Democrats are blaming their loss in this year’s election on Hillary Clinton's lack of attention to rural areas.
And, as Politico reports, progressives are also worried about farm-state Senate races during the midterm elections in 2018. Since last week’s defeat, Democrats have been second-guessing Hillary Clinton's “decision to largely surrender the rural vote” to Donald Trump.
The party seems to have assumed votes in the nation’s urban centers would make up for the votes coming from sparsely populated farm and ranch communities.
A slew of rural-state Democrats face tough reelection battles in two years. And the party is pushing a new strategy to reach out to rural voters, hoping to stave off another bloodbath.
Donald Trump won rural America on a platform of trade protectionism and loosening of environmental regulations. Now progressives must find a way to address these issues in ways that matter in the heartland.