Democrats need a new voter registration “Freedom Summer,” argues Daniel Judt at The Atlantic, if they expect to offset the raft of new voting restrictions enacted by Republican legislatures in state after state. They should field “tens of thousands of paid canvassers employed full-time by Democratic groups, people who will pound the pavement for eight hours a day in every swing state, training with veteran organizers as they go.” The kind of mobilization not seen since 1964.
There are no shortcuts, Judt argues, “No TV spot can walk a voter through their voter-registration form. No digital advertisement can wait for a voter to go find their mail-in ballot. No phone-banker can drive a voter to the polls. We have to knock.”
In many places Democrats have all but conceded, door-knocking is problematic. Homes and farms are too far apart. One does not walk up to the front door and knock. In such places around here, you honk the horn to announce your presence first if you know what’s good for you. This face-to-face work cannot get done in a summer. It takes more time and patience than that, and money statewide campaigns won’t spend on redder, low-density rural areas. Nonetheless, Democrats have to show up. If for no other reason than to prove they don’t have horns and tails. Local and state legislative races depend on it. Statewide races Democrats win in the cities are lost there.
In places such as rural Pennsylvania where Lt. Gov. John Fetterman is campaigning for U.S. Senate, for example (AP):
The party’s brand is so toxic in the small towns 100 miles northeast of Pittsburgh that some liberals have removed bumper stickers and yard signs and refuse to acknowledge their party affiliation publicly. These Democrats are used to being outnumbered by the local Republican majority, but as their numbers continue to dwindle, the few that remain are feeling increasingly isolated and unwelcome in their own communities.
“The hatred for Democrats is just unbelievable,” said Tim Holohan, an accountant based in rural McKean County who recently encouraged his daughter to get rid of a pro-Joe Biden bumper sticker. “I feel like we’re on the run.”
The climate across rural Pennsylvania is symptomatic of a larger political problem threatening the Democratic Party ahead of the 2022 midterm elections. Beyond losing votes in virtually every election since 2008, Democrats have been effectively ostracized from many parts of rural America, leaving party leaders with few options to reverse a cultural trend that is redefining the nation’s political landscape.
The lieutenant governor gets it.
Fetterman, wearing his signature hooded sweatshirt and gym shorts despite the freezing temperatures, described himself as a champion for “the forgotten, the marginalized and the left-behind places” as he addressed roughly 100 people inside a bingo hall in McKean County, a place Trump carried with 72% of the vote in 2020.
“These are the kind of places that matter just as much as any other place,” Fetterman said as the crowd cheered.
People out there know they’ve been neglected. More conservative by nature, when higher-profile Democrats fail even to acknowledge their existence by going there, people vote their more conservative leanings. Even if they are not as propagandized by right-wing media as the left believes.
But the Democratic Party has to get its act together.
Movement Labs has a pilot program in several red and purple states (I am an adviser) to create Democratic infrastructure in smaller counties of 100,000 or less in population. But Movement Labs is not the Democratic Party. Stacey Abrams is due all the credit she gets for her voter registration and turnout efforts in Georgia. But Stacey Abrams is not the Democratic Party. Barely 100 of Georgia’s 159 counties have oganized Democratic committees.
State by state, I’ve been emailing the 4th edition of my get-out-the-vote planning guide to county chairs where they can be found. Tennessee went out on Monday. The list compiled in December was no good by mid-February. Half or more of the state’s county committees saw leadership turnover. Of 95 counties, 85 had contact information. While the open rate could be better, only one (1) county in Tennessee opened the email, and that was a blank auto-reply.
God help Democrats running for Congress in Tennessee. They’ll be lucky to get much help from local committees.
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For The Win, 4th Edition is ready for download. Request a copy of my free countywide GOTV planning guide at ForTheWin.us. This is what winning looks like.