Appalachian Amber
 | |
| Era | The Modern Era |
|---|---|
| Age | 35-50 |
| Home | Charleston, WV |
| Demographic | rural, white, working-class |
| Lean | Swing voter |
| Race | white |
| Predecessor | Pike County Brenda |
Amber is a nurse in her forties in Charleston, West Virginia, who has seen the opioid epidemic in both her emergency room and her own family. She belongs to neither party, and votes for whoever will fund addiction treatment and keep the local hospital open.
Who they stand for
Amber stands for the white working class of central Appalachia during a decade in which the region voted Republican for president while still depending on Washington for its hospitals. West Virginia gave Trump his largest share of the vote of any state in 2016, even though the state had expanded Medicaid two years earlier under the Affordable Care Act, and that expansion now pays for much of the addiction treatment in West Virginia. Opioid litigation during this period, including the Purdue Pharma bankruptcy in 2019 and the Huntington drug distributor trial in 2021, made the pharmaceutical companies a local target of blame that neither political party defends. Rural hospitals closed across the state through the decade, including in Fairmont and Williamson in 2020.
Pike County Brenda, an earlier persona, voted on guns, church and her son's service in the Army. Amber instead votes on the treatment bed and the emergency room, because that is where the opioid crisis reached her generation. Amber is Brenda's daughter, and unlike some in her family, she was not one of the people the opioid epidemic addicted.
Playing to them
A president wins Amber's support with money that actually arrives, such as treatment beds, naloxone supplies for the ambulances, a rural hospital kept open, or a factory that hires local workers. She judges a president by his actions rather than by his party, so a Republican president who funds Medicaid earns as much credit from her as a Democratic president who does the same. She will not forgive a president who sides with the drug companies or the banks, and she reads a trade deal that empties another valley of jobs as an attack on her region. Culture-war fights from either side leave her cold rather than angry, and the risk for a president is that she simply stops listening rather than turning against him.
Winning Amber's support tends to also win the support of Detroit Denise, Union Jack and Rust Belt Rick, who share her hostility to Wall Street and to free trade. It loses the support of Country Club Craig, who pays for the government spending she wants and profits from the deregulation she resents, and it loses Montana Matt, who treats any new federal programme as a threat to his independence.
Where they live
The five states where Appalachian Amber makes up the largest share of the electorate in the modern era:
- West Virginia
- Kentucky
- Arkansas
- Tennessee
- Oklahoma
Lineage
Mingo County Crystal → Pike County Brenda → Appalachian Amber
Appalachian white women and the opioid crisis in three stages. In 1995 the pills are reaching Crystal's family before anyone calls it a crisis. In 2006 Brenda's daughter is addicted. In 2019 Amber treats the overdoses as a nurse. The vote follows. Crystal rarely votes. Brenda inherited a Democratic vote and votes Bush over guns, religion and her son in the Army. Amber has given up on both parties and votes for whoever funds addiction treatment and the local hospital. Amber is Brenda's daughter who did not take the pills.