Boones Mill used to be known as a speed trap town.
These days people slow down on purpose but not to avoid a traffic citation. They’re eying an old church building at Bethlehem Road. The 1920 structure houses a merchandise store called Trump Town USA. Flags and posters festoon the building and grounds.
Store proprietor Donald “Whitey” Taylor Jr. was on Tuesday’s ballot at the Boones Mill Elementary School precinct. He was running for mayor against incumbent Victor Conner. Among dozens of Taylor campaign signs posted about town, at least one reads “Make Boonesmill [sic] great again.”
In a town and county that went heavily for the former president on Tuesday night, few votes went Taylor’s way. Conner had 108 votes, or 87 percent of the 124 cast. Taylor received 15, with one write-in rounding out the voting.
In interviews outside the polling place, several who voted for Trump said they had voted for Conner over Taylor. Ryan Johnson and his wife, Layla, were among them.
“We live next to Trump Town,” Ryan Johnson said as the couple and their two young children left the school building. “We are Trump fans. But it’s just a little tacky.”
Layla Johnson added: “I feel like everything’s been fine since we lived there. There’s nothing I would necessarily change.”
Such sentiment didn’t surprise Taylor.
“Who cares?” Taylor said outside the polling place. “It’s not everybody likes Trump either, okay. There’s several people coming here today didn’t like Trump, and they verbally said so” but voted for Taylor.
Taylor cut off the rest of an interview shortly after he was asked whether he thought that recently filed misdemeanor charges against him would affect the result. Taylor was arrested Oct. 22 on multiple charges of assault, battery and indecent exposure. He has a hearing scheduled Nov. 13 in Franklin County General District Court.
“It’s all b——-,” he said. “It’s all for money. Fake news, election interference. That’s all it is. I’ll take care of it.”
How would he take care of it? “They’ll pay,” he said, adding that “none of them have anything. They was out for money, but they’re not going to gain anything from it. They’ll pay, you know.”
Asked to further clarify, he said, “Oh, stop your b——-” and walked away.
Cardinal News talked to more than 50 voters outside the precinct. Few were from Boones Mill, which counts less than 200 registered voters. The larger Boones Mill precinct has 2,695 registered voters who don’t live in the town limits and voted only for president and vice president, one U.S. Senate seat and the U.S. 9th Congressional District seat.
Many knew Taylor, a promoter who owns the Franklin County Speedway, in Callaway. At least three county residents said they would have voted for him if they could. Three town residents who said they voted for him declined to provide their names or talk about what influenced their votes.
A few had trouble remembering the name of the man they had just voted for, only knowing that it wasn’t Taylor.
“I’ll take those votes,” said incumbent Mayor Conner, a funeral home owner and sometimes bluegrass musician.
Conner, whose daughter, Emilee, won a seat on town council Tuesday night, said that Taylor had directed “negative talk” his way during the campaign, but he had tried to keep to the “high road” as he ran for re-election.
Conner said he voted for Trump, but Boones Mill’s mayoral and town council candidates did not have party designations beside their names. He noted that his position is largely honorary, as Boones Mill has a town manager who handles the executive functions.
Town council works as a team, Conner said, and he hopes the group will keep a family oriented focus while developing a town park from two acres of land that Carter Bank donated.
“I love the town, and that’s what it’s all about,” he said.
