New Democracy Seminar: Democratic leaders plead for the party to reconnect with rural voters

DES MOINES, IOWA -- Democrats must win back the trust of rural America if they want to win elections in Iowa and nationwide, party leaders and operatives said Friday at a forum aimed at pushing the party in a “radically pragmatic” direction for 2018 and beyond.

That means, first and foremost, campaigning outside of reliably liberal city areas and acknowledging the cultural and economic concerns of the voters living in those rural parts of the country.

“We need to be in those small towns, creating those conversations in the coffee shop, pushing back on those folks who are anti-government,” former Iowa Gov. and U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack said. “We can’t just organize in Ward 1 in Des Moines, we have to go to Ward 1 in Mount Pleasant.”

Kathleen Sebelius, who, like Vilsack was a Midwestern governor who joined the Obama White House as a cabinet secretary, echoed that argument in a taping later on Friday of Iowa Public Television’s “Iowa Press.”

Read more: http://www.desmoinesregister.com/story/news/2017/10/13/tom-vilsack-democratic-leaders-plead-party-reconnect-rural-voters/762572001/

Cross-posted in General Discussion.