Economic Distress and Poverty. Two Leading Causes Favouring Trumps Success in Appalachia

Seminar paper from the year 2020 in the subject American Studies - Culture and Applied Geography, grade: 1,0, Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz, language: English, abstract: This paper is supposed to shed light on other ongoing issues of said region which are intertwined with the issues of economic distress and poverty. Donald Trump being one of the finalists of the primaries and coming into office as the 45th president of the United States on the 20th January 2017 was a surprising outcome of the US presidential election. Although Clinton won the national popular 48% of the vote, Trump managed to win most key battleground states, and therefore the electoral college vote with 306 electoral votes. 95% of all Appalachian counties voted for Trump in the election. As it is assumed that the region played an important role in Trump success, many questioned his supporters motives trying to ascribe it to one single issue. Instead, the author assumes that economic distress and poverty are two of the leading causes that favoured Trumps success.