SWANNANOA, North Carolina — When Hurricane Helene swept through this corner of Appalachia, Bob Butcher responded to the death and destruction by handing out the New Testament. He soon ran out of Spanish-language copies.
That experience — seeing immigrants reach for resources after a disaster — was top of mind for the 74-year-old retiree this week as he cast his ballot for former President Donald Trump.
Immigration “is a very, very important issue, because it takes resources away from the citizens,” Butcher said. His wife, Teresa Butcher, agreed: “We’re in such a state now that we can’t help everybody plus ourselves.”
Amid the shuttered storefronts and bustling aid stations that still dot western North Carolina nearly a month after Helene’s climate-fueled flooding, which left at least 95 people in the state dead, several voters told POLITICO’s E&E News that their biggest concern is what’s happening a thousand miles away at the U.S.-Mexico border.
