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Morning Edition
Cathy Wurzer and Gracie Stockton

Democratic strategist, former Walz campaign staffer on party’s struggles with rural voters

A man sits alone with a Harris Walz sign
Jerry Guritz of Richfield, Minn., watches election results on CNN during the Minnesota DFL election night party in St. Paul on Tuesday.
Ben Hovland | MPR News

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Democrats are trying to figure out why Vice President Kamala Harris was trounced by President-elect Donald Trump, especially in rural America.

This year, polls nationally and in Minnesota put his support in rural areas and in small towns at around 60 percent or better. Crunching voter data by the New York Times, all but two counties in Minnesota shifted to the right compared to their presidential votes in 2020; Cook and Lake counties in northeastern Minnesota had just slightly left tilts.

While Democratic candidates’ struggles in rural areas are nothing new, the divide appears to have deepened this year.

Matt Barron, a rural political strategist who worked with Gov. Tim Walz’s congressional campaign back in 2005, joined MPR News Host Cathy Wurzer to decipher where Democrats went wrong in the 2024 presidential election campaign.

“You have many state parties that have, like a rural caucus, but they have no staff,” Barron said. “They have no financial capability to do, you know, organizing year-round, and you just can’t come in three or four months before an election, and expect that it can just be ramped up and successful.”

Barron said the party needs to make an effort to engage with — rather than walk away from or write off — rural voters. Republicans flipped three state House seats in Greater Minnesota this week, erasing the DFL’s majority in that chamber.