The urban-rural divide appears to be growing ever stronger this election season. But at least one rural part of the country continues to vote solidly Democratic: the so-called Black Belt. Made up of a swath of counties that sweep across the South and have large African-American populations, these counties were solidly blue in a sea of red in recent elections. You can see an example below in the 2012 results from Alabama.
John Zippert, secretary for the Federation of Southern Cooperatives, has worked with African-American farmers in the rural South for nearly 50 years. Even without Medicaid expansion in most of these states, which Zippert thinks is desperately needed, he said President Obama has been good for the region. He is cautiously optimistic about what will come if Clinton is elected. “When you elect Hillary Clinton, you don’t just elect Clinton, you elect the 3,000 people she appoints, including 50 from the Department of Agriculture that we are going to have to work with every day,” he said. He hopes that group will be diverse.
