HOMER — They gathered downtown at Banks County’s Veterans Memorial Park, right next to the old courthouse.
At the picnic shelter, they hung American flags on almost every available space. On top of folding tables adorned with patriotic-themed coverings, they served up pulled pork and baked beans. They poured iced tea into red, white and blue cups.
If not for the signs, they might have looked like any other Banks County group celebrating the Fourth of July. But the signs — promoting Joe Biden and Kamala Harris and displaying donkeys in stars and stripes — made sure that all passersby knew they were viewing something rare indeed: Banks County Democrats.
All of it made 90-year-old Mary Ellen Myers extremely proud as she passed out watermelon slices and nudged the nearly three dozen folks gathered to get more plates of food.
Myers moved to Banks County more than two decades ago after a long career as a social worker. The county is one of the most conservative communities in the state, but Myers doesn’t shy away from expressing her opinions. There’s too much at stake, she says. She was for Biden. Now that he’s bowed out, she’s for Harris and her running mate, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz.
For a while, Myers had a sign at the end of her driveway that stated “Regulate Guns, Not Women.” She said people driving by routinely threw trash in its direction. But, for the most part, her outlier status hasn’t brought backlash from townspeople.
She’s written many letters to the editor that have appeared in the local newspaper, and she says she’s never received negative feedback, adding that “there’s some civility in this county.”
She pushes other local Democrats to pen letters, too.
“It explains where we are, what we are for,” she said.
Here’s what she’s for: Medicaid expansion, women’s ability to make medical decisions about their own bodies, more gun regulations and internet access in rural communities. Here’s what she’s against: partisan U.S. Supreme Court justices, Christians who are hypocritical and conspiracy theories.
This summer has brought shocking moments in the presidential race. An assassination attempt was made on former President Donald Trump. An abysmal debate performance brought an end to Biden’s reelection bid, despite weeks of him saying he planned to remain in the race.
Now, Biden and former President Barack Obama have thrown their support behind Harris, who has hit the ground running. Some moderate Republicans — former Lt. Gov. Geoff Duncan, for instance, and a group calling itself (Nikki) Haley voters for Harris — say they’ll support her, too.
None of this is likely to change the majority of minds in Banks County.
Voters here went 88.5% for Trump in 2020. The county hasn’t favored a Democrat for president since Georgian Jimmy Carter. That leaves some Democrats who live in Banks County feeling like outsiders, especially since Trump’s political rise nearly a decade ago.
After the local newspaper photographed Sandra Ward at the July Fourth get-together and the picture appeared in print, she felt all eyes were on her.
The lifelong Banks County resident was in the waiting room at her doctor’s office, she said, when “somebody said they saw me in the paper.”
“I felt like everybody in there was looking at me,” Ward said.
Larry Erb, another Democrat, said people in his neighborhood often met for potluck dinners. Adults mingled, and kids played together. The gatherings slowed and then stopped after Trump became president in 2016.
“People started isolating themselves and closed themselves off,” said Erb, who has lived in Banks County since 1979.
Many of the county’s Democrats expressed confusion about why Trump has such a hold on the people of northeast Georgia.
“He tried to overthrow the government,” said Nancy Lehman, vice chair of the Democratic committee. “He tried to pull off a coup.”
Clifton Ward, Sandra’s husband, thinks most Trump voters in Banks County are focused on abortion, guns or taxes.
“Most of them support Trump because they think he’ll let them do what they want to do,” he said. “They don’t care about anything else.”
Credit: Seeger Gray / AJC
Credit: Seeger Gray / AJC
Elaine Gerke is chair of the Banks County Democratic Committee. She and her husband live on a road dotted by seven other houses that are occupied by people who are likely not of their political persuasion. The neighbors know each other, like each other and can count on each other, she said.
“I’m sure they know where I stand politically,” she said. “We just don’t talk about it. I do want to have some conversations this time around about who they’re voting for and why because it doesn’t make sense to us.”
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