In the final days of the midterms, a set of Democrats and independents across the Plains are trying to win back rural voters their side gave up on years ago, betting that resurgent prairie populism, frustration with Donald Trump's agenda and old-fashioned retail politics can break the Republican lock on farm country, The Guardian reported.
Independent Senate candidate Dan Osborn recently walked the main street of Arthur, Nebraska, a town of about 100 in one of the state's most rural counties, as part of a tour of all 93 counties before election day. "I'm not a Republican, I'm not a Democrat, I just wanna work for workers," he told diners at a local restaurant.
An old tradition, new targets
Osborn is one of several candidates leaning on that heritage. In Iowa, Democratic Senate candidate Josh Turek calls himself a commonsense prairie populist, saying his guide is what is best for the middle class, workers, rural communities and small family farms. In Montana, Democrat Sam Forstag is running on economic populism to flip a red House district, and in Kansas, Democratic pastor Adam Hamilton's campaign points to the bipartisan Farm Bill and Bob Dole as models.
The movement's 19th-century roots lay in farmers allied with labor against railroads that bought land and gouged them on shipping, historian Cory Haala of South Dakota State University told The Guardian. Today's flashpoints include monopoly power, antitrust and data centers, which he described as often faceless, out-of-state corporate projects. Nebraska Democratic Party chair Jane Kleeb said she had never seen her party adapt so quickly to where voters are.
Why rural voters drifted, and why now
Farm-state Democrats like Tom Harkin, Byron Dorgan and Tom Daschle once thrived in the region, but by 2013 they were described as a fading species. Former North Dakota Sen. Heidi Heitkamp, the last Democrat to win statewide there, said her party decided it was easier to grow in the suburbs than to hold ground in rural America, echoing Chuck Schumer's 2016 remark that Democrats would trade blue-collar voters for suburban moderates.
Heitkamp argued that high gas prices, tariffs and struggling rural hospitals have shaken faith in Trump among voters who once expected him to fix those problems. Even North Dakota's Republican Sen. Kevin Cramer recently said he was glad not to be on the ballot this year. Wins, or even close losses, in these races would show national Democrats where to invest in 2028.
Reporting sources: US politics | The Guardian, “‘Prairie Populists’ fight to win back rural voters long ceded to Republicans”.