Democrats have been losing rural voters across the US since the 1960s, and that collapse has fueled Donald Trump’s ‘Make America Great Again’ movement.
It has less to do with being “rural” and more to do with the general low education and mobility of “rural” areas.
It is an empirical fact that there is a strong correlation between progressive thought and education/exposure to the world. Since a lot of it boils down to just knowing there are other ways to live.
Whereas “rural” areas tend to see people who never move more than a hundred miles away from where they were born and are generally undereducated. And that makes them very vulnerable to “The problem isn’t you. The problem is all those brown people and women in the big city who are stealing your jobs”.
And the rest boils down to money and just… population density. Given infinite money, the Democrats would love to campaign everywhere. But the reality is that money is limited and a rally in even a small town will generally impact a much higher percentage than organizing a county fair to get the ten people in a hundred mile radius to show up (exaggerating but… not that much).
And… I can speak from experience (from helping out with state Democrats) that it is still not that easy. Because you can do a multi-year effort to bring in some good candidates to even a small town. Unless your candidate was born and raised in those rural areas, they will almost immediately be rejected. And if they left for college and came back for some reason? They are likely to be rejected as well. Which is why, a lot of times, there won’t even BE a blue candidate because there is no point.
That might generally be true but where I live near Raleigh,NC, which is one of the most educated places in America likely due to so many colleges and universities right here, we move away from the more urban areas to the generally more rural areas because it’s way cheaper and the commute isn’t terrible. It wouldn’t hurt to at least try in some of the rural areas around Raleigh like Garner, Clayton, Holly Springs, hell even Fuquay Varina (yes that’s a really town unfortunately… you can probably guess some nicknames for it. This state could be very purple pretty quickly.
I am not familiar enough with the Raleigh area to know if those are actually rural areas or if they are just suburbs (you should listen to how New Yorkers describe Jersey…).
But a lot of that is the same logic as “Oh, all those California liberals are moving to Texas because it is cheap so that will be a blue state within the year”. And as anyone who has experience with Austin beyond “Keep Austin Weird” marketing can tell you: A Texas Democrat is still a VERY moderate-conservative person. Well, more specifically, a Texas Democrat with any mobility (which is why it is still so important for republicans to gerrymander the hell out of those cities). And people tend to not move toward hellscapes where they strongly disagree with all local politics.
That said, there are ongoing efforts. But it again boils down toward where it is worth spending money. Especially when turning a county blue mostly means a DINO.
I should take some pics of where I live. Yeah it’s pretty rural. Outside of wake county it becomes like a different state. I mean it’s shocking how much difference 30 miles can make. I’m very surprised there isn’t more political unrest here given the mixing of very different ideologies in a small area.
But you’re absolutely right, it’s always about spending your campaign dollars wisely. And no amount of Trump propaganda is ever going to change my mind. So let the Rs waste money on me.
Yeah. Not familiar with the NC mess. But getting good candidates to go to places like Florida just aren’t going to happen. Because fixing the hellscape is important but… nobody wants to live in the hellscape unless they have no choice.
Its an open secret so I don’t mind sharing it but when a county does something like “We need to attract more OBGYNs to the local hospital” and the like? Part of that is very much fulfilling a need of the community. The other part is getting strong candidates (either the doctor or their partner) with the intent of running them in a year or two for a local office. And because of the general high degree of education required, it is a good way for Democrats to bus in some people as it were.
It has less to do with being “rural” and more to do with the general low education and mobility of “rural” areas.
It is an empirical fact that there is a strong correlation between progressive thought and education/exposure to the world. Since a lot of it boils down to just knowing there are other ways to live.
Whereas “rural” areas tend to see people who never move more than a hundred miles away from where they were born and are generally undereducated. And that makes them very vulnerable to “The problem isn’t you. The problem is all those brown people and women in the big city who are stealing your jobs”.
And the rest boils down to money and just… population density. Given infinite money, the Democrats would love to campaign everywhere. But the reality is that money is limited and a rally in even a small town will generally impact a much higher percentage than organizing a county fair to get the ten people in a hundred mile radius to show up (exaggerating but… not that much).
And… I can speak from experience (from helping out with state Democrats) that it is still not that easy. Because you can do a multi-year effort to bring in some good candidates to even a small town. Unless your candidate was born and raised in those rural areas, they will almost immediately be rejected. And if they left for college and came back for some reason? They are likely to be rejected as well. Which is why, a lot of times, there won’t even BE a blue candidate because there is no point.
That might generally be true but where I live near Raleigh,NC, which is one of the most educated places in America likely due to so many colleges and universities right here, we move away from the more urban areas to the generally more rural areas because it’s way cheaper and the commute isn’t terrible. It wouldn’t hurt to at least try in some of the rural areas around Raleigh like Garner, Clayton, Holly Springs, hell even Fuquay Varina (yes that’s a really town unfortunately… you can probably guess some nicknames for it. This state could be very purple pretty quickly.
This is not the kind of rural area he is talking about.
Yes. Aren’t exceptions great?
I am not familiar enough with the Raleigh area to know if those are actually rural areas or if they are just suburbs (you should listen to how New Yorkers describe Jersey…).
But a lot of that is the same logic as “Oh, all those California liberals are moving to Texas because it is cheap so that will be a blue state within the year”. And as anyone who has experience with Austin beyond “Keep Austin Weird” marketing can tell you: A Texas Democrat is still a VERY moderate-conservative person. Well, more specifically, a Texas Democrat with any mobility (which is why it is still so important for republicans to gerrymander the hell out of those cities). And people tend to not move toward hellscapes where they strongly disagree with all local politics.
That said, there are ongoing efforts. But it again boils down toward where it is worth spending money. Especially when turning a county blue mostly means a DINO.
I should take some pics of where I live. Yeah it’s pretty rural. Outside of wake county it becomes like a different state. I mean it’s shocking how much difference 30 miles can make. I’m very surprised there isn’t more political unrest here given the mixing of very different ideologies in a small area.
But you’re absolutely right, it’s always about spending your campaign dollars wisely. And no amount of Trump propaganda is ever going to change my mind. So let the Rs waste money on me.
.
Yeah. Not familiar with the NC mess. But getting good candidates to go to places like Florida just aren’t going to happen. Because fixing the hellscape is important but… nobody wants to live in the hellscape unless they have no choice.
Its an open secret so I don’t mind sharing it but when a county does something like “We need to attract more OBGYNs to the local hospital” and the like? Part of that is very much fulfilling a need of the community. The other part is getting strong candidates (either the doctor or their partner) with the intent of running them in a year or two for a local office. And because of the general high degree of education required, it is a good way for Democrats to bus in some people as it were.
On top of that, a Democratic candidate is probably not safe in this environment.