But this is what it also looks like!
Last week, I was in Michigan to speak at the Michigan Democratic Party’s Rural Caucus Summit — a gathering of candidates and organizers running in some of the reddest, most rural districts in the state.
In that room, we talked about one of the things we know how to solve: Democrats have a likeability problem with rural and faith voters. You can listen to the summit here.
And it’s not because of shared values. In fact, the values and policies of Democrats and faith voters align closely.
It’s because for forty-plus years, the Republican Party and the religious right have been telling them that Democrats hate them, hate God, and hate their families. And Democrats have largely stopped caring, trying, and arguing the point.
That’s been an enormous mistake. If people feel like you don’t care about them, they will continue to drift further and further away.
The people in that conference room are ready to go full speed ahead to win back rural and faith voters, and we were there to help them do it.