Tammy Wratchford and her dog Gabby. Photo by Allen Siegler

PETERSBURG — 54-year-old Moorefield resident Tammy Wratchford has never voted in a federal election, and she doesn’t plan on starting this year.

“If Trump would come back in office, I would vote,” she said after filling her truck at a Petersburg gas station. On her lap sat Gabby, a two-year-old pit bull and boxer mixed breed who Wratchford rescued as a puppy. “That would be my first time voting.”

It’s not that Wratchford doesn’t have issues that she thinks are important. In Moorefield and in West Virginia, she believes the lack of well-paying jobs is driving people away. Wratchford is also worried that affordable housing has come to a crisis point.

Mountain State Spotlight reporters are traveling around the state, asking West Virginians what’s on their mind this election season. To read other stories from this series, click here. 

She just thinks there are ways other than voting to go about helping folks in her community.

“More people, if they have the room and everything, could take homeless people in and help them get on their feet,” Wratchford said. “It just isn’t too hard.”

According to Wratchford, she has practiced what she’s preached. Although on disability, Wratchford said she’s housed someone experiencing homeless in the past; Monday afternoon, she was getting ready to welcome another person into her home.

“People are just too busy with their own lives to worry about someone else nowadays,” she said. “I think if people start looking out for other people and start caring more, it would be a better place.”

More voices from around West Virginia

Allen Siegler is the public health reporter for Mountain State Spotlight. He can be reached at (681) 317-7571.