Suburban-Rural Districts Are Turning on the GOP
ISSAQUAH, Wash.—It was difficult to find a good word for Donald Trump from patrons walking outside the public library in this quiet suburb just southeast of Seattle on a crisp recent afternoon.
“I will choose a Republican, but I wouldn’t choose Trump,” said Robin Pineda, a medical auditor, as sunlight slanted through trees turning yellow, red, and orange. “The way he behaves, the way he portrays our country to the international community, the way they are laughing at him and us—it’s embarrassing.”
Trump fans were easier to find the next morning in Wenatchee, a town of about 35,000 on the other side of the Cascade Mountains that bills itself as the “apple capital of the world.” “Just follow the stock market and unemployment rates—people are getting jobs,” said Werner Segesser, a retired teacher and Air Force veteran, as he sat in the driveway of his daughter’s home. “The tax cut went through; people have more money in their paychecks. What are they hollering about?”
Separated by about 130 miles, one very large mountain range, and a huge cultural chasm, Issaquah and Wenatchee are two poles of the same electoral battleground: Washington’s Eighth Congressional District. There the race to succeed retiring Republican Congressman
