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Retired fisherman Billy Benincase doesn’t live in a political echo chamber – and he likes it that way. Andover, the tiny town 30 minutes from Concord that Benincase calls home, is a dying breed – a politically split community in an era of rapidly increasing geographic polarization. On Tuesday, Harris carried the town of 2,400 by a mere 13 votes, 801-788, the tightest margin in Merrimack County.
“I’m glad it was close,” said 62-year-old Benincase on an overcast Wednesday afternoon at the Andover transfer station, less than 12 hours after Donald J. Trump was declared the victor. If this was the most divisive presidential election in history nationally, it stayed pretty respectful in Andover.
“There’s tons of people here who think differently than me,” said Benincase, an independent who voted for Trump. “I don’t mind it because everyone’s civil about it. In this town, you could walk down the street wearing a Trump hat or a Trump shirt.
Nobody’s going to bother you, because people respect other people’s differences.” June Tumblin, a supporter of Vice President Kamala Harris who described herself as “hopeful” about what another Trump term will bring, agreed. “It would be boring if everyone was thinking the same, and you wouldn’t know what other opportunities and other opinions are, and I think that would be a waste of a life,” said Tumblin, 72, as she tossed two black trash bags into a chute.
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Cross|Word Flipart Typeshift SpellTower Really Bad Chess As the nation’s election map showed swaths of red surrounding islands of blue, Merrimack County’s 27 towns and cities show more variation between red, blue and purple communities like Andover. Still, a look at vote totals from different communities shows degrees of polarization and division. Trump won six towns – Loudon, Pittsfield, Epsom, Salisbury, Danbury and Hill – by more than 20 percentage points.
Harris won four – Concord, Hopkinton, New London and Wilmot by 20 points or more. It was closer in Pembroke, Bradford and Hooksett where vote totals were split by less than 5 points. On Tuesday and Wednesday, the Monitor visited three communities to chart the pulse of a divided county on the precipice of another Trump presidency.
Wednesday is trash day at the Andover Transfer & Recycle Center and trash transcends political parties. Benincase, a Long Island native who volunteers at the transfer station, is far from “a real diehard Trump guy,” but, he said, “I know that the country can’t sustain what’s happening.” “My son’s a young kid.
He’s 30 years old and he can’t buy a house,” Benincase said, as he tossed soda cans from one receptacle to another. “I’m cautiously optimistic about the next phase of the country. I don’t necessarily agree with everything with Donald Trump but I’m positive that going the way we were going was not it.
” Benincase’s muted optimism contrasted with the disappointment of Jim Oanforth, a Republican who described himself as a “never Trumper” – in part on the basis of personal connections. “I’m in construction,” Oanforth said. “I know a lot of people who Trump never paid.
I know a lot of people who went out of business.” Even as Andover has remained politically divided, Oanforth said he’s felt an erosion of community cohesion in town since Trump’s first victory eight years ago. “People feel like they’re suckers if they belong to a Lion’s Club or a service organization,” Oanforth said.
“Why am I helping other people when everyone else is helping themselves? It’s tough.” Pittsfield residents Curtis Penney and France Lemoine voted for Trump each time he ran for president. “I was there when they swore him in on inauguration day,” Penney said.
“I was standing at the base of the White House. And I was at his victory party in Manchester.” In this working-class town that saw the Rustic Crust , one of its largest employers close down this summer, Trump won big with 62.
9% of the vote compared to 37.1% for Harris. In this small town of 4,000 where per capita income is less than $36,000, many Trump supporters cited the economy as a primary concern and motivating reason for voting red.
For Penney, Trump represents a solution to many problems he’d like to see addressed. “It’s about so many things: immigration, the border, the prices of everything, stopping World War Three,” he said. Lemoine said the border and illegal immigration were some of the main reasons she gravitated towards Trump as a candidate.
“I like his policies. He’s a good businessman, and he can run the country the way it needs to be run,” Lemoine said. Pittsfield is one of the most Republican-leaning towns in Merrimack County and support for Trump has only grown over the past three elections.
In 2016, 58.1% of voters chose Trump with 35.7% picking Hilary Clinton.
Four years, Trump’s numbers went up slightly to 58.7% compared to 38.5% for Joe Biden.
Scott Partridge, the owner of the Friendly Diner in Pittsfield, knows what’s on his customers’ minds. “It’s the economy, the border, national security in general,” Partridge said as he served up patties in the kitchen of his restaurant. “Trump was the first president that never got us involved in any conflict in pretty much history.
He kept us out of everything. Another thing to do with the border is immigration. No problem with immigrants.
Just do it the right way because we all came here at one point in time.” In Hopkinton, one of Concord’s most affluent neighboring communities, anxiety and uncertainty hung over Trump’s first day as president-elect. Bellamy Ridinger, 28, a Hopkinton High School graduate, said the election outcome brings deep uncertainty, especially as someone who is part of the transgender community.
Having had access to “life-changing” hormone therapy since he was 20, Ridinger describes this treatment as a pivotal part of his life and the lives of many others in the transgender community. With a second Trump presidency looming, the anxiety of not knowing what comes next weighs heavily on him. “What if I have to move again? What if I can’t get my medical care?” he wondered, his voice laced with concern.
Harris carried Hopkinton – where the per capita income is over $50,000 and more than half of residents hold a college degree – by 27 points. Despite Hopkinton’s widespread support for the vice president, neither Ridinger nor Hopkinton Democrat Town Committee Chair Amy Metcalf were altogether surprised by the national result. “I feel a mix of emotions,” said Metcalf.
“I feel very sad. I feel sort of angry at the system and the way people get information. I feel like not everybody’s hearing the same thing.
I feel scared, both for the economy and for the freedoms of individuals.” However much they anticipated the result though, both Metcalf and Ridinger said the election was a “wake up call” in a variety of ways. “I know plenty of Republicans who are wonderful people,” Metcalf said.
“We will continue to be neighbors and hopefully find our common ground.” Jeremy Margolis can be reached at [email protected].
Rachel Wachman can be reached at [email protected]. Sruthi Gopalakrishnan can be reached at sgopalakrishnan@cmonitor.
com.
