Pike County Brenda
 | |
| Era | The 2000s |
|---|---|
| Age | 50-59 |
| Home | Pikeville, KY |
| Demographic | white, Appalachian, working poor |
| Lean | Swing voter |
| Race | white |
| Predecessor | Mingo County Crystal |
| Successor | Appalachian Amber |
Brenda is a working-poor white woman in her fifties from the eastern Kentucky coalfields, representing the realignment of Appalachian voters in this decade. Her family voted Democratic for generations, but she now votes Republican for president without describing herself as a Republican.
Who they stand for
Brenda stands for the white working-class voters of central Appalachia, especially eastern Kentucky and southern West Virginia. They were among the last ancestral Democrats in the country, and they left the party's presidential ticket during this decade. Their grandparents' politics came from the union mine and Franklin Roosevelt, but by 2001 the unions had mostly disappeared and the mines employed far fewer people. West Virginia voted for Bush in 2000 because of guns and coal, and Kentucky's mountain counties voted the same way in the next two elections. The congressional district that includes Pikeville gave Hillary Clinton one of her largest primary margins in 2008, but the same district voted against Barack Obama twice. Behind this shift was the OxyContin epidemic, which reached these counties before the rest of the country. Many relied on disability payments, Medicaid and food stamps, but viewed such assistance as shameful in others.
Brenda belongs to a lineage of personas representing this region across decades. Mingo County Crystal, in the 1990s, rarely votes at all. Appalachian Amber, in the modern era, votes for whichever candidate she believes will pay for addiction treatment. Brenda's vote goes against the party her family traditionally supported.
Playing to them
Brenda supports gun rights, and she supports the war because her own son might serve in it. She views coal mining as a source of jobs rather than as an energy source, and she wants the manufacturers of opioid painkillers punished. She responds well to a president, of either party, who leaves the Second Amendment alone and speaks of American troops as if they were his own family. She relies on disability payments, Medicaid and food assistance, but she also dislikes welfare in general. Because of this, a president who criticises welfare in general terms keeps her support, but a president who specifically names the programmes she relies on loses her support immediately. Any move toward gun control loses her outright, as does any suggestion that people from Appalachia are backward.
A president who wins Brenda's support by holding a firm line on guns, coal and the war loses the support of Protest Paige and Berkeley Leonard, because of the war. He also loses Park Slope Dana and Fremont Anjali, because of the guns. He loses Startup Seth as soon as he reopens NAFTA to please Brenda. Janesville Gary tends to move with Brenda on all of these issues.
Where they live
The five states where Pike County Brenda makes up the largest share of the electorate in the 2000s:
- West Virginia
- Kentucky
- Arkansas
- Oklahoma
- Tennessee
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.