Matt Barron, the chairman of the Chesterfield Democratic Town Committee in western Massachusetts, “has resigned and left the party due to what he says is the party’s blatant failure to address rural concerns,” said the Daily Hampshire Gazette. Barron, who runs a political consulting business, told the newspaper in Northhampton, Mass., that he acted “after nine years of of growing frustration at the inability of the party to compete for rural and white working class voters.”
Massachusetts is regarded as a reliably Democratic state. Barron said Democratic strength was looking like Swiss cheese in rural areas, with Republicans making headway with voters. In three state Senate districts, there are no local Democratic town committees in one-third of the communities, he said.
Across the country, Barron told the Daily Hampshire Gazette, Democrats are failing to cultivate rural roots and cannot expect to compete if they focus on urban districts. “Barron says the party must employ a ‘hyper-local comprehensive rural strategy’ that actually reaches rural constituents and effectively addresses rural issues. Those include rural health care, roads, bridges and access to broadband.”