Campaigners can’t be bothered with the voters
“The Democratic Party doesn’t give a shit about what voters have to say.” Eva Posner, a Virginia-based political consultant, is furious. She believes that the progressive establishment will pay for snubbing rural voters.
Forsaken by the Democrats, rural America has offered its soul to the MAGA movement. Donald Trump took 65% of the rural vote in 2020, up from 62% in 2016. The 2020 figure was even higher among rural whites at 71%. The resulting polarisation between blue cities and red countryside is a “byproduct of the Democrats”, says Matt Barron, who specialises in rural Democratic races as the principal at MLB Research Associates. “They don’t even try to compete in rural America.”
