The Enlightenment

There is a mythos resurrected every election cycle: that if only the Democratic Party could win back rural voters, then the Party would be unstoppable.

There’s just one problem: it’s not going to happen.

Democrats, regardless of their personal opinions, should represent all Americans, and that includes rural voters. Rural communities suffer from unique problems, such as deindustrialization and access to healthcare.

But be that as it may, rural voters have made their voices loud and clear: they do not support the Democratic Party. In the 2020 election, rural voters backed Donald Trump over Joe Biden at a 2 to 1 rate. Rural voters have supported the Republican presidential candidate in every election since 1972.

We have to acknowledge that rural voters are more socially conservative. When California voted to ban gay marriage in ’08, the counties that voted the most in favor of the ban were rural counties. In 2022, Montana, Kentucky, and Michigan all rejected constitutional bans on abortion; it was rural areas who voted for such measures.

The Democratic Party is committed to protections for LGBT individuals and for the protection of the right of a woman to get an abortion. That puts rural voters squarely opposite of the Democratic Party. There is no middle ground to be found on these issues, either; you either support abortion, or not; you either support LGBT rights, or you do not.

This isn’t to say that we don’t reach out to rural voters, but it is to say it is a mighty difficult job to reach out to voters who have a fundamental disagreement with our party.

I keep hearing that economic, not social, issues are to blame for the lack of rural support. “The Democratic Party abandoned rural America and doesn’t care about its economic issues!”, allegedly.

What a load of bullshit. The Democratic Party never “abandoned” rural America. It’s a two-way street. Rural America has not voted for Democrats in decades, and the Democratic Party is responding by devoting more resources to demographics which will actually, you know, vote for them in the next election.

And secondly: what the hell has the Republican Party done for rural America? Nothing. Republicans voted to move jobs overseas and they take loads of money from big agribusiness. Donald Trump, the quintessential Republican, is a blue-blooded East Coaster who never worked a day in his life, surrounded by big-city Ivy Leaguers who also haven’t worked a day in their lives.

The only recent proposals to help rural America have been coming from the Democratic Party, even though they will get no thanks for it. The Biden admin is offering $11 billion for rural communities to adopt clean energy. Just a few days ago, $700 million was made available for rural communities to adopt high-speed internet.

You know who introduced the so-called “Monsanto Protection Act” in 2013? A Republican. You know who introduced a bill this year in the Senate to pay rural doctors more? A Democrat. Who introduced the Rural Opioid Abuse Prevention Act? A Democrat, and the only members of the House who voted against it were Republicans.

On top of all this, the Democratic Party is organizing and investing in voter outreach operations in rural America. So give me a break.

Rather than trying to win back rural America (which Democrats haven’t “won” in more than 50 years), why isn’t the Democratic Party trying to organize the suburbs? Or better yet, why isn’t the Democratic Party trying to organize the urbs—the cities?

For starters, it would be easier. Rural voters are dispersed over large areas, while urban voters are packed tightly and are easy to contact and organize.

Take 2 elections from 2022. If Democratic turnout was just 10% higher in Las Vegas, a Democrat would still be governor. If Democratic turnout was just 12% higher in Milwaukee, Democrat Mandela Barnes would be Senator, not Republican Ron Johnson.

Come to think of it, what have Democrats done for urban areas? Cities aren’t the polar opposite of rural areas—they’re the other side of the coin. Cities like Philadelphia and Detroit have been ravaged by jobs going overseas just as much as rural areas. Rural areas are troubled by Monsanto, while many cities are troubled by crime. Poverty and lack of employment can be found in the alleys of Atlanta or the plains of South Dakota.

It’s time for Democrats to let go of the mythical goal of winning back the rural vote. It was never won in the first place, and while I don’t believe in abandoning rural voters, Democrats should invest heavily in tapping into a readily available and interested wellspring of voters—the cities.