I live in Southern WV and at the heart of the coal industry. Everyone I know is connected to the coal mines in one way or another. Our community lost some good men in the mine collapse not many years ago. It’s not as easy as you act to just move on from the industry. Education isn’t great here and there are no other jobs that pay nearly as much as the coal mines here unless you went to college. We have no big factories etc. The families here are very very hardworking uneducated but good people. You have no idea what it really is like to be in the coal mining community at ALL! I vote differently and my family is college educated. However my dad is a retired underground coal miner. He told me to never marry a coal miner bc they will break their backs in the mines trying to feed their families. It’s a tough job and one of the few that even pay enough to support families around here.