Worlds Apart, Living Right Next Door
Fourteen Days in Western North Carolina
In August 2024, I spent fourteen days in Madison County, western North Carolina, reporting on the US presidential elections taking place in November of that year, Democratic Candidate, Kamala Harris, versus Republican Candidate, Donald Trump. Madison County is rural and predominantly conservative. While the majority of voters here are unaffiliated, as a county, they vote Republican. I met people from across the political spectrum: Republican, Democrat, unaffiliated, undecided, Christian, not religious. We talked about some of the issues that would impact the election: a woman’s right to jurisdiction over her own body, the economy, and the climate crisis. What struck me most about my time there was how people with such disparate views could live, literally right next door.
In October, 2024, I launched “Worlds Apart, Living Right Next Door” a series about my time in western North Carolina, on “Dispatches,” my reporting column on Substack. Brief excerpts are below.
