Qualla: Grant County, West Virginia

Grant County, West Virginia: Introduction

Sun, 31 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Valerius Tygart, CC BY-SA 3.0. Since Grant County was created in 1866, no Democrat has won 40 percent of its presidential vote. Not one. Franklin Roosevelt never cracked 26.8 percent in his four landslides. Lyndon Johnson got 37.8 percent in 1964, the year he won 44 states. The only Republican ever to lose Grant County was William Howard Taft in 1912, and only because Theodore Roosevelt split the party. The county was carved out of Hardy County the year after Appomattox and named for Ulysses S. Grant. The voting record suggests the founders meant it.

Image: Valerius Tygart | CC BY-SA 3.0

Grant County, West Virginia: Born of the Civil War

Sun, 31 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Bazonka, CC BY-SA 3.0. The original Hampshire County, formed in 1754, was the oldest in what is now West Virginia. Hardy County split off the southern half in 1786. For most of a century the boundaries held. Then in 1866, with the Civil War just over and West Virginia three years old, the new state leg...

Image: Bazonka | CC BY-SA 3.0

Grant County, West Virginia: Mountains and Highways

Sun, 31 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Antony-22, CC BY-SA 4.0. Grant County sits in the high Alleghenies of eastern West Virginia, bordering Garrett County, Maryland to the northwest and a half-dozen West Virginia counties on its other sides. U.S. Route 48 (Corridor H) and U.S. Route 50 cross the county east-west. U.S. 220 and West Virginia ...

Image: Antony-22 | CC BY-SA 4.0

Grant County, West Virginia: The Flood of 1985

Sun, 31 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Mikeroetto (talk) (Uploads), CC BY-SA 3.0. On November 4 and 5, 1985, what should have been Election Day became one of the deadliest natural disasters in West Virginia history. The remnants of Hurricane Juan stalled over the Appalachians, drenching the high mountains. The South Branch Potomac, a normally shallow river wit...

Image: Mikeroetto (talk) (Uploads) | CC BY-SA 3.0

Grant County, West Virginia: A Reliably Red County

Sun, 31 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Famartin, CC BY-SA 4.0. Grant County's politics remain extraordinary. In 2024, Donald Trump received the highest percentage of the vote ever cast for a presidential candidate in the county, holding Kamala Harris to 10 percent. He had already done the same against Hillary Clinton in 2016 (10 percent) and...

Image: Famartin | CC BY-SA 4.0