How can Democrats flip Nebraska?

[DaleCooper]

Some tech person can build an HQ somewhere like Scottsbluff or North Platte and reach out to college graduates in places like Denver or Chicago to move there instead of the Bay Area to be closer to home and not have to pay ridiculous prices for housing. Omaha is already a quick growing metro in favor of the Democrats. It's just the middle and west parts of the state that make the climb a lot steeper.

Flooding our state with overpaid techies would be a great way to alienate the people here. I'm sure the voters of North Platte would appreciate having a bunch of out-of-state yuppies come and buy up all the housing and work in an air-conditioned office while all the natives have to settle for a job at the meat-packing plant. The fact that the first instinct of Democrats is to import a bunch of affluent people in order to negate the votes of Nebraskans says a lot about how they feel about these parts of the country, and it's part of why they'll never make any meaningful gains in rural America or among those without college degrees anytime soon. Plus, to cite a similar example, Google built a data center in Iowa and Democrats have only declined since then in that state.

Also, keep in mind that while over half the population lives in Douglas, Lancaster, and Sarpy (a county that Republicans still win, by the way), the Democrats will probably need to win something like 70-75% of the vote in these counties in order to make up for how embarrassingly poor they do everywhere else. Until Lincoln and Omaha start voting like San Francisco, Democrats have no shot unless they wake up and realize that they can't afford to take rural America for granted, otherwise they'll have to wait a very long time.

If Democrats really want to win in some of these states, they need to rebrand as an aggressively  Nebraska First (or whatever other state) party and prioritize the needs of people that actually have lives and families here rather than trying to attract a bunch of yuppies at the expense of everyone barely scraping by here. That is something that would definitely resonate if done right.

[DaleCooper]

Some tech person can build an HQ somewhere like Scottsbluff or North Platte and reach out to college graduates in places like Denver or Chicago to move there instead of the Bay Area to be closer to home and not have to pay ridiculous prices for housing. Omaha is already a quick growing metro in favor of the Democrats. It's just the middle and west parts of the state that make the climb a lot steeper.

Flooding our state with overpaid techies would be a great way to alienate the people here. I'm sure the voters of North Platte would appreciate having a bunch of out-of-state yuppies come and buy up all the housing and work in an air-conditioned office while all the natives have to settle for a job at the meat-packing plant. The fact that the first instinct of Democrats is to import a bunch of affluent people in order to negate the votes of Nebraskans says a lot about how they feel about these parts of the country, and it's part of why they'll never make any meaningful gains in rural America or among those without college degrees anytime soon. Plus, to cite a similar example, Google built a data center in Iowa and Democrats have only declined since then in that state.

The thread title is "how can Democrats flip Nebraska?" not "how can Democrats win the hearts and minds of Nebraskans?" or "How would the Democratic Party look if it were competitive in Nebraska?" Otherwise, my answer would obviously have been different.

Likewise, my answer for "How can Republicans flip California?" would look a lot more like "ethnic cleansing, seizing the assets of all of Silicon Valley, and dictatorial-level control over the voting process" than "rebrand as a pro-immigration and tech-friendly party." In either case it's essentially an impossible task without completely remaking the entire American political system as we know it.

Your point on the Google data center in Iowa is valid, though.

My point wasn't that your suggestion was too callous, it was that this will drive the already conservative population further to the right and make them hate the Democrats a lot more than they already do. I would also be curious to know how this would impact the political leanings of younger voters. One of the biggest dangers Democrats have with younger voters in these states is that they have no answer for the problem of no one other than well-to-do college grads being able to afford a house that isn't a glorified meth lab. If Democrats become the party of out-of-state people that outbid locals on housing, then they'll be even less competitive here, unless they plan on importing over 150,000 affluent techies.