A leader of the group United Rural Democrats traced the Democratic Party’s lost ground in rural areas back to a shift in party loyalty that began in the late 20th century.
“I think it actually applies to how some Republicans do struggle in urban areas as well,” Joseph Shepherd said in a HillTV interview Monday. “I think that after the 1980s you saw sort of a nationalization of both political parties and as a result of that, a lot of these sort of regional flavors of each party slowly petered out.”
“As a lot of these pre-Clinton rural Democrats die out, the Democrats are just going to struggle in these areas,” he added.
Shepherd said that despite cultural and social differences by region, “most people in this country, I’ve noticed, are pretty apolitical … they just sort of want what’s best for their family and their community.
“So I think that if the Democrats can just push on a message of economic prosperity and results instead of more controversial issues, they can really make some extreme headway, especially in areas that need it,” he added.
The major obstacle, Shepherd said, is Democrats’ rural infrastructure falling into disrepair in recent decades. As a result, he said, “they don’t really know how to reach out because those lines have been so damaged.”
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