you don't know where your next meals you gonna come from the politicians are gonna have to start telling really hard truths and the people of West Virginia are owed that [Music] McDowell County West Virginia isn't a typical stop on the campaign trail this isn't a bellwether County and it's not in a battleground state but I've come here because it has a unique status in 2016 during the primaries a higher percentage of people here voted for Donald Trump than anywhere else in America it's also the poorest County in one of the poorest states in the country now I live in that apartment building across the street I get up of the morning come over here at 8:00 make me some coffee read my paper and kill and kill time ed Shepard is 92 his gas station stopped pumping in 1995 of this Main Street there wasn't an empty building that didn't have a prosperous business in it but little by little they begin to close one after the other and now it's down to a ghost town that goes counting when was the last time someone stopped a nasty person oh oh I don't know four or five days ago I don't worry the brakes act occasionally somebody pulled a driveway ask them for directions where they're looking for something else in the county mm-hmm oh the good activity is gone and we we just sitting here now I want to find more people who are still clinging on in McDowell I asked for a tour from Sabrina Schrader an anti-poverty campaigner up for re-election to the House of Delegates in the next-door County born and raised in McDowell she introduces me to people from her childhood Alma McNeely used to have a good factory job now she recycles cans for extra money when I was little there was plenty of jobs you got Tim burning coal mines people that feel that have put me in filling stations working on cars and stuff cold fields gone they've done tempered everything out so that leaves everybody absolutely everybody go where'd you pick up cars from Road any worse I think it's only five cents now it's a lot of work you always guys start at the bottom of the totem boat well you don't or we started out the bottom so that's where we got a starter bridge people most of them didn't start out tomorrow no they stopped started upstate at the time so it's impossible for them to have our perspective and understand what to do to help me and support people when they haven't been poor themselves so they can't design a system that's gonna help us what is the appeal of Donald Trump people are desperate for hope Trump says I'm gonna make America great again and they want to believe something good so they're just about anything for a job because they want to feed their family so they're getting tricked they're getting manipulated and they believe things are different than what they are Schrader spends a lot of time educating mcdowell voters including her grandfather no where's my papa yeah yeah yeah that's my papa hey papa you need a ride yeah all right we'll hop on in what do you think of Donald Trump I hope we get it Wow I will go down in there he'll don't don't don't don't I'll call em back cuz that's what the news is saying mister news it's not reporting the whole truth I don't cuz you turn the United Mine Workers of America aren't you union worker my papa was a coal miner I went for you to go 26 years I didn't yet thank God love you papa Schrader's grandfather was among the tens of thousands of miners who had well paid jobs in McDowell it was once the cold capital of America but most of those jobs vanished here in the 1960s and 70s when machines replaced humans the few remaining coal mines are struggling because of restrictions on carbon emissions and much cheaper natural gas produced through fracking the future of the coal industry is bleak but that's not a message McDowell wants to hear we're gonna put a lot of coal miners and coal companies out of business those 15 words are haunting Clinton in coal country but her campaign says she was taken out of context I'm the only candidate which has a policy about how to bring Economic Opportunity using clean renewable energy as the key into coal country because we're gonna put a lot of coal miners and coal companies out of business she said I'm gonna put the miners and the mines out of business that's a tough one to explain when you say we're gonna put the miners back to work we're gonna put the miners back to work we're gonna get those mines open cold country five days after that speech Trump won a stunning 91.5 percent of Republican primary votes in McDowell it's unsurprising that his bold promises have traction in a place in such steep decline life expectancy for men is lower than it was in 1980 and is now on a par with Ethiopia there used to be a hundred thousand people here now there are just eighteen thousand the county's latest loss was it's only Walmart store closed at 7:00 p.m. Thursday the 28th January 2016 and now it's closed nothing to replace it this is now where McDowell residents buy household goods along with these are they selling well the Donald Trump t-shirt yeah wait sailboat am i old under look I was easier for the government he's for the cold people I mean I I hope he gets in there one of those jobs Nicole Mars well you don't work in McDonald's or Wendy's yeah to the other two places what do you do don't you I mean a lot of people I figure he got laid off miners got laid off you know they giving them opportunities to send them to schools or they pay him to go to school and learn another trade so you know okay well some of these guys wrote your own baby thing you can't go to hell most them came in reading right yeah I've lived here all my life it's just worse gets worse it's gonna get worse he's gonna get they think it's bad now it's gonna get worse not if this politician has anything to do then Matt vetch is an ex-secret Service agent and Democratic candidate for West Virginia's third congressional district good thanks for your time thank you it's pretty nice sign you go ahead one of the ways politicians like Trump exploit frustration is by promising things they can't deliver mmm gonna reopen the mines I'm gonna bring back thousands of miner jobs mm-hmm it's not gonna happen is it I think it is very much selling people on false hope and he's promised a lot of things the global economic so you're gonna tell you can't come true I truly feel this is a very good hard-working class of people a good group of people and if there's one thing that there it it's it's it's honesty that kind of honesty might be admirable but it's risky in a place like McDowell I'm a Democrat sir I'm sorry to hear that I'm sorry it's okay I've lived in this county for 82 years and the Democrats you can look at it look at it hello you've heard the man my grandfather was a miner yes yes sir he's winning me over I'll read a poem you see places like this and forget to think and where you know say there were big companies like something like Google or Amazon and this would be a cool place to work like companies taking over towns and well you know what's the chances that Google or Amazon are gonna come here that's the thing I mean it would be a lot cheaper for them do you think whoever ends up in the white house can make a difference I think the President of the United States wouldn't have the remotest idea where the hell McDowell County was to start with and wouldn't be interested unless he did they have many votes he'd get out of it politician or politicians that make promises and never keep them you your family your friends you're all gonna get out to vote and I will tell you you will look back and you will say it was the single greatest vote you ever cast America will be great again we'll start winning winning winning and you are going to be very proud thank you everybody thank you thank you [Applause] [Music]

Channel: The Guardian

Views: 6,813,695

Rating: 4.3443723 out of 5

Keywords: donald trump, trump, hillary clinton, west virginia, virginia, McDowell County, coal, coal mining, climate change, republican, democrat, politics, president, country roads, anywhere but washington, washington dc, matt detch, trump rally, trump supporters, election, make america great again, election 2020, trump 2020, us election 2020, virginia election, west virginia poverty, rednecks, hillbilly, america, white trash, maga, trump news, news, us, joe biden, appalachian people, appalachia

Id: eqceHviNBC4

Length: 10min 31sec (631 seconds)

Published: Thu Oct 13 2016

Reddit Comments

[u/thesenghelmet]

As a younger resident of south eastern WV (31) you can believe we know all about this existential dread doomed to our state. Forever now WV has been the butt of jokes depicting incest and hillbilly-esq behaviors and we try to just laugh along and turn a cheek because we live here, most of it isnt any different than other rural areas. We kind of look at our state as a 'retirement state'. Many older people around here have lost their jobs and income, but have established homes and family around here that you cant exactally pick up and leave definetly cannot afford to move either. We know its easier to survive helping one another than seperating and finding the same distraught elsewhere. The sad part is the lack of jobs has caused people to make a living other means and a very common one around here is selling your pill bottle each month to pay for rent and necessities. I bet you could think of how that turns out, tons of younger people turning to drugs and pulling the "nothing else to do" card. The sad fact is we are littered with recreation if one wanted to actually do something. Hiking, kayaking, biking, nature, its all here but it all needs to be proactively done to enjoy and it also takes planning and money also. Youth here are stuck in a rut and i feel the same way. I personally got a big break for a few years being on a TV show for 2 seasons, and when it left so did that "slightly more" comfortable lifestyle and its back to working for a few dollars over minimum wage to survive. I want to move to find better work myself and still may soon but I love this state and the people in it. Sure, coal mines arent coming back but why cant another business try to invest here? WV has a bad property tax policy which has stunted my attempts to start a business as you must pay yearly for each piece of property (or move to VA and pay a one time tax and run shop from there) so our state government doesnt help us at all either. We are aware its hopeless but we cant just pick up and move. We pray someday a company will come in and open up opportunity but until then this is our life and we are kinda stuck with it the longer we stay.

[u/braced]

Very interesting and very sad

[u/Willuknight]

Wow. Great 10min.