When Democrats are the bogeymen: A possible Trump loss has these voters very worried
S E E D E D C O N T E N T
GILLETTE, Wyoming — From behind the counter of his brother's auto-parts store, Bubba Miller looks out at the 2020 presidential race and worries about what will happen to his hometown if a Democrat wins. Not just a Democrat, but, based on the current frontrunners, a liberal Democrat. Or a Progressive. Or an avowed Socialist.
© Trevor Hughes, Trevor Hughes-USA TODAY NETWORK The license plate on a Wyoming resident's car pays homage to his father's long career as a coal miner in one of the mines surrounding Gillette, Wyoming.
"I wish we could build a wall around Wyoming," he says with a laugh. "I think there's just something wrong in their heads to think you can get everything for free."
Shifting the wad of tobacco tucked in his lip, Miller, 24, lays out the case for re-electing President Donald Trump , from this coal town's booming economy to the president's protection of gun rights, to his tough border policies and efforts to reduce the size of the federal government . As far as Miller is concerned, Trump can do no wrong.
He's not alone. In 2016, then-candidate Trump won 86% of the vote here as he swept every Wyoming county but one, the wealthy liberal enclave of Teton County , home to Jackson Hole. Only once since 1952 has the state voted for a Democratic presidential candidate, and in 2016 Trump beat Hillary Clinton here by the widest margin of any state. And ahead of the November presidential election, none of the 2020 Democratic candidates are making any inroads with these most conservative of voters.
"I've very concerned about the direction of the Democratic Party," says Robin Clover, a 20-year Wyoming resident and registered Republican who's voted for Democrats at the local level. "They're either past their prime or far too progressive."
Here in Wyoming, where every other car is a pickup, and cowboy hats and boots are a working man's uniform, the 2020 election worries voters, who fear the election of a Democrat will upend their way of life, force the coal mines to close and the oil wells to stop pumping. Force them to pay higher taxes, force them to give up their AR-15 rifles and high-capacity magazines. Force them to subsidize the health care of immigrants. Force them to pay for college loans for city kids. Force. Force. Force.
"That's the problem," Miller says. "I'm an adult. You can't make me. It's just taking away from letting people grow up."
© Trevor Hughes, Trevor Hughes-USA TODAY NETWORK A sign on the outskirts of Gillette, Wyoming, offers residents health care options.
Like his neighbors, Miller says he wishes Trump could lead the country the way he was elected to, without being second-guessed or attacked by what he considers a "corrupt" class of politicians and bureaucrats. The way Miller sees it, the fact that Trump is being so forcefully opposed perfectly demonstrates that the president is on the right track in draining the swamp in Washington, D.C.
The state Republican Party officially endorses a slew of other conservative positions, from disarming forest rangers, to returning to a “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” policy for the military and banning birthright citizenship. The party has also called for banning the acceptance of any international refugees unless they are vetted Christians, defining marriage as only between a man and a woman, abolishing the EPA and the U.S. Department of Education, and strictly enforcing all immigration laws.
But for most voters here, coal and the jobs it provides are the biggest drivers of decisions. And that means Trump is their guy.
Because Wyoming has only three Electoral College votes, there's little chance a Democrat will even bother campaigning here, and even Trump is considered unlikely to visit, since most voters across the state will back him regardless if they see him in person shaking hands and holding babies. That leaves Wyoming's voters in a uniquely powerless situation: Ignored by both parties, they are effectively sidelined despite the critical role federal policy plays in their future. And they're facing Democratic candidates who all see a bigger federal government as a solution to the nation's problems.
Polls suggest their worst nightmare could come true in November. Former Vice President Joe Biden, Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., Sen. Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts and former South Bend, Indiana, Mayor Pete Buttigieg are all narrowly leading or in a close tie with Trump in recent polls. The president's supporters in Wyoming, however, point out that polls showed Clinton winning the presidency in 2016, so they don't put much stock in them.
Wyoming's approximately 578,000 residents, most of them white and living on land seized from Native Americans, have long prided themselves on a frontier spirit of rugged individualism and independence. They also see themselves as a world apart from the nation's big coastal states, all of which tend to vote Democrat. For generations, they've voted Republican and argued that big-city liberals can't possibly understand what life is like where there's just six people per square mile. New York City, by contrast, has 27,000 people per square mile.
But the outside world is increasingly moving in a different direction, where global warming is settled science, inclusivity, diversity and tolerance are honored, and access to health care is seen as a fundamental human right. The United Nations even has set a 2030 goal for achieving universal health coverage internationally. That's setting up an increasingly stark contrast for Wyomingites who see a Trump victory as essential to preserving their freedoms and independence.
"Our way of life here is threatened by a Democratic administration," said state Rep. Dan Zwonitzer, a Republican who represents a portion of the largest city, Cheyenne, where Trump won 60% of the vote in 2016. "Every Republican in Wyoming you'll talk to would agree that Wyoming is better off under a Republican administration. No one liked Hillary. They just knew that she was the enemy. And whether it's Joe Biden or Bernie Sanders, I don't think the vote totals would change by 5%. There's just this attitude that you have to maintain control of the presidency at all costs."
© Trevor Hughes, Trevor Hughes-USA TODAY NETWORK Coal-fired power plants next to the WyoDak mine east of Gillette, Wyoming, provide electricity for millions of homes.
To understand Wyoming, you have to understand a little bit about coal, the state's backbone, both physically and financially. In Gillette, which calls itself the " Energy Capital of the Nation ," coal is inextricable from daily life. The mines outside of town set the pace, explosives blasting the windswept ground to free the coal. Many of the workers are no longer fulltime employees but work as contractors, missing out on the benefits but still keeping the same 12-hour shifts they used to before repeated bankruptcies prompted many mine operators to restructure.
In town, restaurants proudly display "coal keeps the lights on" and "friends of coal" stickers, and the diesel-equipment repair shops and heavy machinery repair yards line the approaches to the historic downtown, where the Gillette Brewing Company's bar is supported by pieces of drilling rigs.
Taxes levied on the vast trainloads of coal hauled to power plants across the West means the state has never had an income tax, and its sales taxes are among the nation's lowest. While Eastern coal states like Kentucky and West Virginia get the president's attention, Wyoming leads the nation in coal production, with its approximately 5,500 miners digging more than the next six states combined.
Virtually all of that coal is mined from land owned by the federal government, which leases the property to conglomerates to mine and then burn the coal for electricity. That quirk of geology has long helped Wyoming maintain its financial independence, but even coal's strongest backers worry that times are changing. The federal government plays a key role because slowing down new coal leases or restricting coal-powered generating plants almost immediately impacts the miners themselves.
During the 2016 election, Clinton declared "we're going to put a lot of coal miners and coal companies out of business,” a statement that infuriated Wyoming residents who already disliked her for reasons ranging from Benghazi to her work with the Clinton Foundation. While Clinton then went on to explain that she planned to offer job retraining to coal workers, Wyoming's voters -- who weren't going to support her anyway -- hardened their opposition further.
© Trevor Hughes, Trevor Hughes-USA TODAY NETWORK A loaded hauler ferries freshly dug coal from the Eagle Butte mine outside Gillette, Wyoming. Wyoming's coal mines are open pit, which means workers blast and dig away the top layers of dirt to reach the coal seams below, and then cover the area back up once the coal is gone.
They say there's still life in coal, and that Clinton would have harmed an already struggling industry. And they say the Democrats running for president in 2020 have a similar playbook.
"I think Hillary would have killed our economy. And I think any of the people running on the Democrat side would absolutely eviscerate our economy. The Democrats seem to do everything they can to squash business," says Vicki Million Hughes, a Cheyenne real estate agent whose grandparents moved to Wyoming in 1920.
Hughes says she's 100% behind the president, aside from offensive tweets attacking specific people, because his focus has been creating a strong economy, growing industry and "jobs, jobs, jobs."
The strength of the national and local economy is a major factor for Trump's ongoing support in Wyoming, even though coal mining jobs have been on the decline for decades. Voters here believe four more years of his administration will keep the economy humming and extend the life of the coal mines for the foreseeable future.
"If God is good enough to give us a natural resource, we should use that resource wisely," says Hughes, who like many Wyoming voters, says she believes the planet naturally warms and cools, and that humans have little to do with it. "Why waste what God has given us?"
About 70% of Americans say climate change is occurring, and a majority -- 55% -- say it's mostly human-caused, according to an April 2019 study by Yale University in New Haven, Connecticut, scientists. In Wyoming, voters like Hughes and Miller say they have the right to disagree and worry that their voices will be shouted down by the modern-day shaming mobs populating social media.
© Trevor Hughes, Trevor Hughes-USA TODAY NETWORK An American and Trump 2020 flag wave in the evening wind outside Gillette, Wyoming, a small city with some of President Trump's most ardent supporters.
"I have lots of friends who live on the coasts and they tell me it's time to evolve, that Wyoming needs to get past fossil fuels. But we make our living and livelihood off oil and gas and coal," said Zwonitzer. "You've got people who have been involved in these industries for generations."
That singular focus on coal and federal land management means Wyoming's voters spend little time worrying about the nuances of immigration or health care reform, although many shake their heads at what they see as the entitlement culture of the Democratic candidates and their supporters.
Wyomingites pride themselves on their low-tax, work-focused culture, and the idea of erasing student loans or giving everyone government-run health insurance runs counter to their deeply held ideology of taking care of their own problems and being responsible for their own decisions.
© Trevor Hughes, Trevor Hughes-USA TODAY NETWORK A giant mural on the side of a building in Gillette, Wyoming highlights the state's two sources of income: Coal mining and cattle ranching.
Miller, for instance, is paying off medical debt accumulated when he crashed his dirtbike and blew out his knee. He didn't have health insurance at the time, and instead paid the Obamacare tax because it was cheaper than paying for health insurance. While having to pay the bills "sucks," Miller says, he accepts that it was his decision to forgo insurance.
"Everybody in Wyoming would love to have the best college education, the best health care, and for it all to be done for free. And that's just impossible," said Carl "Bunky" Loucks, a Republican state representative from Casper. "I just don't understand the mentality that you can get everything for free."
Loucks, 52, said he and many other Wyoming residents support both an audit of the federal government and a balanced budget amendment that would limit government spending to what it can actually afford, instead of adding to the ballooning national deficit. Loucks said he's frustrated the national debt has increased under Trump but says it would have been worse under a Democrat. Trump won Louck's county with 70% of the vote.
Miller says Wyoming has flourished under Trump, and none of his neighbors regret their 2016 votes. If anything, he says, Trump's support has increased.
"How can you hate someone who is so good for the United States?" Miller says. "I think his mouth gets him in trouble, but sometimes what he says is well-needed."
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People actually believe that trump will drain 'the swamp'
If so, still waiting...
I guess I shouldn't be surprised people actually think and believe like this.
Like any Democrat would actually want to get elected to ruin the economy.
Not ruin....but they sure like the idea of "Flat".
"People actually believe that trump will drain 'the swamp'"
What did that mean to you ?
Actually Firing Politicians ?
To me....it was to "Show who needed to be fired" (voted out) ! Trump has done well with that so far. "The TDS "Idiots in Congress" keep speaking, and try to make "Stupid" look smart.
2020 will be an "Eye opener" for most.
Yeah that's it. All Democrats want the economy to be flat.
Seriously? I can make broad unfounded accusations too.
Economy is going well now. Very Well !
What are the Democrat candidates for President running on now ?
So what exactly are they proposing that would tank the economy?
Sorry but not even Democrats would vote/pass free university.
Funny to me that the economy has been doing well for a decade yet some only see the last three years.
Oh yeah, it was slow under Obama.....s/
Steyer's latest campaign ad on the radio here says "We have to beat Trump on the economy." Is he an idiot?
Can't make this shit up..................
It actually wasn't.
"Government Money (Tax Payer funded) infiltration", isn't a boom to the econmy.
"The Rise in business on it's own".....is (Last 3 years)!
So the economy sucked until trump was elected...
I think sometimes people don't know how they actually sound.
They are "MORONS". They're telling their "Voters", the economy sucks.....even thought they were now able to get a job.
In Fact, there are more jobs available than people looking !
"Flat"....sucks.
You know it, and I know it !
Since Trump....it ain't "Flat" no more. It's "Booming" !
Flat? If the Obama economy was flat, so is the trump economy.
Obama unemployment rate = 2016: 4.9 percent.
Trump unemployment rate = 2019: 3.8 percent.
The other things down under Trump are, "Food Stamp Recipients", "Federal regulatory restrictions" and "Taxes", "Job Openings" plus a shit load of other things like "Home Ownership", Weekly earnings", "Petroleum EXPORTS", etc.... !
None of those "Others", were Down under Obama. In fact "Food Stamp Recipients" went up by 42%.
So you are actually going to dismiss the numbers under Obama.
You do know people can look this up...
I was actually running a business under the Obama Administration. Not a good time.
I'll take the Trump Administration anyday.
I'm running a business under his administration too !
It's GREAT !
Uh huh, sure. I can make proclamations too.
So you have nothing to back up your assertions. Got it.
Proves to me the tax cuts did what they were supposed to do. Enrich the business owner, not the average employee.
Obama cut the UE rate by ~50%, trump? Not even 1%. BTW, it was 4.6%, not 4.9%.
This little gem got me.
I had to scratch my head at disarming forest rangers...
The rest of the screed is...we don't like them gays and anyone coming to the country should be Christian...
It is no wonder the once Grand Old Party of Abraham Lincoln is now known as, "the damn gop". Small g...
You have posted that so many times. I think you are actually starting to believe it yourself.
Well, that makes ONE who will believe swill.
Never hear anyone else calling the GOP that---just you.
I guess it wasn’t possible to write a political analysis of Wyoming without smearing the people who live there. I don’t agree with everything the Republicans in Wyoming stand for, but was this stuff necessary?:
What does their being white have to do with anything?
That’s rich! What sanctimony! What hypocrisy! As if the entire rest of the country wasn’t “seized” from Native Americans. Or as if the current residents are the ones who did the seizing. What a cheap smear.
Yeah, there are quirks of geology all over. People do the best they can with what’s available. The port of New York is a quirk of geology. It didn’t develop because the people making money off of it are better people. I promise you if the federal government could have gotten their hands on the land under New York City, they’d be leasing that out, too.
I thought he was pretty fair in his assessment. Saying most of the population is white, I wouldn't call a jab, I would call it truth in demographics.
It’s not tied to an assessment of anything. It’s just thrown out there. Why? Probably so the reader can more readily judge them as racially motivated, i.e. racist, or just backward-thinking because that’s how white people are.
Wyoming has 580,000 people, total. I can get in my car here is Chicago and drive for 15 minutes towards downtown and pass through a larger population than that. God bless Wyoming, but a country of 330 million people cannot be run on principles or actions solely to please a group that consists of 1 out of every 569 Americans. Wyoming has two US senators , which represents 2% of all US senators, yet their population is less than one tenth of 2 percent. In other words, they already receive ten times more representation in the Senate than their population would suggest.
They would continue to inflict the abomination of Trumpism on the rest of the country just so as to help maintain their own way of life in a style they are used to. I hope they can maintain that lifestyle, but in co-operation with the rest of the country, and that cant happen with Trump in office.
Wyoming has two US senators , which represents 2% of all US senators, yet their population is less than one tenth of 2 percent. In other words, they already receive ten times more representation in the Senate than their population would suggest. Every state has two Senators regardless of population.
The population doesn't suggest a damn thing when it comes to Senators.
The Chicago metro area, where I live , has a population about 15 times larger than the population of the entire state of Wyoming. I dont go around saying the federal government should be designed solely to make me happy. The people in Wyoming need to deal a little more with reality , I think.
People want what they want.
I am sure, if given the chance, you would remove Trump and ban him from future office if you were able.
They have every right as you do to want what they want.
Population doesn't have one damn thing to do with it.
I love articles like this and sometimes the comments are just as entertaining ,especially from those that take an authors word for how things "are" somewhere and have never been there themselves.
I took the time to look up mr hughes Bio, Cant say I am impressed, but I CAN see why he would rag on Wyoming.
1. based out of and lives in Denver, that right the sets up major disagreements in any number of things between Colorado and Wyoming.
2. I noticed that he has in his bio he writes quite often about cannabis.
3. I see like me he is an east coast transplant , he being from Vermont myself having grown up in Boston
I will take an educated guess That the gentleman got caught up in a traffic stop going to Jackson Wy to go skiing in that area , great skiing there BTW and got caught with a lid or 2 of a substance still illegal for possession within the state
John,
.I dont go around saying the federal government should be designed solely to make me happy.
But you just did when you bitched about the fact Wyoming has 2 senators yet has such a small population, and I find it rather funny as well because we have discussed this before and I know full well you are aware that representation in the senate is not based on population and that senators do NOT represent the interests of the people , they represent the interests of the state they represent , and on statehood , per the constitution each state gets exactly 2 senators to represent that state in congress, and even though the 17th amendment changed how senators got put into office ( appointment , vs public election) that did not change whom the senators represent , the state and not the people, the people are represented in the HoR.
I dont think a population representing 1/569th of the US population can reasonably expect to have their agenda take a precedence.
John from what I have seen living here for 28 years now, they don't expect their agenda to be followed by anyone. About the only prevalent agenda I have seen is that the citizens of Wyoming don't give a shit how anyplace else does things , they will do it the way they want and its best to leave them alone and just agree to disagree.
Don't ask don't tell, I have found that's pretty much because no one really gives a shit and that goes for both inside and outside the military , how someones oriented is their own business.
and with all the things you have mentioned mentioned by the author , those ideas are a bit behind the times and have somewhat evolved the marriage issue isnt an issue here , but people can have their own personal beliefs most people i know here in cenral Wy dont really give a shit politically as long as they can still adhere to their own personal beliefs for themselves . Its the old hey if i dont think same sex marriage is marriage , then i wont get into one.
the rest are pretty much nothing but opinion about different subjects which this state isnt the only place that has opinions , nor is it the only place where opinions differ.
I do not think that the seeded article represents the opinions of all Wyomingans (if that is a word) nor even necessarily the opinions of a majority of them. But in the context of this seed, it is all we have to work with.
I wish Wyoming well. Even though it is small in population it is a big part of our national identity, as every state is in its own way.
Wyomingites is the one I usually hear.
The context of this seed is stereotypical to me basically derogatory because it doesn't reflect an accurate view of the myrad different opinions of the citizens here.
I like it because of the history , the natural beauty and the wildlife, another reason I like it is that for every square mile of area inside the state , there is only 6 people here per square mile , which tends to make it rather quiet and peaceful unless one want to have a party, then its balls to the wall and I wont have to worry about the neighbors complaining because they are usually here too.