|Photo by Emma Delk| Journalist John Russell celebrated his Emmy win for Best News Discussion & Analysis at Waterfront Hall on Wednesday night.

WHEELING – Local journalist John Russell can now be called Emmy winner John Russell.

The Wheeling resident has taken home an Emmy for Best News Discussion & Analysis at the recent News and Documentary Emmy Awards held at Palladium Times Square in New York City.

Russell’s win came for the short documentary “Elliott County Voted for Democrats for 144 Years. Then Came Trump …”

The 16-minute video chronicles how Elliott County, Kentucky, a county that voted for Democrats for 144 years, flipped to vote for Donald Trump in the 2016 and 2024 presidential elections. The video contrasts this shift in the electorate with the county’s election of Democratic Governor Andy Beshear in 2019.

Russell contributed to the video as a reporter and producer, interviewing residents about how this shift occurred in the county. The video is one of hundreds that Russell has produced since he began his journalism career following COVID-19. However, he was still shocked when the piece was announced as the winner during the Jan. 25 ceremony.

“It was shocking in the moment, but not surprising,” Russell recalled. “A lot of talented people did work on the video, and we found many inspiring, smart people to carry their own story when we went down there.”

Russell’s road to the award began when he returned to his hometown of Wellsville, Ohio, after a breakup to find new story ideas. He then came across the story of Elliott County’s major voting shift.

“This is a county that voted for Obama twice, and then had one of the biggest swings in the nation to Trump. That was interesting to me,” Russell said. “It felt like there had to be a story behind it.”

Russell set out to find this story with the help of the journalism nonprofit More Perfect Union, which sent him to the county for three days of pre-production work last year. Russell worked with a core team of six for the video. This included Director of Photography and Producer Nehemiah Stark, who accompanied Russell to the county to film the video.

During the pre-production, Russell found “the characters” of locals in the county who tell the story of how the electorate shift occurred. By the end of pre-production, he had interviewed about 40 to 50 residents.

“I found most of the characters that ended up in the video because I picked up a local paper in town at the hotel desk,” Russell said. “They were having a public meeting about putting a kayak launch in the county, and I went to that public meeting because everybody knew each other. The county seats 600 people, and at that public meeting, I met most of the people who were either in the video or connected me to people that they knew.”

After the pre-production, Russell then embarked on “relationship building” with video subjects. This included phone calls with about 40 people he planned to interview for the video.

“I called these people to ask them to open up and try to piece together the story that eventually became the video,” Russell said. “From there, we narrowed down our main characters and gave them their time to shine.”

Russell interviewed the “main characters” of the story during the four-day shoot in Elliott County in June 2024. The piece was edited over two to three weeks and was published in August 2024.

Russell was thrilled upon the video’s publication that it connected with an audience. The video currently has over 1.5 million views on YouTube.

“We were lucky that this video really connected with an audience, and I think that happened because a lot of times national audiences stereotype Appalachia,” Russell said. “We’re talked about a lot, but we don’t get to talk back a lot, and that’s what we tried to do in this piece. When you let people do that, you get surprising things that don’t necessarily fit the national narrative.

“I think when people see that in a national audience, they’re surprised, because they’re used to stereotypes about Appalachia,” Russell continued.

While Russell had been nominated for an Emmy in the past with More Perfect Union for the piece “We Went to East Palestine: What We Saw Will Shock You,” he was still amazed by the win. The win was “unexpected” as More Perfect Union was going up against household names in the category, such as CNN Worldwide, MSNBC and CBS.

“They all have much larger newsrooms with much more resources,” Russell said. “What we’re trying to do at More Perfect Union is different than a lot of journalism. For me, personally, I admit to my bias and say that I’m biased in favor of the working class.”

Russell added that More Perfect Union shares his viewpoint and is “transparent about whose side they are,” striving to “center working class voices.”

“We always try to put people in their own words and lift them up, because for so long, they haven’t been represented in legacy media,” Russell said.

Russell admitted that when he moved back to the valley during COVID-19, he did not expect to win an Emmy. As his reach grew on TikTok and his newsletter, TheHoller, Russell was glad to be able to get paid to “uncover the truth and tell stories that connect emotionally.”

Another milestone in Russell’s career was speaking at the 2024 Democratic National Convention, which he said was motivated by the same “simple belief” that drives all his storytelling.

“I’ve got a simple belief that it’s possible and worth fighting for to have a country where anybody can be rich but nobody’s poor,” Russell said. “That is why I spoke at the Democratic National Convention, and why I pointed out that both parties have not made good on that. That’s the idea that keeps me searching out the stories at More Perfect Union.

“It’s the North Star of what I hope will be a long career of putting the mic in front of people like I did in Elliott County,” Russell continued.

Russell will now transition from a freelancer at More Perfect Union to a more permanent position. He added he hopes to “keep his work going” for a long time in the Friendly City.

“When I moved back to Wheeling and started this work, I didn’t expect to find a job where I could tell the stories that I want and get paid for it,” Russell said. “I’m glad that More Perfect Union is a place to do that. It was by complete luck that I stumbled in there.”

Russell also credited the Wheeling community for providing him with the environment to tell his stories. He noted that Waterfront Hall Owner Dan Milleson convinced him to move back to Wheeling, offering him “cheap rent and plenty of encouragement” as he began his journalism work.

Russell’s celebration party for the Emmy win was held on Wednesday night at Waterfront Hall. He said the gathering included “a lot of friends” who had been there for him as the story came together.

“I did not expect to have the most success when I moved back here, but I’m really happy that Wheeling is the kind of place where you can find amazing community,” Russell said. “You can find people like Dan to support you and help you set down roots to get national recognition eventually.”

A public screening of “Elliott County Voted for Democrats for 144 Years. Then Came Trump…” will be held on Thursday, July 10, at 6 p.m. at the Ohio County Public Library. A Q&A session with Russell will follow the screening. For more information, contact Spencer Porter: 740-310-8754, spencerkporter@gmail.com.