Democratic strategist James Carville during a Thursday podcast urged “urbanist” Democrats to “apologize” to rural Americans for disrespecting them.
President Donald Trump’s November victory over former Vice President Kamala Harris was bolstered by increased support from rural voters. In response to a listener question on “Politics War Room” about whether Democrats should begin to “campaign hard in rural areas,” Carville said they should have been doing so all along.
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“Well, I think it was always the time for Democrats to campaign hard in rural areas. I don’t know how the party ever got away from that,” Carville said. “Some of its more urbanist members and commentators lived in a folly of a world that we could exist and win elections by just concentrating on large urban areas that are even not even that strategically located.”
The Democratic strategist then recommended a Wednesday New York Times opinion piece by Michelle Cottle about Democratic Colorado Rep. Jason Crow, who argued that many rural voters feel Democrats “don’t respect them.” Crow also believes Democrats must work on improving their grasp of Americans’ lifestyles in order to win elections.
“I think Jason Crowe is the kind of prototype of what the modern Democratic Party should embrace … this should give us, if we play this very smartly, it should give us an opportunity to literally reintroduce ourselves to rural America,” Carville said. “Because for large swaths of rural America, they feel like the Democratic Party doesn’t see them, doesn’t talk to them or does not prioritize them. And, you know, this gives us a chance for them to take another look at the Democratic Party.”
“The stupidity of we got to be the most progressive, self-righteous, moralistic people in the world and, you know, people that live in rural America are just, you know, fat, lazy and stupid, which is decidedly not true,” he added. “But that’s the way that some of the urbanist elements of our party have tried to come across. And it’s stupid, and they ought to apologize to the rural for being so goddamn stupid.”
Democrats are facing record-low popularity, according to polls conducted by CNN/SSRS and NBC News that were published on Sunday. Meanwhile, Trump’s approval rating matches its highest point across both of his terms at 47%, according to the NBC News poll.
A coalition of national Democratic committees in March launched a town hall tour with Americans in Republican-held districts across the nation in an effort to win over voters.
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