Undefeated since 1980.
That's Clallam County, Washington.
This county on the tip of the Olympic Peninsula in
Washington state has been on the winning side of the
presidential election for the past 40 years.
Just consider getting all of this right.
You have Reagan twice, George HW Bush, then Clinton twice,
George W Bush twice, Obama times 2, and then you
have Trump and Biden.
Did you vote that way?
National correspondent Vanessa Mashanya is live in the crystal ball
capital of America, apparently seeing if she can figure out
the magic here, the alchemy.
Vanessa, that is impressive, 11411 What about next month?
Yeah, chance.
Well, you know, it is no crystal ball that this
county possesses to make it a dependable bellwether.
But instead it's had a changing industrial identity that's kind
of ebbed and flowed with the pulse of the country.
Now the demographics in the county, they are rapidly changing.
And depending on who you ask, that will either reaffirm
or lose its bellwether status this year.
Across the waters of Puget Sound, on the very top
of the Olympic Peninsula of Washington state, lies a county
that is as beautiful and varied as it is difficult
to reach.
I would say most people here it is.
The beauty is is the biggest draw.
This is Clallam County, home to sections of the rainforest
of Olympic National Park, 200 miles of North Pacific coastline
that's a boat ride away from Canada, and the beloved
fictional vampires of the Twilight book and movie series.
But this place is also home to residents that have
a unique knack for picking the president.
I don't know what color you'd call us, probably purple.
We're at the end of the road.
When people who want to be independent go to the
end of the road, that's us.
Clown County is the country's last presidential bellwether since 1980,
when Ronald Reagan beat Jimmy Carter.
The candidate who won this county ended up winning the
White House after Donald Trump won 2016.
There were 19 bellwether counties in the US, but Flallum
was the only one to switch blue and correctly pick
Joe Biden as the 2020 winner.
The West side of the county.
Very conservative logging community.
The east side of the county.
Squam primarily, a lot of retirees and then Port Angeles
in the middle.
Pretty good mix of the two at about 87% white
and 30% aged 65 and older.
The demographics don't reflect America as a whole.
So how is it that Clallum has held on to
the title for so long?
This streak started sort of when the timber industry here
started declining.
That brought in the need for other industries.
Stricter regulations placed on logging cause it to slow and
with it jobs declining in the more conservative areas.
Instead of 1 dominant industry with either conservative or liberal
workforce, we have a mix that's really representative of the
country as a whole.
Some new industries have come in and with IT changing
ideologies though money and jobs can be a struggle to
find in the county.
Currently the unemployment rate is 5.6% that's above the national
rate of 4.2%.
I just wanted to get your guys opinion on why
the Teamsters did not endorse Harris.
Perhaps it's the changing economic landscape that adds another factor
to its bellwether status, active political participation, evidence of which
can be found at the Port Angeles Senior Center, where
every Thursday folks across the political spectrum have been meeting
for nearly three decades to talk politics.
What do, what do we value as far as our
being cared for, our children being cared for bellwether.
We want to be a bellwether for the Democrats this
year.
So you can kind of look at it this way.
If Clown County loses its bellwether status, it'll because because
of the loss of the middle class.
Well, Democrats are confident the area's changing demographics with fewer
blue collar jobs in the beautiful landscape, attracting remote workers
from cities since last election, have Republicans worried it may
be enough to lose the bellwether title.
I think we're going to lose our bellwether status this
year because I think Trump is going to win.
As November 5th looms, so does the question if the
last bellwether will be able to weather the current political
storm.
There's a chance.
I mean, the coolest thing I think about spending some
time there a couple days and, and really listening into
those political conversations is that you could tell that they
care about each other's as neighbors first, then political rivals,
you know, And I think that is something, whatever the
results may be for this election, we can truly take
away from Clallam County.
Yeah.
Seems like good people.
I mean, great political instincts, apparently, but also beautiful.
Vanessa Machania, live in Clallam County West in Washington.
Thank you.