The Opinions - Farah Stockman on How Democrats Can Win Rural America

Episode Date: August 16, 2024

Democrats tend to do well in cities; Republicans tend to do well in rural areas. But winning back at least some rural voters is essential for Democrats to succeed in statewide elections. Farah Stockman, a member of the New York Times editorial board, found one Democrat who is trying out a new message in rural Ohio.Thoughts? Questions? Email us at [e-mail]. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

This is The Opinions, a show that brings you a mix of voices from New York Times opinion. You've heard the news. Here's what to make of it. I'm Ferris Stockman, and I am a member of the New York Times editorial board. There's actually a lot of places in rural America today where Democrats are essentially going extinct. Democrats do well in the cities, but they get clobbered in the small towns and rural areas. And winning back at least some of those rural voters is, essential to success in statewide elections. In order to do that, Democrats have to rebrand themselves. They need a new winning message. I recently traveled to a place where I think they might have

found one, a place called Shelby County, Ohio. It's about 90 miles west of Columbus. Registered Republicans outnumber Democrats more than eight to one there. So a lot of the Democrats in Shelby County are keeping a low profile. The one woman told, me when I was there that this is a scary place to be a Democrat. She actually refuses to put up a political sign in her pasture because she's afraid that someone would shoot her horses. I went there to talk to this guy who is actually trying to revive the Democratic Party there and change this dynamic. Everybody on the planet is trying to find a secret, a silver bullet to reinvigorate rural America.

His name is Chris Gibbs, and he's a farmer. Do you mind if I swing by early in the morning? Yep, same time. 6.30, we'll go back and check on the cows again. Okay. So Chris is actually the last person you'd expect to lead the charge to revive the Democratic Party here because he used to be a Republican. And he was not just any Republican.

He was the leader of the Republican Party in Shelby County for seven years. He voted for Trump in 2016, hoping for the best. But after Trump was elected, then came this tariff war with China, which wiped out a lot of the value of his soybean crop. And so he had a political conversion. He wrote a scathing op-ed against Trump in the local paper. And after that, he got shunned by the Republican Party where he'd spent most of his adult life. And he lost almost all his friends. And so he started looking at Democrats.

And actually last year was elected as the leader of the Shelby County Democrats. I speak Legacy Republic. I don't speak to Matt. And what I understand is the values of legacy Republicans match the values of existing Democrats in this county. Period. And all I got to do is prove it. I just got to prove it. Chris Gibbs's idea is that he can explain that these Shelby County Democrats, are traditional Democrats, that they're not all wild socialists. And so he is really bent on rebranding the party as the party of traditional American values, the party that cares about freedom, the party that cares about the value of work.

I saw this firsthand at a dinner, the annual spring dinner for Shelby County Democrats. This dinner was held at the Sydney Elkson. Lodge. Sydney is the county seat of Shelby County, and people walked in this lodge, which had a big elkhead mounted over the door, and they went in. And it was just, you know, a place where farmers sat around talking about calving season. And there were a lot of former Republicans in the room. Do you also consider yourself a former Republican? I am a former Republican. Yes, I voted for Reagan. It was an interesting scene to be a part of, because.

because a lot of the local people were saying, this is the first time that I'm telling people I'm a Democrat. They hate the party of Donald Trump and the mess. Or really answering the question of what party affiliation I lean towards. People are scared. They're scared to stand up and say that I'm a Democrat and that I believe in democratic principles. They're scared of that.

I'm going to tell you something. That ends. Tonight. Chris Gibbs was able to bring Tim Ryan, a former congressman, who's kind of a local celebrity, to give the keynote speech. Freedom is a foundational value for us here in the United States. Tim Ryan actually has the same idea of trying to rebrand the Democratic Party in Shelby County and in Ohio as the Party of Freedom.

And he gives the speech talking about the party platform, essentially being a platform of freedom. freedom. Talking about women's issues, that's an issue of freedom. That is the ultimate government encroachment on the lives of its citizens. What's going on with social media and we allow these companies to just trick our little kids' minds into getting dopamine hits in their head and staying on these machines forever, you are taking away the freedom of our kids.

You're seeing a lot of efforts in rural America to use freedom as a focal point for rebranding the party. There's a group called Democrats 101 that promotes a universal creed based on freedom, justice, and opportunity. And countywide Democratic parties around the country are adopting this creed and using it as a way to explain

why the Democratic Party is the party of traditional American values. It's really an interesting question. about whether freedom can be a winning message. I think the jury is still out about that. In Sydney, walking around this town, I went into the restaurant. It's called The Spot,

which is where everybody goes to eat their pie. They have famous pies. And it just was playing Fox News the whole time, and it's just all about Democrats as socialists or pro-Hamas terrorists. I also went into a barbershop where there were a lot of young guys. And that really highlighted for me

what might be the biggest challenge for Shelby County Democrats. In this barbershop, they were all in their 20s, and they either were totally politically disengaged or they were enamored by Trump. And in the barbershop, one of the 20-year-olds was saying,

yeah, well, Democrats today, they're so far to the left. It's not the party that it used to be. So after I wrote my story, my editor told me to go back to Chris Gibbs and see what does he say about those young guys in the barbershop. And I called him back and I explained what I'd heard in that barbershop. And he admitted this is a challenge. But he said, I think that if we do our work now, those young people are going to give the Democratic Party a second look because the Democratic Party's values in Shelby County are what these young people were raising. with. It's their parents' values. He really feels like if they do their work, young people will

give the party another chance. And I hope he's right.