ADTrump’s tariffs hit the following year, at a point when farmers already had a crop in the ground. ADTobacco cultivation has dropped considerably; last year, North Carolina farmers harvested 117,000 acres, down from 177,000 a decade earlier. AD“Wages that aren’t earned aren’t spent,” said Graham Boyd, executive director of the North Carolina Tobacco Growers Association. But eastern North Carolina is home to a high percentage of African Americans, many of whom vote Democratic. “These small towns in rural communities have been taking hit after hit after hit.

Source: Washington Post March 14, 2020 20:15 UTC