Earliest evidence that coal country was trending away from the democrats?
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  Earliest evidence that coal country was trending away from the democrats?
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Author Topic: Earliest evidence that coal country was trending away from the democrats?  (Read 1542 times)
Matty
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Junior Chimp
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« on: June 16, 2017, 01:20:14 PM »

What was the first presidential election where there were signs that coal country was showing some cracks in its staunch democratic voting habits?
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Kyle Rittenhouse is a Political Prisoner
Jalawest2
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« Reply #1 on: June 16, 2017, 02:08:08 PM »

2000.
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JA
Jacobin American
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« Reply #2 on: June 16, 2017, 04:29:44 PM »

It was under Bill Clinton that Coal Country finally started consistently trending away from the Democrats. For example, West Virginia has trended Republican in every Presidential election since 1992 and Kentucky since 1996; Democrats also started shedding counties in southwestern Pennsylvania in 2000.
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NOVA Green
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« Reply #3 on: June 16, 2017, 09:09:24 PM »

It was under Bill Clinton that Coal Country finally started consistently trending away from the Democrats. For example, West Virginia has trended Republican in every Presidential election since 1992 and Kentucky since 1996; Democrats also started shedding counties in southwestern Pennsylvania in 2000.

JA is on the money here.... and here is a T-Shirt that closely resembles one that I still wear given to me by a 3rd Generation Coal Miner in Ohio back in 1993.



The failure of Bill Clinton's Administration to intervene during the 1993 last ditch effort from the United Mine Workers of America to protect their membership from the Operators owning up Non-Union Mines side by side with Union Mines in Appalachia ("Double Breasting"), as well as major investments in Non-Union "Open Pit" Coal Mines in places like Montana, Wyoming, and elsewhere in the Mountain West, was where the Democratic Party started hemorrhaging votes in Appalachian Coal Country, well before the whole Al Gore, Climate Change, "War on Coal" narrative developed.

So, imagine a scenario where one of the most powerful Unions in the United States, in one of the most dangerous occupations for a Century, that had stood up against both Democratic and Republican Presidential Administrations alike, after 12 consecutive years of Republican rule does the equivalent of a final last stand (Although the '93 Strike was an outgrowth of the '89 Pittston Strike in the Coal fields), when the bosses are aggressively moving to destroy the UMW/UMWA, and the Democratic President Bill Clinton is MIA/AWOL....

Hell--- Bill Clinton did better with Timber Country in the PacNW, even with his "Option Nine" than he did with the Coal Miners of Appalachia.

There is currently no such thing as a Union Coal Mine in Kentucky..... and there is still quite a bit of Coal getting mined in SouthEastern Kentucky.

If a Democratic President won't even stand up for Coal Miners, two decades prior to the collapse of Coal as an energy resource, than why should or would Union Retirees, or Non-Union Coal Miners in Appalachia vote on the basis of their economic interests, and instead begin shifting towards Pub Pres candidates on the basis of other items?

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PragmaticPopulist
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« Reply #4 on: June 28, 2017, 10:47:08 AM »

Mid to late 90s. The bottom started falling out in 2000. Al Gore still managed to narrowly win WV-03, as well as PA-20 in southwestern Pennsylvania.
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Hydera
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« Reply #5 on: June 28, 2017, 12:18:56 PM »

Since were going to have this conversation again and again.


Gore still won coal country in 2000 but after that the democrats started losing the region mainly because of environmentalism being entrenched in the party in order to win over voters who otherwise would of went to the Greens. And in 2000 the clash over social issues from the lewinsky scandal, guns added with environmentalism making coal communities feel threatened. Make the region start voting GOP strongly afterwards added by the region's disapproval over gay marriage.

Then in 2008 the trend accelerated because of disapproval over Obama being the candidate(He was black and had a reputation for being liberal which upset many long time socially conservative dems)
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Liberalrocks
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« Reply #6 on: June 28, 2017, 04:20:03 PM »

Gore's loss of West Virginia in 2000. Reinforced by Kerry 04-Obama 08. This considering it voted for Clinton by double digits, and was a Dukakis 88/Carter 80 state.
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BushKerry04
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« Reply #7 on: June 30, 2017, 10:44:45 PM »

Probably Ronald Reagan. Bill Clinton did well in coal country, but Clinton is a more moderate Democrat and has a tremendous amount of skill that is rare.
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RINO Tom
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« Reply #8 on: July 01, 2017, 08:57:15 AM »

Probably Ronald Reagan. Bill Clinton did well in coal country, but Clinton is a more moderate Democrat and has a tremendous amount of skill that is rare.

Reagan did not do that well in Coal Country in 1984 and got demolished there in 1980 (just as he did in most of the rural South, too, despite the narrative that he just inherited the Dixiecrats).
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