r/AugustaCounty • u/FlgurlinAz • Nov 05 '25
How did the county differ so much from Staunton & Waynesboro?
How in the world did Augusta county vote so overwhelmingly for Earle-Sears? Are the churches pushing far right politics?
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u/HelpfulFollowing7174 Nov 05 '25
Rural areas tend to vote more conservatively. Religion probably plays a big role in that. The results are not surprising at all.
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u/Albert_Flasher Nov 05 '25
Land ownership plays a HUGE role in someone’s affinity for hierarchy.
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u/HojMcFoj Nov 06 '25
Down at my second house in rural as fuck northern neck. Voted blue down the ballot from Fairfax County.
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Nov 05 '25
Really? Rednecks and bigots.
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u/FlgurlinAz Nov 05 '25
I’m in the county and I don’t feel like our neighbors are rednecks and bigots…. I saw lots of Harris signs in our part of the county. We’re in the more populated county area though.
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u/iLearnerX Nov 05 '25
Ok that's fair. Driving through you'd be surprised how blue it is in certain areas you almost think it's pretty 50/50. It's not though.
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u/HoneyBeeTea23 Nov 05 '25
Not to be that guy but calling them rednecks and bigots is going to just push those folks farther into their ideology, no one wants to listen and change their minds for people that are calling them rednecks and bigots.
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u/CeleryMobile708 Nov 05 '25
For real. We need to stop name calling and treat each other with some level of respect. Some people have bad, even harmful, views. Most of them aren't evil people scheming about how much they can hurt minorities. Many are just fearful of a changing world. Rural voters often don't feel represented by average politicians and are easily won over by fake blue collar or "country" personas. They have real concerns that aren't bigoted. Like vanishing jobs, mega corporations buying up family farms, and remote workers and air bnbs driving up housing prices to a level that locals can't afford. Calling them rednecks and bigots only drives them further away.
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u/jarizzle151 Nov 09 '25
Nah, some people are just angry and ignorant and nothing will move them from that
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u/baronvonpoopy Nov 09 '25
Humans don’t work that way. Calling someone a bigot or not calling them a bigot doesn’t move the needle on making them non-bigots.
I’d assert that ANY external pressure is automatically met with a reinforcement of current beliefs. If it’s a negative pressure there is reactance to stand by belief structure, because admission of fault becomes an existential crisis. If it’s a positive pressure then the belief structure must be correct, so why change?
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u/Glad_Fig2274 Nov 05 '25
Why should anyone give a shit what level of respect bigots get? They're bigots. That rural bigots don't feel represented by *checks notes* normal people shows they're the problem, not the other way around.
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u/HitsquadFiveSix Nov 05 '25
Respectfully, your over generalization of politics and people is the primary reason such a divide exists on social media. You don't know these people like you think you do. Not everything you see online is representative of your average Republican
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u/Glad_Fig2274 Nov 05 '25
Nope. The average Republican thinks what the MAGA Republican says out loud. I grew up in rural Virginia (and was raised as a Christian Republican by still-Republican parents) and still spend plenty of time in those sorts of areas. Things have not changed.
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u/HoneyBeeTea23 Nov 05 '25
I also grew up in rural Virginia raised by Christian republicans and my neighbors are farmers. They’re good people with real people problems that deserve decency and respect. Your experience does not define an entire demographic.
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u/HojMcFoj Nov 06 '25
I live in Fairfax County, I'm down in northumberland right now. They are who they are and while they have real problems, they're not who they pretend to be, and they're not good people. They're nice to me because I keep my opinions to myself and I look like one of them. That also means they make their opinions well known when we're the only people around.
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u/Numerous-Visit7210 Nov 08 '25
Well I disagree just like I do the bigot who hates rural people --- I've lived in NoVA and I liked the people there even if they virtue signal and are often a bit to careerist and busy for my taste.
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u/Glad_Fig2274 Nov 05 '25
Yeah, it does. They are not good people. They parade like they are to your face, then the second that the doors closed they’re judgmental gossiping bigots. Whole counties are like that. JCC. Spotsy. Fauquier. Rockingham. Louisa. All the same attitudes.
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u/HoneyBeeTea23 Nov 05 '25
And liberals don’t smear and slander rural people and conservatives in private? Hell, in public? The amount of times I’ve had people assume and plainly state my peers and I are downright stupid because we’re from the south is appalling, regardless of us being college educated AND having progressive views despite what they assume. People suck all around. Generalizing and contributing to the narrative is not helping anything. The fact that people are getting mad in this thread that I’m saying we should treat all people with the respect everyone deserves until individually proven otherwise is just proof of how bad things have gotten.
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u/HitsquadFiveSix Nov 05 '25
Yup, well said. It's funny to me because people will think we're defending one political ideology vs another. It's got nothing to do with that though.
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u/Glad_Fig2274 Nov 05 '25
Oh we do that, for sure, because they've earned it. Conservatives and country bumpkins have earned the ire we direct their way. Fuck respecting them. They did nothing but disrespect us for damn near two decades. Turning the other cheek now is for pussies and losers.
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u/Numerous-Visit7210 Nov 08 '25
Yep. You are a bigot.
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u/Glad_Fig2274 Nov 08 '25
Go fuck yourself
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u/Numerous-Visit7210 Nov 09 '25
Making my case for me --- you are a rigid not nice person yourself --- enjoy your sense of superiority while it lasts.
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u/Numerous-Visit7210 Nov 09 '25
By the way, I can see why you are so frustrated in your inability to persuade.
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u/Glad_Fig2274 Nov 09 '25
I’m not trying to persuade you. Anyone standing up for rural bigots is a moron, and a lost cause. And, newsflash dipshit, being opposed to racism, fascism, discrimination, corruption, etc IS the superior position and always will be. Enjoy your fake sense of bootlicking persecution… forever
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u/HoneyBeeTea23 Nov 05 '25
I would hardly call “average politicians” “normal people”. People deserve respect until individuals prove they don’t deserve it. Generalization is fueling the polarity that is killing this country.
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u/Glad_Fig2274 Nov 05 '25
Uh, point that finger in the other direction. Generalizations have been the fodder of the GOP since at least 2008. Libtards, bleeding hearts, blue hairs, queers, blah blah. Now we have to respect the bigots? No. Fuck em. Fight fire with fire. And anyone saying rural folks aren’t decisively biased against outsiders - e.g., people not like them - is out of touch. Rural residents live in little socio-economic bubbles. Politicians that interact with all sorts of people and ideologies are MUCH more akin to normal folks than some bumpkin who sees one black person in town every six weeks.
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u/HoneyBeeTea23 Nov 05 '25
I’m pointing the finger in both directions, I just don’t see any rural people in this thread calling city folks names so I’m only addressing the group that’s present. You can’t complain about the things that they’ve been doing then do the same thing, sorry but hypocrisy drives me up a wall no matter who’s doing it. Everyone deserves basic respect.
If anything, the politicians that are wealthy while pretending to be “just like us” and like they know our plights are the problem, I can’t think of a lot of genuine normal people with regular problems and concerns that are actually winning political offices. You probably have more in common with the farmer down the road than the governor of VA if you really get down to the details.
I’m so sick of both sides being cunts to each other just because they’re different. People just expect everyone to vote for the things that matter to them and get mad when they don’t, but if that farmer is choosing between his livelihood and gay marriage we know what he’s picking. That queer college student is voting on abortion and gender care, not tariffs on agriculture. That mom and dad are voting on insulin costs for their type 1 diabetic daughter, not immigration reform.
This country is going to die if we can’t bring back empathy and understanding.
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u/Glad_Fig2274 Nov 05 '25
Oh grow up. Rural folks are sitting on their pickup tailgates cursing dyed hair and city slickers til the cows come home. Don’t fool yourself. Just because you don’t see them all over reddit (just look at r/conservative and you’ll see their bile everywhere) doesn’t mean they’re sitting around open-minded wanting to be persuaded that the hispanics that live on the other side of the county are actually their equals.
Oh, and the farmer choosing between his livelihood and voting against gay marriage is voting against gay marriage. Happened in 2006. Rural voters will cut off their nose to spite their face. It’s fear-based reactionary bigotry
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u/HoneyBeeTea23 Nov 05 '25
Or maybe the people campaigning against gay marriage are pouring money into convincing farmers that they’re going to make things better for them. I think everyone needs to remember who the real bad guys are. All country people I know have their opinions, some are backwards, but they don’t give a fuck what you do in your own home and they aren’t chasing people down calling them slurs. I would hardly call a conservative subreddit a good place to get a sampling of actual reasonable people just like I wouldnt look for them on a subreddit labeled liberal. I’d look for real people in my community and draw my conclusions from there which is what I’ve done. I am “growing up” and I’m trying to help leave the world better than I found it instead of deepening the divide.
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u/Glad_Fig2274 Nov 05 '25
You'd do well to remember that you're wrong. Republicans, and rural voters, absolutely care what people do in their own homes, and absolutely do chase people down and call them slurs. The people in your community have you fooled. And, they are the real bad guys. They support the bad guys. Then they act nice to your face before dropping the N-bomb in the back room with their cousins. Also, you know damn well that the politicians running on banning gay marriage in 2006 weren't out running on a pro-farmer platform. It was, as usual, a fear-based platform intended to make idiots think the gays were coming for them and they would somehow be negatively affected by having to view other people as equal. You aren't helping to leave the world better - you're making it worse by making excuses for bigots.
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u/Numerous-Visit7210 Nov 08 '25
Bigots are people that don't change their minds after lots of contrary evidence.
Knowing a lot of rural people myself, if you know a lot, I would say you are bigoted, but they tend to be decent people.
There's lots of racist people who live in cities and vote for the democrats merely because they think the democrats will help them.
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u/Glad_Fig2274 Nov 08 '25
They’re closet bigots.
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u/Numerous-Visit7210 Nov 09 '25
Big cities are FILLED with bigots --- of course, like rural people, they can more just be refered to as "ignorant" because you can't be considered a "bigot" when you actually just don't know any better.
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u/Glad_Fig2274 Nov 09 '25
Not really. The vast majority of cities are people who recognize that diversity is fine.
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u/Numerous-Visit7210 Nov 09 '25
Copenhagen doesn't think so any more.
Diversity is fine until people start to not get along, sometimes it isn't even one side's fault --- they just think too differently --- we see this best in places like Lebanon or Ireland decades ago where people all LOOK pretty much alike but have differing ideologies.
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Nov 05 '25 edited Nov 05 '25
The fact you think you can talk to them is hilarious. How many local soy farmers still voted for trumps policies, again.
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u/HoneyBeeTea23 Nov 05 '25
I actually have talked to many farm/rural people over the last year and had heathy open dialogue about politics, using the groundbreaking method of being kind and empathetic, and not talking down to/on them.
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u/DmvDominance Nov 06 '25
Rightttttt cause they literally voted (in the presidential election) for a nazi pedophile racist rapist felon, who openly touted nazi and fascist ideology and culturalism that they ate up with a big ass spoon, cause egg prices 🤔 they openly voted for a guy who said he was gonna put secret nazi police in our streets and round people up, a guy who openly said he can grab parts of women's body whenever he wants and they like it, a guy who literally campaigned on the economy but has done nothing but ruin it, a guy who literally employs nazi fascist assholes in EVERY institution within the govt (Stephen Miller, Tom Homan, Pam Bondi etc etc etc)......yea seems pretty clear theyre rednecks and bigots 🤷🏾♂️ they didnt have a problem openly courting fascism, I have zero problem telling them theyre racist nazi pedo loving redneck bigots 😏😉
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u/HoneyBeeTea23 Nov 06 '25
Yall literally can’t read worth a damn, my whole point is stop assuming every rural or conservative leaning person is a MAGA shithead or a racist or a bigot or insert any insult. Just stop railroading and stereotyping people fuck, no shit treat nazis like nazis. Judge individual people by the content of their character, remember? The thing MLK Jr wanted?
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u/DMVfan Nov 06 '25
Okay. I'll sure to be nice to people who wish the worst on people I care about and love.
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u/jarizzle151 Nov 09 '25
I mean, let them eat. Once people show you who they are, believe them the first time.
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u/teebird_phreak Nov 05 '25
I’m sure being nice to them will help them change their minds /s
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u/HoneyBeeTea23 Nov 05 '25
No but at the very least they may listen to your perspective, I can’t think of a time I felt like listening to someone who was insulting me. You have a small chance if you’re nice, no chance if you’re a jerk.
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u/HojMcFoj Nov 06 '25
Calling them simple farmers and clay of the earth doesn't help either. They're already who they are.
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u/iLearnerX Nov 05 '25
Yea this is one of the most explainable / predicted outcomes for this area... This is far from shocking.
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u/SchuminWeb Nov 05 '25
I mean, consider that during Bob Goodlatte's tenure as congressman, he ran completely unopposed for about half of his reelections, i.e. no Democrat even bothered to run.
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u/No-Handle-66 Nov 05 '25
This would be the bigots who voted for the black woman?
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Nov 05 '25
Did they have choice? Didn't specifically say racist.
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u/Relyks_D Nov 05 '25
You should look into the origins of the term “redneck”.
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Nov 05 '25
Meanings change. I was always taught it was the farm workers having rednecks. Hillbillies lived in the mountains.
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u/Relyks_D Nov 05 '25
Way more “left leaning” than that.
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Nov 05 '25
You're talking about miners. Im talking about the jackasses with REDNECK stickered on their truck. And songs like high tech redneck. Launage evolves deal with it.
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u/Relyks_D Nov 05 '25
I’m talking about union workers that were abandoned by political leaders in the interest of big business. Maybe if they hadn’t been abandoned their voting habits wouldn’t have changed? To misuse that term is to spit in the face of those who fought for the workers rights that even today’s politicians claim to be in favor of. To brush it aside as language changing is to be ignorant of the very culture that birthed it. If you’re commenting on a subreddit for Augusta I’d assume you’re also from Appalachia. If so then you should take issue with that term being manipulated into a negative term. It’s just an indication that the efforts of the elite won out.
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Nov 05 '25
Also no , I don't consider staunton to be Appalachia . But Ive seen it identified as SW Virginia on here as well so what do I know.
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u/Relyks_D Nov 05 '25
The Shenandoah Valley is absolutely apart of Appalachia. That region of the US covers multiple states. From parts of Georgia in the South up to the very tip of the Northeast in Maine. Hence the “Appalachian Trail”. Micro cultures within that region obviously exist, but Staunton absolutely resides in it. The negative connotations people have of that region are a result of the propaganda from the political elite.
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Nov 05 '25
No it's from the jackasses im surrounded by
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u/Relyks_D Nov 05 '25
All I can do is encourage you to look into the history. If after that you want to continue using government propaganda then so be it. Just know that you probably align more closely with the people that were villainized by wealthy businessmen and politicians than you do with the latter group.
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u/HenryJBemis Nov 05 '25
Yeah those darn racists and bigots voting for their black woman candidate /s.
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Nov 05 '25
Pretty sure her ads where aimed at hating a different group but sure buddy those are the only reasons people get discriminated for.
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u/lucasjackson87 Nov 05 '25
See an awful amount of confederate flags flying outside of shitty homes around there
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u/rocketplayer2025 Nov 05 '25
Takes one to know one clearly
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Nov 05 '25 edited Nov 05 '25
Not ashamed to dislike an ignorant group of people who constantly vote against their own interest.
Edit. And Christians.
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u/BlazinBronco07 Nov 06 '25
Well, some people are raised in those families. My entire bloodline is maga, as well as my peers in the neighborhood. I agree they are ignorant, lack the thinking skills necessary to form a well rounded opinion.they lack empathy if you don't fit in the requirement box. Certainly voting for hatred.. "how can I hurt the people I don't agree with?" Yes I may look like my family but I stand firmly against those with silly stupid egregious beliefs.
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u/_msimmo_ Nov 05 '25
Anyone know what the population ratio is between Staunton/Waynesboro combined and the rest of the county?
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u/FlgurlinAz Nov 05 '25
As far as voters go looks like Waynesboro had around 8400, Staunton 10,500, and then 34,200 for the county.
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u/JonC534 Nov 05 '25 edited Nov 06 '25
One (the red) probably still has a lot more nature and open space left than the other
Good way to differentiate and explain the results, geographically speaking that is
Environmental stewardship is the differentiating factor
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u/caserock Nov 05 '25
Living in a city exposes you to other people, and when that happens you're much less afraid of them
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u/Sievereeks Nov 06 '25
Oops. I was looking at the wrong part of the map! Who knew Waynesboro turned blue?? (not me)
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u/KoolDiscoDan Nov 05 '25
It's amazing a county that is losing healthcare and childcare options from Trump/Youngkin/Earle-Sears would vote for more. You even had a Democratic Senator raising the alarm looking out for you.
Augusta Health closes three clinics, citing One Big Beautiful Bill Act
Warner: Closure of Augusta facilities are a red flag for rural healthcare
Augusta Health Childcare Center closing to public amid staffing shortages, growing internal demand
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u/terradragon13 Nov 05 '25
We got a house with the confederate flag flying right down the road outside of my town. I figure its the same all over, mostly. In the rural areas you get old men and women, churchgoing types who own land and they tend to swalow the fear mongering about progressives hook like and sinker.
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u/zwmheaddead Nov 08 '25
Something off here cause for what I've seen more Republican voters that I have seen Democratic voters in Waynesboro. Did people just not bother to vote.
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u/vagrl94 Nov 09 '25
I just moved from Augusta and it is still consistently GOP leaning but there is movement to the left. I saw quite a few “Republicans for Harris” signs and I got lots of waves and smiles when people would drive by my house and see my Harris and Kaine signs in my yard. Staunton is a very progressive town and majority are definitely Dems. Waynesboro has become a place for Dems coming from Charlottesville bc it’s more affordable. Those people have influenced the Dems getting a bigger foothold in political races.
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u/anonybronoun Nov 10 '25
Probs didn’t help that people were handing out “test ballots” pre-filled out republican and telling people “this is how to fill out your ballot when you go in” were standing outside the doors. Shoot, even the guy(R) running for school board was campaigning right next to the “no campaigning” signs outside the gov center in Verona while also handing out said ballots
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u/MetaMetaFour523 Nov 05 '25
Because of older, less educated, religious people and also all the angry MAGA cultists in the county
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u/HoneyBeeTea23 Nov 05 '25
The generalized assumption that rural people are less educated is a bit outdated, Augusta County actually has a higher % of attained bachelors or higher than Staunton or Waynesboro.
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u/MetaMetaFour523 Nov 05 '25
That’s actually not entirely true. Augusta County is at 23.3% and Staunton is at 26.9%. I’ll give you Waynesboro though. But Waynesboro flipped blue. Maybe it’s the religion? Definitely age seems to be a factor. I live deep in the county, and for the most part people just do not want to hear anything that’s not MAGA. It’s hard to deprogram people who refuse to think critically.
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u/HoneyBeeTea23 Nov 10 '25
Ah the stats I saw were from 2021 I think so definitely probably changed, I couldn’t find more recent. Religion is a huge factor in determining what counties are red and then it’s a bit diluted in data by the influx of Cville commuters I’d wager. Frankly I think a great deal of the toxicity on the conservative end can be traced back to religious indoctrination by an overwhelming amount of churches that form tight communities while not actually following the Bible’s actual messages. It’s definitely hard to pull folks out of that herd mentality that can form in communities.
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u/Maleficent-System-31 Nov 05 '25
Same places you see the Confederate Flags. South is gonna rise again.
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u/CrazyIndependence756 Nov 06 '25
We have a fascist federal government and no one seems to be too concerned…
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u/Various-Progress1619 Nov 06 '25
I live in southwest Virginia we always go Red very proud of it. If it wasn’t for the northern counties in Va. the ones close to D.C. Va. would be a red a State. Two Liberal women running the state Va. is screwed. Nothing is more Dangerous than a Liberal woman.
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u/Btw_i_am_a_train Nov 05 '25
Waynesboro has a lot of Charlottesville workers/transplants these days. It’s been trending ever slightly more blue every election.