Don't Write Off the Rural Vote!
Don’t Write Off the Rural Vote!
America is increasingly diverse, and contrary to popular images, diversity isn’t just limited to urban areas. The rural vote holds a key to statewide victory and to winning battleground Congressional Districts. However, Democrats have often written off the rural vote and focused on stronghold cities and battle ground purple suburbs.
Special elections this summer illustrate the importance of rural turnout.
In Kansas, the unexpected large majority defeat of the Kansas referendum to overturn the state constitutional guarantee of abortion rights was not solely due to the expected urban Kansas vote. Kansas is mostly rural. It was rural voters who provided the decisive margin to support the continuation of abortion rights in the state. Even in the most rural and pro-referendum counties, a larger than expected number pro-abortion rights voters turned out. As you might imagine, a majority of the pro-choice votes were women. It’s also true that Latino voters turned out in record numbers - and that a majority of Latino voters support access to abortion.
In Alaska, Mary Peltola won the state-wide single district Congressional special election to become the first Democrat to win a House seat in five decades. Alaska has one statewide Congressional seat. She won on the strength of rural Native Alaskan voters. This shows that the right Democratic candidate with deep rural ties can win in a rural state.
In New York, the special Congressional election, Democrat Pat Ryan won in an upstate heavily rural, traditionally Republican district. While he didn’t win an outright majority in the most rural parts of the district, the victory could not have happened without active campaigning and some modest gains among voters in these areas. Again, this shows that Democrats can win in rural districts with the right candidate and campaign that includes rural areas.
The success of U.S. Senate candidates John Fetterman in Pennsylvania, Raphael Warnock in Georgia, and Tim Ryan in Ohio depend on turning out rural Democrats.
These “hidden” rural Democrats do not have to cast the majority of rural votes. Closing the gap will be important in close statewide races. We were reminded of this when we canvassed in Lancaster County, PA with Izzy Smith-Wade-El last week. Izzy reminded us that the Biden victory in Pennsylvania didn’t just come down to Dem-heavy Pittsburgh and Philadelphia- the Lancaster turnout was critical to the victory. And we found out that even in this very rural county, there is a vibrant Latino community in Lancaster City- one that knows Izzy well due to his public service!
Pennsylvania is an example where a strong state legislative candidate with the right issues creates a draw to raise the local rural democratic vote for an up ballot effect on statewide Senate and gubernatorial races. Running the right candidate in rural areas can help flip state legislatures from red to blue. So no matter where you live, try to help the “hidden” rural Democrats win statewide and encourage them to look for the diversity in their own communities.