Rural Voters 101

Knocking and talking...

When I first moved to Missouri, I taught at a school in Kansas City.

I introduced myself for the first time to a co-worker, and she asked where I was from; I told her Arkansas. I didn’t specify a town because no one has heard of Altus, AR.

She said, “What’s it like moving to a big city?” She assumed I was from a small town because I was from Arkansas.

I laughed and asked her if she’d ever heard of Little Rock or any town in Northwest Arkansas? They are pretty big cities and all are in Arkansas.

To be clear, I was not offended. I am rural, but I have noticed over the years that folks confuse GOP-dominated states with rural spaces. They aren’t the same. Even the reddest states have blue cities. Even the most regressive of states will have progressive voters.

And, rural communities always have Democratic voters. Ask me how I know.

Talking to a neighbor at Democratic event in Gentry County, Missouri.

I know there has been much written on the vote-against-our-their-self-interest, redneck voter. Something about red hats and diners. Something about guns and racism. A lot of it isn’t nice or even true. I have some thoughts…

Reaching rural voters.

Rural folks aren’t props. You don’t have to pander to us with pickups or jeans or boots, although if you showed up in a pair of Mucks, I’d know you were the real deal.

You don’t have to wear a plaid shirt, or drive a flat bed— looking at you, Josh Hawley. You don’t have to use the word “y’all” unless it’s natural. You don’t have to talk down to us like we aren’t educated. You don’t have to ask about crop prices unless you know enough to not embarrass yourself. You don’t have to act any differently with rural people than you would with any other bloc of voters.

That said…

I have knocked A LOT of rural doors, and one of the most embarrassing things that happened was when I just started knocking in 2017. I went out with a few younger staffers sent from other more suburban and urban parts of the state. I let them lead, because I wasn’t sure what I was doing. After watching them attempt to relate to one of my neighbors, though, I soon stepped in. It went a little something like this:

Young staffer: Hi. My name is ____ and I wonder if you’d like to talk about politics and (insert candidate’s name)

Me: (in my head) OMG. Nooooooo. Not like that!

Person at the door: No, but thank you. (closed door.)

So, I took over at the next door.

Hi! My name is Jess and I bought the old ____ place down the highway. Yeah, he’s a good guy. Anyway, I’m a teacher in Maryville and I’m worried about the schools, so I’m knocking doors for ___ because I know she’ll fight to fund them. You know North Nodaway doesn’t even have a track for the kids to practice on?

(listen)

Right? I also hate that the legislators in Jeff City never pay attention to the lettered highways even though I keep writing them about how bad they are. How many alignments and new tires have you had to buy after driving on JJ every day?

(listen)

I feel that. I think we need to do something to make sure a CAFO can’t move in after the legislators took away local control a few years ago. You can smell them before you see them, right? You know they tried to move one into Livingston County? They beat it though, so who knows where they’ll look to next? Probably not far from here. Have you heard anything about it?

(listen)

Rural recognizes rural.

I didn’t know it at the time, but that’s deep canvasing. It’s having a conversation with a neighbor — often a long conversation. I spent over an hour at many doors.

It’s knowing my area and what we need and also letting my neighbors visit and voice concerns. It’s pretty easy, but it’s time consuming. It is also essential.

Just talk and then listen.

It’s not that difficult to understand rural people. Many of us have been rural all of our lives and we want the same things every other American wants. We are like you in most respects, but we might value physical privacy and a hands-off approach to government a little more — and we don’t mind a long drive to town.

Here are a few misconceptions about rural Americans:

• We all live on farms. In fact, most of us don’t. Many of us work in ag, but we don’t own big farms. You need generational wealth to buy a farm that you can make a living off of. There is a listing just down the highway from me for 220 acres of tillable ground. No house, no out buildings, no barns. It’s listed at 1.5 million. That’s just the land. Now, go price a combine. You’ll need generational wealth.

• We all vote against our self-interest. We often vote for progressive ballot initiatives (hello, legalized weed) so you know that’s not true. However, I will not be able to vote for a State Representative in November. My current Rep has no Democratic opposition. Last cycle, it was me running against him, but I couldn’t afford to run again this cycle. When tallying up Dem voters, it will be easy to write my district off, but we will have no one to vote for. I couldn’t vote in my self-interest if I wanted to.

• We are all gun nuts. I mean, a lot of us own guns, but we also use them. They are tools in my house, not accessories to wear to town and never used to intimidate. My kids hunt (we eat what we harvest) and we also use them to protect livestock. It’s also handy if you’re in FFA and enjoy competing in shooting events. P.S. Not all of our kids are in FFA or 4H, but those programs are awesome…especially for young women.

• We are all racists. I’m absolutely positive rural America has its share of racists, but guess what? So do the cities. There are Black folks who have lived in rural spaces for generations (shocking!) There are people of all backgrounds who call rural America home, just like every other corner of the US. We have racists, but racism isn’t just contained in rural spaces. It’s an American epidemic, not a rural one.

• We are all angry. I recently read a book title about the “angry white rural voter” written by a couple of progressives and my first though was, well, this will help the cause. Yes, there is anger, and if you visit places like my town, you’d see why. We aren’t building, we are razing. We aren’t growing, we are diminishing. The anger isn’t from some pissed off redneck. It’s local folks seeing their way of life dying. Their children moving away and never coming back. It’s not anger…it’s sadness. Yes, many of us could vote better, but back to not having a Democratic nominee…

Here’s what I truly think; the way back to sanity is through rural America and red states. Wyoming has the same amount of Senators as California — why not send money and resources to Wyoming? Or Montana. Or Arkansas. Or Iowa. Or Missouri.

Contest every seat on every ballot — even in rural spaces. Especially in rural spaces.

There are already rural organizers in every rural county. I know this. There are Democratic voters in the most rural of areas, even if they don’t have a nominee to vote for. There are progressives in the fields and farms and small towns across the country.

Come to rural communities. Spend time in rural communities. Don’t pander or use us as props. Just talk and listen. Bring a message of hope. We are ready for it.

This is the way.

~Jess