Residents of a rural California town say they have been torn apart by the influx of “radical, liberal city people” into their neighborhoods.
Inyo County, a community of 19,000 people straddling the Eastern Sierra state line and Nevada, was historically a Republican stronghold in the blue-leaning state of California.
But while it had not supported a Democrat for president since 1964, a flood of city residents fleeing to the suburbs during the pandemic has radically changed its politics, allowing Joe Biden to win in 2020 by just 14 votes.
Now, just three weeks away from the election, locals told the LA Times that the rise of Democrats in their community has pushed them over the edge.
Even one of the new liberal residents, Fran Hunt, 65, told the outlet: “We may be bluer, or more purple, but we are more divided.”
The rural community of Inyo County, California, has seen a large influx of liberal residents in recent years that has pushed away the region’s traditionally conservative values.
Fran Hunt, 65, a liberal woman who moved to Inyo County in recent years, said her community “may be bluer, or purpler, but we are more divided.”
Hunt spoke to the outlet in front of an ardent Trump supporter, Lynette McIntosh, who has lived in Inyo County for more than five decades, while Hunt moved away in 2014.
Their differences made for a striking comparison of how divided Americans are in the final stretch before the presidential election, with Inyo County serving as something of a bellwether for the electorate given its 2020 results.
Explaining why he wouldn’t vote for Trump in the former stronghold of the Republican Party, Hunt said he believes the former president is “threatening a dictatorship.”
‘He is threatening to prosecute his opponents. Mass deportations. It is threatening chaos in a country full of weapons. Where does my list of worries end? she said.
McIntosh, on the other hand, harshly criticized new liberal residents like McIntosh for destroying the traditional city he has lived in for decades.
“We’re a real conservative community, but there’s a whole flood of leftists that have come in… I mean, radical… radical!” she said.
As the LA Times noted, the wave of new liberal residents even led to “so much trash and feces in the woods” that locals were forced to put up signs urging proper camping etiquette.
Lynette McIntosh, an ardent Trump supporter who has lived in Inyo County for five decades, said her community saw “a whole flood of leftists who have become, I mean, radical, radical!”
Donald Trump won Inyo County by 13 points in 2016, but lost it by just 14 votes in 2020 due to changing demographics of the area’s voters.
He said he believes Trump was “called by God” to lead the country and argued that Inyo County could serve as a warning to other conservative regions across the country.
He blamed progressive groups for pushing people into small communities and dividing them, infiltrating their town halls and school boards while convincing locals to vote against Trump.
As an example of how the pandemic’s demographic shifts could affect upcoming elections, Inyo County makes this clear.
Trump won the county by 13 percentage points in 2016, but a wave of liberals in the community led to Biden’s narrow victory four years later.
And when Trump won in 2016, he cruised to victory thanks to a 10 percent lead among registered voters who were Republicans. In 2020, Republicans had just a four percent registration advantage.
David Blacker, chairman of the Inyo County Republican Central Committee, told the LA Times that local Trump supporters were stunned by the 2020 election results.
He said conservatives were “lulled into a false sense of security” given their voting record, but argued that unpopular Biden-Harris policies, which have been cited for a recent drop in Harris’s poll numbers, will return the advantage to Trump.
“Everyone I’m talking to now says they’d rather have bad tweets and a vibrant economy than continue the way we’re going,” he said.
David Blacker (R), chairman of the Inyo County Republican Central Committee, said he’s confident the county will turn to Republicans again, because he now often sees people who “would rather have bad tweets and a vibrant economy than continue as we”. come on’
Similarly, Emily Lanphear, vice chairwoman of the local Republican Central Committee, said she was surprised by how many young voters interacted with her when she ran a Republican booth at last month’s county fair.
“They think (Trump) is a tough guy,” he added.
However, Lanphear highlighted how demographic changes have still torn apart his community and said many Trump supporters are afraid to display MAGA flags to avoid arguments with their neighbors.
She said that when the liberal influx came to her city, “suddenly we see women’s rights protests, anti-Trump protests, pro-immigrant protests for open borders.”
“The locals say, ‘What’s going on?’ “That creates division.”
Kim Nalder, director of the Project for an Informed Electorate at Sacramento State, told the LA Times that she is hopeful that the contentious politics that has gripped her city will pick up after the election.
“Our politics are very divided right now, but I have a small glimmer of hope that our exposure to each other as human beings will overcome that at some point,” he told the outlet.
“I think the best opportunity for that kind of future healing is in small towns where there’s no way to avoid the people on the other side.”