Here’s What You Can Do For Rural America

Democrats, your path into “flyover country” isn’t as complex as you might assume…

Most political analysts have noticed a shift in America’s Heartland during the past decade or so. Fairly moderate Democrats have lost their seats to Republicans from every wing of the GOP. These losses have been noticeable at the congressional level, but perhaps even more prevalently in state legislative races.

Why is this? Gerrymandering and voter suppression obviously have an effect in rural parts of states where Republicans consolidate power to rewrite election laws. Additionally, many Democratic strategists appear to have shifted their focus to urban (and, in some cases, suburban) cities with larger populations — viewing the outcome of winning a majority or plurality as a statistical numbers game. Donald Trump’s populist rhetoric (despite his lack of results) also gave many rural Americans a prolonged sense of newfound hope.

Less than a month after the November 2020 general election, an insightful activist from my own homestate named Bill Hogseth penned a phenomenal piece in Politico entitled “Why Democrats Keep Losing Rural Counties Like Mine.” Hogseth explores many reasons for the Democratic deterioration in counties and districts with sparser populations, along with some solutions. One of his observations particularly jumped out at me:

For years, rural people have heard they are voting “against their own self-interest” when they elect Republicans, or that they vote the “wrong way” because they are uneducated. These are arrogant and damaging messages that are not easily forgotten.

In other words, Hogseth (who chairs Wisconsin’s Dunn County Democratic Party) has some plainspoken advice for the DNC and their army of paid consultants: Show some humility!

Previously, I wrote a piece entitled “How Democrats Can Win in 2022,” which focused on a comprehensive national strategy that the Democratic Party should consider in order to advance their fortunes during the 2022 midterms. Now, allow me to hone in on numerous areas-of-interest to people across rural America.

By injecting capital into these priorities, Democrats have their best shot at making headway in “purple” and “red” districts where they once performed a lot better. They should fund these rural projects whenever possible. But they can also apply the following concepts to a revamp of their messaging as well as their legislative policy goals.

Gun Regulations

As an Independent, I’ve always taken a middle ground approach to gun control policy. I believe in universal background checks, closing gun show loopholes, implementing “red flag laws” that include proper due processing, passing a narrowly-defined assault weapons ban, cracking down on black market firearms, and requiring proper licensing and training for all gunowners. I believe that most of the American public would get onboard with these reforms.

However, having grown up and lived in rural America for nearly three-quarters of my life, I know how attached people are to their guns throughout small towns and midsized cities. Actions such as mandating liability insurance, taxing ammunition, imposing liability on gun manufacturers for crimes committed with stolen weapons, and retroactively criminalizing failure to register personal weapons — these legislative provisions are nonstarters.

If Democrats embrace tariffs on liability and ammunition while trying to develop a national registry as a backhanded way to penalize gunowners, the NRA and its allies will have legitimate claim to tell rural voters, “LibRULs want to tax your guns! They’re trying to price you right out of your Second Amendment rights!”

Writing for The Niskanen Center, Kal Munis and Robert Saldin seem to agree with me. In their position paper exploring how Democrats can rebrand on guns and abortion, they write:

It would be best for Democrats to allow their rural candidates to be pro-gun; they’re simply too psychologically powerful as a cultural and identity symbol. It should be noted, however, that stressing their Second Amendment bona fides won’t be a panacea for Democrats because these are issues that Republicans already effectively “own.” Issue ownership is a term used by political psychologists to describe the phenomenon wherein issues come to be strongly cognitively linked to a specific party in the minds of voters…so while Democrats running in rural districts should make their pro-gun stance clear, this is largely a defensive strategy because no Democrat is going to convincingly “out-gun” a Republican opponent.

Here, Munis and Saldin are referring to regaining middle-of-the-road voters who, unlike hardline conservatives, support at least some reasonable limitations on gun ownership. They go on to make a similar assertion about the issue of abortion. Obviously, single-issue voters probably won’t be swayed. But by staking out a middle ground on gun control and reproductive rights, Democrats who run in more conservative-to-moderate districts will at least neutralize the issue when it comes to capturing a critical mass of voters outside of big cities. And those gains would be compounded by the natural advantage statewide Democratic candidates already have in urban areas.

High-Speed Rural Broadband

Bar none, one of the most popular platform planks marketed to Rural Americans is that of more affordable, expanded, high-speed internet infrastructure. Hogseth, as well as RuralOrganizing.org executive director Matt Hildreth, lay out how this can be implemented through President Biden’s American Recovery Plan. Additionally, former Carter/Mondale communications director Gerald Rafshoon recommends that rural infrastructure dollars be dispersed based on need-based criteria. He implores Biden to avoid the same mistake made under President Obama during the 2009 bailout, where infrastructural services were mismanaged by being doled out to many communities that already had benefitted from previous upgrades.

The Rural Development Leadership Network has compiled an excellent platform on a myriad of rural needs. Among them is a model for how high-speed broadband can be implemented in ways that rural constituents will quickly see and feel.

Agricultural Prosperity

I have already mapped out a blueprint for how agricultural production can be revolutionized in America. Better messaging can result in the narrative being transformed so every citizen makes an instant psychological connection between agriculture and the higher-profile political issues that presently receive more airtime.

But one of the core priorities for small farmers and ranchers, according to Hogseth, is antitrust enforcement to protect smaller agricultural producers from being bought out by Big Agriculture giants. Hildreth offers the solution of more generous USDA direct mortgage relief to farmers, especially farmers of color. The Niskanen Center recommends legislative action to curb the growing consolidation of foreign-owned meatpacking corporations.

Rural Health Care (esp. Mental Health)

Since quality food security and crop production goes hand-in-hand with Americans’ physical health, we can’t ignore clinics and hospitals in sparsely-populated areas. Hogseth makes the case for reopening rural hospitals to ease the burden off of health care facilities in larger cities. He cites soaring suicide rates throughout rural counties as reasons to bring more psychiatric and behavioral health services to smaller towns.

Hildreth points to The American Rescue Plan setting aside $9 billion for rural health care providers. If allocated in smart ways, such as through a need-based rubric advocated by Rafshoon, rural voters would feel the tangible effects of these invested dollars within their lives.

Small Business Expansion

When it comes to small businesses, Hogseth emphasizes how meaningful it is for small town people to see politicians supporting relief funds that keep local farms, meal providers, shop owners, and energy companies alive. Hildreth warns us that corporate lobbyists are already maneuvering to shortchange independent restaurateurs, farmers, retailers, and factory owners throughout rural America from receiving their fair share of the $1.9 trillion package.

Furthermore, Patty Judge and Jeff Link — as cofounders of the nonprofit Focus on Rural America — outline the untapped revenue that could be brought into states such as Iowa with more investments in biofuels and cleaner forms of renewable energy. This will generate new jobs and cheaper service prices for rural areas that have been hit hard by recession and poverty. Judge herself is Iowa’s former Lieutenant Governor and state-level Secretary of Agriculture throughout the late-90s and aughts…so she knows a thing or two about the circumstances that have led to a gradual Republican shift within The Hawkeye State.

Now Let’s Make it Happen!

I implore all Democratic candidates and party leaders, during this upcoming election cycle, to integrate these ideas into their platforms. They can do this through prudent allocation of current funds, as well as the future plans they put forth to contrast themselves with Republicans. If you know any local, state, and national members of the Democratic Party, please share this piece with them.

Lastly, President Biden should take to heart the advice of those within his party who are encouraging him to appoint a “Rural Czar” as a liaison between the White House and parts of the U.S. with lower populations. This person would presumably work very closely with Katharine Ferguson (returning USDA Secretary Tom Vilsack’s new Chief-of-Staff), given Ferguson’s own strong background in rural development.

My recommendation for this position would be Steve Bullock, the popular two-term Governor of Montana and onetime presidential candidate. Bullock largely lost his 2020 U.S. Senate bid (against incumbent Steve Daines) due to the immense pro-Trump turnout across Big Sky Country. But as far as his hands-on experience, Bullock is knowledgeable when it comes to navigating issues faced by ranchers, farmers, miners, and mom-and-pop entrepreneurs who reside in conservative terrain.

Finally, consider this anecdotal example: in her 2020 U.S. House bid for Iowa’s 2nd Congressional District (to replace the retiring Dave Loebsack), Democratic nominee Rita Hart lost that race to Republican nominee Mariannette Miller-Meeks by a mere six votes.

Not 6,000…

Not 600…

Not 60…

Six.

Democrats shouldn’t expect to win rural counties or districts by wide margins in the near future. But a shift of 150,000, or 100,000, or even 50,000 additional voters can make all the difference for extremely close electoral races in 2022 and beyond.