Which Party Will Be First to Make Their Tent Bigger?
This election, neither Party made much of an effort to attract new voters. The strategy of choice was to scare usual supporters into going to the polls by demonizing the other. A common strategy in recent years.
The result, rising animosity and a hardening of divisions. With each side concentrating on mobilizing its own and stoking fear of the other, we are stuck in a cycle where the results don’t change much. Power is decided by the narrowest of margins.
There are some in both parties who recognize that to build political power over the long run you have to bring together a broad mix of voters.
Building a bigger coalition is not an easy task. The Republican Party is predominately rural, religious, culturally conservative, white and non-college graduates. The Democratic Party is predominately urban, non-religious, culturally permissive, ethnically diverse and college graduates. Can either figure out a way to break out of its current confines, bridge those differences, enlarge its tent and make it a welcoming place for those who now feel alienated?
The first Party to do it, that refrains from writing off large parts of the electorate, will be on the way to building a comfortable governing majority.
There are those in both Parties who prefer purity of purpose and see the other not as those who might be welcomed, but those who must be defeated or rescued from their unenlightened ways.
More than one Republican leader has echoed the words of a congressman from Tennessee, “We’re at war. This is a political war, a cultural war, and it’s a spiritual war.” The image is one of barricades, of walls, to keep the infidels out. Democrats have yet to escape the fallout from looking on the other as “despicables”, not intelligent enough to understand what is best, even for themselves.
There are some, however, who intentionally reach out with the goal of persuading some.
In this last election, John Fetterman, the only Democrat to flip a Republican seat in the U.S. Senate, understood that if he was going to win Pennsylvania, he had to go fishing in Republican waters. He couldn’t afford to lose the rural parts of the state by the usual Republican margins. There were not enough Democratic votes in Philadelphia and Pittsburg to make up the difference.
Instead of depending on turning out the “Democratic base”, hoping that would be enough to win, Fetterman’s strategy was focused on whittling down the margins in heavily Republican areas. His mantra, “Every county. Every Vote.” Just make the race in each county closer, so adding the votes from the cities would be enough for a victory.
After the election, the chair of the state’s Democratic Rural Caucus said, “He (Fetterman) has physically spent more time in rural Pennsylvania than any candidate I’ve ever seen. He got to know people. He spent time in our backyards. He made real, meaningful relationships, so people were willing to make a huge sacrifice in order to get him over the finish line.”
The Republican candidate won the chair’s home county with 63 percent of the vote. But that was 7 percent less than what Republicans got in the previous election; a result matched in rural counties across the state. Smaller Republican margins in strong Republican areas was key to winning. Inclusion, respect, reaching out to those who may not be with you works.
Here in Wisconsin, Tim Michels, Republican candidate for Governor, lost. Former Republican Governor Tommy Thompson, who won election four times, attributed the loss to Michels never going to Madison. Michels had no message for Democrats in the state’s second largest city and got only 20 percent of the vote there, 8 percent less than Scott Walker four years earlier.
In Kathleen’s first re-election campaign for the state Senate, her opponent was Tommy’s brother, Ed Thompson, former Mayor of Tomah and a celebrity in Monroe County. Numbers showed that Ed would probably get 70 percent of the vote in Monroe giving him a margin of 4,000. Too large a deficit to make up in the other counties. Kathleen spent a lot of time in Monroe and kept Ed’s vote in the county below 65 percent. Kathleen won the district by 400.
Historically, Hispanic voters have voted Democratic by large margins. The Koch Brothers saw this as both a challenge and an opportunity. In 2011, they created the LIBRE Initiative with the goal of making conservative policy attractive to Hispanic voters. Active now in multiple states, LIBRE emphasizes economic freedom, educational freedom, health care, immigration, and criminal justice reform. The goal is to identify with the independent entrepreneurial spirit and cultural conservatism in Hispanic communities.
Republicans added resources and organizing muscle. They recruited Hispanic candidates. In the last two elections the share of Hispanic votes going to Republicans has gone up.
Organizers this year for the Democratic Party in Wisconsin discouraged volunteers from knocking on Republican doors fearing that would increase the motivation for Republicans to vote. In almost all the rural Republican counties, Democrats lost votes compared to 2018.
The political tent actually has to be bigger for new people to feel welcome. They are not going to squeeze in where they don’t feel genuinely wanted, their interests aren’t recognized and they are not included when decisions are made.
And the appeal has to be important enough to change old voting habits. Expanding broadband in rural areas is popular but isn’t important enough to change votes. Voters change when they perceive their quality of life will change, they sense an identity of purpose, and voting differently will make a difference.
In open ended conversations, volunteers for a non-partisan, not-for-profit, knocking on doors this summer and fall in rural western Wisconsin, found economic opportunity, schools and housing to be the topics of most concern. Topics few candidates of either Party addressed except to assign blame for existing problems.
Voters will come when being inside the tent is both better and more comfortable than remaining outside.
Some of the young have figured out how to make that happen. In an effort this election led by millennials and Gen-Zers, voters in Arizona, a state with a long history of anti-immigrant legislation, approved a proposition extending in-state tuition at Arizona universities to all students regardless of immigration status,
Their strategy included working with Republicans who understood the benefit of expanding educational opportunities, and securing the support of the Arizona Chamber of Commerce. Instinctively, they knew. Politics is the art of addition. You can do more with more.
Douglas Kane is the author of "Our Politics: Reflections on Political Life" published in 2019 by Southern Illinois University Press
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