Despite having a centrist Democratic governor in Andy Beshear, Kentucky is a deep-red state that Donald Trump carried in three presidential elections in a row. Nationally, Trump defeated Democratic nominee Kamala Harris by roughly 1.5 percent in 2024; in Kentucky, he won by 31 percent.
But in an article published on Thanksgiving 2025, The Nation's Zachary Clifton focuses on struggling Trump voters in Kentucky who are feeling disillusioned with his economic policies.
"In an April morning in 1964," Clifton explains, "President Lyndon B. Johnson landed in Martin County, Kentucky, stepping from Marine One to the hollers of a rural county where 60 percent of residents lived in poverty.
"With reporters and photographers from Time and Life in tow, Johnson ended up on the cabin porch of Tom Fletcher, a father of eight who had been unemployed for two years…. By August (1964), Johnson signed the Food Stamp Act, which — along with Medicaid, Medicare, and Head Start — federalized the tools he had promised to deploy during that tour through places like Martin County. This month, the longest government shutdown in U.S. history brought the deepest disruption to the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program since Johnson made it permanent."
Clifton adds, "In Martin County, families are preparing for Thanksgiving as roughly 23 percent of residents, or around 1300 households, rely on SNAP to put food on the table."
The Nation reporter notes that in 2024, Trump won 91 percent of the vote in Martin County.
"Trump's 'One Big, Beautiful Bill' will also jeopardize SNAP benefits for 114,000 people, or roughly one-fifth of recipients, in Kentucky, where work requirements will now expand to roughly 50,000 people aged 54 to 65, along with caregivers whose children are older than 14, starting in early 2026," Clifton explains. "The bill also expanded work requirements for military veterans and people experiencing homelessness — effectively pushing many out of a program they rely on to not go hungry."
According to Jason Bailey, director of the Kentucky Center for Economic Policy, Trump's One Big, Beautiful Bill Act of 2025's work requirements are "particularly problematic" in Kentucky because it has "the second-highest food insecurity in the United States for adults over 50."
Thomas Howell, a 25-year-old fast food worker in Martin County, told The Nation, "It sucks, but right now, I don't have my own vehicle — and it's pretty much the only work opportunity I have. If I make $170 per week, I consider that a really good week. And I get $110 per month in food stamps. It's pretty much all the food I have unless someone else buys it for me."
Howell voted for Trump in 2020 and 2024 but is now feeling disenchanted with him, lamenting that the president "seemed unwilling to cooperate with any amount of funding when it came to food stamps and just shifted blame toward Democrats."
Howell told The Nation, "I'm truly disappointed in the minimal effort Trump's been giving us poor people. I think most of this country voted for Trump on empty promises, hoping he’d give us a better future. But instead, it seems it's going the exact opposite direction. I pray to God I'm wrong."
Read Zachary Clifton's full article for The Nation at this link.