Nonetheless, Cimarron County is singular for different causes. Oklahoma is the reddest of the purple states. It’s the solely state the place Barack Obama didn’t carry a single county in both of his presidential races, whereas Donald Trump carried each county in each of his. In 2020, Mr. Trump received Oklahoma by a whopping 33 factors. That accomplishment paled, nevertheless, in comparison with his electoral prowess in Cimarron County, the place he received 92 % of the vote. Out of 1,054 votes solid within the final presidential election, Joe Biden received 70.
“I don’t watch Fox Information — I believed they went manner too liberal over the past election.” The speaker was Clint Twombly, a former Border Patrol agent who’s operating for sheriff. Standing contained in the cinder-block constructing the place the Boise Metropolis Rotary Membership meets each Wednesday at midday, Mr. Twombly delivered his first ever marketing campaign speech.
Like many of the locals I talked with, he dismissed any considerations over international warming. As a substitute, he mentioned, local weather change is all about “anyone attempting to promote a e book and generate profits, quite than something to do with science.” As for the Jan. 6 assault on the U.S. Capitol, he mentioned that “all in all, it appeared to me pretty innocuous.” Mr. Twombly was unaware that any cops had died after the assault.
That mentioned, you received’t discover a lot adoration for Donald J. Trump right here. Regardless of the presence of the freeway named in his honor — “No one else wished it,” Jody Risley, who runs the Cimarron Heritage Middle, informed me — unease in regards to the character of the previous president, even earlier than his felony conviction, lingers. “He’s not individual,” Mr. Twombly mentioned. “He’s not anyone I would like on the dinner desk.”
However voting for the Democratic various is unthinkable. The final Democrat to hold Cimarron County was Jimmy Carter in 1976. Earlier than that it was Harry Truman. Cimarron isn’t any anomaly. There’s a 1,400-mile column of rural counties alongside the western Nice Plains, stretching from the Canadian border to Mexico, the place (aside from a couple of counties dominated by Native reservations) voting Republican is a lifestyle. For those who ask Cimarron County locals what it might take for them to vote Democratic, you get platitudes about passing too many legal guidelines, or not imposing those now we have.
