President-elect Donald Trump won the historically blue town of Fall River, Massachusetts on Tuesday, flipping the city red after decades of residents voting blue.
While the state of Massachusetts ultimately elected Vice President Kamala Harris, Trump unexpectedly won the city of Fall River within Bristol County, shocking Democrats who previously saw the city as a Democratic stronghold. Trump experienced a surge of support across Bristol County, though the county still ultimately voted for Harris.
"Now, it's flipped," said Fall River Mayor Paul Coogan, a Democrat who's been in office since 2020, to WPRI Target 12 on Wednesday.
"The city is trending in a conservative way right now," he continued. "People tie the inflation issues to the Biden administration. I think they don't like our homeless population and, while Fall River is a welcoming city, they think the residents who are from here should go first."
The last time the city voted for a Republican presidential nominee was in 1956, for former President Dwight Eisenhower.
"Here's a stunning statistic: In the 1996 presidential election in Bristol County, 47K people voted Republican, 127K voted Democrat," The Herald News editor Dan Medeiros wrote on X (formerly Twitter). "Yesterday, 129K people voted Republican, and ... 129K voted Democrat."
here's a stunning statistic: In the 1996 presidential election in Bristol County, 47K people voted Republican, 127K voted Democrat. Yesterday, 129K people voted Republican, and ... 129K voted Democrat
— Dan Medeiros (@ManVsTweets) November 6, 2024
The lack of competitive local races are what many attribute to the surge of Trump support in the county. Voter turnout in Fall River totaled 47%, a 15-point decrease from what it was in 2020.
"I believe with what we've seen with regards to the overwhelming support for President Trump has everything to do with Democrats, independents and Republicans being impacted in their families and their neighborhoods," said former Bristol County Sheriff Thomas Hodgson, a Trump supporter who was appointed honorary chair of Trump's 2020 Massachusetts reelection campaign.
"Every week families are reminded when they go to the grocery store -- how outrageous the prices are at the gas pumps," Hodgson continued.
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