On John Fetterman's rural strategy in the Pennsylvania Senate race

I published this opinion piece today in Politico Magazine, "John Fetterman is Running a Test that Democrats Need to Watch."  

Here's an excerpt: 

As a scholar who studies rural people and places, I’ve noticed one Democratic candidate who defies th[e] trend [of failing to vie for rural voters]. While consultants and organizers talk about the need for rural talking points and investments in rural newspaper and radio buys, this politician has deployed the most obvious strategy for making inroads with rural voters: He showed up in every county in his state.

Then, he did something really remarkable: He showed up again.

That candidate is John Fetterman, who secured the Democratic nomination for U.S. Senate in Pennsylvania’s May primary with a robust 59 percent of the vote and currently holds the lead in general election polling.

Fetterman lived up to his “Every County, Every Vote” slogan. On a single Saturday in early May, for example, he visited five counties in north-central Pennsylvania, part of the state’s “rural T” — the vast area which form a big “T” on the map between the Philadelphia and Pittsburgh metro areas and north to the New York state line.

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The attention a high-profile candidate like Fetterman has paid to rural areas of his state may begin to ease the rural inferiority complex that’s been festering for decades, as rural economies have stagnated, small towns have lost population and country folks have become the butt of jokes. 

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Whatever happens in the general election, Fetterman’s rural success in the primary raises the question: Why aren’t more Democratic candidates pursuing rural voters like Fetterman has?

Don't miss the rest of the analysis.

Postscript:  I discussed the Politico piece a few days later on Salt Lake City talk radio, Inside Sources with Boyd Matheson.