This story should have run in May, but apparently slipped through the cracks. It’s got such great musicians in it — Twilight Fauna, Anna & Elizabeth, Tyler Hughes & Sam Gleaves, Byron Mack, Panopticon and more —
that I posted it on Medium, even if it’s a few months after the fact.
West Virginia’s 3rd congressional district went 73/23 for Trump over Clinton last year, but Democrat Nick Rahall held that seat up through 2014. With the seat open again (Evan Jenkins is running for Senate), I wrote about how Democrats are trying to engage voters and address the real challenges of poverty & economic disruption there (including at least two who are doing so by running for the Republican nomination).
My story for the New Republic looks at several present and past Democrats in the district (including some current Republicans) who are now maneuvering for the open seat. The story focuses largely on Richard Ojeda, a veteran and state senator who supported Trump in 2016 but is building a campaign that combines his brawling anti-establishment style with a generally progressive platform.
From mid-June through mid-August I worked as a contributing editor for 100 Days in Appalachia.
I posted a short thread on Twitter about my departure from the digital publication.
I contributed a number of stories to 100 Days in Appalachia through the summer:
– Trump’s Proposed Infrastructure Improvements Remain a Windy Road for Commuters in Appalachia
– Can ‘Berniecrats’ Win in Appalachia?
– How a Rash of Tick-Borne Illnesses is Challenging Appalachian Health Systems
– What Congress Can Learn from West Virginia About Tax Reform and Budgets
– With Trump, West Virginia Gov. Jim Justice Announces he’s Becoming a Republican. Again.
– How a 40-Year-Old Federal Law Literally Changed the Appalachian Landscape
– Appalachia Can’t Close the Health Disparity Gap Until it Fixes its Hospitals
Probably my favorite story for 100 Days involved visiting Camp Lincoln, a Goldwater-era conservative leadership camp near Webster, WV, where I watched teenagers debate recreational marijuana and practice political maneuvers to introduce last-minute legislation and push it into law.
Before West Virginia, Kentucky and Tennessee, the US nearly had Westsylvania, Transylvania & Franklin.
This story, for Blue Ridge Country, is about the wild, unruly period between the end of the War for Independence & the writing of the US Constitution that saw Appalachian statehood movements that fell just short.
Step over step. Step over step.
My dad was a lifetime runner, & I aim to follow in his steps. That’s part of why Mirna Valerio’s story resonates deeply with me. She’s using running as an avenue to lifelong fitness, and inspiring a ton of people along the way. She’s awesome.
Her memoir, “A Beautiful Work in Progress,” was released in October. I caught up with her for Blue Ridge Outdoors.
For more than three decades the Park + Backstreet Cafe were cornerstones of Roanoke’s gay bar scene. Hell, it wasn’t just LGBT folks, either: When I moved to Roanoke in 2003, punk bands would drink at the Backstreet, go down & play a show at then-boozeless Factory 324 (former Iroquois), and then half the crowd would go to dance afterward at the Park.
The Park continues to operate as a dance club, but the ownership changes there in 2015 + this year’s change from the Backstreet Cafe into the Front Row mark the end of a particular era for Roanoke’s gay bars, and the beginning of something new.
After years of building their regional economy around extractive industries, many Appalachian communities now are tapping into their bountiful outdoor assets to draw tourists—-and perhaps manufacturers and other job creators.
Places like Roanoke, Virginia, have created a new model for economic development, pairing traditional lures like workforce and infrastructure with an emphasis on livability and access to outdoor recreation.
Substantial challenges remain, however—-including President Donald Trump’s proposed budget, which would gut a number of programs crucial to economic diversification efforts.
Donald Trump dominated Appalachia on Election Day, 2016, and he wasted no time in loosening regulations on the region’s coal industry. In the big picture, however, the regulatory shifts mean an extension of the status quo.
His proposed budget, however, which would gut the Appalachian Regional Commission, the Economic Development Administration, the USDA’s infrastructure budget and other programs crucial to economic development efforts, may well wipe out any job gains from the coal industry.
For Vice, I tried to sort out the impact of federal actions on Appalachia under Trump. Read it here.
Donald Trump’s 2016 election win put an exclamation point on two decades worth of political shift from Democrat to Republican in Appalachia. Except for urban centers and a few notable exceptions, Democrats have essentially been wiped from the map in the region.
Now, in an ever increasingly polarized political environment, can they make up ground by using the new president as a foil?
I looked at the early signs in 2017 for 100 Days in Appalachia. Read it here.
Donald Trump’s election as president shocked and electrified America. But what does his election signify for America’s wildlands?
Environmentalists predict disasterous consequences for public lands and beyond. But outdoor sports groups are surprisingly optimistic.