Looking past vote, U.S. coal country sees millennials as key to revival

If recent history holds, over half of them will either not find work or leave the state, contributing to a brain drain of young talent that is pushing the state to try to reinvent its economy and break with a coal industry in long-term decline. "Companies don't come here to invest because they only associate us with coal," said Sellards, a 20-year-old sophomore who addressed the state legislature when she was in high school about the lack of opportunities for young people in a post-coal economy. The often stark choices faced by Sellards and other young, educated West Virginians underline the challenges awaiting Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton here and in other “Rust Belt” states if she wins the Nov. 8 election, as most polls suggest she will.