ROLLA — In 2016, 68% of voters in Phelps County voted for Donald Trump, and no Republican on the ballot received less than 59% of the vote.
But since then, some elections, public rallies and social media have suggested a progressive push in the county of 45,000 in the Ozarks, 100 miles southwest of St. Louis.
In June, hundreds of people took to the streets of downtown Rolla, the county’s largest city, in a Black Lives Matter protest march.
In September, Cori Bush, a progressive Democrat who upset longtime St. Louis Congressman Lacy Clay in the August primary, came to Rolla for a rally supporting causes that included universal health care and racial justice.
https://news.stlpublicradio.org/government-politics-issues/2020-10-29/republican-stronghold-of-phelps-county-is-showing-signs-of-progressive-life
