This sudden shift to the right in the results revealed what residents and officials say it’s a long-standing change in communities on Cape Cod’s gateway. The growing economic frustration that has contributed to Trump’s rise across the country is felt acutely in Fall River, one of the poorest cities in the state and a country in which the electorate is also changing. In In interviews with the Globe, voters said they felt overwhelmed by inflation and rising housing prices, and hoping — some say knowing — that Trump would help ease economic woes.

“He is the man who can help us. And he will help us,” said Victorino Chaves, a 59-year-old Republican from Fall River, who said he voted for President Biden four years ago to “give him a chance” but felt he didn’t. had finally “done nothing”, including to help. stem the flow of undocumented immigrants into the country.

“It then seems like they’re helping them before they’re helping us,” Chaves said of elected officials. “I think (Trump) will do something. I know he will.

Republican gains were not limited to a single city. Justin Thurber, a Republican challenger to a longtime Democratic president, won his race for state representative in neighboring Somerset, another South Coast community that Trump flipped. Trump, for the first time in three elections, won nearby Westport, the hometown of the state Senate’s powerful Democratic budget leader. He also increased his vote share across the region, from cities he won in 2020 to New Bedford, another Democratic stronghold where he lost but took 45% of the vote last week.

It was Fall River, however, that saw the most dramatic change, with Trump capturing 50% of the vote after losing the city by 12 percentage points in 2020. The victory was also historic, according to an analysis of election results from the Globe: The Last Republican Presidential The candidate to take the city was Coolidge, a former governor of Massachusetts, in 1924.

“This change has been going on for 10 years,” said Paul Coogan, Fall River’s third-term mayor and a Democrat. “It’s a constant drumbeat of basic questions. (Voters) want lower costs. They want to pay less money for insurance, less money for food, less money for gas. They listened to Trump’s message and were able to forget about all the craziness and focus on that.”

Many in Fall River feel this economic anxiety more than most. Once a major textile manufacturer, the city has a median household income of less than $53,000, one of the lowest in the state and three times lower than that of Newton, an affluent Boston suburb where median sales price of a home last year nearly $1.7 million. Newton sits on the opposite end of the same congressional district.

Melyssa Nogueira, 20-year-old pre-law student at Roger Williams University and voting for the first time, said it was squarely economic concerns that swung his vote in favor of Trump.

“I plan on owning a home, so being able to afford things in the future is definitely a big concern for me,” said Nogueira, who describes herself as a right-wing independent who remembers when the economy was best during Trump’s first term. term.

“Just being able to afford things (was) a lot easier,” she said.

Jefferson Moises, 52, a naturalized Brazilian American who runs an auto repair business in Fall River, said all costs are increasing, from food to car maintenance. A registered independent, he said he voted for Trump.

“I have lived in this country for 25 years,” he said. “I’ve never seen him this bad.”

As elsewhere in Massachusetts, there is a lack of affordable housing in Fall River, putting a strain on an already tight real estate market. More than 60 percent of the city’s households are renters, said Judith Liben, a housing attorney at the Massachusetts Law Reform Institute, and their costs have also risen sharply.

The median rent for a home in the city was $1,700 as of Monday, up 13% from last year, according to the real estate platform. Zumper.com.

“There is indeed a critical crisis at the moment, particularly for tenants, and it is worse than ever. So yes, people are angry and frustrated and looking for solutions,” Liben said.

The city’s changing demographics may also have played a role. Fall River has one of the highest concentrations of Portuguese Americans, but its The Latin American population also has doubled since 2010. Latinos now make up 13% of the city’s predominantly white, working-class population — two cohorts that Trump particularly popular in Massachusetts and beyond.

That doesn’t make Fall River all that different from other formerly Democratic pockets that turned to Trump this year, said Doug Roscoe, a political science professor at the University of Massachusetts Dartmouth.

“You have economic sensitivity and you have a large and growing Latino population. That explains why this region “leaned so heavily toward Trump, he said.

The growing number of Latinos may have had another effect, said Coogan, the city’s mayor: Among Portuguese Americans who “came legally” to the United States, they view the city change as an attack on what they know.

“In people’s minds, they are being driven out of the country by illegal immigrants,” he said. “They are truly hometown people, and Fall River is their hometown. If they got their way, they would keep Fall River as it was, with a Portuguese dominance. »

To be sure, Democrats still hold many elected offices in Fall River and beyond on the South Coast. While the share of Democratic voters has steadily declined in Fall River and elsewhere in Massachusettstwo of the city’s state representatives are Democrats who were re-elected unopposed this year. Ditto for its state senator Michael Rodrigues, a Democrat from Westport, and its congressman, Jake Auchincloss. Sen. Elizabeth Warren also won Fall River in her own re-election campaign, with 52 percent of the vote.

Unofficial results show Steven Ouellette, a Westport Democrat, also won an open state representative seat that covers parts of Fall River and New Bedford, as well as Acushnet, the community. where Trump performed best in Massachusetts. His Republican challenger said he I would request a recount.

The decline of Democratic dominance at the top of the ticket, however, took years. Since Obama’s re-election in 2012, the Democrats’ margin of victory has continued to shrink with each subsequent presidential election. Hillary Clinton received 58 percent of the vote, followed by President Biden with 55 percent in 2020, before the city completely flipped last week, when Trump won with just 47 percent of the city’s registered voters casting ballots.

Sarah Custadio, 33, a stay-at-home mom who was walking one recent afternoon in Fall River with her 10-month-old baby, said she supports Harris because she considers her “the lesser of two evils.” But she voted with feeling uncertain about Harris’ ability to meet economic expectations.

“The economy is just a shit show right now,” Custadio said.

The fallout has left South Coast Democrats, like many others around the country, searching for their own answers. State Rep. Alan Silvia, a moderate Democrat from Fall River, said he has long warned others in his party that his party is “too far left” and too often focuses on social issues. Trump’s victory, he said, “shows a sign of things to come.”

“We need to focus on the issues that really matter most to people.,“, said Silvia. “This is a big wake-up call.

Matt Stout can be contacted at [email protected]. Follow him @mattpstout. Omar Mohammed can be contacted at [email protected]. Follow him on Twitter (X) @shurufu.