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‘Kids pray for mom to get out of jail’: Why Kentucky’s poorest county has ditched the Democrats for Trump

Community damaged by crime and addiction has embraced ‘blunt’ Republican and his policies to improve economy

Across Route 205 from Uncle Sam’s Gun & Pawn Shop, beat-up cars and rusty pickup trucks idled, stretched along the bleak Appalachian highway.
The vehicles’ occupants, who live mostly in mountainside shacks and trailers in poverty-stricken eastern Kentucky, waited patiently to be allowed into the fire station parking lot. They were there to collect apples brought in from West Virginia in huge boxes and to rummage through piles of clothes, furniture, and bedding donated in Ohio.
For them, the food and household essentials being dispensed by local volunteers from the Hazel Green Food Project, drawing from a network of charities such as the Christian Appalachian Project and God’s Pantry, would be enough to stave off the hunger and cold for another few days.
This is Wolfe County, the poorest of 120 counties in Kentucky, the poorest county in all of Appalachia—and the heart of Trump Country. Donald Trump, the former president, secured a thumping 70 per cent of the vote in Wolfe County in 2020 and is likely to increase his margin this time.
From its founding in 1860 until the end of the 20th century, Wolfe County was a Democratic stronghold. As its poverty increased—the median income is $24,349 and the child food insecurity rate 33 per cent—Wolfe County voters, 99 per cent of whom are white, turned to Republicans and have embraced Trump with fervor.
Sharlon Whitley’s mobile home burned down in May and she lost everything. With no insurance and raising three of her grandchildren— their parents succumbed to opioid addiction—Mrs Whitley, 68, and her husband were destitute until neighbors banded together to provide them with a trailer.
“I’m just overwhelmed by the support of my community,” she said, her voice breaking with emotion. “I mean, they’ve just been a godsend for us. We had to start all over from scratch. It’s been a blessing.”
She’d collected a pile of blankets that would fight off the cold as winter approached, along with sheets, pillowcases, and towels. She smiled, revealing her gums, and apologized: “I lost my teeth. They burned up in the fire.”
She was certain she would vote in November and there was no doubt that it would be for Trump. “People that are needy are for the man or woman that’s going to help them. Everything is rough in the world — everywhere, not just the United States— but when he was president, it was a whole lot better than it is now. And I blame that on the Democrats.”
Nicky Stacy, 37, founded the Hazel Green Food Project in 2021. It now serves 34 Kentucky counties. “The drugs really just took over here. And when you go around this pantry, we have people who come in who do look a little sketchy. They say, ‘Can I still be served?’ And we’ll say, ‘Yes, we don’t care what you look like. Come on in.’”
Making sure no child goes hungry is a priority and Mrs Stacy has a system by which teachers give her a codeword—the school’s mascot—to alert her if a pupil is showing signs of malnutrition. Hazel Green Food Project will then deliver a food box to the child’s home.
“I’ll send boxes home with the kids,” she said. “It’s just amazing to see how many kids have never had a kiwi fruit or grapes, because they are so expensive in the store.”
Jim Gazay, the judge executive of neighboring Morgan County and a Republican, said that eastern Kentucky had felt abandoned by Democrats ever since president Lyndon Johnson visited nearby Paintsville in 1964 and promised that help was at hand.
“Johnson stood on that porch of that house and vowed the end of the war on poverty. But what happened? You go back to that same house, that same family, generations later, still live in that same house, still living in poverty. People keep seeing this and they say, ‘Well, we’re being lied to.’”
Trump had created “a movement unto itself,” he said. “Whether you like the man or dislike the man, you have to give him credit for his policies. The hardest thing for him to overcome is a lot of people look at the personality and things he’s said. He can be pretty blunt. He’s from New York. I mean, what do you expect?”
Mr Gazay, 61, who served in the US Navy and then became a defense contractor, believes that Trump’s choice of JD Vance as his running mate was likely to boost his vote in Kentucky. Vance is from Ohio but has roots in eastern Kentucky.
His bestselling book Hillbilly Elegy highlighted the plight of Appalachians who felt left behind as coal mines closed, jobs moved offshore, and the opioid epidemic hit.
“My brother lives in Hamilton, Ohio,” said Gazay. “They call it Hamiltucky because of all the Kentuckians that moved up there for work during the migration. JD Vance grew up very poor up there. I grew up between a riverbank and a railroad track and my father died when I was two. JD’s the same.”
Some Wolfe County voters find Trump unpalatable. “I agree with a lot of things that Trump says, but I can’t stand the way he treats people,” said a former school administrator. A retired builder said simply: “Trump’s got a mean tongue.”
Kamala Harris, the Democratic nominee and Trump’s opponent, was barely mentioned in Hazel Green. Although local Democrats are still elected, the national party appears to have been written off by most eastern Kentucky voters.
Many of the Hazel Green Food Project volunteers have been through difficult times themselves. “People are just one car accident away from financial ruin,” said Jenny Vest, 42.
A recovering alcoholic who smashed up her moonshine still more than 14 years ago and has been sober ever since, she endures ribbing over multiple arrests for “drinking, driving, and fighting” in her former life but notes that she has been trusted enough to be a school bus driver.
She added: “It’s a hard way of life here. I teach Sunday school and some of these little kids are praying for mom to get out of jail.”
Aaron Thoms, a program manager for the Christian Appalachian Project, said the goodness of ordinary Americans, operating independently of the government, was helping to save lives in eastern Kentucky.
“We’re funded by hundreds of thousands of people giving $5 a month, $10 a month, whatever they feel led on their heart to give,” he said. “Yes, we have some major donors but it’s mostly just a lot of people giving a little bit of money.”
Mrs Stacy, whom Mrs Vest described as “a little mastermind,” said that the inhabitants of Wolfe County had very little but had managed to maintain their dignity, fortified by faith.
“There’s one thing about Appalachia, we know our Bible and our Bible says we must love our neighbor and that’s what we do,” she said. “If our neighbors are struggling, we’re going to go to them and we’re going to help them.”
Support for Trump, she explained, was deep because “the economy was better” under him, but also because Appalachians felt a personal connection to the outspoken businessman turned politician: “It is Trump country here, for sure, because he’s mouthy, like everybody here.”

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