Fireworks, Moonshine and Strategizing: Camping Out With the Rural Democrats Who May Swing Pennsylvania

Vice President Kamala Harris won’t come close to winning in Jefferson County, a rural area tucked in the middle of Pennsylvania that has only voted for a Democratic presidential candidate once in its history.

Yet the hundreds of Democrats who descended on the county fairgrounds recently couldn’t feel more at home.

They gathered for Demstock, the annual part-therapy, part-campout, part-strategy session over two days at the end of August. County and regional leaders made connections and traded suggestions for getting out the vote in places where they say it’s not only isolating to be a Democrat but dangerous.

There are relatively few rural Democrats in Pennsylvania, but they could have a huge influence this year. With Harris coalescing support in the cities and suburbs of Philadelphia and Pittsburgh, the Trump campaign is determined to maximize base support among the 1.8 million rural registered voters. He won nearly 70% of rural voters in 2020.

Rural Pennsylvania Democrats are determined to close the margins, seeing themselves as the last line of defense against a Donald Trump victory sealed by a rural blowout.


https://www.notus.org/2024-election/pennsylvania-rural-democrats-demstock