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"As part of the Guardian's coverage of the 2016 election, reporter Paul Lewis traveled to Mahoning County in the northeastern part of Ohio to figure out why Donald Trump was appealing to working-class white voters in this traditionally Democratic area. He landed an interview with the county's Trump campaign chair, Kathy Miller, a former trustee of the town of Boardman who volunteers her time to get Trump elected and who will serve as an elector if Trump wins.
Her interview with Lewis probably won't be as helpful to her candidate as she might have hoped. She told Lewis that she doesn't think "there was any racism until Obama got elected" and that black Americans "have an advantage" over whites because they "got into schools without the same grades as white kids." If black Americans haven't been successful in the last 50 years, she said, "it's [their] own fault."
Lewis visited a county Republican picnic and noted that there wasn't much diversity present. He asked Miller why there don't seem to be any black people in the Trump movement.
"That's a smaller percentage of our population," Miller replied. "And I don't think that many — I'm sure there were some, but I don't know they were voting. I mean, I'm talking about voters."
Mahoning County is 16 percent black, a higher density of black voters than the United States on the whole. The city of Youngstown — a perpetual symbol of the plight of the Rust Belt — is nearly half black; Boardman, where Miller served in office, is only 6 percent black. In 2012, black voters were 15 percent of the turnout in Ohio.
Lewis pressed her on the subject. "What's your response to people who say that, there is a just-below-the-surface level of racism in America, and Donald Trump's candidacy has allowed that to slip above the surface?" he asked.
"I don't think there was any racism until Obama got elected. We never had problems like this," Miller replied. "You know, I'm in the real estate industry. There's none." "
Continue reading here: https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/the-fix/wp/2016/09/22/a-trump-county-campaign-chair-in-ohio-just-blamed-racism-on-obama/?tid=sm_tw
Her interview with Lewis probably won't be as helpful to her candidate as she might have hoped. She told Lewis that she doesn't think "there was any racism until Obama got elected" and that black Americans "have an advantage" over whites because they "got into schools without the same grades as white kids." If black Americans haven't been successful in the last 50 years, she said, "it's [their] own fault."
Lewis visited a county Republican picnic and noted that there wasn't much diversity present. He asked Miller why there don't seem to be any black people in the Trump movement.
"That's a smaller percentage of our population," Miller replied. "And I don't think that many — I'm sure there were some, but I don't know they were voting. I mean, I'm talking about voters."
Mahoning County is 16 percent black, a higher density of black voters than the United States on the whole. The city of Youngstown — a perpetual symbol of the plight of the Rust Belt — is nearly half black; Boardman, where Miller served in office, is only 6 percent black. In 2012, black voters were 15 percent of the turnout in Ohio.
Lewis pressed her on the subject. "What's your response to people who say that, there is a just-below-the-surface level of racism in America, and Donald Trump's candidacy has allowed that to slip above the surface?" he asked.
"I don't think there was any racism until Obama got elected. We never had problems like this," Miller replied. "You know, I'm in the real estate industry. There's none." "
Continue reading here: https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/the-fix/wp/2016/09/22/a-trump-county-campaign-chair-in-ohio-just-blamed-racism-on-obama/?tid=sm_tw
