Heartland Hank
 | |
| Era | The Modern Era |
|---|---|
| Age | 55-70 |
| Home | Kearney, NE |
| Demographic | farmer, white, conservative |
| Lean | Strong Republican |
| Race | white |
| Predecessor | Megachurch Heather |
Hank is a corn and soybean farmer outside Kearney, Nebraska, an evangelical and strong Republican whose politics have shifted from banning what the church opposes to defending the church itself. He represents the rural white evangelical vote, the party's largest and most loyal bloc.
Who they stand for
Hank represents the white evangelical voter of the farm belt. Exit polls show this group gave Trump about four in five of its votes in 2016, and its support has not wavered since. His economic concerns are a farmer's: the ethanol mandate that keeps corn prices up, the crop insurance in the farm bill, and the soybean export market that Trump's 2018 trade war with China closed off and then compensated through the Market Facilitation Program. His anger at the EPA dates from the 2015 Waters of the United States rule, seen as federal authority over his drainage ditches.
Plano Kimberly's church governed her life, and Megachurch Heather's ran campaigns. By Hank's time Obergefell had settled same-sex marriage and Dobbs had returned abortion to the states, so the evangelical project was now to be left alone rather than to win the culture, which is part of why he votes for a man who is not conventionally religious. Trump fights the people Hank believes are coming for his church, and fighting on his behalf is what he wants from a president. He and Iowa Martha represent the same vote, hers on the church pew and his on the land he farms.
Playing to them
Hank supports a president who protects farm income first, through subsidies, the ethanol mandate, export deals and crop insurance, and who then defends religious liberty, gun ownership, and Israel in plain, direct language. He will forgive a trade war if the compensation cheque arrives afterwards. He will not forgive an EPA rule that reaches onto his fields, a president who treats evangelicals as a problem to be managed, or any policy move on abortion or transgender rights that runs against his views. He judges a president on respect as much as on policy, and a president who visits a county fair without condescending to the people there has done half the work of winning him over.
His farm subsidies and loosened environmental rules cost the support of College Chloe, Bay Area Priya, and Woodstock Allen. His social agenda costs their support again, along with the support of Plain Jane, Miami Maria, and Edison Chen. Rust Belt Rick approves of the tariffs that cost Hank his soybean export market, so a president cannot please both men on China trade without paying one of them in cash compensation.
Where they live
The five states where Heartland Hank makes up the largest share of the electorate in the modern era:
- Nebraska
- South Dakota
- North Dakota
- Idaho
- Kansas
Lineage
Plano Kimberly → Megachurch Heather → Heartland Hank
Evangelical strong Republicans, and what changes is whether they are trying to ban things or trying to protect themselves. Kimberly's church organises her whole social life, and its politics reach her without her noticing them as politics. Heather's church is a political organisation that passes marriage amendments and fights for Terri Schiavo. By 2019 the marriage fight is lost and abortion has gone to the Supreme Court, so Hank's evangelical politics are defensive: he wants to be left alone and respected, and he votes for Trump, who is nothing like a Christian, because Trump fights the people Hank believes are attacking him. The line is the evangelical vote, which does not depend on sex.