(C) Daily Yonder - Keep it Rural This story was originally published by Daily Yonder - Keep it Rural and is unaltered. . . . . . . . . . . Commentary: Rural Voters Help Candidates Sink or Swim in Great Lakes Races for Senate [1] ['Robin Johnson', 'Monmouth College', 'Matt L. Barron', 'Mlb Research Associates', 'The Daily Yonder', '.Wp-Block-Co-Authors-Plus-Coauthors.Is-Layout-Flow', 'Class', 'Wp-Block-Co-Authors-Plus', 'Display Inline', '.Wp-Block-Co-Authors-Plus-Avatar'] Date: 2025-01-21 There are many reasons for the outcome of the 2024 elections being cast about, but Democrat’s continuing problems in rural America stand out. Take the US Senate races in the Great Lakes states, including the Blue Wall. Four incumbent Democrats ran for reelection and one open seat featured a sitting and former members of Congress facing off. Senator Amy Klobuchar stands out above everyone else with a solid 58.1% of the two-party vote in Minnesota. She also captured 43.4% in the state’s rural counties, below her previous performances but enough to win an easy victory. Minnesota’s rural counties are about 22% of the statewide vote. One of the keys to her success in rural Minnesota: Klobuchar visits all of the state’s 87 counties every year. She also ran more than seven points higher than Vice President Harris in rural counties. If Kamala Harris wanted help in rural America, she picked the wrong Minnesotan as her choice for running mate. Next door in Wisconsin where Senator Tammy Baldwin eked out a victory by fewer than 30,000 votes statewide. She won 40% in rural Wisconsin which was about 10 points lower than her previous two runs. If she had run one to two points lower in rural counties, she would have lost the seat. Wisconsin has a recent history of razor-thin margins in key elections and the rural vote is critical, comprising about 33% of the statewide vote. Elissa Slotkin’s race in Michigan was even closer as she won by less than 20,000 votes. While Michigan is less rural in terms of total votes than Minnesota and Wisconsin, Slotkin’s 36% of the rural vote helped push her over the top. Slotkin ran about 20,000 votes better than Harris in rural Michigan, which about equaled her statewide margin. The two Democrats who lost Senate seats in the Great Lakes states performed noticeably worse in rural counties. Senator Bob Casey lost Pennsylvania by 15,000 votes but was overwhelmed in rural counties by more than 330,000 votes. His rural vote share was 31.3%, far lower than his last run in 2018 (39.2%) and Senator John Fetterman’s 33.3%. from 2022. It shouldn’t be asking too much to get one of three rural votes, especially for an incumbent. If Casey equals Fetterman’s performance, he wins. Senator Sherrod Brown fared even worse in Ohio. His two-party share of the rural vote was just under 30%. His performance was nearly 10 points worse than his 2018 race but even that share this time would have left him short. Brown also underperformed in urban counties. Despite being a senior member of the Senate Agriculture Committee, many voters were unaware that Brown served on the panel and once chaired the Subcommittee on Rural Development which oversees a suite of key grant and loan programs for rural broadband, water and sewer infrastructure and rural housing. And Brown spent so much time out of state fundraising the more than $95 million he used to try and defend his seat, he had no time to showcase his many accomplishments from this committee across rural swaths of the Buckeye State. Casey acknowledges the challenge Democrats face in rural America. In a recent post-election interview, he said “Democrats used to lose these same counties for the most part, but you were losing them by a hell of a lot less. At least in Pennsylvania, you cannot lose rural counties by the margins we’ve been losing by — you just can’t.” The party needs to overhaul its approach to rural voters. To paraphrase Jack Kennedy, Democrats need to go into rural areas not because it’s easy, but because it’s hard. Donald Trump provided a lesson in reaching out in hostile territory by appealing to African American and Latino voters. He campaigned in deep blue states like New Mexico, New York, New Jersey and California…and was ridiculed by the mainstream media for doing so. Yet he increased his support in all categories on his way to a surprising popular vote win. Democrats need to begin the hard work of retooling their rural strategy. They can start by asking those who have done better in rural counties, like Klobuchar and Baldwin, for advice instead of listening to consultants and losing candidates. Reengaging in rural America will be good for the Democratic Party and healthy for our democracy. Robin Johnson is an Adjunct Political Science Professor at Monmouth College, Monmouth, Illinois. Matt L. Barron is Principal at MLB Research Associates in Chesterfield, MA. Related Republish This Story Republish our articles for free, online or in print, under a Creative Commons license. [END] --- [1] Url: https://dailyyonder.com/commentary-rural-voters-help-candidates-sink-or-swim-in-great-lakes-races-for-senate/2025/01/21/ Published and (C) by Daily Yonder - Keep it Rural Content appears here under this condition or license: Creative Commons CC BY-ND 4.0 International. via Magical.Fish Gopher News Feeds: gopher://magical.fish/1/feeds/news/dailyyonder/