Dems’ troubles continue in rural U.S.

HOT SPRINGS, VA.» The increasingly liberal politics of Virginia had been a sore spot for residents of this conservative town of 499 people nestled in the Allegheny Mountains. But last week, as Republicans stormed to marquee victories powered in part by turnout in rural areas like Bath County, local voters cheered.

“We got our Virginia back,” said Elaine Neff, a 61year-old resident. “And we haven’t had a win in a long time.”

Neff said she cried from a mix of happiness and relief after the election. She does not want to take the coronavirus vaccine and believes Glenn Youngkin, the winning Republican candidate for governor, will relax state mandates. Outside a nearby grocery store, Charles Hamilton taunted the Democrats.

“We’re a county of old country folk who want to do what they want,” said Hamilton, 74. “They found out the hard way.”

In the jigsaw puzzle that is electoral politics, Democrats have often focused their energy on swingy suburbs and voter-rich cities, content to mostly ignore many white, rural communities that lean conservative. The belief was, in part, that the party had already bottomed out there.

Virginia, however, is proof: It can get worse.

Youngkin was above 70% in 45 counties — and he surpassed 80% in 15 of them.

“Look at some of those rural counties in Virginia as a wake-up call,” said Steve Bullock, a Democratic former governor of Montana. “Folks don’t feel like we’re offering them anything or hearing or listening to them.”

Youngkin also successfully rolled back Democratic gains in bedroom communities outside Washington and Richmond, where many college-educated white voters had rejected Republicanism under Trump. The twin results raise a foreboding possibility for Democrats: that the party had simply leased the suburbs in the Trump era, while Republicans now own even more of rural America.