Describe a West Virginian Democrat who ...

[NOVA Green]

In order to isolate the variables to create a common data-set, I suspect one would need to do a County-by-County analysis run it through an Excel spreadsheet and attempt to identify variables and correlations comparing and contrast Primary vs GE results.

I suspect that the most direct correlation would be found among Democratic Party voters within the the largest respective "Urban centers" within the respective counties and regional towns and cities....

Additionally, I suspect that the highest variances would be found in overwhelmingly rural counties and precincts.

Occupations/Industry: This is a bit misleading since as a relatively aging and heavily rural State, there is a huge % of the population that is retired (Not Employed), and additionally rural poverty and systemic unemployment/underemployment is still at astronomical levels in vast regions of WV.

Federal/State/Local Government now accounts for a full 20% of the workforce of WV !!!!

These are mind boggling numbers regardless of however one chooses to slice, dice, and mince the data......

WV has been oppresses and suffering among both Democratic and Republican Administrations alike for so many decades that I can't remember the last time a President stood up for WV....

Most of y'all have never spent any time in Appalachia... but there is a much larger story that goes back all the ways to the 1930s....

As a Political Scientist and student of History, it is virtually impossible to look at the political and social changes in the "Industrial Midwest" without looking at both the migration of African-Americans and Appalachian-Americans spaced out over a few decades to Cities like SLO, Cinnci, Detriot, Chicago, without even going into the smaller factory towns of the region....

Still to answer the question, these days it would most likely be public sector union employees (Look at HRCs margins in Charleston {State Capitol}, Huntington (Where a ton of unemployed skilled workers migrated to when the economy collapsed in most of the State), and several other "large Metro" areas within WV...

I'm old enough to still remember way back in the '08 Primary Days when Obama Primary supporters claimed the state was chalk full of racist Democrats... when it came to the '08 GE many of these same posters, as well as Moderate/Liberal 'Pubs did a variant on the same argument.

S**t, even outside of Atlas tons of Dems were blaming WV as responsible for Gore's loss in '00!!!

Hell, he could have won his home State of TN, regardless of hanging chads in FL, or WV flipping for the first time in who knows how long.

Both national Democratic and Republican Parties for decades have been treating WV as a "Two bit Ho'", done lip service as Miners died in their tombs because of "Industrial Accidents", treated one of the most beautiful States of our Great Nation as simply a raw material to be exploited during the economic expansion between '48 until the early '70s, despite the fact that the UMWA provided the raw materials to feed the Power Plants of the US, Steel Mills of Pittsburgh, Auto Plants of Detroit, and over decades had to struggle against both Democratic and Republican Administrations alike for decent hours, wages, and working conditions.

There is no such thing as a Union Mine left in WV today, and frankly I would be surprised to see virtually any Union Coal Mines left in the US anymore....

They busted the Unions through the practice of "Double Breasting" (Opening up Non-Union joints a few hollers down in Appalachia, shifting Operations to the "Cowboy Open Pit Miners of places like Wyoming, Montana, and Utah, bigger companies relocated operations to Australia to gain competitive advantage in the vast booming market of Coal Power Plants in China, after Republican Pres George HW Bush signed an MFN deal with China right after Tiananmen Square!!!

Where was Bill Clinton when they busted the balls of the UMWA in '93 and allowed the MNC Miner Bosses to rule with impunity while our jobs were being shipped overseas?

So here's something close to a T-Shirt that I still proudly wear that was given to me by a 3rd Generation Coal Miner from SouthEast Ohio during the '93 Shutdown Strike in the Coal Fields.



I grew up and live in a State that has experienced dramatic swings because our traditional dependence on Forest Products....

Pittsburgh PA and places like Huntington and Youngstown have experienced similar dramatic swings, where within a brief 5-10 years whole industries vanish and local residents need to make a choice of cashing out their last check after the unemployment benefits run down during a major recession, and sell their house at 50% of their equity, and relocate to a totally different area and leave their family, friends, and community behind.

I am not an "expert" of WV", but I have experienced firsthand the social and economic devastation in natural resource based communities....

The whole "Bail out Wall Street and Screw Main Street" argument doesn't fly so well, even in "Republican" WV....

Really curious what will happen in '20, since most likely we will actually have a Democratic nominee that most likely will be seen as a scrappy street-fighter, rather than a company stooge in a state like WV where traditionally economics has trumped cultural affiliation....