About half of my extended family no longer lives in West Virginia. They've scattered to other places, one group to the Washington, DC area, mostly Maryland, and another group westward into Ohio. The jobs just weren't there. The half that remains, because of the transition they've made as far as their jobs go, have a decidedly more Republican outlook than my parents and grandparents generations, all of whom were union members.
But that appears to be changing, especially among those who, like myself, are college educated and in a professional occupation. Most of those with whom I still have contact started out by supporting Trump in 2016 and 2020, and then again in 2024, though a few of them had cooled off by the last election and I actually had some great conversations with a couple of cousins who saw the truth. They'd basically dropped out of participation in politics, but since the indictments came down and reality set in, they have registered to vote and support Democrats.
For months now, among the scattered social media posts and other communication in which I've been involved, there are several of us trying to talk the rest of our family into voting for Rachel Anderson for the U.S. Senate. I won't be able to vote in West Virginia, but what I'm seeing in our conversations now is the realization that the senior Senator from there, Shelley Moore-Capito, has done nothing for the state, and has actually done nothing notable or vote-worthy for the entire time she has served in the Senate.
I doubt there are any political pundits who'd predict this would go any way except for the Republican. On the other hand, among Democrats in West Virginia, Anderson is well known, and one of the interesting political aspects of the state is that the only counties where there has been population growth in the last six decades are the ones where Democrats actually outnumber Republicans. And while Democrats had a relatively high turnout in their primary, Republican turnout was low. Don't get me wrong, it's still a long-shot.
West Virginia is one of the poorest states in the country, it is losing jobs and population regularly, and it has been since 1950. It is one of the most ignored areas of the country by politicians, and I cannot fathom how misinformed and ignorant the majority of the population must be, when they continuously vote against all of their own interests every election cycle, electing patrician politicians like Moore-Capito who vote for legislation that helps increase the poverty, does nothing to decrease unemployment or business development, and which continues to contribute to people leaving the state in droves.
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