When I ran for Congress, I knew it was important to reach out to every single voter in my district. I drove our campaign RV, Sioux City Sue, to all 374 towns to connect directly with voters. In the 2020 election, I was one of the few non-incumbent Democratic candidates to outperform the top of the ticket. I strongly believe it’s because of the hard work getting our message out to rural voters.
But Democrats across the country are losing the game in rural America.
In 2016, Trump won the rural vote by 15 percent. In 2020, Trump increased his popularity in rural America and he bested Biden by 21 percent. This had a ripple effect all the way down the ballot. We lost seats in the House, and Republicans continued their takeover of state legislatures across America.
I believe the best thing I can do for my country is to help improve the Democratic brand among rural voters. That’s why today I’m announcing I’ll be joining forces with RuralVote.org to launch a massive campaign to connect with rural voters in several battleground states.
Donate $5 to help support our work to battle misinformation and win over rural voters!
Here’s how our campaign will work: We will build a grassroots network of local messengers with the ability to bypass the Republican disinformation machine and improve the Democratic and progressive brand in small towns and rural communities. Our campaign will be focused on battleground states for the 2022 midterm election. We are crunching the numbers in Georgia, Kansas, North Carolina, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, South Carolina, Arizona and my home state of Iowa to identify 39 counties nationwide where rural areas will decide control of the U.S. Senate in 2022.
Democrats have popular policies, but their accomplishments are being drowned out by the rightwing misinformation machine. This must change. If we’re going to win hearts and minds in rural America for progressive policies, we have to get our message out in those communities.
I will be following up with you soon about how YOU can get involved with our effort to battle rightwing misinformation in rural communities. In the meantime, will you donate $5 to help get our campaign jumpstarted? It’s long past time we show rural voters who really have their backs.
Standing Tall for All
J.D. Scholten
Paid for by RuralVote.org PAC. Not authorized by any candidate or candidates committee.