Bernie Sanders Town Hall with Chris Hayes in Welch, WV 2017
McDowell County, West Virginia is the state's southernmost county and sits in the bulge that can be seen on a map of the state at the very bottom. It has a declining population that has dropped from a peak of 98,000 in 1950 to just a little over 19,000 in 2020. Population decline has been significant even over the last 40 years, as more than 60% of those who once lived there have gone. Coal mining was the driving force behind the economy, peaking in the 1950's and as that declined, so did the population.
The movie October Sky, about the boys who experimented with rockets, took place in Coalwood, a small community in the county. That's one bright spot in what is an otherwise dismal picture of unemployment, poverty, drug addition and business closures. The county has been a "food desert," with no major grocery store since its Wal-Mart supercenter closed in 2016, records the highest annual number of drug-induced deaths in the country and is the third poorest in the nation.
So of course, it makes sense that the voters there have turned increasingly to the GOP, and in 2016 and 2020, to Donald Trump. That's because, in spite of the overwhelming nature of the real problems in the county, voters were mad about Hillary Clinton's policy toward coal, and don't like the Democrats' perspective on guns. The coal mining industry isn't coming back, because there's really no market for it, and because most of it in McDowell County has already been mined. My guess is that nothing has changed with regard to gun ownership in the county at all. And, expectedly, the drug problem is worse, the poverty is worse and the population continues to decline, because Trump was the least likely politician to care one whit about the people of McDowell County.
But Senator Bernie Sanders does.
Sanders dominated the Democratic primary in 2016, and then returned to the state in 2017 with Chris Hayes for a town hall meeting to actually engage in a discussion about what was really wrong and what could be done about it. And in McDowell County, where 78% of the voters cast ballots for Trump, people showed up to listen.
I don't think party loyalty goes a long way in a state like West Virginia, which went back and forth in the 20th century between Republicans and Democrats. It is a state with a unique set of problems, including poverty and drug abuse, isolation, lack of educational opportunity and a host of other things that have never really received the kind of attention they've needed from politicians. So many of its voters are cynical. And they stay home in large numbers, allowing a smaller electorate in a shrinking population base, because most of the state is declining, allowing the special interests, mainly the coal industry and the pharmaceutical industry, to flood the super PACs with money and elect their advocates to office.
Sanders' message resonates with voters there because he sides with the marginalized and disenfranchised and against corporate wealth and power. He is exactly the right person to be critical of Senator Manchin's obstructionism. The political pundits say that if there's a Democrat challenge to Manchin's re-election bid in 2024, the party will lose the seat. And that's probably the case. But a true, independent populist, who speaks the language of the people like Sanders does, might just be able to pull it off.
It will take more than a town hall here and there. But someone who speaks their language, knows their problems, and actually does something about it might stand a chance. In a neighboring county, Mingo, the only hospital and emergency room closed in 2021, due to financial problems. But a local medical provider bought it to keep it a hospital with the intention of re-opening and thanks to help from the Biden Administration, it will re-open this summer. And look who's taking advantage of it, as a Democrat, claiming some of the credit for it
We need to think creatively. West Virginia would have benefitted tremendously from both of the signature bills that the Biden Administration has proposed and the people there need to know that. And they need to know who's standing in their way.
We don't have much time, Democrats. The GOP is offering nothing. We should be out in front on this.
West Virginians get ignored. It's not a big state, it's now down to just 4 electoral votes and it isn't high on the list of corporate headquarters or big business. I spent summers trudging up and down rural roads in the mountains, going up and down the "hollers" selling books to earn college money in Mingo and McDowell Counties. My parents grew up there and had to leave when there was no work to be found. It's a beautiful place, and yes, while it is remote, isolated and lacks a lot of educational and community resources, the people who live there are Americans who deserve to have the same opportunities as everyone else does. They want a hand up not a hand out, and that's what they could have had from this most recent bill that the Biden Administration wanted to get passed.
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