Is Appalachia Trump Country?

Why is Donald Trump so popular in Appalachia? And how confident are Appalachians that Trump will change the economy and bring back thousands of coal mining jobs?

Trump won 95 percent of Appalachian counties, and 69 percent of West Virginia voters chose him – the highest percentage of any state.

But that doesn’t mean everyone here is happy with the results.

On this week’s episode of Inside Appalachia we check back in with some Appalachian supporters of President Trump. We’ll also listen back to a classic episode, where we hear from Trump opponents. They’ll talk about their hopes and fears surrounding Trump.

We’ll hear updates on the 100 Days in Appalachia project, a collaborative media project which launched right after the inauguration of President Donald Trump. We’ll hear how the project is going, now that we’re more than halfway through the first 100 days of the Trump Administration.

We also check in with coal miner Jonathan Griffith and his wife Jessica, to hear their reactions of Trump’s first few months of office. The Griffiths say they’re still betting on Trump to come through on his promises to bring more jobs to coal country. They also share how religion shaped their decision to vote for Trump. 

We had help producing Inside Appalachia this week from the Us and them Podcast, and The Front Porch Podcast.

Music in today’s show was provided by Jake Schepps, Andy Agnew Jr., and Ben Townsend,

Scott Finn edited our show this week with help from Suzanne Higgins.