My offer to current and future Democratic candidates who want to do better in rural America
Here’s a piece of advice from someone raised in the coalfield mountains of southwest Virginia: We like to tell stories, and sometimes it takes a roundabout way to get to the point.
What got this whole ball rolling was an article by Michael Weidokal, a founder of the consulting firm International Strategic Analysis, titled, “Who’s to Blame for the Deterioration in U.S. Politics?”
Now that’s a big question. Weidokal highlights seven factors that he thinks have gotten us into our current political mess: lack of basic education, the unchecked power of social media, rampant social extremism, the fast-paced changes in our world, U.S. isolationism, GOP factionalism and Democrats wandering off the path. He notes that the Democratic Party has managed to win the popular vote in seven of the last 10 presidential elections, and yet their governing majority has remained tenuous at best. His reasoning: Democrats have gotten too darn tangled up in “identity” politics, ceding much of their traditional voting bloc to the Republican party.
I think he’s spot on. I’ve watched the Democratic Party walk away from the folks it used to stand beside. I remember Jesse Jackson in a camo jacket marching with the United Mine Workers of America during the Pittston Coal strike in 1989, fighting for our jobs. Back then, Democrats didn’t just talk about working people—they showed up. That felt like our party. But somewhere between then and now, something broke.
By 2016, we had presidential candidate Hillary Clinton at a CNN Town Hall saying, “[W]e’re going to put a lot of coal miners and coal companies out of business.”
That didn’t sound like leadership. It sounded like a threat. That same year, at the Democratic National Convention, Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi, told a reporter on TV that poor white folks vote against their economic self-interest. Like we’re too dumb to know what we’re doing. Really?
I believe we must all be committed to fighting discrimination and bigotry in all its forms. These days, Democrats talk a lot about inclusion. Minority voices. Marginalized groups. That matters—sure it does.
But while they’re checking those boxes, they’ve boxed us rural folks out. If you don’t fit the city crowd, if you work with your hands wearing dirty work boots and still go to church, you don’t count. Our culture—faith, land, family—gets written off like it’s in the way. That’s not inclusion. That’s forgetting who built the damn country.
I remember the war on tobacco in the 1990s. My family had an allotment that we grew. It paid a lot of bills on the farm. Then the buyout came. I sat in a school gym in Stickleyville, Virginia, next to my papaw, listening to suits from both political parties promise the moon. Tobacco settlement money was gonna pay for college scholarships—not just for our kids, but grandkids and great-grandkids, forever. Education was gonna be our new cash crop. You know how long it lasted? One generation. The rest of the money? Vanished into pork belly projects that never helped us replace our way of life or our income. Where was my Democratic Party?
Then the 21st century rolled around and here comes OxyContin. Big Pharma rolled in with a smile and a suitcase full of pills. And we buried our people. Sons. Daughters. Neighbors. Where were the Democratic leaders then? Quiet. Taking campaign donations from people who owned the same company, Purdue Pharma, that was literally killing our rural communities.
At the same time, in 2009, President Barack Obama, under the influence of his White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel, replaces Howard Dean as chair of the DNC which abandons the “50-State Strategy” that had been investing in building out the Democratic Party in rural states. Since then the Democratic Party has basically written us rural people off, showing up only for token visits or fundraisers.
Democrats have suffered steady losses among the 3,143 counties (or equivalents) across the nation since 2000. Wonder why? In 2024, Donald Trump won in 2,633 counties, or 86% of all counties, while about 90% of counties shifted in his favor. Kamala Harris, meanwhile, won 427 counties, less than Hillary Clinton (472) and Joe Biden (512). By comparison, in 2008 Barack Obama won 876 counties, the largest share of any Democratic presidential candidate in the last quarter century.
What’s more, according to a Brookings Institution analysis, the counties won by Trump represent 38% of the nation’s gross domestic product. In other words, GOP-voting counties overwhelmingly represent a minority segment in terms of economic power. Not only have the Democrats concentrated their voting base, they have done so in big city metro areas where most of the nation’s wealth is concentrated (although Trump made gains there as well).
My home county, Virginia’s Wise County, voted a whopping 83% for Trump in the last election. Heck, most Republicans around here—local, state, and federal—can count on at least 70% of the vote. Back in the day—30 or 40 years ago—Democrats would’ve been winning these same counties. So, what happened?
Simple: the Democratic Party outgrew its upbring’n a long time ago as our history shows! But here’s the kicker: the most damaging part of abandoning rural America is the complete inability to craft messages and policies that resonate with us. Instead, we get national leaders making statements like, “rural voters are voting against their own best interests!” or they label us “uneducated,” “uninformed,” “racists” or “fascists.”
Let me tell you right now, none of that holds water. Statistically speaking, we’re no better and no worse than folks from anywhere else. So let’s cut the nonsense—no one votes against their self-interests. If you think that, you just don’t know someone’s self-interests. Hint: just ask them! Rural America’s generally friendly. We’ll tell ya.
When they finally decide to campaign in rural America, it’s like watching college professors trying to convert us to their version of religion. They come in armed with information, trying to enlighten us on why we’re wrong and should vote Democratic. Here’s another nugget of wisdom: Rural America speaks a different language. What you’re saying ain’t always what we’re hearing. Like the rest of the country, we respond to emotions when it comes to voting.
As the Democrats lost touch with rural America, their bean counters made a case for focusing on urban and suburban voters. Sure, they’ve shown you can win state-wide elections this way, but there’s a tragically harmful side effect: your rival party wins by a landslide in the places you’ve left behind.
When I was younger and newly elected to our county Board of Supervisors, my papaw used to say, “The only thing worse than governing a broke county is governing one with too much money.” That rings true for politicians, too. The only thing worse than barely winning your election—where both sides will work you to the bone—is winning by a landslide. Then you’re an indentured servant to your political party, often to its extremes. Regardless of your party affiliation, that’s not good for a democracy.
In southwest Virginia and across rural America, the only way a GOP politician pulling in 70% of the vote is gonna lose their job is to get primary’d. We’ve seen it in neighboring northeast Tennessee. GOP incumbents who’ve been in office for over a decade can win elections by 70% margins, but if they step out of line and work with a Democrat or if they don’t tow the MAGA line, they’ll get primary’d!
That’s why the GOP, especially the MAGA folks, love nominating there candidates at a “firehouse primary.” It’s all about who can rally enough angry MAGA voters in one day to vote out that RINO (Republican in Name Only) who dared to cross the aisle. Because everyone knows that whoever gets the GOP nomination is winning the general election. It’s like musical chairs, but with more pitchforks and fewer rules.
The result of the Democrats abandoning rural America is this: It creates politicians who win by a landslide in rural areas and have no incentive to do much of anything—or, Lord forbid, look bipartisan and not MAGA enough. The fix to our political dysfunction is simple: the Democratic Party needs to care about rural America and compete in these districts.
Today’s DNC leadership has made some promising changes in this regard. In April, DNC Chair Ken Martin and ASDC President Jane Kleeb announced the “Organize Everywhere, Win Anywhere” strategy. This new “50-State Strategy” (57 counting territories) promises to revive struggling state party infrastructure to help local Democrats compete. Importantly, DNC contributions to state parties will go from 8% of the DNC budget to over 20%, and it will shift monthly cash donations to state parties in red states by 50% and 30% in blue states.
How these investments pay off remains to be seen. If the Democratic Party wants to have a shot in rural America, they better quit with the rehearsed talking points. Inclusion can’t mean everybody but us.
First thing? Bring home some of the endangered species—real rural Democrats. Not the rich city folks who buy a farmhouse, slap on some boots and think that makes ’em country. I’m talking about the ones who’ve been here for generations, who know the land, know the people, and still go to the same diner their granddad did.
Next, put those folks in charge of something that matters—campaign leadership, messaging. We can tell you what’ll land with voters and what’ll land you in the ditch. Hell, we can even teach you how to talk so people around here don’t tune you out before you finish your first sentence.
Here’s my offer to current and future Democratic candidates that may want to do better in rural America, shoot me a message. My email is below. Run your ideas and your speeches by me, I’ll translate them into something that’ll resonate better out here in the country.
Email me at: urTOPIX1@gmail.com
John W. Peace II is a fifth-generation farmer from Big Stone Gap, Virginia, where he grew up on his family’s dairy, Clinch Haven Farms, and still lives today farming hay and beef cattle. He’s a proud father to Trey and Shelby Peace, and partner in life to Cathy Swinney. A Virginia Tech graduate with graduate studies at Penn State, he served as the youngest Chair of the Wise County Board of Supervisors (2004–2008). John co-owns SafeHavenServices.co and urTOPIX LLC (urTopixLLC.com), a Democratic campaign consulting firm focused on reaching rural voters. He’s also a two-time Amazon bestselling author. Learn more at www.JohnWPeace.com.
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