{"id":189017,"date":"2016-09-26T12:43:26","date_gmt":"2016-09-26T18:43:26","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/?p=189017"},"modified":"2016-10-12T13:10:05","modified_gmt":"2016-10-12T19:10:05","slug":"many-working-class-whites-break-from-democrats-to-choose-trump","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/2016\/09\/many-working-class-whites-break-from-democrats-to-choose-trump\/","title":{"rendered":"Many working-class whites break from Democrats to choose Trump"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"attachment_189031\"  class=\"wp-caption module image alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 771px;\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-large wp-image-189031\" src=\"http:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/09\/jacobsportrait-1800-771x515.jpg\" alt=\"Pervis Jacobs\" width=\"771\" height=\"515\" srcset=\"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/09\/jacobsportrait-1800-771x515.jpg 771w, https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/09\/jacobsportrait-1800-336x224.jpg 336w, https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/09\/jacobsportrait-1800-768x513.jpg 768w, https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/09\/jacobsportrait-1800-1170x781.jpg 1170w, https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/09\/jacobsportrait-1800.jpg 1500w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 771px) 100vw, 771px\" \/><p class=\"wp-media-credit\">Lian Bunny \/ News21<\/p><p class=\"wp-caption-text\">Pervis Jacobs, 65, who worked as a mechanic, carpenter and school bus driver, said he\u2019s been a Democrat for as long as he can remember. But he\u2019s voting for Donald Trump this November. The Knott County, Kentucky, resident said his son-in-law has worked in Kentucky coal mines for 30 years and has suffered under the Obama administration.<\/p><\/div>\n<p>Trump signs in her backyard. Trump magnets on her refrigerator. Trump buttons on her dining room table. Kathy Miller is the Mahoning County chairwoman for Donald Trump.<\/p>\n<p>While handing out Trump signs in June at a Republican headquarters just south of Youngstown, Ohio, she was approached by a woman in her late 80s, who said, \u201cI have never voted Republican in my life. Give me the biggest sign you\u2019ve got.\u201d<\/p>\n<aside class=\"module align-left half type-aside\">\n<h3>About this article<\/h3>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/votingwars.news21.com\/working-class-whites-break-from-democrats-to-choose-trump\/\" target=\"_blank\">This article<\/a> was produced by News 21,\u00a0a cornerstone of the Carnegie-Knight Initiative on the Future of Journalism Education. The program is headquartered at the Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication at Arizona State University.<\/p>\n<\/aside>\n<p>In economically struggling communities like Mahoning County \u2014 where most steel mills have closed \u2014 many white, working-class Democrats are voting for Trump, registration records and 2016 presidential primary results show.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThey\u2019re just all fed up,\u201d Miller said. \u201cIt may be the economy for some, it may be the school systems, it could be health care, it could be immigration, education, it could be anything. They\u2019re just fed up with the direction of our country. Mr. Trump showed up at the right time.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>According to a November 2015 Public Religion Research Institute <a href=\"http:\/\/www.prri.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/11\/PRRI-AVS-2015-Web.pdf\" target=\"_blank\">poll<\/a>, 72 percent of Americans and 78 percent of white working-class Americans believe the country still is in a recession. A News21 analysis of the General Social Survey conducted by the National Opinion Research Center at the University of Chicago also found that in 2002, the percentage of white Americans with hardly any confidence in the executive branch of the federal government was just under 20 percent, the lowest it had been between 2002 and 2014. By 2014, that number was nearly 50 percent.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe disenfranchised voter who has lost their job as a result of policies affecting the coal industry and other heavy manufacturing jobs are feeling very frustrated with Washington,\u201d said Rex Repass, founder and CEO of Repass, a national public opinion research and strategic consulting firm. \u201cEven though many are historically Democratic counties, they have become very red and very angry.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/player.vimeo.com\/video\/178054537?color=1f2b49&amp;title=0&amp;byline=0&amp;portrait=0\" width=\"771\" height=\"434\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>In Tennessee, after a clothing factory outsourced jobs and operations to Mexico, a county that voted Democratic in the 2000 and 2004 presidential elections went Republican in both 2008 and 2012.<\/p>\n<p>In Mahoning County, Ohio, as its county seat Youngstown labors under the loss of the steel industry, more than 6,000 voters have switched from Democrat to Republican this year.<\/p>\n<p>Similarly, frustration over closing steel mills and rising health care costs have swayed nearly 5,400 voters to switch parties in Westmoreland County, Pennsylvania.<\/p>\n<p>And in one Kentucky county, where residents frustrated with the demise of the coal industry voted about 31 percent Republican in the 2000 presidential election, they voted more than 72 percent Republican in 2012, even though a majority of its voters remain registered Democrats.<\/p>\n<h3 id=\"test\" class=\"subhead\">Economic distress<\/h3>\n<p>Clay County, Tennessee, which borders Kentucky, used to be home to four garment factories. Celina, the county seat, had two.<\/p>\n<p>The largest of these factories was children\u2019s clothing factory OshKosh, which employed between 1,500 and 2,000 from the 1950s to the 1990s. In a county with a population of between 7,000 and 8,000, everyone worked there or knew someone who did.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cJust about everybody who wanted a job, if they\u2019d work, they had a job at OshKosh,\u201d said Doug Young, director of the county\u2019s Three Star Initiative, a program focused on improving the county\u2019s infrastructure to bring jobs to the area.<\/p>\n<p>The factory shut its doors in November 1996 and moved its operations to Mexico, taking advantage of the cheap labor options the North American Free Trade Agreement provided. The agreement\u2019s purpose was to establish a free-trade zone in North America by lifting tariffs on a majority of goods the U.S., Mexico and Canada produce and trade with one another.<\/p>\n<p>Almost overnight, unemployment spiked to nearly 30 percent as hundreds of northern Tennessee residents lost jobs.<\/p>\n<p>Racoe Inc., a military fabric cutting company, moved into the old OshKosh factory in December 1997. Only six people now work in the 66,000-square-foot building.<\/p>\n<p>The county worked to recover from the loss, and logging is now a valued industry in the heavily forested area. Log trucks pass through the small downtown several times an hour.<\/p>\n<p>Unemployment in Clay County, which is nearly <a href=\"http:\/\/www.census.gov\/quickfacts\/table\/PST045215\/47027\" target=\"_blank\">97 percent white<\/a>, has petered out to a little more than 5 percent in May 2016, just over the May national average of 4.7 percent.<\/p>\n<p>Yet the county still has a 24 percent poverty rate and historically Democratic voters are switching to the Republican Party. In March\u2019s Republican primary, Trump <a href=\"http:\/\/www.politico.com\/2016-election\/results\/map\/president\/tennessee\" target=\"_blank\">won<\/a> Clay county 57.1 percent to Ted Cruz\u2019s 17.1 percent and had more than double the votes of Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton.<\/p>\n<p>Timothy Scott, the former Democratic chairman in Clay County, said older people come to retire in Clay County because of nearby Dale Hollow Lake, which attracts 3.2 million visitors to the county annually. Scott said more of these retirees <a href=\"http:\/\/www.gallup.com\/poll\/172439\/party-identification-varies-widely-across-age-spectrum.aspx\" target=\"_blank\">tend to vote Republican<\/a>, but he still attributes much of Trump\u2019s appeal to his rhetoric.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI think his popularity is (because) just everybody is mad, and he is saying what they feel,\u201d he said. \u201cThere will be a lot of Democrats voting for him.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>While older generations have been moving into the community, Scott said young people in the area are leaving because there aren\u2019t jobs once they graduate.<\/p>\n<p>Young said Clay County voters feel ignored by politicians who they believe aren\u2019t doing anything to bring jobs back to the area. \u201cI really do think it\u2019s this attitude that we lost our jobs and nobody\u2019s really come to help us,\u201d Young said.<\/p>\n<p>In the Rust Belt of Ohio and Pennsylvania, steel was the dominant industry. But as steel companies outsourced their labor to mills in China, voters also grew frustrated with the job loss.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWhen the steel industry collapsed in the 1970s \u2026 this region was literally not prepared for the shutdown of the steel mills,\u201d said Bertram de Souza, a political columnist for the Vindicator newspaper in Youngstown.<\/p>\n<p>Forty years after its steel mills closed, Youngstown\u2019s poverty rate is just over 40 percent.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe opportunities aren\u2019t here,\u201d said Frankie Susany, 50, who grew up in the Youngstown area and now works there as a small-business owner. \u201cWhat used to be a thriving city in Youngstown is brown fields, abandoned mills, abandoned buildings, abandoned factories.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Trump\u2019s \u201cMake America Great Again\u201d message resonates with Susany, who said that when he grew up, young people who worked in the steel mills had great lives. They drove new cars and had their own places to live right out of high school.<\/p>\n<p>Now, with that steel industry gone, Susany believes voters need to cast their ballots with future generations in mind. \u201cThat\u2019s what this election is about,\u201d he said. \u201cIf we don\u2019t change it now, our grandchildren are never going to know the America that (people my age) grew up in.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>In the March 2008 primary, just under 14 percent of registered voters in Mahoning County \u2013 where Youngstown is located \u2013 voted Republican. During this year\u2019s state primary in March, more than 48 percent of the county\u2019s registered voters cast a Republican ballot, and poll workers had to print additional Republican ballots. More than 6,000 voters then switched from Democratic to Republican this year.<\/p>\n<p>Leo Connelly Jr. is a Vietnam veteran and former salesman who voted for Barack Obama in 2008 and 2012 but switched to Republican this year to vote for Trump in the primary. \u201cI was sold on the fact that Obama could turn this country around,\u201d he said. \u201cWe don\u2019t want to get fooled again.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>In Westmoreland County, Pennsylvania, which is <a href=\"http:\/\/censusreporter.org\/profiles\/05000US42129-westmoreland-county-pa\/\" target=\"_blank\">94 percent white<\/a> with nearly a 10 percent poverty rate, 5,400 voters switched to the Republican Party to vote for Trump in the primary. The region\u2019s steel factories shut down in the 1980s, and residents remain bitter about the job loss, said Blair Adams, a third-generation owner of K Castings Inc., a manufacturing plant.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe steel industry as a whole, the big foundries that pour the molten metal, they\u2019re gone,\u201d he said. \u201cAll these people that are in this manufacturing area are definitely shifting (parties) because they understand that their jobs are at risk.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/player.vimeo.com\/video\/178053416?color=1f2b49&amp;title=0&amp;byline=0&amp;portrait=0\" width=\"771\" height=\"434\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>For generations in Kentucky\u2019s coalfields, including the town of Hindman, families spent most of their lives working underground in the mines. As those jobs disappear, Democrats are looking to options outside their party for change and the chance for an improved economy.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWhat\u2019s happened here (is) a catastrophe on top of a disaster,\u201d said Mimi Pickering, a filmmaker with Appalshop, a media training center in nearby Whitesburg. \u201cThe last few years we\u2019ve lost a great number of coal mining jobs, but really the coal economy has been declining and the employment in the industry has been declining since the 1950s.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>As coal became more scarce and expensive to mine in eastern Kentucky, coal companies moved to states such as Montana and Wyoming, where the work is easier and cheaper. The companies also started to use advanced mining technology, eliminating the need for a large number of miners.<\/p>\n<p>Meanwhile, the government put environmental regulations into place, encouraging states to switch from coal to natural gas as a power source. Kentucky residents such as Ballard Combs, an 81-year-old former coal miner from Knott County, see Obama as the face of these changes.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI loved the mines,\u201d said Combs, who worked underground most of his adult life. \u201cObama shut them all down.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Nearly 90 percent of registered voters in Knott County, which is 98 percent\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/www.census.gov\/quickfacts\/table\/PST045215\/21119\" target=\"_blank\">white<\/a>, are <a href=\"http:\/\/elect.ky.gov\/SiteCollectionDocuments\/Election%20Statistics\/turnout\/2011-2019\/2014\/trnout2014.pdf\" target=\"_blank\">Democrats<\/a> because it\u2019s what their families have been for generations.<\/p>\n<p>But since 2008, the county has increasingly voted for the Republican presidential candidate. Both Combs and his father were Democrats, but he\u2019s voting for Trump.<\/p>\n<p>Knott County Clerk Ken Gayheart said registered Democrats come into his office daily to switch their registration to the GOP. When the coal companies left, Gayheart said no industries moved in to fill the vacancy.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThese old hills were never worth much,\u201d Gayheart said. \u201cWe don\u2019t do anything, we don\u2019t make anything here in Knott County.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Nearly 34 percent of the county\u2019s residents live below the poverty line. In May, the unemployment rate was 10.5 percent.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cEastern Kentucky is in tough shape, but a lot of rural America is in a tough time,\u201d said Tim Marema, vice president of the Center for Rural Strategies in nearby Whitesburg. \u201cSomething needs to change. That\u2019s the point for the residents on the Trump side.\u201d<\/p>\n<h3>\u2018I just don\u2019t like the Democrats\u2019 policies anymore\u2019<\/h3>\n<p>Pervis Jacobs, 65, grew up in Hindman, Kentucky. He\u2019s a lifelong Democrat, but he\u2019s voting for Trump. \u201cI feel like I have no choice,\u201d said Jacobs. \u201cI just don\u2019t like the Democrats\u2019 policies anymore.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Many Trump supporters criticize increasing government regulations, President Obama\u2019s health care law and immigration.<\/p>\n<p>Nick Patterson, joint operating officer of Honest Abe Log Homes and president of Barky Beaver Mulch in Clay County, Tennessee, said the companies used to employ about 500 people and now employ 130.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI think one of the things that\u2019s so key in this political conversation over the last couple years is our overhead per employee has increased drastically,\u201d he said. \u201cIt has come from federal regulations.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/player.vimeo.com\/video\/178053724?color=1f2b49&amp;title=0&amp;byline=0&amp;portrait=0\" width=\"771\" height=\"434\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>Patterson said China\u2019s economic situation has hurt his small business because there\u2019s not enough domestic business. Over 50 percent of his produced lumber will end up overseas.<\/p>\n<p>Leslie Rossi, leader of a grassroots movement for Trump in Westmoreland County, Pennsylvania, said she was initially drawn to Trump because he said he would repeal Obamacare. Rossi, a landlord, painted one of her rental houses red, white and blue to support the GOP candidate.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cObamacare didn\u2019t work, and it\u2019s just been a burden,\u201d Rossi said. \u201cPeople still don\u2019t have health care, and the people that did are paying more than they\u2019ve ever paid. It\u2019s changed in such a worse direction.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Rossi also said she believes immigrants take benefits that Americans, especially veterans, should be receiving. \u201cHow can you bring an immigrant in and give them free health care, and people that are American citizens that fought for us, you\u2019re just not giving them the things they need?\u201d Rossi said. \u201cIt\u2019s sickening.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Lawfully present immigrants in the U.S. are able to purchase health care, but undocumented immigrants are not eligible to purchase coverage unless they apply on behalf of documented individuals, according to <a href=\"https:\/\/www.healthcare.gov\/immigrants\/coverage\/\" target=\"_blank\">HealthCare.gov<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/player.vimeo.com\/video\/178054182?color=1f2b49&amp;title=0&amp;byline=0&amp;portrait=0\" width=\"771\" height=\"434\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>Veterans are eligible for coverage through the <a href=\"http:\/\/www.va.gov\/health\/\" target=\"_blank\">Veterans Health Administration<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>A News21 analysis found in 2014, just over 48 percent of white Americans thought the number of immigrants should be reduced, according to data from the General Social Survey. Only 13 percent of the same demographic believe the number of immigrants should be increased.<\/p>\n<p>The survey also found in 2014, nearly 29 percent of white Americans think immigrants take jobs away, and roughly another 7 percent strongly agree.<\/p>\n<p>Patterson said Trump is seen as a political outsider, especially to those who have felt ignored by typical politicians.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWhen you get to the federal level, I think people do feel like they&#8217;ve not been listened to because you&#8217;ve seen policies being handed down that have not helped them,\u201d he said. \u201cI think some of the campaign promises that were made on that have simply not been true. And I think that affects people.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Miller, the Mahoning County chairwoman for Trump, said Americans should forget politicians. Trump appeals to her because he\u2019s a businessman, and Trump\u2019s business background will create jobs and improve the economy.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe need someone who understands business, can get things done, understands how the economy works (and) has employed people,\u201d she said. \u201cI think that\u2019s my biggest beef with our regular politicians. \u2026 And I think Mr. Trump, he\u2019s done it all.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Scott, the former Democratic chairman in Clay County, Tennessee, said Republican candidates always talk about social issues such as immigration, gun control and gay rights, but the discussion this year seems louder than in past elections.<\/p>\n<p>\u201c(Trump\u2019s) demeanor has brought a lot of these people out,\u201d said Scott, who isn\u2019t voting for Trump. \u201cHe\u2019s made them vocal. He gives them courage.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Miller said his supporters are seeking a definitive change, one they believe they will find in Trump.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI think the generation like mine, we\u2019ve seen it all. We\u2019ve heard all the promises and we\u2019ve just decided we\u2019re done,\u201d she said. \u201cWe just want a country that works, we want jobs, we want to protect our borders, we want to have a life for our children.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><i>Taylor Gilmore contributed to this report.<\/i><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>In Mahoning County, Ohio, as its county seat Youngstown labors under the loss of the steel industry, more than 6,000 voters have switched from Democrat to Republican this year. Other areas are seeing similar trends.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":189031,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[708,3307,118,117,165,226,116],"class_list":["post-189017","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news-and-analysis","tag-2016-election","tag-donald-trump","tag-economy","tag-health-care","tag-immigration","tag-presidential-race","tag-washington"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/189017","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=189017"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/189017\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/189031"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=189017"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=189017"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=189017"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}