Dems ignored rural voters – to their detriment
In a straitjacket-tight swing state that helped decide the presidency, the Arizona Democratic Party made a mindboggling error in what we were endlessly told was “the most consequential election in our lifetime.”
Outreach to rural Democratic voters ranged from mediocre to nonexistent, and untold thousands of votes went to waste because the activists that did heroic work canvassing Maricopa and Pima counties failed to mount meaningful efforts in red Arizona, where Democrats and persuadable independents are certainly a minority but whose votes count just as much in statewide and national races.
I saw this shortsightedness firsthand in Kingman, where I was the only person – by fluky self-assignment – doing get-out-the-vote work on Election Day.
Knocking on friendly voters' doors is standard operating procedure in the last four days of every close election, and showing up on somebody’s doorstep is the gold standard of persuasion. Texting and phonebanking do not come close.
The quality of this effort is typically where the Democrats win or lose.
My original assignment was to watch the outside of the polls at Grace Lutheran Church for any sign of irregularities, but when none materialized in the morning, I asked an official from the Mohave County party if I should join the get-out-the-vote effort.
She said they had none. Nobody was doing it.
I already had access to the national database of registered Democrats on my phone from a lackluster effort in Yuma over the weekend, and there were stacks of campaign literature in the party office nobody was touching.
So I got permission from my polling watch partner to duck away for a few hours, and started hitting doors myself – while masked up and stepping away six feet after ringing the bell. Going to the grocery store would have been more dangerous than this.
The Democrats who answered were generally surprised (and grateful) that anybody from the party had bothered to talk to them. National Democratic groups had parachuted hundreds of paid staff and volunteers into Phoenix and Tucson but blew off rural Arizona.
Democrats who live as blueberries floating in the cherry Kool-aid get little encouragement or attention.
I must have knocked on half the Democratic doors in Kingman by the time the sun began to dip over the magma ridges on Election Day. But this is not rocket science, and I’m no superhero. With a team of four people, we could have canvassed the whole city of 31,000 people within eight hours. With another day, we could have done Bullhead City, too, and helped make Biden’s victory not such a nail-biter.
While it is true that Democratic registration in this county is less than a third of that enjoyed by Republicans, and that they may be powerless to do anything about embarrassing blowhards like U.S. Rep. Paul Gosar, their votes will count just as much as those in Mesa or Chandler for the next state treasurer or governor and, in 2024, for the U.S. president.
The dysfunction in Kingman is a mirror for how the Democratic National Committee has ignored rural America to its own detriment. If they would devote even a minimal amount of time to some of these neglected red county committees, they would give a huge morale boost to the Democrats there who feel overwhelmed by their neighbors.
They also might counter the toxic narrative that has been allowed to develop that we’re an elite coastal party that has let its commitment to working and rural people go fallow.
In Ohio, for example, Trump ran up margins of 70% or more in rural counties and offset Biden’s strength in the Cincinnati, Cleveland and Columbus suburbs. But I suspect a more intensified outreach effort in those deep-red places – and a revitalization of longdead local committees – could squeeze out surprising levels of hidden juice for statewide and national candidates, even if they fail to win legislative or U.S. House seats.
There’s also the question of visibility and encouragement.
Rural Trump voters have been sold a false picture of Democrats as wild-eyed marauders and “socialists.” But that view would be much harder to maintain if moderate blue voters among them — who shop at the same stores, put their kids through the same schools and worship at the same churches – felt less alone and more emboldened to advertise their beliefs.
I saw for myself how Democrats left a pile of potential votes on the table in Kingman through sheer inattention, and seemed to do little to encourage their potential sympathizers in counties not named “Maricopa” or “Pima.”
Even a minimal investment of attention here could result in a big payoff.