SPOTSYLVANIA COUNTY, Va. — Peggy Hayes is professionally upbeat. A personal trainer, she teases clients about the pain that awaits them and hands out calling cards that read: “Clear your mind of can’t.”
Yet beneath her motivational smile lies something much less confident, and it’s had a deep impact on her political views.
Lately, so many prospective clients have been canceling their training sessions that the owner of a gym where she works has started calling her “Bad Luck Peggy.”
Hayes, 53, offers free consultations and shows clients how to make protein shakes with egg whites. For those who can’t afford her, she is sympathetic: She herself doesn’t have the money for health insurance.
People like her are living day to day, she said, focused on the most important things: “Taking care of your health, putting food on the table and a roof over your head.”
“It’s hard to be able to think about entertainment or retirement when I’m not even here with health care,” she said.
Four years ago, Hayes was convinced Mitt Romney could fix what was wrong with the country, but was dismayed to see him run such a weak campaign. This time, she’s looking for somebody who takes charge. She’s voting for Donald Trump.
“The last eight years, we’ve been an un-baby-sat nation,” Hayes said. “We’re not being cared for as a people. The president has just turned his back on us.”
OUTSIDE THE BELTWAY
Hayes had company in Virginia’s primary election last month, when Trump captured the biggest share of Republican votes, with 34.7 percent of the vote.
Spotsylvania is a semi-rural Southern county, transforming into an exurb.. Unlike the trio of counties around Washington, D.C., that have become the Democratic Party’s growing power base in Virginia, Spotsylvania remains consistently Republican, and defiantly anti-establishment. Two years ago, residents here helped oust one of the most powerful Republicans in Congress, Eric Cantor, because voters thought he had gone Washington and chose Dave Brat to replace him.
The counties closest to the nation’s capital – with larger minority populations, younger voters and more direct ties to the federal government – were among the handful where Republicans chose Marco Rubio in March; Trump dominated counties in the south, often with margins well above 50 percent; in Spotsylvania County, Trump took 37.5 percent of the vote.
The leafy neighborhoods of Spotsylvania County, an hour’s drive out of Washington, are spotted with Civil War battlefields and milestones of American history: Stonewall Jackson was mortally wounded by friendly fire here during the Battle of Chancellorsville, and a large Confederate flag still waves along I-95 in neighboring Stafford County.
In recent years, rapidly growing populations from Latin America, Asia, Africa and the Caribbean have been pouring into northern Virginia, and the region is now one of the most diverse in the country.
It has become a popular resettlement point for Muslim immigrants, a trickle from war-torn Syria, lured by the same low housing prices and available jobs that attract others. An estimated 200,000 Muslims now live in Virginia, but they have not been uniformly welcomed: When the small Islamic Center in Spotsylvania County applied to build a larger mosque last fall, angry residents packed a zoning meeting to raise an alarm.
“Nobody wants your evil cult,” one man declared to a small group of Muslims in the crowd. “Every one of you are terrorists.”
RETIREMENT CONCERNS
Hayes makes $35,000 to $45,000 a year, and collects an extra $12,000 by renting part of her house out to a military couple.
But her mortgage and car payments cost more than $1,800 a month. She is constantly fretting over her scant savings.
“In technical terms, I should be closer to retirement,” she said. “That’s not even an option right now.”
Hayes lives in a white, two-story home on a cul-de-sac just outside of Fredericksburg, about 13 miles from Spotsylvania County. The house is a constant hive.
There’s the couple in the basement. There are clients training in the gym she built in the garage.
Her three grown children stop by, to leave their dog or car or, in the case of her college student son, to borrow money to attend a wrestling match in Ohio.
Despite her interest in health, Hayes said she went seven years without insurance. Then, four or five years ago, she found a policy that cost just $269 a month. It had a very high deductible, so it would cover only the most catastrophic illness or injury.
But it was canceled after Obama’s health law forced insurers to stop offering some plans that did not offer a full spectrum of coverage. Hayes chose to pay an annual penalty instead of shelling out for a more costly policy.
“You’re always running that risk of one illness, one injury that could put you in a really bad place,” she said.
Though Hayes is upset by the state of the nation and the world, she is usually laughing. On a recent morning, she teased her middle daughter, Josie, the manager of a GameStop video game store in Richmond, about the deer tattoo on her arm. Hayes is close with Josie’s transgender roommate and considers herself a liberal on social issues.
Hayes looked at other presidential candidates but was drawn to Trump early because of his ability to force others to respond on his terms.
“He’s taking the mask off the entire political system,” she said. “We don’t have a voice anymore. You feel like you’re watching the United States being represented in a way that we never anticipated, nor asked for.”
CANTOR’S NOT MISSED
Cantor’s loss was a preview to Trump’s rise, and a warning that conservative voters felt their anger was not being taken seriously. Brat attacked Cantor for being weak on immigration.
And immigration – and the growing visibility of Muslims in the area – has been a big concern for one of Hayes’ clients, Mary Jane King, who was at the zoning meeting in November to oppose the mosque expansion.
Hayes said later that she understands the fear but believes the mosque should be allowed to expand. She doesn’t think local Muslims pose any threat, and she feels sympathy for Syrian refugees. But she also agrees with Trump that there should be at least a temporary ban on Muslims entering the country.
“I’d be the Mother Teresa of them. But how do we do that as a country?” Hayes said. “We need to slow things down.”
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