How can Dems win rural voters?

[The Undefeatable Debbie Stabenow]

They can't. They are a rich suburban white party who looks down on rural voters and working class voters. Thanks Obama!

Is that why Biden won voters with incomes of <$50,000 by 11% and won voters with incomes between $50,000 and $100,000 by 15%?

This is everyone's obligatory reminder that "working class" =/= "white working class."

[Use Your Illusion]

Very easily


- Relax on the gun stuff. Run Democrats who use the words "I will protect your 2nd Amendment rights in any efforts of reform and together we will pass legislation that EVERYONE can agree on"


- Stop the constant race-baiting because you're dealing with white people. Race-baiting is not necessary as a strategy to gain great numbers out of the black vote


Do that and you'll have immediate success

This is exactly what nearly every major Democratic politician already says. Unfortunately, that does not quell the right's fearmongering about gun-snatching.

Well can you blame them? In the 2018 Democratic Primary for governor in FL, Phillip Levine (former mayor of Miami Beach) came out with the whole "I will ban ALL assault weapons!" as part of his platform. Until that aspect of the Democratic party is eliminated they will rightfully struggle with rural voters. I won't get into my personal positions on the matter but I know the rural vote would swing by like 30% Democrat just based on that alone.



Rural folks are all about businesses paying more taxes, going to your gay friend's wedding and healthcare. But you can't run the Levine's of the world and expect them to support you.

[Coolface Sock #42069]

Very easily


- Relax on the gun stuff. Run Democrats who use the words "I will protect your 2nd Amendment rights in any efforts of reform and together we will pass legislation that EVERYONE can agree on"


- Stop the constant race-baiting because you're dealing with white people. Race-baiting is not necessary as a strategy to gain great numbers out of the black vote


Do that and you'll have immediate success

This is exactly what nearly every major Democratic politician already says. Unfortunately, that does not quell the right's fearmongering about gun-snatching.

“Hell yes, we’re going to take your AR-15”

[psychprofessor]

non college educated whites are not voting on policy but on identity...that's why R politicians can exploit them and let them die from COVID and they will still vote for them.

[R.P. McM]

They can't. They are a rich suburban white party who looks down on rural voters and working class voters. Thanks Obama!

No, we look down on idiots and traitors. If you happen to be rural or working class, that doesn’t change anything.
Sorry you can’t handle being asked to act like a human being.

Well, the truth is, Republican voters hate Democrats so much, they're perfectly willing to betray the rest of the nation to foreign interests. Hell, the GOP base is so demented, they can't even accept that Trump legitimately lost the presidential election. But the apologists can't say that — no, it's always someone else's fault. So they have to pretend rural whites have been massively insulted by prominent Democrats (they haven't), or imply (very delicately) that the rubes are just too stupid to understand the implications of their political behavior.

[The Undefeatable Debbie Stabenow]

Very easily


- Relax on the gun stuff. Run Democrats who use the words "I will protect your 2nd Amendment rights in any efforts of reform and together we will pass legislation that EVERYONE can agree on"


- Stop the constant race-baiting because you're dealing with white people. Race-baiting is not necessary as a strategy to gain great numbers out of the black vote


Do that and you'll have immediate success

This is exactly what nearly every major Democratic politician already says. Unfortunately, that does not quell the right's fearmongering about gun-snatching.

“Hell yes, we’re going to take your AR-15”

Hence why I said "nearly." O'Rourke was roundly excoriated for saying that

[The Undefeatable Debbie Stabenow]

Very easily


- Relax on the gun stuff. Run Democrats who use the words "I will protect your 2nd Amendment rights in any efforts of reform and together we will pass legislation that EVERYONE can agree on"


- Stop the constant race-baiting because you're dealing with white people. Race-baiting is not necessary as a strategy to gain great numbers out of the black vote


Do that and you'll have immediate success

This is exactly what nearly every major Democratic politician already says. Unfortunately, that does not quell the right's fearmongering about gun-snatching.

Well can you blame them? In the 2018 Democratic Primary for governor in FL, Phillip Levine (former mayor of Miami Beach) came out with the whole "I will ban ALL assault weapons!" as part of his platform. Until that aspect of the Democratic party is eliminated they will rightfully struggle with rural voters. I won't get into my personal positions on the matter but I know the rural vote would swing by like 30% Democrat just based on that alone.



Rural folks are all about businesses paying more taxes, going to your gay friend's wedding and healthcare. But you can't run the Levine's of the world and expect them to support you.

1. An assault weapons ban is not a fringe policy; in fact, it is an extremely popular one. Obviously it is impossible to draft gun reform that is agreed upon by "EVERYONE," as you put it, but >70% of Americans support an assault weapons ban, including a majority of Republicans. Keep in mind that an assault weapons ban was already in effect for 10 full years (1994-2004); this is not a new, radical concept.

2. As far as rural folks being "all about healthcare," is that why rural Missourians, rural Nebraskans, and rural Oklahomans rejected expanding Medicaid in referenda in the last few years? Those measures only narrowly passed because of urban and suburban voters, facing overwhelming opposition from rural voters. It's simply not true that WWC voters are all economic leftists who solely vote GOP because of the gun issue. Are these voters generally closer to being economic leftists than social leftists? Yes, but they still largely vote in accordance with the GOP on economic matters.

[HagridOfTheDeep]

Champion a Muslim ban, proclaim "white lives matter," and put Christ back in Christmas.

[Coolface Sock #42069]

Very easily


- Relax on the gun stuff. Run Democrats who use the words "I will protect your 2nd Amendment rights in any efforts of reform and together we will pass legislation that EVERYONE can agree on"


- Stop the constant race-baiting because you're dealing with white people. Race-baiting is not necessary as a strategy to gain great numbers out of the black vote


Do that and you'll have immediate success

This is exactly what nearly every major Democratic politician already says. Unfortunately, that does not quell the right's fearmongering about gun-snatching.

“Hell yes, we’re going to take your AR-15”

Hence why I said "nearly." O'Rourke was roundly excoriated for saying that

On Reddit, sure, but which of his fellow Democratic presidential candidates criticized the idea of gun confiscation after that statement was made?

[The Undefeatable Debbie Stabenow]

Very easily


- Relax on the gun stuff. Run Democrats who use the words "I will protect your 2nd Amendment rights in any efforts of reform and together we will pass legislation that EVERYONE can agree on"


- Stop the constant race-baiting because you're dealing with white people. Race-baiting is not necessary as a strategy to gain great numbers out of the black vote


Do that and you'll have immediate success

This is exactly what nearly every major Democratic politician already says. Unfortunately, that does not quell the right's fearmongering about gun-snatching.

“Hell yes, we’re going to take your AR-15”

Hence why I said "nearly." O'Rourke was roundly excoriated for saying that

On Reddit, sure, but which of his fellow Democratic presidential candidates criticized the idea of gun confiscation after that statement was made?

I don't have that debate memorized, so I don't remember if anyone took that idea head-on, but I'll assume that you're asking me this question because no one did. It's not surprising to me that no one bothered to punch down at Beto in that debate, considering how much of a nonfactor he was in the primary. Additionally, considering that any of those candidates would've been incredibly lucky to, as president, achieve even the most incremental gun reform, it doesn't make sense for them to spend time making a case against Beto's proposal (which is completely infeasible and has not been a relevant point of discussion in national legislative debate over guns) instead of making their case as to why less drastic measures are still crucial. What I do know is that a vast majority of Democratic politicians do not support mandatory gun buybacks.

[pbrower2a]

They can't. They are a rich suburban white party who looks down on rural voters and working class voters. Thanks Obama!

No, democrats are happy to get rural voters. College-educated people in rural areas, unless the family of giant corporate farmers and executives thereof are as D as any other people. Think of schoolteachers and medical professionals. The blue-collar workers on corporate farms and in dairies, feed lots, and slaughterhouses are heavily non-voters such as non-citizens and Old Order Amish.

When the kids of the farm, dairy, feed-lot, and slaughterhouse workers start voting, then it is over for the Republican dominance in rural areas. Many of those workers are in business operations as regimented as assembly lines of the early twentieth century, and when they vote they will vote much for the political agenda most similar to the Democrats of the 1930's. The Republican party is still hostile to labor unions and has gained votes of working-class people as unions weaken. Just look at West Virginia.   

[Coolface Sock #42069]

They can't. They are a rich suburban white party who looks down on rural voters and working class voters. Thanks Obama!

No, democrats are happy to get rural voters. College-educated people in rural areas, unless the family of giant corporate farmers and executives thereof are as D as any other people. Think of schoolteachers and medical professionals. The blue-collar workers on corporate farms and in dairies, feed lots, and slaughterhouses are heavily non-voters such as non-citizens and Old Order Amish.

When the kids of the farm, dairy, feed-lot, and slaughterhouse workers start voting, then it is over for the Republican dominance in rural areas. Many of those workers are in business operations as regimented as assembly lines of the early twentieth century, and when they vote they will vote much for the political agenda most similar to the Democrats of the 1930's. The Republican party is still hostile to labor unions and has gained votes of working-class people as unions weaken. Just look at West Virginia.   

Most rural Americans do not work on farms or have anything to do with agriculture at all.

[Diabolical Materialism]

Wait for baby boomers to die off, and drop the gun-grabbing rhetoric. I think the current older generation is permanently inoculated against ever voting for a Democrat at the national level.

[Shaula🏳️‍⚧️]

Economically leftism, social moderation.

[TransfemmeGoreVidal]

I think it has to do with explaining their policies. This election, their message was for the most part, anti-Trump, and I think in hindsight they could've done a better job of explaining to voters, particularly those in these rural communities, why the Democratic platform would benefit them.

Voters don’t vote on policy. Period.

That's a ridiculously over-simplistic statement. People vote for many different reasons, maybe too many vote for shallow cultural ones but that's not everyone.

[Stranger in a strange land]

You can't have a liberal media/ruling class that openly ridicules "small town" values and takes aim at rural conservatives

Not taking aim at you because this is legitimately what conservatives believe, but it's the Republican Party that thrives off attacking liberals for their lifestyle. "San Francisco/New York values" is a catchphrase used by conservatives. I've never once heard a Democrat talk condescendingly about rural areas, yet I hear it from Republicans every time I talk to one regarding any "social issues".

I don't disagree with anything you said here (the second part of your post though, hmmm) but Republicans don't take aim at New York and San Francisco and then deride the people who live there for "voting against their self-interest" like Democrats, including many on this Atlas US Talk Elections Forum/Blog, do with rural White people.  It isn't comparing like with like.

Uhhhh yes they do? Have you heard the way Republicans talk about DEMOCRAT RUN CITIES and the people who live there? The "Democratic plantation"-type talk?

That rhetoric is really only aimed at Black voters (whether urban or rural) and not high-earning, White urban types that the GOP (rightfully) paints as out-of-touch elitists and then doesn't expect their vote in return, lol.

Moreoever, no one takes the "plantation" rhetoric seriously.  On the other hand,  Democratic media and commentators since 2016 have been waxing poetically about whether/if/how Democrats can reconnect with their rural base.  Joe Biden was largely nominated for this exact reason. 

I don't think this would be such a common or profitable grift for Black Conservatives if there wasn't a sizable group of people that took it at least somewhat seriously.

[SCNCmod]

Having a candidate from a Rural state (or that grew up in a rural area) would probably help a lot- as they would be better at talking about liberal policies in a way that is more likely to connect with rural voters (or in a way that is less likely to turn off rural voters).

[pbrower2a]

They can't. They are a rich suburban white party who looks down on rural voters and working class voters. Thanks Obama!

No, democrats are happy to get rural voters. College-educated people in rural areas, unless the family of giant corporate farmers and executives thereof are as D as any other people. Think of schoolteachers and medical professionals. The blue-collar workers on corporate farms and in dairies, feed lots, and slaughterhouses are heavily non-voters such as non-citizens and Old Order Amish.

When the kids of the farm, dairy, feed-lot, and slaughterhouse workers start voting, then it is over for the Republican dominance in rural areas. Many of those workers are in business operations as regimented as assembly lines of the early twentieth century, and when they vote they will vote much for the political agenda most similar to the Democrats of the 1930's. The Republican party is still hostile to labor unions and has gained votes of working-class people as unions weaken. Just look at West Virginia.   

Most rural Americans do not work on farms or have anything to do with agriculture at all.

Yes, they do.

Farming creates its own economy. To be sure, teaching K-12 in a rural area may not so much depend upon the rural economy as does some other activities, but these are the people that I would associate with the farm economy:

1. small-town bankers who make lots of farm-related loans. There's a big difference between banking in suburban

Lagrange, Illinois



and in Lagrange, Indiana (hyper-rural, and it looks as if it is still in the 1870's because that is when it quit growing.

 

2. veterinarians who treat farm animals as well as the usual canine and feline pets.

3. dealers in farm equipment. Even the favored vehicles are different (more trucks with high clearance and fewer commuter cars).

4. retail and restaurant people whose schedules fit those of farmers. When the farm income goes down, so do the tips and commissions.

5. farm-related businesses, often food-processing places (dairies, slaughterhouses, feed lots)

6. suppliers of farm inputs, such as dealers in fertilizer, fuels (agriculture devours energy), and feeds,

7. brokers of agriculture products
 

[Ferguson97]

Probably nothing.

The better question is how can Republicans appeal to city voters?

[Intell]

People vote much more on cultural and social values, rather than values on class and economics, this explains why the surbubs (more accurately college educated whites) have moved towards the democrats and the rurals (more accurately non-college educated whites) to the republicans. This also most likely explains why minorities swung to Trump this election.

[Intell]

https://twitter.com/davidshor/status/1073769267533877248

[VBM]

Become deplorable

[Frodo]

After better-than-expected results in the 2022 midterms, including in rural areas, it looks like Democrats are going to reach out to them in earnest in coming election cycles:

Democrats look to make inroads with rural voters after glimmers of hope in 2022

[oldtimer]

They can't. They are a rich suburban white party who looks down on rural voters and working class voters. Thanks Obama!

Is that why Biden won voters with incomes of <$50,000 by 11% and won voters with incomes between $50,000 and $100,000 by 15%?

This is everyone's obligatory reminder that "working class" =/= "white working class."

Based on county results Biden lost Whites with low income by around 30-35 points.

You must be adding minorities to the sub 50k to make the case that poor people voted Biden.

But in these midterms looking at county results again even if you add minorities this time it's about even.

[Annatar]

Based off the house results by district it is certain I would say the Republicans set an all time new record for their margin among voters in small town and rural America and with non college whites, in much of non metro America they ran ahead of their 2014 numbers which was their previous peak in rural America.