Democrats Take a Data-Driven Approach to Win Rural America

The lack of access to broadband and health care in less-populous areas of the U.S. are two of the issues that Democrats hope they can use to loosen the Republican grip on rural voters.

A study being released today by the eight Democratic members on the congressional Joint Economic Committee relies on data showing where rural areas are lagging their urban counterparts, and what policy solutions might close gaps.

For Democrats, the urban-rural divide is political as well. Rural voters went 2-1 for Trump in the 2016 elections, extending an election trend that’s been building for decades. That won’t change unless the party begins engaging rural voters again, said Martin Heinrich, a first-term Senator from New Mexico and the panel’s ranking Democrat.

“My frustration with 2016 is that our party didn’t seem to have a rural agenda,” said Heinrich, who grew up raising cattle. “Let’s at least offer an alternative vision.”

More than one-third of rural residents in 21 states still don’t have access to fast downloads, inhibiting economic development in sparsely populated areas, according to FCC data cited in the report.

Broadband creates jobs, making its expansion highly popular in rural areas—and with Republican infrastructure plans stalled in Congress, Democrats have an opportunity, Heinrich said. “If you can make broadband happen, you can create opportunity anywhere in the United States.”

Heinrich also said the party needs to show rural voters how cutbacks in government health-care funding disproportionately hits their communities, making greater access to medical centers a more prominent issue.

States have wide disparities in their number of rural health centers. Wyoming, the 10th-biggest U.S. State in area but its smallest in population, only has three rural health centers; that’s about one for every 193,000 residents. Oregon, the ninth-largest, has 69; about one for every 60,000.

This isn’t the first time Democrats have tried rural outreach—President Barack Obama convened a task force that reported thoroughly on small-town issues with little electoral effect. And Republicans dismissed the effort.

The rural areas of the U.S. have benefited under Republican leadership, especially through last year’s tax bill, according to the Joint Economic Committee’s chairman, Representative Erik Paulsen. “Rural America is in a better place now than it was before tax reform,” he said in a statement, citing the work of GOP staff economists. “Rural America benefits from a stronger economy overall. That’s why I believe we need to continue working to modernize the tax code and to strengthen our economy.”