‘America has not been made great again’: West Virginia voter attacks Trump over failed promises

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Alison W Martin is about as West Virginian as it gets.

Raised in Greenbrier County, the 46-year-old independent voter considers herself a proud “mountaineer” despite now living in Oxfordshire, England.

“There is no more beautiful place to live anywhere, and I’ve lived many different places,” she says. “The people are good, hardworking people who love their God and their country.”

However, even though West Virginia is considered the heart of Trump country, Martin does not support the president. Whereas she tends to lean conservative on issues like the economy, Martin says she’s a “complete social liberal” when it comes to things like women’s reproductive rights and gender equality.

She may not subscribe to many of the region’s conservative viewpoints, but Martin says one of her favorite parts of West Virginia is how the community has always embraced her regardless of her politics.

“I am accepted as the wayward daughter of those people and those mountains,” she says.

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Martin remains deeply connected to US policy issues as an expat living in the UK. Her son serves in the US Navy, and as a voter, she says one of her biggest priorities is to “elect the person that I believe will not throw away my child’s life”.

For Martin, that person is anyone but Donald Trump.

“We already know that Trump does not fit the bill” of commander-in-chief, Martin says, noting how the president made “terrible” comments about John McCain, the former senator and US war hero, and saying she believes he “bullied” Khizr Khan, the Muslim father of a fallen soldier.

She also feels that Trump failed in his promise to West Virginia’s coal workers: the president sailed to victory in 2016 in part by promising to bring back “clean, beautiful coal”. The reality is that demand for coal has fallen sharply in recent years and the outlook for the industry remains grim even under the Trump administration.

“Trump’s promises to West Virginia voters about coal have not been fulfilled,” she says. “West Virginia voters are not better off and America has not been made great again for them.”

Joe Biden was not her first choice for a Democratic presidential candidate to go up against Trump – she “really liked” Amy Klobuchar – but Martin says the former vice president is “of far more sound moral character” than the incumbent.

What’s more, she says Biden made a decision that she deeply respects when he chose Kamala Harris as his running mate, even after the California senator admonished him for working with segregationists during the Democratic primary debates.

“By choosing Harris, Biden did something that Trump will never do, which is choose someone that said disparaging things about him because the choice is good for the American People,” she says. “Harris obliterated [Biden] in a debate, and now she is his vice presidential pick. You tell me what person who ever spoke out against Trump was contacted by Trump to be part of something for the benefit of the nation.”

Check out more of The Independent’s series, Polarized: Voices From Across America

“Don’t waste your time looking,” she added, “there is none.”

And so, just like in any other typical US election, Martin will cast her ballot this year by mail from England. She plans to vote for Biden and Harris, and already took the initiative of calling her registrar to ensure her paperwork was up to date.

“Sure enough I needed to reregister,” she says. “We got there in the end but I can see how some may be frustrated with the process.”

Martin says she’s concerned – but more so embarrassed – over the president’s “threats against expanded mail-in voting access”.

“The president and his family have all voted by mail, and so that leaves the question of why is it different now?” Martin says. “I think the difference is that he is behind in the polls and wants to plant a seed as to why he might lose the election, if he does. Surely it would have to be voter fraud. Mail-in voting makes it much easier to vote for those that typically will not vote for Trump, and he knows it.”

At a time when the coronavirus pandemic has killed nearly 170,000 Americans, Martin says the president “should be doing all he can to give safe access to anyone that wants to cast a ballot and is entitled to”, but instead “he is more concerned that those votes will not be for him”.

Although Martin plans to vote for the Democratic ticket, she’s not confident Biden will definitely defeat Trump come November.

“I truly believe there is much more support for Trump than the polls show,” Martin says. “There is a silent majority who will cast their vote in that direction, but will not be heard in polls because they do not wish to be public with their voting choices.”

“They don’t want to be seen to support a man as morally bankrupt as Trump,” she concludes, “but in the privacy of their own homes, they are happy with him, and see the divide he is making bigger as some sort of standing up to Democrats.”

“We have been a divided house for a while now and we are not standing ... we are on our knees. Both Democrats and Republicans alike have very bruised knees.”