Editor’s note: This is first in a two-part series focused on attitudes and beliefs of voters in the Southeast and Limestone County. This installment is focused on regional voters, while a report about voters in Athens and Limestone County will be published in Saturday’s edition.

The national media was caught off guard in the 2016 presidential election, predicting a decisive win by then candidate Hillary Clinton. It can be argued the media was not paying attention to America, especially rural America.

As we approach midterm elections this November, we want to listen — really listen — and that’s why we are publishing the second edition of Pulse of the Voter.

Newspapers across multiple states and regions conducted grassroots interviews in an environment where participants felt comfortable. CNHI newspapers plan to speak with voters four times each year through the next presidential election in 2020. The project is being mirrored in communities across the country served by CNHI, from Florida to Iowa, from New Hampshire to Texas.

We specifically wanted to get a snapshot of how voters in the South feel about traditional American values and the role those values play when deciding who to vote for. We also asked residents about gender issues such as the glass ceiling, pay gap and the #MeToo movement.

This year marks the largest number of women running for elected positions in America’s history.

But not all women support the #MeToo movement.

Barbara Schmader, a Valdosta, Georgia, resident, said she isn’t a fan of #MeToo.

“I don’t like it,” she said. “When I grew up and someone did something wrong, you either told your parents, or you told somebody, or you beat the crap out of them.”

Speaking about the number of movie stars coming out against powerful men in Hollywood such as Weinstein, Schmader said everyone always knew actresses had to sleep their way to the top.

“That was our mindset back then,” she said.

She also spoke about how fashion has changed and how women dress in more revealing clothes than when she was young.

“What do they expect from a man when they come out with their boobs hanging out and their dress slit up to nowhere and no under-clothes on?” Schmader said. “I think women dress indecently. I don’t think it’s acceptable for a man do to something, but I think the women invite it.”

Defining traditional American values

Tifton, Georgia, resident Jerry Hughes, 67, said individual freedom and equal opportunity are some of the founding principles of the country and the values that matter most to him.

“Why does that not make sense?” he asked. “That’s what our country was formed for … some of the poorest people, paupers and prisoners and everything else, they were the ones who came here. For freedoms, to allow themselves to become what they thought they wanted to be.

“I’m not a government fan,” he said. “I call Washington, D.C., the political monster.”

He does, however, vote in every election.

“Voting is a privilege,” he said. “A lot of people don’t look at it that way.”

The issue that most affects how he votes is smaller —less — government.

Jobs also affect how he votes, citing Trump’s business dealings as a reason to vote for him.

“Government needs to be run as a business,” he said. “He’s a businessman. He has succeeded, he’s failed, he’s come back. I thought there was nothing better than someone who doesn’t need the job to apply business principles to putting this country back to work.”

He said he feels Trump is an “awesome manipulator.”

“Let him be Donald Trump,” he said. “We hired him. That’s why conservatives came out, evangelicals, you name it, that’s why he got that vote. People want somebody to get this country to where everybody else can enjoy (it).”

Relying on faith

Tish Gordon of Dalton, Georgia, is a mother of three who said she cherishes her family and her Christian values. Those values are reflected in the political candidates she supports.

“I go back to the beginning with God and to how this country was founded, and it was on Christian beliefs,” Gordon said. “Those still stand today, and I think it is still there. I am all for change, but there are some things that should remain constant, and God is the center of all of our major decisions.”

But the 40-year-old has a problem with President Trump.

“I don’t like him as a person,” said Gordon, who works for an insurance company. “I don’t think he is a reflection of the values that I hold true, but I don’t put him on a pedestal either.”

Rather than blindly supporting the president, Gordon said she does move to the center on some issues. But the center, she said, is a no-man’s land in today’s polarized political climate.

Moultrie, Georgia resident Jonathan Gary, 48, a black non-emergency transport driver for Colquitt Regional Medical Center, said he thinks values such as faith and family are worth keeping.

“Having faith in God Almighty – we can’t be who we are without him. I think family means a lot. The only way you can survive is if you have family behind you,” he said.

Gary reads a newspaper every day and keeps up with current events. Being knowledgeable and voting are important to him, even though he did not vote for either the Democratic or Republican presidential nominee in 2016. He said he does not think Trump embodies the morals and values he espouses.

“He can say how much he believes in God,” he said. “His moral values, I don’t think they’re high at all.”

Personal affairs

Randa Wilson was dismayed when she first heard of Trump’s alleged affairs.

Wilson, who is a 51-year-old hairdresser in northwest Georgia, is a relatively new voter. She didn’t register until she was in her 40s, when Barack Obama’s ascension to the White House inspired her to have her voice heard.

And when she votes, the Varnell resident asks God for guidance on which candidates to choose on the ballot.

Wilson said she suspected Trump had likely been unfaithful, but she also believed those indiscretions were buried deep within his past. Still, she doesn’t hold any of this against him because she said she has detected a change in how he publicly prays, which she sees as a sign of redemption.

“In his prayers, he seems more earnest,” she said. “It seems like it’s not so written for him.

“We’ve all made mistakes,” Wilson said. “That was his past, and everybody deserves a second chance, you know?”

To some like Lester Bruce, a 77-year-old who retired from the manufacturing industry, Trump’s infidelity doesn’t matter at all. He said he’s unfazed by the focus on Trump’s past infidelity and the more recent attempts to cover it up.

“I’m not going to say I don’t believe it, but it don’t matter to me,” the northwest Georgia resident said. “As long as he’s not up there with a bunch of them in the White House, it’s fine with me,” Bruce added, laughing.

Character over experience

Beth Grant, 70, of Thomasville, Georgia, said she looks at a candidate’s character first and experience second. She also looks at the “genuineness” of a candidate, assessing if what they say is what they truly believe or is it just what their intended audience wants to hear.

“You can tell a lot by people’s body language and the looks on their faces and how they interact with people. Do they touch people, do they look like they’re comfortable in their own self,” she said. “I think you can see that with somebody as they speak and interact.”

Grant calls Trump “a very pathological person.”

“His character is minus zero, in my opinion,” she said. “He’s a disgrace and an embarrassment to our country, in my opinion. It is just so obvious to me. It flabbergasts me that people don’t see that immediately. He has no relationship with the truth. He brags. He exaggerates. He denies. And he blames. You can’t believe anything he says to be fact-based.

“It’s really sad that so many people believe what he says just because he says it.”

Gun control mattering more

National headlines from April to June ranged from accusations about Trump’s relationship with an adult film star to his international policies and relations, but the topics that resonated most in East Mississippi were school shootings, gun control and related mental health issues.

Keaton Jones, 19, of Meridian, Mississippi, was one of the East Mississippi residents who said gun control was number one on his list.

“Gun control, easily, especially with what happened in Santa Fe (Texas),” Jones said. “I feel like things need to be changed.”

More stringent gun legislation appeared to be a recurring theme among Meridian voters.

Like Thompson, Jamard Wright, 39, shared the same concerns about the frequency of mass shootings, particularly in schools. The Meridian resident would like to see a more united front from lawmakers in dealing with the epidemic.

“My issue that I think the lawmakers or anybody needs to deal with within the next few years would be gun control,” Wright said.

“Gun control affects everybody; there’s no gender, race or anything that it doesn’t touch. We have too many incidents where young children are either playing with guns and shooting and hurting family members, brothers and sisters, to mass shootings. Gun control has to be tackled in some way. I know it’s a touchy subject, and I know for lawmakers it’s even touchier, but as a lawmaker, and you’ve been voted into that position, your job is to protect us at all costs. And right now, for me, the No. 1 issue is gun control. You have kids going to school who don’t feel safe. And though it hasn’t happened in our community, we have to be prepared for the same type of thing that drove these other people to walk into a school and shoot — some of the same issues we’re dealing with ourselves. We have to be careful.”

— CNHI reporters in Georgia, Mississippi and Alabama contributed to this report.