Did Appalachians vote their economic interests?

[SingingAnalyst]

I vote option 3. The conventional wisdom is that poor whites who vote Republican do so against their economic interests, in order to stick it to the Blacks, or the gays, or the feminists, or whatever former "out" group is flexing its political muscle.

While there is undoubtedly much truth to this (going back at least to 1968), in 2016 I feel economic factors were also involved: (1) Trump ran to the "left", if I can use that term, of Clinton on trade; and (2) the coal industry suffered tremendously under President Obama.

Thus, we have the spectacle of ancestrally Democratic, dirt-poor rural whites, many of them on welfare or disability or some other form of government assistance-- giving the GOP nominee for President 90%+ of the vote in some communities.

I have to believe economic factors were involved to some extent, whatever other factors may have contributed.