North Carolina Trump voters putting all their hopes on jobs
KANNAPOLIS, N.C. -- Kannapolis pastor Dean Hunter remembers the day 14 years ago when the largest towel and sheet manufacturer in the world shut down. It was the end of an era.
“I never knew what it was not like for the city to revolve around a textile mill. And then one day, it’s gone,” Hunter said.
More than 4,000 jobs vanished, along with the mill itself.
“There’s a lot of people who never really socially, emotionally recovered from that,” he said.
Dan Johnson worked at the mill over 30 years, so when he and his wife Vickie heard Donald Trump talk about American job losses on the campaign trail, it resonated.
“I just felt like he was gonna help us,” Dan said.
“As long as he’s done what he said he would do, I’d be very happy,” Vickie said.
Already they think they’ve seen progress in the Trump transition.
“The man hasn’t even got in office yet and he’s already saved some jobs,” Dan said. “I think he’s doing good. I like a lot of his Cabinet picks.”
Hunter believes Trump will act on one of his top priorities, appointing a conservative Supreme Court justice. But as for the man himself, Hunter was not sure about him.
“I’m more sure now than I was a year ago,” he said.
“If it comes out that he has done some things that he said he hasn’t or has that’s cause for concern.”
Former Democrat Tony Hall says he heard too many promises that didn’t turn into action from both parties.
“I think that in this election, with Donald Trump, we said, ‘what we have seen has not worked,’” Hall said.
“And so we want to see something different. He may end up being a great president, he may end up being a lousy president. But what we saw, we don’t want it. What have you got to lose? He may just do something. We just never know,” he said.
“We’re rolling the dice. I’m not a betting man, but I guess I’m betting on this one.”
The question for those is Kannapolis is will the bet pay off?