Who will protect them from Black people, brown immigrants, and the gays? The political party that promises to bring “law and order”
I was born and raised in Lawrence County, IN. When I tell people I grew up in the middle of nowhere, I mean it. The closest metropolitan area to the county is Louisville, KY — about 70 miles away. I was born in the town of Bedford, where the county seat is located, but I was mostly raised in Mitchell.
As of 2020, the total population of Lawrence County is 45,011. It’s the perfect case study as to why rural white people vote against their best interests, with 97 percent of the population being white and 75 percent of voters in the county voting for Donald Trump in 2024. Approximately seven-in-10 voters who described their communities as rural (about 69 percent) voted for Trump in 2024, which makes Lawrence County slightly above the national average.
As a Black/biracial woman who grew up in Lawrence County, raised by my white mother, I was always an outsider looking in. I know rural white people. I had to for my safety. Black people often know things about white people that white people don’t know about themselves. It’s because we need to keep ourselves safe.