Dr. Susan Burgess, Professor of Political Sciences at Ohio University, was quoted in the Atlantic story “The Voters Only Trump Can Reach” by Andrew McGill.
The Ohio counties that John Kasich lost are rugged land, different from the flat farmland that stretches across the rest of the state. In many counties where coal was once king, more than 20 percent of the residents live in poverty. Thousandsstruggle with drug addiction. And despite a brief natural gas boom, you can’t always count on getting work.
Dr. Susan Burgess
Kasich won his state, but he lost here. On the Ohio electoral map, support for Donald Trump runs in a angry swoosh from Ohio’s northeast down to the gates of Cincinnati; in some counties, the New York billionaire defeated the sitting governor by 25 points.
Here’s why: Kasich is an Ohioan. These counties are Appalachian. And Donald Trump, despite his money, is the perfect Appalachian candidate….
“Trump is very cleverly exploiting race and nativism in the context of fears that exist about what’s going to happen to their families,” said Susan Burgess, a professor of political science at Ohio University. “It doesn’t have to be solely about white supremacy overtly—it can be just about fears about what will happen when there is competition for jobs.”
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