This Is Trump Country - The New York Times - 0 views
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In December, the unemployment rate was 8 percent, among the highest in Massachusetts. Its median income is about half that of the state as a whole. Even its city motto lacks gusto: “We’ll try.”
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Bruno Teixeira, 68, voted for Mr. Trump on Tuesday. He used to work as a foreman at a factory that dyed and finished cloth. “I was fortunate that I could say I retired,” he said. “I never thought I would, I thought it was going to be pulled out from under me, like it was for a lot of my colleagues.” Mr. Teixeira’s father came to the United States from Portugal, his mother from England. He said he liked Mr. Trump’s views on immigration, as well as his straightforward talk.“He has something to say, he says it,” Mr. Teixeira said. “That’s what I like about the man.”
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Much of this county northeast of Nashville, along the border with Kentucky, is farmland, though there are also jobs in manufacturing. The county is among the state’s biggest producers of tobacco, and it also produces hardwood lumber. Shelta Shrum, 59, spent two decades working at a boot factory, where she was a clerical worker. Not long after she retired, the factory was shuttered. The jobs, she said, went to Mexico. “We knew it was going to happen,” Ms. Shrum said, “and it was something we dreaded every day.” Ms. Shrum, who edits the newsletter for the local historical society, said Mr. Trump was speaking up about the kinds of things people talk about every day. “We’re rural, and we’re not always politically correct,” she said. “We call it like we see it. And he’s doing that for us, very loudly.”