Could Bernie have won WV against someone besides Trump?

[Dr. MB]

Remember they elected a billionaire non-establishment Democrat as governor over an establishment Republican. Sound familiar?

[RI]

No

[Vega]

Maybe against Pataki or Jindal, even then it's a long shot. He would have done a little better than Obama did in 2008 if it he was up against Jeb.

[Pericles]

West Virginia is long gone and a carbon tax is not the way to bring it back.

[Intell]

He'd have a massive swing towards him, for sure.

[bagelman]

Maybe against Carson while dropping environmental issues during the campaign and taking pages from old fashioned working man's socialism instead of consumerist socialism and while putting on a fake but convincing country accent and going full NRA on guns and maybe he wins fairly narrowly.

[Bismarck]

Can we please get over the absurd idea that there are lots of rural white people clamoring for some true leftist to come along.

[MT Treasurer]

There was a PPP poll that showed Cruz and Sanders tied in WV, but I doubt it. It would have been much closer, though.

[RINO Tom]

Almost certainly not.  He would have done better than the candidate who openly antagonized a traditionally Democratic group in the state, though!

[(Still) muted by Kalwejt until March 31]

Bernie supported a fracking ban, so, LOLNo.

[MASHED POTATOES. VOTE!]

Could Trump have won VT against someone besides Hillary?

[Shadows]

Bernie supported a fracking ban, so, LOLNo.

I also think that Bernie won't come anywhere near winning but a fracking ban would help WV as fracking & Natural gas took a large share of the coal jobs !

[Chunk Yogurt for President!]

Can we please get over the absurd idea that there are lots of rural white people clamoring for some true leftist to come along.

Yeah, most of the New Deal coalition is dead.

[RINO Tom]

Can we please get over the absurd idea that there are lots of rural white people clamoring for some true leftist to come along.

Yeah, most of the New Deal coalition is dead.

I'm guilty of it sometimes, too, but it is kind of funny that we act like the folks who live in certain states/areas are just the same from decade to decade, LOL.  It shouldn't be that hard to believe that culturally conservative Whites in the 1930s South would be all for far left economic policies but culturally conservative Whites in the 2020s South wouldn't want anything to do with it ... they're totally different people growing up in totally different times in totally different states (in some cases).

[iratemoderate]

There was a PPP poll that showed Cruz and Sanders tied in WV, but I doubt it. It would have been much closer, though.

Says more I think about Cruz. LOL.

[iratemoderate]

Could Trump have won VT against someone besides Hillary?

Absolutely not. Vermont used to be a ruby-red Republican state, but it is well-nigh un-winnable for the GOP now for two principal reasons, viz., (1) the converse of Reagan's take on leaving the Democratic Party for the Republican party¹ and (2) a steady influx of left-of-center (and then some) voters from other Northeastern states.

It may well change again in the future, but both the GOP and Vermont would also have to change in some not insignificant ways.

1. "I didn't leave the Democratic Party. The party left me.'' -Ronald Reagan

[White Trash]

If the Democratic Party had been running Sandersesque candidates since 2000, then sure Sanders might make West Virginia competitive in 2016. The issue still lies with the fact that the Democratic Party has a horrible image in these rural areas.

[heatcharger]

Can we please get over the absurd idea that there are lots of rural white people clamoring for some true leftist to come along.

[Attorney General, LGC Speaker, and Former PPT Dwarven Dragon]

Almost certainly not.  He would have done better than the candidate who openly antagonized a traditionally Democratic group in the state, though!

[Stranger in a strange land]

No, but he would have gotten it down to single digits against Cruz or Jeb.

[Lord Admirale]

Absolutely not. Unless the Democrat is Joe Manchin or Bill Clinton or a Democrat who actually cares about coal miners, a Dem will never carry West Virginia.

[Intell]

Bernie supported a fracking ban, so, LOLNo.

Don't know how this is relavent as fracking hurts the coal industry but ok.

[○∙◄☻¥tπ[╪AV┼cVê└]

Can we please get over the absurd idea that there are lots of rural white people clamoring for some true leftist to come along.

Have you heard of Vermont?

[Attorney General, LGC Speaker, and Former PPT Dwarven Dragon]

Can we please get over the absurd idea that there are lots of rural white people clamoring for some true leftist to come along.

Have you heard of Vermont?

Vermont cast only 320,000 votes in 2016. Barely worth a mention. And trying to draw an equivalency between Vermont and West Virginia doesn't even make sense - there are no coal miners in Vermont.

[Chunk Yogurt for President!]

Can we please get over the absurd idea that there are lots of rural white people clamoring for some true leftist to come along.

Have you heard of Vermont?

Vermont cast only 320,000 votes in 2016. Barely worth a mention. And trying to draw an equivalency between Vermont and West Virginia doesn't even make sense - there are no coal miners in Vermont.

Vermont is also much more liberal on social issues.