WHEELING, WEST VIRGINIA - As I arrive for the Bernie Sanders rally at the historic Capitol Theater in Wheeling, the first thing I notice is an alleyway with a raging party across the street. Above the crowd of people dancing and talking, over 400 red bandanas are tied together and strung above the alleyway.
"There are so many red bandanas," the party's organizer, Spencer Porter, tells me, "because of the history of the red bandana in West Virginia, in 1921, striking mine workers of all races. The miners wore red bandanas around their necks, showing solidarity for the fight we're still fighting today. We're fighting those in power who exploit us, and we're doing so right now. So we wear these because we are proud rednecks."
In 2024, Trump won the state of West Virginia with 70% of the voters in favor of him. But as progressive activists in West Virginia try to regain power, they have been wearing red bandanas to remind themselves of West Virginia's political heritage.
While many have written off West Virginia as Trump Country, the young leftists have taken to wearing red bandanas to parties around Wheeling.
"They know their history," says Porter, pointing to the red bandana hipsters dancing in the alleyway. "Because if you know your history, you can hoist yourself on those shoulders and build forward, but if you don't know your history, you don't have pride, and you have nothing to work towards."
Following the pandemic, many college-educated young people have been returning to Wheeling, which has invested in revitalizing its downtown and waterfront to make it attractive. Its helped rebuild the progressive movement there.
In 2021, Porter, a Wheeling native, returned after living in Los Angeles for six years. At first, she thought she'd stay in Wheeling for a summer while she attempted to move to New York, but she quickly found herself getting involved in the growing movement in Wheeling. She has now even founded a new quarterly publication about Wheeling called Milkteeth.
"Our community is unmatched, and there's so many individuals with such unique talents and experiences," says Porter. "It’s all so hyperconnected that people feel like they can get help finding jobs here or starting new businesses."
In 2024, Porter and other young leftists were involved in forming a nonprofit called Why Don't You Stay a While that attempts to create a community for young people returning to the small West Virginia city. They have created a group chat with over 300 progressives in Wheeling to coordinate actions and events, adding much-needed energy not just to the city's nightlife but to community organizing. Since the pandemic, several organizations in Wheeling have been founded.
Organizing Makes Wheeling More Attractive for Young People
Wheeling has lost more than half of its population since World War II, and only 27,000 people live there. However, in recent years, especially since the pandemic, there's been an influx of people moving back. Located in the Appalachian Mountains along the Ohio River, just over an hour from Pittsburgh and two hours from Columbus, Wheeling has seen an influx of young people looking for affordable housing.
Many are attracted to the outdoor scene in Wheeling. The city itself boasts Oglebay, a 1,600-acre park containing miles of trails, gardens, and a pristine amphitheater. The town also holds the distinction of being the smallest city in America to have a minor league hockey team, the Wheeling Nailers, an affiliate of the Pittsburgh Penguins.
In recent years, the city has seen a resurgence in nightlife. Waterfront Hall, a new music and bar venue, has helped bring new energy to the city's riverfront, which now boasts 14 miles of biking trails. This year, Wheeling passed a law that allows people to drink downtown in designated outdoor areas, bringing new energy into Wheeling's growing cultural scene.
Zane Miller, an interactive installation artist, says that he moved back from Columbus during the pandemic to help with his grandfather, who was struggling with health issues. Now, he thinks it would be hard to leave, given how supportive the environment is in Wheeling.
"Wheeling is good for me because I have the freedom to do what I want, when I want, where other large cities require long-term planning to accomplish what I want creatively," says Miller. "I can make my art and show it right away where other cities have galleries that need to be applied for sometimes years in advance."
Along with the resurgence in nightlife has been a resurgence in political organizing.
In 2020, the Mother Jones Center for Resilient Community was founded to help combat chronic poverty in Wheeling.
"We host art programming for people in the community who don't always have access to a lot of arts programming, so art classes," says Hannah Hendrick. "Then we also do outreach to other marginalized groups, folks experiencing homelessness, people living in poverty, and we try to elevate their voices however we can."
The Mother Jones Center publishes a newspaper, the Mustard Seed Mountain Street Paper, addressing economic and racial justice issues in Wheeling. Sold by unhoused individuals for $1, the entire amount goes directly to the vendor.
The media in Wheeling has been dominated by the billionaire Nuttings family, the infamous owners of the Pittsburgh Pirates, who also own Wheeling's only newspaper, the combined Wheeling Intelligencer and News-Register.
For years, the newspaper had a policy of not covering labor strikes in Wheeling, fearing it would drive away advertisers. However, new publications have since emerged, telling the story of working people.
In 2020, John Russell, who grew up in nearby Wellsville, moved back to Wheeling and launched The Holler. The Holler and Payday Report teamed up on several occasions to cover strikes in Huntington, West Virginia and Erie, Pennsylvania. Since then, Russell has won an Emmy award for his work with More Perfect Union, covering the stories of Appalachian people that are often ignored.
Other new media projects have also launched, like the Wheeling Free Press, providing coverage that the Nutting-owned paper has ignored.
When a local flood killed five in June and damaged hundreds of homes, the Wheeling Free Press led the way in round-the-clock coverage of the cleanup. Their coverage helped to amplify the work of groups like Ohio Valley Mutual Aid (OVMA).
"We just started getting supplies and volunteers, and it just kind of grew from there," says Polly Barks of OVMA. "And we cleaned hundreds of houses. Hundreds of people, well over 800 volunteers from the community show up and do all this free work, and now we're just trying to build on that excitement and energy and keep that going in times that aren't a crisis."
She says that mutual aid has helped bring many people into the political movement.
"I think we have people in our group who have no interest in electoral politics," says Polly Barks. "We have people who have done a ton of work here today for Bernie, and it can be whatever you make it. And I think that's kind of the beautiful part of mutual aid. It's plugging into your community and really seeing where your skills and the needs align, and us being able to facilitate that."
Bernie's Visit to Wheeling Fuels Growing Movement
Bernie's visit to Wheeling seems like a recognition of the hard work done by activists.
"So many of us feel like we're alone," says Porter. "But when Bernie comes for a massive rally like this, we don't feel like we're outnumbered here, when somebody like that can come to our town and we can all get together, we can feed off this energy and realize we're not alone, and then take that energy, take those resources, and turn them into power."
The energy outside of the rally was electric as people lined up for blocks to get into the Capitol Theater to see Bernie.
"Bernie coming to town is the biggest thing to happen in Wheeling in a long time," says Wheeling native Troy Miller, an activist with the West Virginia Democratic Party.
The energy was also electric inside the Capitol Theater. The historic Theater has 2,300 seats, and there were hardly any left empty.
As Bernie came to the platform, he was greeted by hundreds wearing red bandanas.
"I was told that West Virginia was a conservative state, somebody got it wrong," Bernie said to roaring cheers.
In 2016, Bernie won the West Virginia Democratic primary with 123,680 votes, winning all 55 counties. He still has special resonance in the state, which is why the local media show up. With local West Virginia TV stations broadcasting his speech, Bernie went after Trump hard in a state where such critiques are not often broadcast on the local news.
"I want to say a word to folks in West Virginia and in fact across the country who kind of believed what Trump was saying during the campaign. Trump talked a good game. But this is
what in fact he has done," said Bernie Sanders. "Trump did not campaign (on), not that I heard, and I paid attention, that he was going to give a trillion dollars in tax breaks to the top 1%."
As Bernie tears into Trump, the crowd cheers. However, the loudest cheers of the night came when Bernie said, "I have led the effort in the United States Senate to stop funding this horrific Netanyahu war against the people of Gaza."
As Bernie attempts to move on, he is forced to stop his speech for a minute as the entire audience stands with some shouting, "Let Gaza Live."
Bernie's speech is stark in its analysis of the rising tide of fascism, but he implores that they can still win.
"What we have got to do and the reason I'm here in West Virginia, I'm not here just to give a speech. I am here to beg you to organize around this state. Working class people organized to stand up and fight the fights that have to be fought," says Sanders as the red bandana-clad audience stands up and cheers.
"Brothers and sisters, I know that West Virginia has a history of being one of the great trade union states in America, " says Sanders. "And we remember the incredible courage of your coal miners and others who stood up against corporate greed."
As he closes, Bernie implores the crowd in Wheeling to build on the organizing that they are already doing.
"Our job is to bring our people together around an agenda that works for all of us," says Sanders. "So, West Virginia, West Virginia, this is a working class state. Let's start electing people who represent the working class, not the billionaires."
As Bernie leaves the auditorium, groups like Ohio Valley Mutual Aid have set up a table and are recruiting people to answer Bernie's call to get involved in organizing.
"Bernie is here. That's great. He's bringing energy. He's leaving tomorrow," says Polly Barks of Ohio Valley Mutual Aid. "We actually have a very specific follow up, which is tomorrow we have our last three homes of the flood to clean out. So we actually have had volunteers sign up to go out and finish power-washing basements tomorrow morning."
"We all get excited about a rally or hearing a really good speech, but then you go home and you go back to work, and you go scrub someone's basement," says Barks.
