The Biden-Harris administration’s indifference and poor response to Hurricane Helene have been panned by both sides of the aisle. The devastating storm wreaked havoc across Republican strongholds in Georgia and North Carolina, and it looks like the Biden-Harris administration’s response may not be incompetence, but deliberate voter suppression mere weeks before the election.
And the mainstream media seems to know it.
“Research has shown that major disasters can influence both voter turnout and voter preference. And Helene has pushed this contest into novel territory: It’s the first catastrophic event in U.S. history to hit two critical swing states within six weeks of a presidential election,” reports Politico.
Trump won the hard-hit areas big back in 2020—securing over 60% of the vote in North Carolina’s counties now declared disaster zones, and 54% in Georgia’s hardest-hit regions. Yet as floodwaters recede, Republican voters are facing logistical nightmares. “Nearly 40,000 absentee ballots were mailed to voters in the 25 North Carolina counties that were declared a disaster following Helene,” Politico reports. So far, “fewer than 1,000 have been returned.” With roads wiped out and polling stations obliterated, it’s hard not to see how this disaster could work in Harris’s favor.
Both Georgia and North Carolina are key battleground states. Polls show Trump leading Harris by a razor-thin margin of 1 point in both states.
But with Republican-heavy counties crippled by Helene’s destruction, Harris could easily slip past Trump if turnout is suppressed.
“It’s the first catastrophic event in U.S. history to hit two critical swing states within six weeks of a presidential election,” according to the Politico analysis of NOAA data.
Democrat-leaning counties? They’re getting off much easier. In Georgia’s heavily blue Richmond County, three of four early voting sites appear unscathed, while Republican strongholds in North Carolina like Buncombe and Watauga are in shambles. As one political scientist told Politico, “Helene could ’dramatically change who is in the electorate.’ In a state like North Carolina where margins matter, then every little tweak to the electorate could be the tweak that makes the difference.”
The mainstream media clearly knows that Trump strongholds were the worst hit, yet they’re largely ignoring the way the Biden-Harris administration is failing to provide adequate relief. There are countless reports of FEMA’s incompetence, and private relief efforts being blocked. Victims on the ground are frustrated at the way the Biden administration is dragging its feet, and it doesn’t take a genius to put two and two together and at least ask the question if this is deliberate.
Sometimes, it was beyond obvious. According to Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp, the Biden-Harris administration ignored red-leaning rural counties in its initial disaster declaration.
“When the first emergency declarations came down, there was only 11 counties in that,” Kemp told WRDW 12’s Meredith Anderson earlier this week. “A lot of people were outraged — including me — because there was such devastation in, you know, up to 90 counties.”
“So we called the White House,” he continued. “We spoke to the president's chief of staff, the FEMA administrator and said, ‘Look, you're sending the signal that you're not paying attention to some of these rural communities.’”
Yet Politico didn't even question the administration's motives, or even acknowledge the poor response.
The media is conspicuously silent on how this failed hurricane response looks like a deliberate attempt to sway the election. Why? Because they know who stands to gain. Every day that passes without decisive action is another day Kamala Harris inches closer to victory. While Republican voters are left in the dark—literally and figuratively—the Biden-Harris administration’s lethargic response threatens to be the most significant voter suppression scheme in history.
