Donald Trump… not visiting the state that he, reportedly, fairs best in.

He may be the most talked about presidential candidate this year, but we checked his travel calendar and found that Donald Trump has no plans to visit West Virginia in the near future.

His receptive voting base…

“I’d like to see him come here, just to see what he has to say. I’d think it’d be pretty funny. The stuff he says on TV makes me laugh,” said Joshua Clemens, a West Virginia voter.
Others say a Trump visit could mean more interest in saving the coal industry, and keeping fossil fuels as a a major energy source.
Margaret Wilkinson, a West Virginia voter said, “What Donald Trump says, or whatever he does, I mean he’s looking in the best interest of everyone, I think.”

Hm.

But Mr. Trump’s lead is not equal among all G.O.P. groups, or across all parts of the country. His support follows a clear geographic pattern. He fares best in a broad swath of the country stretching from the Gulf Coast, up the spine of the Appalachian Mountains, to upstate New York.
Mr. Trump’s best state is West Virginia, followed by New York. Eight of Mr. Trump’s 10 best congressional districts are in New York, including several on Long Island. North Carolina, Alabama, Mississippi, Tennessee, Louisiana and South Carolina follow.

West Virginia…

The 2004 Presidential Election Result
George W Bush — 56.1%
John Kerry — 43.2%

The 2008 Presidential Election Result
Barack Obama — 42.5%
John McCain — 55.6%

The 2012 Presidential Election Result
Barack Obama — 35.54%
Mitt Romney — 62.3%

The county map shows a starker story.

On Election Day, McCain won West Virginia by 13.09 points while losing nationwide. McCain did well throughout the state, losing only a handful of counties. While his margins were best in the more conservative northern part of the state, he also improved significantly in Southern West Virginia. This coal-mining, union-heavy region was one of the most heavily Democratic places in the nation; Logan County, for example, cast 72 percent of its ballot for Bill Clinton.^[21] In 2008, however, John McCain won the county by double digits.
On the other hand, Barack Obama did make gains in the area between Maryland and Virginia, counties which are a part of the Washington Metropolitan Area. Obama also ran close in Central West Virginia (the counties around the capital Charleston).

2008 Democratic Primary (late in the cycle)

Hillary Clinton — 66.93%
Barack Obama — 25.77%

2012 Democratic Primary

Barack Obama — 59.3%
Keith Judd — 40.65%

Interestingly, Ron Wolfe, Jr. went on to best Keith Judd in Arkansas — being the protest contest who also isn’t a convicted felon — going to 41.6 percent.  I gather the map shows Trump Country.  (For whatever reason, wikipedia doesn’t show a similar one for West Virginia.)

Then we move into the Republican Primaries and see… some things get complicated.

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