Biden’s $3.5 trillion infrastructure plan is 'popular' is deep red West Virginia — even among Trump voters: report

West Virginia wasn't even remotely close in the 2020 presidential election; Donald Trump won the state by 38%. But that doesn't automatically mean that all parts of President Joe Biden's Build Back Better agenda are unpopular in the deep red Appalachian state. According to Guardian reporter Zack Harold, parts of Biden's $3.5 trillion infrastructure plan are popular among West Virginia voters — including those who voted to reelect Trump.

"Though vehemently opposed by Republicans and West Virginia's own Democratic senator, Joe Manchin, there is some evidence that the proposals contained in the spending plans — which some have likened to the 1930s New Deal — are more popular among grassroots Republicans than their political representatives," Harold explains. "That may be especially true in West Virginia, which is a poor, largely white and working class state whose residents would stand to greatly benefit from the Biden effort."

One of the conservative West Virginia voters The Guardian interviewed was Parkersburg resident Elizabeth Masters, who voted for Trump in 2020 but likes Biden's Child Tax Credit. Another interviewee was Amy Shafer, who voted for Trump and Manchin and said that when she was battling health problems — first cancer, then COVID-19 — the Child Tax Credit "helped me keep my house" and "helped pay my electric, it paid my water and it paid my sewer."

Terra Alta, West Virginia resident Joseph A. Scalise voted for Trump in 2016 and 2020 but likes the $3.5 trillion plan.

The 67-year-old Scalise told The Guardian, "We're dealing with people who are wealthy. What do they understand about people like ourselves who are trying to keep their heads above water? It's time for them to stop having these little wars among each other and start thinking about the American people again."