"Somebody in Buchanan County or in the United States can look at him and say, 'He's not my color,' " said Viers. "Why put yourself in that position? We had a shot four years ago, and the people listened to lies, rumors, negative ads and got us beat. Bush got him a second term, and look what it got us."
Viers said he will do his best to help Obama on election day. But local Democratic leaders said they could not rely on all of their precinct chairs to follow suit.
That is why party officials are relieved that they can rely on another local organization: the United Mine Workers of America.
The union, which initially backed John Edwards in the Democratic primary, has a strong presence here and in other coal-producing areas. It has field workers going door to door and making phone calls across Appalachia, with special emphasis on Virginia, Pennsylvania and Ohio -- all of them election battlegrounds.
Virginia, which has not chosen a Democrat for president since Lyndon Johnson in 1964, and Ohio are so close in polls this year that no one can say whether Obama or Republican John McCain is ahead. Both states are central to each campaign's national strategy.
Often, union officials show up at coal mine bathhouses during shift changes, when dozens of workers are getting dressed, to make the case for Obama.
The union portrays him as a friend of the coal industry, and argues that Obama is culturally in step with local workers. Union literature tells them that the Democratic nominee supports gun rights, and the literature attacks McCain for opposing legislation that would make union organizing easier.
"Barack Obama Won't Take Away Your Gun," says one flier. "But John McCain Will Take Away Your Union."
A new 18-minute video that the union is distributing in coal states features Roberts, the union president, talking directly about race as he addresses white workers, many them clad in jeans or denim overalls.
"I could just ignore the fact that Barack Obama is African American," says Roberts, "but I'm not."
Roberts challenges the notion that a believing Christian could base a voting decision on a candidate's ethnicity.
"We go to church, sing our songs, pray, come out and talk about, 'I can't be for an African American, because of the color of his skin,' " Roberts says in the video. His voice rising, he then scolds the crowd: "Can't do that if you believe in the Bible."
