Carter Beloved In Hometown, But Many Voting For Trump

In southwest Georgia, the hamlet of Plains is synonymous with former US president Jimmy Carter, a Democrat who grew up on a nearby peanut farm. Yet if yard signs are any indication, Republican Donald Trump is the big man in town.

As crowds gathered for Carter's 100th birthday this week, observers could see what might seem like a contradiction anywhere else: signs celebrating Carter in the same yard as placards for Trump's presidential campaign.

Carter "always loved on this town, loved on the people and loved on the place," Mitchell Smith told AFP endearingly.

The 48-year-old, who was raised several miles from Plains and has family members personally acquainted with Carter, will nonetheless be voting for Trump.

"There's nothing in the Democratic platform I can align with," he said.

The two politicians' political styles are on opposite ends of the spectrum -- with Trump well known for his bombast and tirades, while Carter is often described as decent and civil.

"On a personal level (Trump) is not very attractive to me," said Smith, who directs a nonprofit Christian ministry. "But our politics do align."

Traditionally, rural regions and white evangelical Christians have greater Republican voting rates, while Black Americans vote more Democratic -- Sumter County, where Plains is located, has a strong contingent of both populations.

For the last 19 months, Carter has been in hospice care in his modest house that he shared with his late wife Rosalynn.

His family has said he is aiming to stay alive long enough to vote for Harris in the upcoming presidential election.

Plains, population approximately 600, is strewn with homages to its native son, such as a goofy roadside peanut statue with Carter's infamous grin, or an enormous downtown banner heralding Plains as his hometown.

Even his home, surrounded by a tall fence and guarded by a Secret Service station, is a notable site for tourists.

Yet the houses just down the road display Trump 2024 signs.

And at a number of sites that bear witness to Carter's life -- like his high school or the town's historic downtown -- the placards are also in easy eyeshot.

Harris signs are comparatively few.

"One of my closest friends is a very staunch Trump supporter, and when he comes in here to talk, if you say anything about Vice President Harris, he's going to walk out," Carter's niece, Kim Fuller, told AFP.

But recently when they were discussing her uncle and looking at his photo, she said, he broke down in nostalgic tears.

"The people with Trump signs in their yard get offended when people say it's a form of disrespect to (Carter), because they love him for the most part," she said.

Sumter County voted 52 percent for Joe Biden in 2020 against Trump, who received 47 percent of the vote. It's part of a small cluster of counties in the state's southwest to have gone for Biden.

"I was surprised they even allow a Trump sign in this county," Rick Pape, who was visiting downtown Plains on Carter's birthday, said jokingly given its status as the ex-president's fiefdom.

The 76-year-old, who does not like Trump, nonetheless regrets that "there's unfortunately so much division that's been sown."

Georgia is among the key swing states where the US election will be decided in just five weeks' time, with Harris and Trump battling tooth and nail for the rare undecided voter.

Despite Plains's ties to one of the nation's preeminent Democrats, many have firmly made their mind for Trump.

How would Carter feel about that?: "He wouldn't like it," his niece Fuller said.

But she added, he "would respect" it.