Senate or any statewide office, because the only way you win statewide in a red or purple state is by getting at least 30 to 40 percent of the rural vote. “What happened in Virginia and New Jersey is a warning sign for what will happen in every statewide election, either U.S. Politico has a piece on the same theme: “ Rural Democrats stare into the abyss after Virginia.” Money quote: Youngkin was above 70 percent in 45 counties - and he surpassed 80 percent in 15 of them. In 2008, there were only four small Virginia counties where Republicans won 70 percent or more of the vote in that year’s presidential race. Virginia, however, is proof: It can get worse. The belief was, in part, that the party had already bottomed out there, especially during the Trump era, when Republicans had run up the numbers of white voters in rural areas to dizzying new heights.
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. It wasn’t the bottom.” The lede: “Republicans ran up the margins in rural Virginia counties, the latest sign that Democrats, as one lawmaker put it, ‘continue to tank in small-town America’.” It’s a sobering read. Following up from my post last week on the Democrats’ setback in Virginia and New Jersey, which caused consternation and dismay in my segment of the political spectrum, the lead article on the NYT website yesterday-which made the rounds among my stateside political friends-was a veritable douche froide: “ Democrats thought they bottomed out in rural, white America.
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