It is scary to think gritty patches like southeastern Ohio can sway this election.

"Bush put $447 million into coal research last year," Mr. Williams said. "Kerry is a tree hugger." Besides, he said, "Kerry would just tax me."

Annual per capita income in the county in 2001, the last year for which statistics are available, was less than $17,000, and 10 percent of the population lived below the poverty line. A third of the houses were built before World War II, and more than half of the new births here are to teenagers. Almost 99 percent of the residents are white.