Trump's Hold on Rural America Is Key to His Resilience

[dalton99a]

https://www.wsj.com/politics/elections/trump-iowa-caucus-rural-voters-598fc324
https://archive.ph/uiaJf

Trump’s Hold on Rural America Is Key to His Resilience
Outsize support in places like Iowa’s Hancock County are helping propel the former president past legal woes and challengers
By John McCormick
Jan. 12, 2024 12:01 am ET

GARNER, Iowa — Republican voters in Hancock County largely rejected Donald Trump eight years ago, giving him less than a fifth of the vote in the GOP caucuses. As recently as a year ago, some party faithful here and elsewhere in Iowa seemed eager to move on, saying they were tired of the former president’s chaos and liabilities.

Now Trump appears poised to win this county Monday and claim victory in Iowa’s caucuses, powered largely by his overwhelming support among rural voters who see him as the best candidate to advance a populist conservative agenda. That pattern has played out in similar places across the country, helping explain why Trump has a hold over the Republican Party and is the nomination front-runner.

Trump arrives at the caucuses that kick off 2024 nominating contests with baggage that would likely stop any other politician. He faces 91 criminal charges related to everything from his handling of classified documents to efforts to overturn the 2020 presidential election. He has used language that echoes Adolf Hitler. And he led his party to election losses in 2018, 2020 and 2022.

In Hancock County, none of that matters to many GOP voters. The fact that so many damning allegations against Trump have been aired is a strength, they say, because it suggests he’s unlikely to be derailed by a new tarnishing revelation. Many GOP voters here think Trump is most likely to achieve their ultimate goal — defeating President Biden — because he is a proven commodity and ties or beats the incumbent in general election polls.

...



https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2024/01/12/iowa-voters-republican-democrat/
https://archive.ph/bFwDz

Two Iowa counties an hour apart show America’s growing political divide
Rural Decatur County has moved sharply red, while suburban Dallas County has shifted the other direction
By Theodoric Meyer
January 12, 2024 at 5:00 a.m. EST

LEON, Iowa — Kim DeVore was an enthusiastic supporter of Barack Obama when he ran for president in 2008, drawn to his message about bringing the country together. A loyal Democrat, she caucused for him and even traveled to Des Moines to attend a rally he held there.

But DeVore, who lives in a tiny Iowa town near the Missouri border, eventually came to feel that Obama had only divided the country further. She changed her party registration to Republican in 2016 and voted for Donald Trump, drawn to his pledge to build a wall on the border with Mexico and to put Americans first. “When we have veterans and other people here that are not being helped — now that’s infuriating,” she said.

Seventy miles north in the Des Moines suburbs, Kenan Judge, a retired executive at the Iowa grocery chain Hy-Vee, made the opposite political journey. He had been a Republican for decades but left the party in 2016 after Trump secured the nomination. In 2018, he ran for a Republican-held state House of Representatives seat in Dallas County as a moderate Democrat and won.

“I don’t put up with that stuff,” Judge said, referring to Trump’s rhetoric. “I mean, that’s not who I am. I’m not going to associate with that.”

...

[calguy]

1. The thing about rural voters is...

they don't have near the numbers needed to win, if voters in the populated areas turn out and vote.

[yardwork]

5. They have a disproportionate voting power, though.

So many states are gerrymandered now, giving rural voters disproportionate power in electing congressional offices. Having two senators from every state gives heavily rural states more power. The electoral college gives disproportionate power to rural voters.

I grew up in a rural area and have been a champion for rural health all my life. But I'm very discouraged with the attitudes and behavior of many rural people right now. They need to turn off hate radio and Fox News and visit a city now and then. They sit in their little towns badmouthing the rest of the country, which they never bother to visit. It's racism, xenophobia, and paranoia. These folks used to value hard work and courage. Where did those values go?

[dalton99a]

6. +1. Population wise, Texas is a metropolitan-dominant state, but it is in the GOP's firm control.

[Johonny]

9. Yup

I think rural areas have lower choices. Hence propaganda works better there. It started with RW radio and moved on to TV.

[calguy]

14. This is true

But I think the fact remains that if liberals in the metropolitan areas turn out and vote, we can defeat them in every swing state.

[dalton99a]

15. +1. Democratic turnout in the cities is critical.

[Demsrule86]

18. Gerrymanders don't work in statewide races...rural voters didn't help them in any election since

16. If we turn out we win. Trump may win a primary...but will lose the General.

[czarjak]

2. Racism is the reason for the treason.

[Aristus]

3. They don't get out much out there in Sticksville, do they?

One wouldn't have to do a crippling amount of comparison shopping to know what a lame-ass, incompetent loser Trump is. But because he is 24/7 on FUCKS News and NewsRash, he's what the Kadiddlehoppers vote for.

[Omnipresent]

4. There are always going to be these fluctuations in the voting populace.

When any political party goes too far right or left, people are going to leave.

[doc03]

7. I don't get it, he probably doesn't even own a gun, never goes to church,

has no morals and they couldn't get past the gate at Mar a Lardo.

[dalton99a]

8. +1. The great businessman from New York City actually despises rural people

He just loves their votes

[ExWhoDoesntCare]

16. Never is BS

His attendance is spotty, but it's not non-existent:

According to christianity today, he:

was not a regular churchgoer before he was elected president. He attended Norman Vincent Peale’s church for a while and praises Peale’s book The Power of Positive Thinking. He has also attended Episcopal churches for several Christmas and Easter services.

And just because he doesn't attend church often doesn't mean he's not 100% a christian, as so many of the 'good' christians usually lie about, since they're so embarrassed to be associated with him. Well, tough. He is one, so christians will just have to suck it up and deal with it. Because here's an example of what only a christian would do, and never a not-christian:

Since moving to the White House, however, he has visited many different churches, mostly evangelical and Pentecostal. He has met with numerous ministers, been prayed over, and sought the advice of spiritual counselors like White-Cain, a Florida televangelist often associated with the prosperity gospel, who took a position as the Trump administration’s faith outreach coordinator last year.

Not-christians don't seek the advice of charlatan trash like Paula White. Only christians would do that.

Both excerpts found here:

https://www.christianitytoday.com/news/2020/october/trump-nondenominational-presbyterian-religious-eisenhower.html

[doc03]

17. I meant to say rarely, I know he has been in church. Myself I have been to church

around three times in the last 50 years. The majority of church goers I know are hypocrites. They certainly don't
learn hate for everyone in the Bible. How can anyone call themselves Christians and worship a man like Trump.

[shrike3]

10. Oh, my

“We respond to Trump because he has had to make payroll and build businesses,” said John Golnick, a 70-year-old resident who has worked as a truck driver and in other jobs. “It takes risks, a lot of nerve and a lot of work.”

Got your low-information voter, here.

Reminds me of the guy who told me with a straight face that Trump was saving the country money because he would stay at his golf clubs for free. Wouldn't believe me when I told them that his SS detail had to pay. He was just convinced that Trump was eating the cost and that America was saving money,

[NCDem47]

11. He'll do rallies in rural areas...but he ain't getting anywhere near "those" people

Trump wouldn't spend five seconds with them.

[hildegaard28]

12. It seems like we

Could easily change the voting landscape if a solid percentage of Democrats moved to these rural areas. It wouldn't take too many of us to outnumber them.

[calguy]

20. You move first, okay?

[Squaredeal]

13. These rural rubes haven't a clue.

Information deficit. They think that life is great for them as it is.

[edhopper]

19. And Rural American wants to know

why they sometime feel contempt from urban areas? Who they vote for is a big part of it.