Author: Skylar Baker-Jordan

Megan Gandy, from Morgantown, West Virginia, began singing and playing guitar on her front porch for friends, family and her community through Facebook live. Photo: Kristen Uppercue/100 Days in Appalachia
Megan Gandy, from Morgantown, West Virginia, began singing and playing guitar on her front porch for friends, family and her community through Facebook live. Photo: Kristen Uppercue/100 Days in Appalachia

Welcome to Front Porch Politics!

It was on the muddy banks of the Scioto River that Hillary Clinton’s electoral ship began sinking in 2016. At a CNN townhall in Columbus, Ohio, Clinton – then in a heated primary battle against Senator Bernie Sanders of Vermont – infamously said, “We’re going to put a lot of […]

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Loretta Lynn waves to the crowd after performing during the Americana Music Honors and Awards show Wednesday, Sept. 17, 2014, in Nashville, Tennessee. Lynn, the Kentucky coal miner’s daughter who became a pillar of country music, died on October 4, 2022, at her home in Hurricane Mills, Tennessee. She was 90. Photo: Mark Zaleski/AP Photo.

Remembering the Legacy of the ‘Coal Miner’s Daughter’ Who Rewrote the Appalachian Narrative

I don’t remember the first time I heard “Coal Miner’s Daughter.” The song has been a familiar hymn from infancy, a lullaby my grandmother would sing along with “You Are My Sunshine” and “Rock-a-Bye Baby.”  You see, like Loretta Lynn herself, my grandmother was a coal miner’s daughter from eastern […]

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An election official places a sign as voters line up outside a polling place at the Fogelsville Volunteer Fire Co., Tuesday, Nov. 8, 2016, in Fogelsville, Pennsylvania. Photo: Matt Slocum/AP Photo

Opinion: What the Left Doesn’t Understand about Rural America

To win in rural communities, Democrats need to show up and help, not heckle. Earlier this month, a small Twitter spat erupted between mystery writer Don Winslow and Tessa Duvall, an investigative reporter with the Louisville Courier-Journal. Winslow, well known as a liberal activist, kicked it off by tweeting, “The two senators […]

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