Racing For '08/Archive

In Poll of Rural Voters, McCain Ties Clinton, Tops Obama

editor — Sat, 17 May 2008 13:21:14 -0700

Less than six months from the November election, Sen. John McCain is tied with Sen. Hillary Clinton among rural voters in battleground states while the Arizona Republican holds a nine point lead over Sen. Barack Obama.

McCain leads Obama 50 percent to 41 percent among rural voters polled in 13 states that are expected to be closely contested in November. McCain and Clinton are tied, each with 46 percent of the vote. Only four percent of the people polled said they were undecided.

Full poll results can be found here.

The poll was conducted in mid-May by Greenberg Quinlan Rosner Research for the Center for Rural Strategies, the Kentucky nonprofit organization that publishes The Daily Yonder. The poll interviewed 682 likely voters in 13 states (Colorado, Florida, Iowa, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, Nevada, New Hampshire, New Mexico, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Virginia, and Wisconsin). The poll has a margin of error of +/- 3.75 percent.

Rural voters see stark differences between McCain and Obama on the issues of the economy and "values." More than half of rural voters (54 percent) agree that McCain "does not seem to understand my economic problems." A nearly equal percentage of rural voters (52 percent) agreed that Obama "does not share my values."

Obama's 'Appalachian Problem'? It's Not So Easy

editor — Fri, 16 May 2008 12:25:53 -0700

Above are photos taken by Andrew Stern in Letcher County, Kentucky. The older picture above was taken nearly 50 years ago. Stern recently returned to Eastern Kentucky and took the other photos in this slideshow. See Editor's Note on the next page.

Once again the American media’s compulsion to entertain rather than to understand has projected Appalachia to center stage of national politics.

Hillary Clinton’s landslide victory in the West Virginia Democratic primary has provided yet another opportunity to reduce economic and political issues in Appalachia to time-honored tropes about cultural differentness. Within the past week, an embarrassment of journalists, bloggers, and late-night television hosts have turned Senator Clinton’s support among blue collar voters in West Virginia into a confirmation of the white “otherness” of Appalachian culture rather than an expression of fundamental (and more complex) issues of class, gender, and race or even political organization in the Mountain State.

One correspondent, Jonathan Tilove, has even suggested that Senator Barack Obama has an “Appalachian problem” that goes beyond race to the peculiarities of “Appalachia’s whites and the Scots-Irish who settled there and forever branded its culture.”

Popular stereotypes and misreading of Appalachian history have long provided a convenient excuse to ignore Appalachia or to justify public and private attempts to bring the region into the cultural mainstream. Thus, the argument is offered that Clinton’s appeal in Appalachia should not be taken too seriously since mountain voters represent those “other whites” whose heritage has led them to be suspicious, pugnacious, and a little less civilized than the Anglo-Puritan whites of the Northeast.

West Virginia & the Past and Future Clintons

editor — Thu, 15 May 2008 07:40:49 -0700

One of Hillary Clinton's campaign stops in West Virginia: a town hall meeting at Westside High School in Clear Fork, May 12
Photo: Carl Cox

Not since John F. Kennedy’s 1960 presidential campaign has West Virginia shined in the spotlight of a presidential primary. For a native West Virginian like me, born long after Kennedy's death, the idea that a presidential candidate would come many times and visit many places throughout the Mountain State seemed unreal. However, that is exactly what Hillary Clinton did leading up to the state’s May 13th primary. Her tours of rural towns included stops at local high schools and venues across the southern coalfields.

One could almost say that Clinton felt right at home in West Virginia, which is odd...a graduate of Wellesley College and Yale Law School campaigning and feeling at home in a state where only 16.5% of residents have Bachelor’s degrees.

While the differences between Senator Clinton and those living in the southern coalfields are evident, West Virginia State Representative Richard Browning of Oceana said that Clinton managed to relate to the citizens of small towns across the state. “She knew about the area and knew the problems. They [West Virginians] saw she was one of them and could speak to the issues.”

Clinton Climbs to Steep West Virginia Win

editor — Wed, 14 May 2008 07:54:30 -0700

Clinton supporters marched during a political rally/Mothers Day celebration in Grafton, West Virginia, two days before the state's presidential primary

Photo: Barbara Kinney

Riding a large turnout in rural counties, Sen. Hillary Clinton swept the West Virginia primary Tuesday, winning two thirds of the vote in her long campaign against Illinois Sen. Barack Obama.

Clinton continued to show exceptional strength in rural areas, especially in West Virginia's coal counties. She won over 70 percent of the vote in rural West Virginia, a level of support that dropped to 62 percent in the state's urban counties. Sen. Obama's strongest turnout came in Morgantown, home of West Virginia University, and in the exurban counties nearest Washington, D.C.

John Edwards of North Carolina, who withdrew from the presidential primary race in January, was still on the ballot in West Virginia and drew 7% of the vote, a substantial showing for a non-candidate.

West Virginia is one of the poorest states in the nation, ranking 48th in median income: $38,029, as compared with the national median income of $48,023. Among white voters making less than $30,000 a year, Clinton's margin of victory was more than 60 points.

The senator from New York campaigned hard in rural West Virginia. On Mothers Day, she visited Grafton and toured the home of Anna Jarvis, the West Virginia woman who pushed to create the national holiday. Clinton read from letters she had received, including one that said, "It's not over until the lady in pantsuit says it is."

Obama Wins North Carolina and Cities; Clinton Wins Indiana and Rural Vote

editor — Wed, 7 May 2008 10:00:18 -0700

North Carolina and Indiana chose different winners in the Democratic primary elections yesterday, but the patterns of voting for Sen. Barack Obama and Sen. Hillary Clinton were the same.

Rural and exurban communities supported Clinton in both states. Urban voters backed Obama.

Senator Obama won North Carolina's primary with 56% of the vote, over Clinton's 41.5%. Despite an overwhelming victory for the Illinois senator statewide — and contrary to the exit polls — Sen. Clinton narrowly defeated Obama in North Carolina's rural and exurban communities. Obama won the state's urban counties two to one.

The pattern was similar in Indiana. Clinton won nearly 62 percent of the rural and exurban vote there. Obama won 54.4 percent of the vote in Indiana's urban counties.