This sudden right turn in results reveals what residents have been up to and officials say there’s a long-standing shift in communities on Cape Cod’s doorstep. The growing economic disillusionment that helped propel Trump nationally is being felt acutely in Fall River. one of the poorest cities in the state and a place where voters have changed, too. Inside In interviews with the Globe, voters said they were frustrated by inflation and rising home prices and hoped — some say he knew it — that Trump would help ease the economic pain.

“This is the guy who can help us.” Victorino Chaves, a 59-year-old Republican from Fall River, said he voted for President Biden four years ago to “give him a chance” but ultimately felt he “didn’t do anything,” including helping undocumented immigrants. to prevent them from entering the country.

“So it looks like they’re helping them before they help us,” Chaves said of elected officials. “I think Trump will do something. I know you will.”

Republicans’ gains were not limited to a single city. Justin Thurber, a GOP challenger to a longtime Democratic incumbent, won the race for state representation in neighboring Somerset, another South Shore community flipped by Trump. For the first time in three elections, Trump won near Westport, the hometown of the state Senate’s powerful Democratic budget chief. He also increased his vote share across the district, whether in towns he won in 2020 or New Bedford, another Democratic stronghold where he lost but received 45 percent of the vote last week.

But it was Fall River that experienced the sharpest change; Trump took 50 percent of the vote after losing the city by 12 percentage points in 2020. The victory was also historic, according to the Globe’s review of the election results: The last Republican presidential candidate to take the City was former Massachusetts governor Coolidge in 1924.

“This change has been going on for 10 years,” said Paul Coogan, a Democrat and third-term mayor of Fall River. “It’s a constant drumbeat of bread-and-butter issues. (Voters) want lower costs. They want to pay less for insurance, less for food, less for gas. “They listened to Trump’s message and were able to put all the craziness aside and focus on that.”

Many people in Fall River feel this economic anxiety more than most. Once a major textile producer, the city’s median household income is less than $53,000; this is one of the lowest incomes in the state, three times less than Newton, an affluent suburb of Boston. Average sales price of a home last year It approached $1.7 million. Newton sits at the opposite end of the same congressional district.

Melyssa Nogueira is a 20-year-old pre-law student. Roger Williams University and Trump, a first-time voter, said economic concerns were directly driving his vote for Trump.

“I plan on owning a home, so being able to afford things in the future is definitely a big concern for me,” said Nogueira, who describes herself as a right-wing independent who remembers the economy being better during Trump’s first presidency. term.

“It was a lot easier to be able to afford things,” he said.

Jefferson Moises, a 52-year-old Brazilian American who runs an auto repair business in Fall River, said all costs have gone up, whether it’s food or car maintenance. He said he voted for Trump as a registered independent.

“I have lived in this country for 25 years,” he said. “I’ve never seen it this bad.”

As elsewhere in Massachusetts, lack of affordable homes It puts a strain on an already tight housing market in Fall River. More than 60 percent of city households are renters, and their costs are rising rapidly, said Judith Liben, a housing attorney at the Massachusetts Institute for Law Reform.

The average rent for a home in the city was $1,700 as of Monday, up 13 percent from a year ago, according to the real estate platform. Zumper.com.

“There’s a really critical crisis right now, especially for tenants, and it’s worse than ever. So yes, people are angry and frustrated and looking for solutions,” Liben said.

The city’s changing demographics may also have played a role. Fall River has one of the highest concentrations of Portuguese Americans, but There is also a Latin population It has doubled since 2010. Latinos now make up 13 percent of the city’s mostly white working-class population; The two groups Trump mentioned. gained particular attention in Massachusetts and beyond.

That doesn’t make Fall River much different from other Democratic parties that have leaned toward Trump this year, said Doug Roscoe, a political science professor at the University of Massachusetts Dartmouth.

“You have economic sensitivity and you have a large and growing Latino population. “This explains why this region is so heavily tilted toward Trump,” he said.

Coogan, the city’s mayor, said the growing number of Latinos could have another effect: Portuguese Americans who are “legally cited” to the United States see the changing city as an attack on what they know.

“In people’s minds, they are being forcibly deported by illegal immigrants,” he said. “They’re more of a hometown guy, and Fall River is their hometown. “If they could, they’d keep Fall River the same, especially Portuguese.”

Of course, Democrats still hold many elected offices in Fall River and beyond the South Shore. While the share of Democratic voters in Fall River has been steadily declining. Elsewhere in MassachusettsTwo of the city’s state representatives are Democrats who were re-elected unopposed this year. The same goes for state Sen. Michael Rodrigues, a Westport Democrat, and congressman Jake Auchincloss. Sen. Elizabeth Warren also won Fall River with 52 percent of the vote in her own re-election bid.

Unofficial results show Westport Democrat Steven Ouellette also scored a win for the open state representative seat that covers Fall River and New Bedford, as well as parts of the community Acushnet Trump’s best performance in Massachusetts. His Republican opponent said: would ask for a recount.

However, it has been a process that has taken years for Democrats to diminish their dominance at the top of the ticket. Since Obama’s reelection victory in 2012, the Democratic margin of victory has steadily narrowed in each subsequent presidential election. Hillary Clinton received 58 percent of the vote, while President Biden received 55 percent of the vote in 2020. Before the city completely flipped last week, Trump prevailed with only 47 percent of registered voters in the city voting.

Sarah Custadio, 33, a stay-at-home mom who went for a walk with her 10-month-old baby in Fall River recently, said she supports Harris because she sees her as “the lesser of two evils.” But it gave the ballot feel I’m not sure about Harris’ ability to deliver on the economy.

“The economy is a complete bullshit show right now,” Custadio said.

This left South Shore Democrats, like many across the country, searching for their own answers. State Rep. Alan Silvia, a moderate Fall River Democrat, said he had long warned others in his party that the party was moving “too far to the left” and too often focused on social issues. He said Trump’s win “shows a sign of things to come.”

“We must focus on the issues that truly mean the most to people,” said Silvia. ““This is a big wake-up call.”

Matt Stout can be reached at [email protected]. follow him @mattpstout. Omar Mohammed can be reached at [email protected]. Follow him on Twitter (X) @shurufu.