Drive out into the countryside beyond any major US city, and Donald Trump signs abound. But, notes U.S. News and World Report,you’ll be hard-pressed to find much support for Hillary Clinton.
J.D. Vance, author of the best-selling memoir, "Hillbilly Elegy," thinks he knows why Trump is big in small-town America. He says the answer lies with attitudes of "political elites" like Clinton and President Barack Obama. Though they have great policies and are well-intentioned, Vance says, they don't seem to respect or empathize with rural poor people. Vance says Trump seems authentic by contrast.
Lisa Pruitt, a faculty member at the Center for Poverty Research, agrees. She noted that it matters little to many rural voters that Hillary Clinton spent more than a decade in Arkansas and worked on children's education issues. To these voters, she has become a neutral politician.