How can Dems win rural voters?

[MT Treasurer]

Remember these words of wisdom from a historical Democratic president:

I've seen it happen time after time. When the Democratic candidate allows himself to be put on the defensive and starts apologizing for the New Deal and the Fair Deal, and says he really doesn't believe in them, he is sure to lose. The people don't want a phony Democrat. If it's a choice between a genuine Republican, and a Republican in Democratic clothing, the people will choose the genuine article, every time; that is, they will take a Republican before they will a phony Democrat, and I don't want any phony Democratic candidates in this campaign.

But when a Democratic candidate goes out and explains what the New Deal and Fair Deal really are--when he stands up like a man and puts the issues before the people--then Democrats can win, even in places where they have never won before. It has been proven time and again.

Is shooting cows in the head, running ads about your body parts, making your haircut the trademark of your campaign, showing off your belly during a debate, highlighting the grease spots on your t-shirt, cursing and yelling like a schoolyard bully, and posing in front of a tractor part of explaining the New Deal and Fair Deal?

[MT Treasurer]

I mean, no, but we are too #elitist to understand how this works, my friend.

yikes did tester really do all those things?

Always assume that the answer to this question is ‘yes’ whenever Jon Tester is involved. Trust me, I wish I could be saying that I made it all up, but alas, literally all of it is true (there are more things that could be mentioned here but those certainly stand out). Yes, blatant aggressive pandering like in this case is obviously only part of the story behind Tester's (and other MT politicians') electoral success, but I always have to try hard to suppress a chuckle when people invoke notions of ‘identity politics’ in these threads and then associate it with certain messaging/campaigning tailored to particular demographic groups in a predominantly urban environment deemed anathema to rural/small-town voters, even though Jon Tester's campaign is quite literally the definition of identity politics. I don’t mean this in a snarky way or anything, but Amanda Curtis and Kathleen Williams certainly didn’t substantially underperform Tester because they attached less importance to the emphasis on New Deal/Fair Deal values than Tester — Curtis ran on one of the most progressive platforms of any Democrat in 2014 and certainly highlighted ‘kitchen-table issues’ more than Tester in any of his Senate campaigns! Kathleen Williams took a page out of the Schweitzer/Tester playbook after her 2018 loss, but it turns out that shooting clay pigeons and drinking beer just didn’t cut it for her.

I was in elementary school when Tester ran his first flat top/tractor ads, so time really does fly (heck, one of my best school friends during that time is now dad). I actually still remember asking my mom the day after the 2006 election who had won that race after getting home from school. Suffice it to say, I’ve been a proud #elitist since then.