Why is there such an urban/rural gap in the Dem primary?

[nclib]

I know blacks are disproportionally urban and are strongly Hillary, and conservadems are mainly rural and are strongly Bernie, but the gap is still alarming. It's as if protest Bernie voters from the right are outnumbering Bernie voters from the left.

[Derpist]

Rural Democrats are not uniformly conservative. There is a reason they vote Democrat. In many states, they are actually quite liberal.

[Lyin' Steve]

Speaking from personal experience in my rural days, they spend a lot of time sitting at home with the fan on watching TV or browsing the internet, mostly browsing the internet nowadays.  Anyone who spends enough time on the internet knows that it's easy to stumble into the Sanders misinformation bubble and get trapped.  Same reason a lot of rural conservatives still think Obama is a muslim.  There's no counterbalancing force and they only socialize with maybe a dozen other people in an average week.

[SUSAN CRUSHBONE]

Speaking from personal experience in my rural days, they spend a lot of time sitting at home with the fan on watching TV or browsing the internet, mostly browsing the internet nowadays.  Anyone who spends enough time on the internet knows that it's easy to stumble into the Sanders misinformation bubble and get trapped.  Same reason a lot of rural conservatives still think Obama is a muslim.  There's no counterbalancing force and they only socialize with maybe a dozen other people in an average week.

, said the thoroughly ignorant person with the idaho avatar

[Adam Griffin]

Speaking from personal experience in my rural days, they spend a lot of time sitting at home with the fan on watching TV or browsing the internet, mostly browsing the internet nowadays.  Anyone who spends enough time on the internet knows that it's easy to stumble into the Sanders misinformation bubble and get trapped.  Same reason a lot of rural conservatives still think Obama is a muslim.  There's no counterbalancing force and they only socialize with maybe a dozen other people in an average week.

...


Outside of closed primary states like NC, WV, KY & OK where ancestral Democrats remain (trapped) on the party roles, you're not going to find that big of a aggregate difference on a one-dimensional ideological scale between rural and urban Democratic voters anymore.

It honestly wouldn't surprise me if a greater percentage of rural Democrats are further to the left (however you quantify that) than in urban areas. Simultaneously, yes, you have a greater percentage of rural Democrats who are still more conservative. That means that the main difference on this one-dimensional scale is that there are fewer middle-of-the-road Democrats in rural areas. All of that benefits Sanders.

On a two-dimensional ideological scale, however, things get more interesting. Rural Democrats as an aggregate are more likely to be concerned with economic issues over social ones, for rather obvious reasons. Likewise, urban areas are usually going to have a greater share of its Democrats concerned with social issues over economic ones. In fact, I'd argue that a greater share of Democrats in urban areas actually do not want to see economic issues take a front-seat - especially Sanders' - when compared to rural Democrats, because that would be uncomfortable for their bottom lines.

So...you not only have just as many (if not more) lefter-leaning Democrats in rural areas, but you have a candidate whose focus is almost custom-tailored to resonate with them (thanks, Vermont!).

[Landslide Lyndon]

Saders' populist message resonates more with rural voters who are more downscale and resent big cities and their politicians, like Clinton and Obama.

[TarHeelDem]

In addition to other factors already mentioned, I think the education gap is probably at play here, as well.

[IceSpear]

I think it has a lot more to do with issue emphasis than ideology. After all, rural areas heavily backed Hillary in 08, even though Obama was widely seen as the "more left wing choice" (this was very debatable, but that's for another thread.) However, in 2008 Hillary was putting more emphasis on the economic issues, whereas Obama was seen as the kind of cosmopolitan racial/social justice candidate. This time it is the opposite, with Bernie focusing so heavily on economic issues.

Edit: Yeah, what Adam said.

[Coolface Sock #42069]

Rural Democrats are not uniformly conservative. There is a reason they vote Democrat. In many states, they are actually quite liberal.

Yeah, Republicans already have all the conservative rural people, so the ones that are left are pretty liberal, usually white union members or very poor whites.

[Clarko95 📚💰📈]

No mention of minorities?


In the rural South, it's heavily black. Almost all the whites are in the GOP. So you have the southern firewall. In the non-South, states like Illinois and New York show where minorities (primarily black and Hispanic) are in the cities and rural counties are lily-white. Of course, it's not a 100% rule, though. IIRC Sanders wins rural Native American counties and drew even in Chicago's Hispanic neighborhoods, and Hillary landslided urban white areas (primarily an economic factor, urban whites tend to be wealthier and less populist) and rural Hispanic counties.


It's a combination of location, culture, economics, and race. At least that's how I see it.

[nclib]

If rural Dems are liberal, this didn't show up in the 2008 Primary with Clinton easily winning those areas over Obama.

[Ljube]

If rural Dems are liberal, this didn't show up in the 2008 Primary with Clinton easily winning those areas over Obama.

Clinton was a more liberal choice then. Obama is quite conservative socially.

[RaphaelDLG]

If rural Dems are liberal, this didn't show up in the 2008 Primary with Clinton easily winning those areas over Obama.

Clinton was a more liberal choice then. Obama is quite conservative socially.

No way brah, she was like Annie Oakley.

I think it has a lot more to do with issue emphasis than ideology. After all, rural areas heavily backed Hillary in 08, even though Obama was widely seen as the "more left wing choice" (this was very debatable, but that's for another thread.) However, in 2008 Hillary was putting more emphasis on the economic issues, whereas Obama was seen as the kind of cosmopolitan racial/social justice candidate. This time it is the opposite, with Bernie focusing so heavily on economic issues.

Edit: Yeah, what Adam said.

I really like the argument advanced that rural democrats are more class-focused and urban democrats are more focused on social issues/identity politics.  It makes a ton of sense and elegantly explains both 08 and 16.

[Iowa+3]

Bernie's a populist and seems to be pulling the populist base of the democrats in the rural areas. I've been curious how Cruz/Bernie maps overlap as do the Trump/Hillary maps.

For me, a Cruz/Bernie election would be an interesting one.