The lines outside the Charleston Civic Center stretched across the street to the Charleston Town Center mall, as people from all over the region waited in a cold rain Thursday afternoon for a chance to see Donald Trump, the all-but-official presidential nominee of the Republican Party.
The crowd included coal miners, working and unemployed; several high school students who aren’t able to vote yet; and generally conservative-minded West Virginians who oppose the policies of the national Democratic Party.
The only thing more common than the red “Make America Great Again” caps that Trump has popularized were the hard hats worn by coal miners who said they’re ready to cast a ballot next week, and in November, for Trump.
Don Tharp, an Arch Coal employee who works in Logan County, said he has been a registered Democrat his entire civic life, but he recently switched his political registration to independent so he could cast his vote for Trump, who all but wrapped up the Republican nomination this week.
Tharp, who has a white beard and said he is often referred to as Santa by his co-workers, said he believes that coal mining in Southern West Virginia will somehow increase if Trump takes over the White House.
He said he won’t support a presidential candidate that doesn’t want to roll back environmental regulations on coal-fired power plants and surface mining, which he blames almost completely for the industry’s decline and the job losses that have followed. (Economists and many others say several factors, including low-cost natural gas and the mining out of much of the easier-to-reach coal in Southern West Virginia, are responsible.)
Phillip Earl Baisden, a former heavy-equipment operator for Patriot Coal, also switched political allegiance. The 45-year-old father said he became a Republican because national Democrats support federal rules regulating carbon emissions, which a majority of scientists agree is needed to reduce the effects of global warming.
For Baisden, that reality has made his choice simple. Trump, he said, is the only remaining presidential candidate not to support those environmental rules.
He said Hillary Clinton’s and Bernie Sanders’ plans to help displaced miners find other jobs through retraining programs won’t work, and he wonders how someone his age can afford to be retrained for another job while still paying a mortgage on his family’s home.
There were groups of young people throughout the crowd, including TJ Shell, a 17-year-old George Washington High School student who was there with three of his friends.
Shell, who is upset that he won’t be able to vote in the upcoming election, said he supports Trump more because of his brash attitude and less because of any specific policy.
“I liked Ted Cruz, but he didn’t have the backbone to become what Trump can become,” Shell said.
Shell will soon leave high school, but he doesn’t agree with Sanders’ proposal to make college free. Shell said he wants to work, and that he doesn’t want to be another “taker.”
Unlike the violent protests that have taken place at some previous Trump events, the hours before the Charleston rally were largely free of any visible protests, even as chants of “build that wall” went up throughout the largely white, working-class crowd.
One man, who declined to give his name but said he represented the communist Workers World Party, got into an argument with a coal miner.
Courtney Campbell, 24, protested against the Republican candidate by wearing a shirt that read “Anyone but Trump” and filmed the crowd as she walked past the line.
“I just wanted to see who in my community would be voting for this type of person,” the Charleston resident said of Trump supporters. “It’s kind of scary.”
At least a dozen protesters showed up at the Civic Center after the event with signs. Charleston police stood between the protesters and Trump supporters.
Before the event, vendors outside the Civic Center were selling buttons and T-shirts, some of which included profanities.
This was the line at the Trump rally by the time the doors opened after 4 p.m. pic.twitter.com/vTPc1MrYhr
— Lori Kersey (@LoriKerseyWV) May 5, 2016
Sharon Fuerst, 66, of Beckley, came to the rally after her teaching job in Kanawha County.
“His campaign has helped to energize people,” she said of Trump. “I feel energized, so I wanted to see him in person.”
Fuerst, a registered Republican, said she’s voted for Democrats in the past. She suggested she also would support Sanders, a self-described democratic socialist, who made three campaign stops in West Virginia on Thursday and is favored to win the state’s Democratic presidential primary. Both Trump and Sanders, she said, are against the establishment in their respective parties.
“I don’t like Hillary Clinton, so I don’t want her to be president.” Fuerst said of the former secretary of state and national Democratic front-runner.
Daniel Hayes, of Hurricane, came to the rally with his wife, Carol.
“I think [Trump] is smarter than a lot of people let on,” said Daniel Hayes, a retired steelworker. “I think he makes a lot of good points. I think he’ll make a good president.”
Carol Hayes said the couple has followed Trump since he stared on the reality TV show “The Apprentice.”
“He’s honest and he tells it like it is,” she said.
Ralph Slack, a 39-year-old Hurricane resident, was at the event with his son. While he called himself not the most well-informed voter, Slack said he likes what he has seen from Trump, especially his calls to stop illegal immigration by building a wall on the U.S.-Mexico border.
Slack, who works at a lawn-care service company, said he has researched Trump by watching YouTube videos of his speeches. He said Trump’s statements on immigrants have resonated with him.
“They’re taking everyone’s jobs,” Slack said.
Dee Bradley, an office assistant from Charleston, said she’s supporting Trump partly because of his stances on immigration and taxes. She was impressed that, as she watched her fellow Trump supporters in line, everyone seemed to be getting along.
“That’s what we need as a country,” she said.
Reach Lori Kersey at lori.kersey@wvgazettemail.com, 304-348-1240 or follow @LoriKerseyWV on Twitter. Reach Andrew Brown at andrew.brown@wvgazettemail.com, 304-348-4814 or follow @Andy_Ed_Brown on Twitter.