A Rural Blueprint for Every State

The suburban consultants may tell you Virginia’s Democratic victories came from clever messaging and billboards. The party leaders in the tall buildings may say it was the media buys or the polling or the kitchen table issues. They are not completely wrong, but they are missing the part that matters. Out where the mountains fold in tight and the roads curve like creek beds, something else happened. Something you do not learn in a conference room at a retreat.

It was Salesmanship. The real kind. The kind with mud on the boots and dust on the truck. The kind where a candidate sits on a porch swing for twenty minutes before asking for a vote. The kind Democrats used to practice back when working people knew the party was on their side.

For the first time in anyone’s memory, Democrats in Virginia showed up everywhere. All one hundred House districts. Every holler, ridge top, river town, and strip of crossroads that counts as a community.
Virginia Mercury reports the full slate here.

That did not happen by luck. It was Dr. Fergie Reid Jr. and the 90 for 90 volunteers who pushed the party into places it had written off. His father, Dr. Fergie Reid Sr., broke barriers in Richmond half a century ago. Now his son is reminding Democrats that if you want to win statewide, you cannot surrender forty percent of the map before the first sign goes up.

Because out here, people still believe something simple. Work Boots Built America. And they need to be reminded which party used to believe it too.

The trouble was money. The twenty seven Democrats running in the toughest MAGA districts did not get any support from the state party. Not one dollar. The county committees helped where they could, and the Ninth District committee pitched in, but rural county committees are held together with volunteer glue and pocket change. Most are lucky to afford stamps.

Then a Michigan based activist changed the story. His name is Charles Gaba. He is known for creating ActBlue pages that raise money for competitive races. When asked to build one for twenty seven rural contests everybody labeled unwinnable, he resisted. It took a stretch of convincing before he agreed. The page he built was named the Virginia Value Pack 27. It opened with five hundred dollars and ended with more than one hundred forty six thousand. Enough for around five thousand four hundred dollars per candidate. Enough to put Democrats back on the rural landscape.
Radio IQ tells that story here.
Daily Kos tells the fundraising journey here.

That money meant billboards in places that had not seen a Democratic candidate in years. It meant radio spots on the morning farm reports. It meant rural Democrats were no longer alone.

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And the numbers showed it. Analysts noted that the Democratic vote grew in many rural and semi rural counties. The Republican vote fell in places where it had been strong for a generation. That combination helped build the statewide wave that washed across the map.
Cardinal News broke down the shifts.

Here is what every Democrat from Texas to Indiana to Pennsylvania needs to understand. Those twenty seven rural candidates may not have won their races, although a few came close, but they helped win the war. Their names on the ballot forced Republicans to defend turf they usually sleepwalk through. Their presence brought out voters who had stopped showing up. Their effort filled in counties that had gone dark for Democrats for years.
Daily Kos tracked that impact here.

This blueprint works in any state. Republicans have been using it for decades. They run candidates in every rural district. Their state parties fund them. They keep them alive through the tough cycles until the work pays off. That is how they captured the rural vote one season at a time. They were patient. They were present. They never quit on the countryside.

But something in Virginia shifted because of Dr. Fergie Reid. For the first time in modern memory, our rural candidates had basic funding and real support. Enough to stand tall. Enough to be seen. And for once it was the Republicans who failed to run in seventeen districts. Democrats, not the GOP, had the full slate. That is how you change the math. That is how you move the ground under their feet.

Now the door is cracked open. Progressives are stepping into leadership roles in county committees that had gone quiet with empty meetings. Cindy Green in VA District 44 is helping rebuild rural infrastructure that will support all Democratic candidates, not just the chosen ones. And Senator Ghazala Hashimi’s move to the Lieutenant Governor’s office sets off a run of special elections. One Senate race. Then an open House seat. 

This is the moment when an old mountain Papaw would lean back, take off his glasses, and say, you better move while the moving is good.

We have an opening. A real one. If Democrats across the country want to win again in the places where Work Boots Built America, they need to follow the same play. Field candidates everywhere. Support ALL of them. Fund them enough to be noticed. Show up in rural America like you intend to stay.

That is how you shift margins. That is how you rebuild the working class vote. That is how you press the advantage.

Be curious, not judgmental.

Till next time, that’s the story from the ‘Back Forty’. — John W. Peace II

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John W. Peace II is a fifth-generation farmer from Big Stone Gap, Virginia, where he grew up on his family’s dairy, Clinch Haven Farms, and still lives today with the farm producing hay. He’s a proud father to Trey and Shelby Peace, and partner in life to Cathy Swinney. A Virginia Tech graduate with graduate studies at Penn State, he served as the youngest Chair of the Wise County Board of Supervisors (2004–2008). John co-owns SafeHavenServices.co and urTOPIX LLC (urTopixLLC.com), a Democratic campaign consulting firm focused on reaching rural voters that is sponsored by www.RuralAmericaRising.com PAC. He’s also a two-time Amazon bestselling author. Learn more at www.JohnWPeace.com.