More on Democrat strategies to connect to rural voters in (increasingly) urban states

Exhibit A is this piece in the Virginia Mercury (a nonprofit news site) by a long-time columnist who seems write on behalf of rural Virginia, which he cleverly calls ROVA, for "rest of Virginia," meaning the parts outside "NOVA" (suburban and exurban DC) and Richmond.  Bob Lewis writes, "How rural Virginia made itself politically relevant again."  The column includes lots of recent Virginia history, including about political consultants who helped Mark Warner, a Democrat, get elected governor several decades ago.  Here's an excerpt that focuses on Virginia political consultants Steve Jarding and David "Mudcat" Saunders who apparently saw the Youngkin victory "way back."   

”Talk about a guy who could not connect and relate to rural Virginia, that’s Terry McAuliffe,” said Jarding, who, with Saunders, was an adviser to the successful Virginia campaigns of Gov. Mark Warner in 2001 and Sen. Jim Webb in 2006.

The last intentional, sustained and significant rural outreach by a Democratic gubernatorial race was Warner’s 21 years ago. It was the centerpiece of his strategy. Republicans had ruled the countryside for years and put an exclamation point on that fact one year earlier when it went strongly for President George W. Bush and former Gov. George Allen’s in his inaugural Senate run.

Warner was lampooned by some for some of the tactics Jarding and Saunders employed for him to court the rural electorate. He entered a car bearing his campaign’s logo into a NASCAR race in Martinsville. He commissioned a plucky bluegrass campaign song with lyrics Saunders adapted to the melody of “Dooley.” The campaign formed a “Sportsmen for Warner” group led by hunting and fishing rights advocates that also helped reassure Second Amendment voters that he meant them no harm.

Saunders calls such high-visibility campaign contrivances “pyrotechnics” that weren’t intended to make Warner, a wealthy Old Town Alexandria resident with a taste for lattes, a bona fide Bubba. He’s wasn’t – and isn’t.

Rather, it’s a signal to rural voters that he understood and respected their communities and their culture and values, said Jarding and Saunders, co-authors of “Foxes in the Henhouse,” their 2006 book on how Democrats surrendered the rural South to the GOP.

“Democrats don’t do any pyrotechnics anymore,” Saunders, a Roanoke businessman who now resides in Craig County, said last week after a day of deer hunting.

Read more about the rural vote in the recent Virginia gubernatorial race here and here.  

Exhibit B is this piece from Joe Garofoli of the San Francisco Chronicle about two Democrats challenging entrenched rural Republicans in California.  The headline's focus is on how the candidates are listening to rural voters.  Both Democrats are veterans:  Dr. Kermit Jones, who is challenging Tom McClintock in California District 4 and Max Steiner who is running against Doug La Malfa in California District 1. The story is behind a paywall, but it's got some important insights into different approaches to reach voters in these two districts that have substantial rural territory. I'll excerpt some here.  

First, about Max Steiner, who only recently moved to Chico, in the district: 

The first part of his strategy in overcoming the "D" next to his name on the ballot: Don't try arguing with voters or winning an intellectual argument. Instead, start by showing up. And listening. "I think the real issue is that Democrats don't pay very much attention to what motivates rural voters," Steiner said. So he said he "leans in" on local issues, like the need to better care for forests. "Everyone knows the forests are a problem," Steiner told me. "So you say, 'Democrats are the party that spends money. Vote for a Democrat. Give me a chance to show you what I can do spending money on the forest.'" He describes himself as a "pro-gun Democrat" and thinks the way California regulates guns is "crazy." When voters ask where he stands on issues that are real on Fox News but not in reality -- like the teaching of critical race theory -- Steiner doesn't counter with research from the California School Boards Association ("There is no evidence that CRT is widespread in K-12 education"). Instead, he says, "I want school kids to be proud of their country, but I also want them to know that slavery was terrible, we killed a lot of Native Americans and we locked up U.S. citizens in World War II."

Dr. Kermit Jones who, by the way, lives in Roseville, part of the Sacramento metropolitan area, grew up on a farm in rural Michigan.  Regarding Jones' approach to rural voters, Garofoli's column includes this: 

"If I didn't grow up on that farm," Jones, 45, told me, "I wouldn't be the person I am." He wants to use his medical and policy expertise to help lower the cost of health care and prescription drugs for rural voters. Jones favors a public option, which enables recipients to buy into Medicare, much like President Biden does. Politically, he compared his approach to rural voters to how he would talk to a patient who was late to an appointment. Instead of "browbeating them," he tries to understand their perspective. "Maybe they had to drop their kid off to school and there was traffic or some other issue," he said. If he were more pedantic, "how far do you think I'm going get in terms of really trying to change their behavior for the better?"

Another recent post featuring Congressman LaMalfa is here.  He is mentioned in the several posts here, too, one going back a decade to when he was a California state senator.