This brilliant piece by Farah Stockman in the New York Times is not obviously about rural issues; the headline is "The Democrat Who's Flipping the Script," and the story is about Dave Harden, who is running for Congress from a district on the Eastern Shore of Maryland, a conservative place. Here's the bit that makes the story rural:
Yet nitpicky government rules remain a potent and underappreciated source of populist anger against Democrats, especially in rural areas.
On the campaign trail, Mr. Harden has gotten an earful from voters about maddening and arbitrary restrictions: Why are wineries in Maryland limited to serving only 13 kinds of food? Why does a woman who sells her grandmother’s cobbler have to cough up tens of thousands of dollars to build a commercial kitchen? Why does a federal inspector have to be on hand to watch wild catfish get gutted — but not other kinds of seafood? The short answer is that restaurant associations tend to wield more political clout than wineries, and catfish farmers in Mississippi are more powerful than seafood harvesters in Maryland. Big businesses can afford to hire lawyers to help them cut through red tape and lobbyists to bend government rules to their will. Small businesses, especially in rural places, get slammed.
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Mr. Harden is trying to chart an alternative path for Democrats in rural areas. He’s no fan of Donald Trump. He left a 22-year career in the Foreign Service in 2018 because he didn’t want to serve the Trump administration. But when it comes to regulations, Mr. Harden doesn’t sound all that much different from Mr. Trump.
“The regulations in rural economies are ridiculous,” he told me.
Don't miss the rest of this important piece.
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