WEST FORKS PLANTATION — Shannon Thibodeau doesn’t hesitate when asked whom he’s voting for in the presidential election.
“Trump all the way,” said Thibodeau, 46, on a coffee break at Berry’s General Store on a recent afternoon.
His response is a common one outside the store, the only one serving West Forks and its neighbor across the river, The Forks.
The two communities – classified as plantations because they don’t have enough residents to form a town – are about 50 miles south of the Canadian border in Maine’s 2nd Congressional District, an area that Donald Trump won by seven percentage points in 2020.
Trump and Joe Biden tied in the last presidential race in The Forks, making the community of about 50 residents stand out among others in Maine. When the ballots were counted on election night, Trump had received 18 votes and so had Biden. Residents say the 2020 results were not surprising to them because the area draws a diverse group of people with its recreational and outdoors offerings. It’s a whitewater rafting, snowmobiling and hiking destination named for its location at the confluence of the Kennebec and Dead rivers.
Four years later, residents again find themselves at a figurative fork in the road – or the river – as they weigh whether to support Trump or Vice President Kamala Harris in this year’s election.
And some say they expect a far different outcome this time as support seems to have shifted toward Trump, at least based on what people say in public. While some residents are open, even enthusiastic, about their support for Trump, other people interviewed last week were unwilling to openly state their support for Harris.
Some of that may be because The Forks sits in Trump country. The former president is widely expected to win Maine’s 2nd District and capture one of the state’s four electoral votes for a third straight time – a vote that could be critical to the overall outcome.
“I find it interesting that it was 18-18, because most people here I talk to seem quite determined and vocal about Trump,” said Charlie Hathaway, who serves on the board of assessors and manages the transfer station in The Forks.
“I would think it would be two-thirds or 75% for Trump. The folks who support Harris tend to be not as vocal. They’re not putting signs out, and they’re not as vocal about their support as the Trump people.”
TRUMP SUPPORT IS STRONG
Two and a half hours north of Portland on U.S. Route 201, there are few houses and just a handful of businesses – most of them whitewater rafting and outdoors-based – on the main thoroughfare through The Forks. Logging trucks are as common as passenger vehicles, and there are just two restaurants open for dinner on a weeknight in late October.
The Forks was one of 34 plantations in Maine as of 2016, according to the Maine Municipal Association. Typically located in rural, heavily forested and sparsely populated areas, plantations generally provide fewer services than larger communities, are governed by a board of assessors rather than the select boards typical in Maine towns, and have less local control, particularly over land use.
Ask anyone in the area where the best place is to go to talk to people, and they’ll point you to Berry’s store. The store opens at 5 a.m., though owner Gordon Berry gets there about 4:30 to prepare for the rush of hunters and construction workers that come even as it’s still dark outside.
At first, Berry is reluctant to talk about the election. “It’s a tough situation for a business,” he said. “I don’t like to tell people I’m Republican or Democrat. I like to stay neutral.”
As Berry checks out customers, he chats with them about hunting and the weather. Later, he said he supported Trump and thought the economy was better under the former president.
“He seemed like he did things for all the people,” said Berry, who has run the store for decades and took it over from his parents, who opened it in 1963. “And the border – it’s unbelievable. He had it pretty much secured it seemed like.”
Kim and Andy Webb, who live across the street from the store, also support Trump.
“I wish he was younger and a little more polished, but I’ve been a fan of his for years,” said Andy Webb, who said he likes Trump’s policies on public safety and taxes.
He said he wasn’t surprised by the 2020 election results next door in The Forks. “We have a pretty diverse population here,” said Andy Webb, 48. “A lot of the area is full of kids working in the whitewater industry and recreation. Kids are usually leaning a little more left, and that’s the crowd that will usually vote for Democrats or independents.”
“He’s not really a politician,” Kim Webb said when asked why she likes Trump. She said the border is a key issue for her. “They come through this way, too, (from Canada),” Webb said, adding that she thinks immigration is impacting the cost of living.
Thibodeau, the Trump supporter who was stopping for a coffee, also said the cost of living and economy are key reasons why he is voting for the former president. “The economy sucks, and we need Trump back in there to fix it,” he said.
Thibodeau, who lives in Moscow, about 25 miles south, services portable toilets for a living. His pay has gone up the last few years, but it hasn’t kept up with inflation. And he says he no longer gets the tips he used to a few years ago.
“I used to get $100 and $150 tips at the end of the season, and now I’m lucky if I get a $10 tip,” he said. “People don’t have the extra money to spare. And neither do I. I’m paycheck to paycheck.”
A reporter who visited The Forks last week did not meet any Democrats or Harris supporters outside the store, except for two people who were not willing to have their names published.
One of them, a 68-year-old Waterville man who was in the area for work, did not want to say publicly that he is backing Harris because his family is very divided over the election. “She was the lesser of two evils,” said the man, who is unenrolled. “And I think she would at least bring more sanity to the White House.”
And, of course, there are also some people who come to this remote part of Maine to get away from politics.
“The world’s burning. Leave us alone. We’re in the woods,” Evan Dewey said.
Dewey, 31, lives in West Forks and works as a rafting guide and doing odd jobs. He doesn’t normally vote and said there are too many arguments from both major political parties.
“I’ll see what’s happening on both sides, and (it’s like), ‘That was stupid,’ and ‘That was stupid, too,’ ” he said.
A MELTING POT IN RURAL MAINE
Russell Walters started coming to The Forks in the early 1980s for kayaking on the Kennebec River and now serves as president of Northern Outdoors, a whitewater rafting outfitter and resort that employs about 35 people year-round and over 130 in the summer.
Originally from England, he said the area’s natural resources and recreational opportunities – the rivers and lakes, the Appalachian Trail and snowmobile and ATV trails – have attracted a wide variety of people.
“Some of them will come here because it’s been their family home forever,” he said. “Some are new to the region. Some are working in the forest and the woods. Some are involved in travel and tourism. Would I say you could equally match half and half? Not necessarily, but I do think this area attracts a wide range of opinions and residents, all really brought about by the outdoors.”
When it comes to the election, Walters didn’t want to share whom he plans to vote for. But he’ll be happy when it’s over, because elections tend to bring a downturn in tourism as people face the uncertainty of what will happen, he said.
“It’s a question that, when we’re in the back of boats guiding people down rivers, we try not to get involved in, but it is a question you often hear sitting at the bar,” Walters said. “ ‘What do you think is going to happen?’ ”
Addison Kemp-Webb, Andy Webb’s daughter, works as a bartender, server and housekeeper in The Forks. She said the COVID-19 pandemic provided an economic boost to the area as people sought to avoid crowded urban areas and get outdoors.
“Now that COVID has died down, it’s like we’re not doing that well,” said Kemp-Webb, who suggested that could be behind a shift in political leanings.
This is the first presidential election the 19-year-old will vote in, and she said she’s been paying as much attention to it as she can outside of work. She didn’t enroll in a party when she registered to vote and said she is still undecided as to whom she will vote for.
“I honestly don’t think either of our choices are that great,” Kemp-Webb said.
She leans Republican but said the fact that she is “more pro-choice” is holding back her support for Donald Trump.
“I seem to side slightly more Republican, but the biggest (issue) for me is pro-life versus pro-choice,” Kemp-Webb said. “I can almost get behind most of the Republican side until that point.”
FORMER REPUBLICAN SENATOR SUPPORTS HARRIS
Former Republican state Sen. Howard Trotsky’s house in Caratunk, just south of The Forks, has a rare sign for Harris in the front yard. Trotsky used to have a larger wooden sign that he made and that read, “This is Harris country.” But the sign was vandalized – it was pushed into the ground, and the American flags attached to it were broken off – and then disappeared, he said.
“It bothers me because I made an effort to do something different and make my own sign and put money into it, and it’s gone,” said Trotsky, 84.
He made a spare that he plans to put up in a tree where it would be harder to damage or steal. “I let them know this is Harris country, and I think it irritates them (Trump supporters),” he said.
Trotsky represented Bangor in the Maine Legislature from 1974 to 1982.
Although a Republican, Trotsky provided a long list of things he doesn’t like about the former president: He blames immigrants for the country’s problems, he’s too old and rambling, he was responsible for the Jan. 6 insurrection and he’s denied the results of the 2020 election.
“People don’t understand that our president should be a leader in the world,” Trotsky said. “To me, my country is more important than my party. My country is first and, yes, there are two parties, but the Republican Party today feeds on conspiracies. … All they want to do is talk about persecuting transgender people, persecuting gays, and they’re just all for guns. They want laws with no exceptions for abortions. This is insane. It’s not the Republican Party that I joined.”
Trotsky said he knows of some neighbors who also support Harris, but he has heard from a few local men who say they won’t support her. “I think there are a lot of macho guys up here, and they basically feel a woman is not tough,” he said.
UNENROLLED OUTNUMBER EACH PARTY
At The Forks Town Hall, Clerk Susan Hathaway is busy preparing to run her first presidential election since she took over the role a year ago. She was surprised to hear of the 18-18 vote here in 2020.
“I didn’t even know it was tied like that,” she said from her desk at the Town Hall on the one day of the week the office is open for business. “And I am surprised, because we have a lot more of what I would consider Republican-siding people than Democrats.”
There are 46 active registered voters in The Forks, including 16 unenrolled voters, eight Democrats, seven Green Independents and 15 Republicans. Those numbers include two voters from nearby Moxie Gore who are registered in The Forks, according to the state. (Voters in unorganized territories around the state like Moxie Gore vote in nearby towns and cities because they don’t have a municipality of their own to conduct their elections.)
Personally, Hathaway said, she and her husband, Charlie Hathaway, both struggled to get behind one of the candidates. Both are unenrolled.
The couple moved up to their camp in The Forks from Gray in 2017 and enjoy being able to walk their three dogs and Maine Coon cat, Moxie, down their street without leashes. One neighbor farther down the road lives off the grid and uses the Hathaways’ house to receive packages, since their location is too remote to get anything delivered.
“It is very quiet in the wintertime. It’s unbelievable,” said Susan Hathaway, who retired from a career in engineering and now has a small business selling moose leather bags and wallets when she’s not at the town office.
“I’m one of those Nikki Haley supporters,” said Hathaway, 64. “I think Donald Trump is too negative and has too much childish behavior that really does not appeal to me at all.”
Still, Hathaway will probably vote for him. “I think she’s way more liberal than I personally am and, secondly, I don’t trust that what she’s saying is true. (I think) that … she will change her views depending on who is speaking with her,” she said of Harris.
Charlie Hathaway, the second assessor in The Forks, voted for Trump in 2016. But, he said, “after four years of that, I was like, ‘Are you kidding me?’ ”
He voted for Biden in 2020 and is undecided so far this year, he said. “I’m pretty torn up because I don’t care for either of them, to be honest,” he said.
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