Hancock County, Tennessee, lies on the Virginia border, not far from where Daniel Boone crossed into the American West. For decades it was home to small farmers who carved out a living growing burley tobacco. Greg Marion, the former county mayor, remembers locals buying cars from his father's dealership on credit. They'd pay in full when their tobacco check came in each season. Those farms started disappearing after the surgeon general released his warning against tobacco products in 1964.
Ten years ago, Hancock County still had 500 manufacturing jobs, according to Marion. Now there are fewer than 50. Most of the factories have decamped—the local electric motor plant departed for China. Almost all the coal jobs just across the border in southern Virginia are gone too. “We lost tobacco, we lost manufacturing, we lost coal,” Marion says. “Strike one, strike two, and strike three.” On Election Day, almost 83 percent of Hancock voted for Donald Trump, the highest proportion of any county in Tennessee.
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