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BY AMY DOMINELLO
Media General News Service
WASHINGTON – The rural vote could be pivotal in the November presidential election, but the candidates have yet to speak to the problems on most rural voters’ minds, say rural advocates meeting in Washington this week.
“There’s a deep frustration that whatever American rural policy is it’s not adequate at the moment,” said Dee Davis, president of the Kentucky-based Center for Rural Strategies and an organizer of the second National Rural Assembly, which has drawn about 450 rural leaders here.
Their goal: to push leaders to focus on building stronger rural communities.
Advocates say rural America is hurting. And while many Americans are concerned about jobs, transportation, gas prices, health care and education, the issues are different in rural areas.
Politicians often see rural concerns revolving around agricultural issues, Davis said, but fewer than 2 percent of rural Americans make their primary living on a farm.
So far, the presumptive presidential nominees – Republican John McCain and Democrat Barack Obama -- have said little in specifics of rural concern, advocates said.
“I hope that we’ll see more discussion about rural issues,” said Necole Irvin, a program officer for the Foundation for the Mid South based in Jackson, Miss.
Obama and McCain were invited to speak but sent surrogates instead.
“Both candidates need to reintroduce themselves to voters,” Davis said.
Twenty percent of the U.S. population – or 60 million people – live in rural areas, according to the assembly. In the 2000 and 2004 elections, President Bush defeated Al Gore and John Kerry in rural America by 16 and 19 points respectively.
“How the rural vote goes has a lot to say about who’s going to be the next president,” Davis said.
Non-partisan polling for the Center for Rural Strategies in mid-May found McCain leading Obama by nine points among rural areas in 13 swing states, including Florida and Virginia.
Despite that lead, the election could hinge on how much attention the two candidates devote to issues that especially affect rural voters, such as high gas prices in rural communities where people already must drive far to work.
“Rural America is going to be a very interesting fight,” said pollster Anna Greenberg.
Pollster Bill Greener said the candidates need to be specific.
“The candidates are obligated to do a little more than spread homilies about rural America,” he said.
Indeed, McCain kicked off a tour to reacquaint voters with his background in Meridian, Miss. Obama recognized the important role of rural voters by holding his first campaign event in southwest Virginia after defeating Hillary Clinton in the Democratic primaries.
But both candidates face obstacles in securing the rural vote.
Conservative Republicans question McCain’s commitment to conservative causes. And Obama came under fire for characterizing people in small towns in Pennsylvania and the Midwest as “bitter” and clinging to guns or religion because of evaporating jobs and deteriorating communities.
McCain made it clear at a press conference Monday that he intends to keep reminding voters of Obama’s remarks.
“I won’t tell them in the small towns across America and Pennsylvania that they are bitter or angry about their economic condition,” McCain said. “ … I will never do that. Because I know why they embrace their constitutional rights, and I know why that they embrace their religion, because they are fundamentally good and decent people.”
Former Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle of South Dakota, who spoke on Obama’s behalf Tuesday, said Obama has been a strong supporter of rural communities and feels strongly that vital rural economies are a national priority.
“From the very beginning, he’s attempted to articulate the real appreciation of the frustrations and anxieties that people in rural America have today,” Daschle said in an interview after his remarks.
Sen. Sam Brownback, who spoke for McCain Tuesday, said McCain can bring about bipartisan solutions to help solve rural issues as he has done on campaign finance reform and immigration.
“He’s got the scars to prove it,” said Brownback, R-Kansas.
Both candidates will likely find that wooing rural voters is more about connecting with a value system, not a particular party, said Bill Bishop, a freelance writer and editor of the rural issues blog, the Daily Yonder.
“It’s more an identity with a way of life and a community,” he said.
McCain’s military experience may help him with rural voters, but that won’t be enough, predicted Robert G. Goldsmith, the president and CEO of People Incorporated of Southwest Virginia, a community development group based in Abingdon.
“His challenge now is to talk about the future and how his experience will translate into an agenda that’s good for rural America,” he said.
Rural leaders hope the rural assembly will help elected officials better understand their concerns.
“What’s important is that this rural summit is an opportunity for people to come together to be able to create an agenda to put forward, based on the people on the ground who are doing the work,” said Lavastian Glenn, a program officer with the Mary Reynolds Babcock Foundation in Winston-Salem, N.C.
Contact Amy Dominello at 202-662-7671 or adominello@mediageneral.com
Media General reporter Neil H. Simon contributed to this report.
Media General News Service
WASHINGTON – The rural vote could be pivotal in the November presidential election, but the candidates have yet to speak to the problems on most rural voters’ minds, say rural advocates meeting in Washington this week.
“There’s a deep frustration that whatever American rural policy is it’s not adequate at the moment,” said Dee Davis, president of the Kentucky-based Center for Rural Strategies and an organizer of the second National Rural Assembly, which has drawn about 450 rural leaders here.
Their goal: to push leaders to focus on building stronger rural communities.
Advocates say rural America is hurting. And while many Americans are concerned about jobs, transportation, gas prices, health care and education, the issues are different in rural areas.
Politicians often see rural concerns revolving around agricultural issues, Davis said, but fewer than 2 percent of rural Americans make their primary living on a farm.
So far, the presumptive presidential nominees – Republican John McCain and Democrat Barack Obama -- have said little in specifics of rural concern, advocates said.
“I hope that we’ll see more discussion about rural issues,” said Necole Irvin, a program officer for the Foundation for the Mid South based in Jackson, Miss.
Obama and McCain were invited to speak but sent surrogates instead.
“Both candidates need to reintroduce themselves to voters,” Davis said.
Twenty percent of the U.S. population – or 60 million people – live in rural areas, according to the assembly. In the 2000 and 2004 elections, President Bush defeated Al Gore and John Kerry in rural America by 16 and 19 points respectively.
“How the rural vote goes has a lot to say about who’s going to be the next president,” Davis said.
Non-partisan polling for the Center for Rural Strategies in mid-May found McCain leading Obama by nine points among rural areas in 13 swing states, including Florida and Virginia.
Despite that lead, the election could hinge on how much attention the two candidates devote to issues that especially affect rural voters, such as high gas prices in rural communities where people already must drive far to work.
“Rural America is going to be a very interesting fight,” said pollster Anna Greenberg.
Pollster Bill Greener said the candidates need to be specific.
“The candidates are obligated to do a little more than spread homilies about rural America,” he said.
Indeed, McCain kicked off a tour to reacquaint voters with his background in Meridian, Miss. Obama recognized the important role of rural voters by holding his first campaign event in southwest Virginia after defeating Hillary Clinton in the Democratic primaries.
But both candidates face obstacles in securing the rural vote.
Conservative Republicans question McCain’s commitment to conservative causes. And Obama came under fire for characterizing people in small towns in Pennsylvania and the Midwest as “bitter” and clinging to guns or religion because of evaporating jobs and deteriorating communities.
McCain made it clear at a press conference Monday that he intends to keep reminding voters of Obama’s remarks.
“I won’t tell them in the small towns across America and Pennsylvania that they are bitter or angry about their economic condition,” McCain said. “ … I will never do that. Because I know why they embrace their constitutional rights, and I know why that they embrace their religion, because they are fundamentally good and decent people.”
Former Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle of South Dakota, who spoke on Obama’s behalf Tuesday, said Obama has been a strong supporter of rural communities and feels strongly that vital rural economies are a national priority.
“From the very beginning, he’s attempted to articulate the real appreciation of the frustrations and anxieties that people in rural America have today,” Daschle said in an interview after his remarks.
Sen. Sam Brownback, who spoke for McCain Tuesday, said McCain can bring about bipartisan solutions to help solve rural issues as he has done on campaign finance reform and immigration.
“He’s got the scars to prove it,” said Brownback, R-Kansas.
Both candidates will likely find that wooing rural voters is more about connecting with a value system, not a particular party, said Bill Bishop, a freelance writer and editor of the rural issues blog, the Daily Yonder.
“It’s more an identity with a way of life and a community,” he said.
McCain’s military experience may help him with rural voters, but that won’t be enough, predicted Robert G. Goldsmith, the president and CEO of People Incorporated of Southwest Virginia, a community development group based in Abingdon.
“His challenge now is to talk about the future and how his experience will translate into an agenda that’s good for rural America,” he said.
Rural leaders hope the rural assembly will help elected officials better understand their concerns.
“What’s important is that this rural summit is an opportunity for people to come together to be able to create an agenda to put forward, based on the people on the ground who are doing the work,” said Lavastian Glenn, a program officer with the Mary Reynolds Babcock Foundation in Winston-Salem, N.C.
Contact Amy Dominello at 202-662-7671 or adominello@mediageneral.com
Media General reporter Neil H. Simon contributed to this report.