Janet Lynn Stumbo leaned on her cane and surveyed the 2 dozen or so voters who had convened in a small Appalachian city to satisfy with the chair of the Kentucky Democratic Get together.
A former Kentucky Supreme Court docket justice, the 70-year-old Stumbo mentioned the occasion was “the largest Democratic gathering I’ve ever seen in Johnson County,” an enclave the place Republican Donald Trump obtained 85% of the presidential vote in November.
Paintsville, the county seat, was the newest cease on the state celebration’s “Rural Listening Tour,” a periodic effort to go to overwhelmingly white, culturally conservative cities of the type the place Democrats as soon as competed and Republicans now dominate nationally.
Democrats’ path again to energy might begin in locations like Paintsville, one small assembly at a time, as a result of it could be tough for the celebration to regain management of Congress or the White Home with out faring higher amongst rural and small-town voters throughout the nation.
The celebration lately misplaced U.S. senators from states with vital rural populations: Montana, Ohio, Pennsylvania and West Virginia. Additionally, Democratic-led states are shedding inhabitants to Solar Belt states led by Republicans, with some projections suggesting modifications after the 2030 census may price Democrats 12 electoral school votes.
“The intestine verify is we’d stopped having these conversations” in white rural America, mentioned Colmon Elridge, the Kentucky Democratic chair. “Of us didn’t surrender on the Democratic Get together. We stopped doing the issues that we knew we wanted to do.”
It’s not that Democrats should carry most white rural precincts to win extra elections. It’s extra a matter of persistently chipping away at Republican margins in the way in which Trump narrowed Democrats’ common benefits amongst Black and Latino males in 2024, and never in contrast to what Kentucky’s Democratic governor, Andy Beshear, did in two statewide victories.
Nationally, Trump received 60% of small-town and rural voters when he misplaced reelection in 2020 — and 63% in his 2024 victory, in keeping with AP VoteCast knowledge. That’s a far cry from a technology in the past, when Democrat Invoice Clinton received pluralities in Johnson County on his solution to capturing Kentucky’s electoral votes within the 1992 and 1996 White Home races.
“We’ve got to be intentional about how we construct one thing sustainable,” Elridge mentioned. “It’s not like we haven’t received right here earlier than.”
Combating the ‘caricature’ of Democrats
For 2 hours in downtown Paintsville, Elridge listened as Stumbo and others took umbrage at conservatives’ coverage agenda, expressed frustration over President Trump’s standing in japanese Kentucky and mentioned they have been decided to promote their neighbors another. Many introduced their private experiences to bear.
The occasion was half city corridor, half catharsis, half pep discuss. In some methods, the complaints in Paintsville mirrored how Democrats nationally are indignant, typically for very totally different causes.
Sandra Music, a retired instructor who known as herself “a brand new Democrat,” transformed due to Trump. She bemoaned conservatives’ success in advancing personal faculty tuition voucher packages and mentioned they have been threatening a public training system “meant to make sure we educate everyone.”
Music criticized Republicans for making a “caricature” of Democrats. “They wish to pull out key phrases: ‘abortion,’ ‘transgender,’ ‘boys in women’ sports activities’” and distract from the remainder of the Republican agenda, she mentioned.
Stumbo, the previous justice, lamented what she known as the rightward lurch of the state and federal courts. “We’re going to undergo irreparable injury,” she mentioned, “if we don’t cease these conservative idiots.”
Michael Halfhill, who works in healthcare data know-how, was incredulous that the billionaire president has taken maintain of voters in Appalachia, traditionally one of many nation’s poorest areas.
“It’s not left versus proper. It’s wealthy versus poor,” he mentioned, shaking his head at working-class white voters — Johnson County is 97.5% white — “voting towards themselves.”
Ned Pillersdorf, who’s married to Stumbo, went after Republicans for his or her proposed federal tax and spending plans, particularly potential cuts to Medicaid. He mentioned Paintsville nonetheless has a rural hospital, which is among the many largest employers within the area, in no small half as a result of Kentucky is among the many GOP-leaning states the place a Democratic governor expanded Medicaid below the 2010 Inexpensive Care Act.
Elridge, the primary Black chair of a serious celebration in Kentucky, talked about Trump’s assaults on variety, fairness and inclusion initiatives and associated civil rights legal guidelines and rules.
“That is the place Trump and MAGA excel — if any person who appears like me is your enemy, then you definately don’t care if the man within the White Home is peeing in your leg and telling you it’s rain,” he mentioned, referring to Trump’s “Make American Nice Once more” motion.
Republican response
By definition, a “listening tour” shouldn’t be meant to supply concrete motion. Elridge and Nicholas Hazelett, the Johnson County Democratic chair who’s a university pupil and a Paintsville Metropolis Council member, acknowledged that the small crowd was Democrat-friendly. Regardless of a couple of latest converts, nobody was there ready to be satisfied.
Throughout the road, antiques store proprietor Michelle Hackworth mentioned she didn’t even know Democrats have been holding a gathering. Calling herself a “hard-core Republican,” she smiled when requested if she would contemplate attending.
“They wouldn’t persuade me of something,” she mentioned.
Invoice Mike Runyon, a self-described conservative Republican who’s Paintsville’s mayor and loves Trump, went instantly to social and cultural commentary when requested in an interview to elucidate Johnson County politics.
Democrats, he mentioned, “should get away from the far-left radical — take a look at the transgender message.” Additional, Runyon mentioned, “all the pieces obtained type of racial. It’s not like that right here in Paintsville and in Johnson County, however I can see it as a rustic. … It’s making individuals extra racist towards each other.”
Requested particularly who he was speaking about, he alluded to progressive U.S. Reps. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, a Latina from New York Metropolis, and Jasmine Crockett, a Black girl from Texas.
“It’s those you all the time see on TV,” the mayor mentioned.
Governor’s bipartisan enchantment
Beshear appears to be the one Democrat who instructions vast respect in and round Paintsville.
Democrats hailed the 47-year-old governor for supporting abortion and LGBTQ+ rights whereas nonetheless attracting assist past the Democratic strongholds of Louisville, Lexington and Frankfort. Beshear didn’t win Johnson County however obtained 37% of the vote in his 2023 reelection. He carried a number of close by counties.
Many Republicans, together with the mayor, complimented Beshear for his dealing with of floods and different disasters within the area.
“He’s been right here,” Runyon mentioned. “I completely can get to him if I want him.”
In 2024, Beshear landed on the listing of potential vice presidential operating mates for Democratic nominee Kamala Harris. He additionally stays Senate Democrats’ high choose for a 2026 marketing campaign for the seat coming open with Republican Sen. Mitch McConnell’s retirement.
Beshear, whose father as soon as misplaced to McConnell after having received two governor’s races, has mentioned he is not going to run for Senate. However he has stepped up his cable TV interviews and launched his personal podcast, fueling hypothesis that his subsequent marketing campaign shall be for the 2028 presidential nomination.
“Andy shouldn’t be like these nationwide Democrats,” Runyon mentioned. Reminiscent of the Nineties, he added, “Invoice Clinton wasn’t like these Democrats at this time.”
Hackworth, the store proprietor, famous that she voted towards the youthful Beshear twice. However over the course of an prolonged interview, she, too, recommended the governor’s catastrophe administration. She additionally questioned some strikes by Trump, together with the thought of getting Washington utterly out of the catastrophe support enterprise.
She blamed Trump’s predecessor, former President Biden, for a “robust time at my retailer,” however acknowledged that federal support had helped many companies and households keep afloat by the COVID-19 pandemic emergency.
Hackworth mentioned she was not accustomed to particulars of Medicaid enlargement, however she recognized the close by hospital as among the many space’s largest employers. The others, she mentioned, are the general public faculty system and Walmart, which a day earlier had introduced it was growing costs due to Trump’s tariffs.
Whereas supporting Trump’s “America first” agenda, Hackworth mentioned widespread tariffs would upset many shoppers. “You possibly can stroll by my retailer and see the place the brand new stuff is made,” she mentioned. “I attempt to purchase American, however a lot of it’s China, China, China.”
Requested once more whether or not any of that ought to give Democrats a gap in locations like Paintsville, she mentioned, “Properly, there’s all the time a gap should you present up.”
Barrow writes for the Related Press.
