I completely agree with you and disagree with the dismissal of some of the other comments. I grew up in South Carolina and worked in factories for years. I've met a lot of rednecks of all types. There's this weird tendency on the left to associate rural people with backwards mindsets which is just straight up classist IMO.

Most of them have felt politically abandoned by neoliberal policies sending their jobs overseas and politicians courting city-dwellers. Trump told them he wasn't going to abandon them, that he was going to bring back factory jobs, that elites in business and government have been giving them a raw deal. I can't blame them for taking a chance on Trump when the alternatives were career politicians giving them more of the same. People like to pretend that rural voters aren't voting in their best interest but they knew Kamala, Biden, or Clinton weren't going to do shit for them. South Carolina is filled with small "historic downtowns" that are clearly 50 years past their prime. They've seen what the status quo does.

The good news is more of them are seeing trump for what he is. I know this from actual rednecks telling me this. These people are anti-establishment, anti-government, and often pro-union. I really don't think it would take much to swing them left. The one sticking point is...

Racism is still very much a thing among rednecks. Most have lived a blue collar life and developed a thick skin. As a result, they see "woke" stuff as a bunch of soft people who never really worked demanding everybody cater to them rather than deal with life like they did. Nobody is irredeemable and many of them are quirky weirdos in their own way. I worked with this old trump voter redneck that used to DJ and introduced me to Baby Metal. Another kept a my little pony figurine zip tied to his toolbox. My brother had trouble making friends in high school until he met the rednecks. He later told me "if nobody will accept you, the rednecks will accept you." There is capacity to accept people not like them.

IMO, a politician running on a platform of economic left-wing populism would run the rural ballot. Literally rework Trump's "drain the swamp" narrative except actually mean it. And actually follow through. Invest in rural communities. Go after corruption which is huge in rural areas. Actually listen to their concerns and address them rather than dismissing them. Any worker can be an ally in the working class struggle.