Democrats: Give rural voters a reason to trust and support the party

[appalachiablue]

43. Link for full article w/ background, added information and worth reading.

The Hill, 'Democrats: Give Rural Voters A Reason To Trust And Support The Party', By Richard Ojeda, Opinion Contributor, 12/15/17.

http://thehill.com/opinion/campaign/365019-democrats-stop-blaming-voters-and-do-some-soul-searching

Intro/Excerpts

With celebratory wins on Tuesday, Democrats across the nation are energized, hopeful and excited about the future. In Alabama, newcomer Doug Jones defeated a Republican statewide for the first time in over 20 years. In Virginia, a wave of blue in the statehouse made it seem as though the tides might be turning in our nation. But look closer. Even though we had a huge win in Virginia, rural counties across the state voted Republican. And I am convinced that had Alabama’s Roy Moore been a better candidate, he would have won that seat by a large margin. We can and should be able to win in Southern and Appalachian states regularly, not just against an opponent accused of sexually assaulting minors.

One of the first things I learned about politics came from my family, generations of coal miners in southern West Virginia. “Democrats are for working people, son,” they said as they cleaned the coal dust from their faces. People in my town voted Democratic for years. Now, things have changed. Over the past decade, West Virginia voters have turned away from their Democratic roots to support Republicans who speak to the issues that matter most to hardworking miners and their families. Across Appalachia and rural America, Democrats have found themselves wondering if they could compete in red districts that once were historically blue.
 
Democratic politicians have trotted into poor places such as Logan County, where nearly 20 percent of the people live below poverty level. They ride in on their high horses, villainize coal miners and their families, and offer nothing more than welfare and retraining for jobs that do not exist. When Hillary Clinton labeled Donald Trump's supporters as deplorables, she finally said what rural voters had suspected for a long time: Democrats saw them as insignificant, looked down on them and were not listening to those suffering in Appalachia and rural America.

When I ran for state Senate in 2016, I was worried as a Democrat during a hotly contested and partisan election year that my eagerness to fight for West Virginia families would not be enough to win. But the voters chose me to represent the 7th Senatorial District – the same district that overwhelmingly supported a convict over Barack Obama in 2012 and where more than 30 percent of registered Democrats supported Trump. If I can win here, Democrats can win anywhere, but first we’ve got to stop blaming voters for voting “against their self-interest” and do some soul-searching about what we, as Democrats, need to do differently. > More at the Link above.