More on Democrats' neglect of rural voters, this time in the Missouri Senate race

This is from the Missouri Times, an opinion editorial by Wes Shoemyer, a former Missouri state senator, writing about Democratic Senate Candidate Trudy Busch Valentine's failure to commit to campaigning for the rural vote: 

“Valentine, who owns farmland in Montgomery County, said she will spend much of the primary election focusing on Democratic voters in the state’s major population areas. But, she pledged to make more forays into the rural, red part of the state if she wins.” –St. Louis Post Dispatch

Reading Trudy Busch Valentine’s plan to abandon people like me made my blood boil. There’s a reason rural America thinks elitist Democrats like her are entitled — it’s because they are.

When I was in the state Senate, I represented my rural community in northeast Missouri. I know what it takes for Democrats to win in tough parts. Believe me, it’s not easy. But you have to have the guts to try. At the very least, you have to be brave enough to show up and meet with us.

It’s been well documented how our party last lost touch with rural voters. I attribute a big part of that to an unwillingness to show up and listen to us. Heck, how could you ever fight for us if you don’t know a thing about us?

And nowadays, despite Democrats regularly losing by double digits statewide, in no small part due to this rural collapse, we’ve got Democratic candidates like Trudy Busch Valentine who don’t even think we’re worth their time. She’s even cut out the middle man — instead of getting ignored by politicians who are bought off by out-of-touch megadonors, we’ve moved on to just throwing the megadonor on the ballot instead.

I live on a farm with my family here in northeast Missouri. Let me tell you something about Missouri farm families — we don’t trust someone who shows up on our doorstep a week before an election with a lame message after ignoring us for months. Why should we?

(emphasis mine). 

It's a powerful column about an issue I've spent a lot of time and energy thinking about in recent years:  what does it take to cultivate the rural vote?  

By the way, Montgomery County, where Busch Valentine owns farmland, is exurban St. Louis, but has a population of just 11,322.  It includes Hermann, Missouri, which I visited in the fall of 2019, between a talk at the University of Missouri and a flight out of STL.  

I wrote this yesterday about Democrats' similar neglect of rural Texas.  It is based on an article in Texas Monthly Magazine.