The presidential election was decided by a fraction of a percentage point, but most voters – slightly more than 60 percent – live in politically lopsided counties where President-elect Donald Trump or Democrat Hillary Clinton carried the vote by at least 20 points, says the Daily Yonder. “Even bigger is the percentage of rural voters who lived in a landslide county,” amounting to three out of every four.
Rural voters, who voted 2-to-1 for Trump, are credited with lifting the New York businessman to the presidency. But polarization increased everywhere, from central cities to rural and remote counties, said the Yonder. “Any common ground between the two sides has largely disappeared.”
The Upshot column of the New York Times said, “Rural America, even as it laments its economic weakness, retains vastly disproportionate electoral strength … And the growing unity of rural Americans as a voting bloc has converted the rural bias in national politics into a potent Republican advantage.” It said “tight urban clustering” puts Democrats at a disadvantage in elections.
University of Maryland government professor Frances Lee told the Times that “urban and rural voting behavior is so starkly different now so that this has major political consequences for who has power.”
“People in my party don’t know how to talk to folks in rural areas,” said Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack, former two-term governor of Iowa, during a Bloomberg interview. “It’s hard for us to articulate a message that crosses the different silos of a diverse party. We’ve got a message for this group, and that group, and this group, but if you’re not a part of that group, asking what’s in it for me, you don’t quite get it.”
During the fall campaign, Vilsack urged Democrats to ramp up campaigning in rural areas, saying it was an important part of the electorate.