Latest news with #ruralvoters
Yahoo
10-07-2025
- Health
- Yahoo
1 in 4 in rural areas rely on Medicaid. Could cuts help Democrats win some back?
Democrats have been bleeding rural voters for the past two decades. But major cuts to Medicaid in President Donald Trump's signature tax and policy bill, signed into law July 4, could hit voters in these areas especially hard, which party organizers say presents an opportunity to gain ground there -- and in some Trump-supporting states -- in the midterms. Inroads in rural areas could be key in competitive House and statehouse races in 2025 and 2026, and could even help win back Senate seats in states with large rural populations and a high number of Medicaid recipients. The Republican tax bill cuts around $1 trillion in Medicaid and Medicare spending and significantly impacts parts of the Affordable Care Act over the next decade. New Medicaid work requirements will go into effect as early as January 2027 while shortened Affordable Care Act enrollment windows and restrictions to subsidies would affect plans beginning in 2026. MORE: Some of those who supported Trump have concerns about what's in his megabill The changes could leave nearly 12 million more Americans uninsured, according to projections by the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office. Opponents of the law also worry the cuts could hamper rural hospitals' finances, with more than 300 identified as at risk for closure in an analysis by the Cecil G. Sheps Center at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. "I'm not being hyperbolic when I say that [Medicaid] saved my life," Amy Hondo, a 45-year-old Medicaid recipient from Idaho with stage 4 breast cancer, told ABC News. "Being able to have early screenings and access care right away has added years to my life." "People are angry, and it doesn't fall across political affiliation," Hondo added. Early polling has shown that the law is largely unpopular -- though voters are split on support for new work requirements for Medicaid. Both Republicans and Democrats are now working furiously to define its details and impacts on voters. House Majority Forward, the nonprofit arm of the Democratic-aligned House Majority PAC, is targeting several Republican-held House districts with significant numbers of residents enrolled in Medicaid, running digital ads against Reps. David Valadao, R-California, Scott Perry, R-Pennsylvania, and Derrick Van Orden, R-Wisconsin. MORE: 'Selling' the megabill: Republicans tout taxes, Democrats point to Medicaid cuts The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee also launched new digital ads in 35 districts Monday that claim House Republicans who voted for the bill put rural hospitals "at risk of closing." Last week, a rural medical clinic in southwest Nebraska said it would be shutting down, due in part to uncertainty around looming changes to Medicaid. "It's hard to imagine a greater way to betray rural voters than this bill," said Luke Mayville, a progressive activist who successfully campaigned for a ballot measure to expand Medicaid in Idaho in 2018. Republicans, however, have accused Democrats of fearmongering, pointing to polling that shows support for Medicaid work requirements, and the $50 billion rural hospital fund included in the law. In a statement released in June, the White House argued that "The One Big Beautiful Bill protects and strengthens Medicaid for those who rely on eliminating waste, fraud, and abuse." "Democrats' favorability numbers are at a historic low because they don't value the sacrifices working families make every day to make ends meet. Their opposition to the 'one big beautiful bill' shows Democrats are doubling down on their anti-work agenda," Chris Winkelman, president of the Congressional Leadership Fund, a super PAC affiliated with House GOP leadership, said in a statement. The group is working to promote aspects of the legislation to voters and identify and motivate Republican voters who are less likely to turn out without Trump on the ballot. Democrats are attempting "to distract voters from the fact that they just voted to raise taxes, kill jobs, gut national security, and allow wide open borders. We will use every tool to show voters that Republicans stood with them while House Democrats sold them out," echoed National Republican Congressional Committee spokesperson Mike Marinella in a statement to ABC News. While Democrats, such as Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear, have cast the bill as an "attack on rural America," their efforts to energize voters might have limits. For one, Trump carried voters in rural areas of the country by 40 percentage points, a durable margin even if the party is able to sway some people. MORE: Trump administration live updates Rural voters have been drifting away from Democrats for more than 20 years, with 60% identifying as Republican by 2023, according to data from the Pew Research Center. The Democratic Party's strength in recent years has been with urban voters, and those in the suburbs remain split between the parties. And the 2026 Senate map includes states like Maine and North Carolina, whose senators Susan Collins and Thom Tillis voted against the bill. Tillis also announced before his vote that he would retire at the end of his term in 2027. "All of our representatives voted against the bill. And I couldn't be more grateful for that," Kelli Austin, a Medicaid recipient and advocate for a legal aid organization in Maine, told ABC News. In the last couple decades in Virginia, which will hold its gubernatorial election next fall, Democrats have had "a challenge in communicating with rural areas and assuring them that we are working for them," Democratic Party chair Lamont Bagby told ABC News. By contrast, Republicans "have been there physically, and they've shown up in those communities." Virginia Republicans like Gov. Glenn Youngkin have downplayed the potential health care effects of the tax bill. "I don't believe there will be people who need services who will have to go without," Youngkin told WUSA9 last week. Anthony Flaccavento, a Virginia farmer who previously ran for Congress as a Democrat, argued that his party's campaigns cannot be focused solely on attacking Trump. Instead, they must "couple the talk about Medicaid cuts -- and, for that matter, [Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program] cuts and many other things in that bill -- with a clear commitment and platform for what they're going to do in rural and working class communities," Flaccavento said. "That's what's missing right now," he added.
Yahoo
07-07-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
California governor plans to tour 8 GOP-leaning SC counties in effort to engage rural voters
The governor of California is touring several South Carolina cities as part of a Democratic Party-led effort to connect with rural voters in Republican-leaning communities. California Gov. Gavin Newsom will stop in several Palmetto State cities on July 8 and 9 as part of the South Carolina Democratic Party's (SCDP) "On the Road With Governor Newsom." This tour will make stops in eight South Carolina counties, connecting with communities that face economic and environmental challenges, while building political connections in traditionally red districts, according to the SCDP. SCDP said it chose Newsom for his leadership in California, the state with the largest economy in the country. The party highlighted his efforts to launch a state tax refund in 2022 and establish a program offering two years of free tuition to community college students. "As governor of the nation's most populous state, Newsom has delivered real results for working families in rural communities," SCDP wrote in a press release. "His record shows what's possible when leaders invest in working families." Christale Spain, the chair of the SCDP, said in a press release that this series is about "showing up and building trust." 'We're proud of the gains we are making, but we're even more focused on what's ahead," Spain said. Newsom will speak in several Upstate counties on July 9, including Laurens, Pickens, and Oconee. He also plans to stop in Marion, Chesterfield, Florence, Kershaw, and Chesterfield counties. SCDP said the counties Newsom will visit have faced obstacles such as job loss and devastation from natural disasters, including wildfires and hurricanes. Several Upstate counties faced severe damage from Hurricane Helene in September 2024 and the Table Rock Complex Fire in March 2025. More: What started the Table Rock Fire? Wildfire now measures over 11,000 acres, 9 percent containment Each of these SC counties on the tour also holds a strong Republican voter base. President Donald Trump and Vice President JD Vance won roughly 76% of the votes in Pickens County, 70% in Laurens County, and 81% in Oconee County. Trump held a massive rally in Pickens in 2023 as he campaigned for the presidency, with thousands cramming into a rural city with a population of just over 3,000. The Secret Service informed news outlets that approximately 5,000 people were able to pass through the event gate in the hours leading up to the rally, while roughly 10,000 others were still waiting in line. SCDP said bringing Newsom to these Republican stronghold districts is part of its focus on grassroots organizing, local empowerment, and building long-term political connections throughout the state. More: Donald Trump in Pickens SC: Trump rally concludes after tens of thousands flood downtown "He's coming to meet folks in town that have been hollowed out by decades of Republican control," Spain said in a press release. "This is about building partnerships, uplifting communities, and showing rural voters they aren't forgotten." Bella Carpentier covers the South Carolina legislature, state, and Greenville County politics. Contact her at bcarpentier@ This article originally appeared on Greenville News: Calif. Gov. Gavin Newsom to speak in 8 Republican SC counties
Yahoo
24-05-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
The Democrats' path back to power might start in places like this Appalachian town
PAINTSVILLE, Ky. (AP) — Janet Lynn Stumbo leaned on her cane and surveyed the two dozen or so voters who had convened in a small Appalachian town to meet with the chair of the Kentucky Democratic Party. A former Kentucky Supreme Court justice, the 70-year-old Stumbo said the event was 'the biggest Democratic gathering I have ever seen in Johnson County,' an enclave where Republican Donald Trump got 85% of the presidential vote last November. Paintsville, the county seat, was the latest stop on the state party's 'Rural Listening Tour,' a periodic effort to visit overwhelmingly white, culturally conservative towns of the kind where Democrats once competed and Republicans now dominate nationally. Democrats' path back to power may start here, one small meeting at a time, because it will be difficult, if not impossible, for the party to regain U.S. Senate control or win the presidency without competing harder for rural and small-town voters. The party recently lost senators from states with significant rural populations: Montana, Ohio, Pennsylvania and West Virginia. Also, Democratic-led states are losing population to Sun Belt states led by Republicans, with some projections suggesting Democrats would lose 12 seats in the Electoral College in the 2030 census. 'The gut check is we'd stopped having these conversations' in white rural America, said Colmon Elridge, the Kentucky Democratic chair. 'Folks didn't give up on the Democratic Party. We stopped doing the things that we knew we needed to do.' It's not that Democrats must carry most white rural precincts outright to win more elections. More realistically, it's a matter of consistently chipping away at Republican margins in the way Trump narrowed Democrats' usual advantages among Black and Latino men in 2024 and not unlike what Kentucky's Democratic governor, Andy Beshear, did in two statewide victories. Nationally, Trump won 60% of small town and rural voters in 2020, according to AP VoteCast data, and 63% in 2024. That's a far cry from a generation ago, when Democrat Bill Clinton won pluralities in Johnson County on his way to capturing Kentucky's electoral votes in the 1992 and 1996 White House races. 'We have to be intentional about how we build something sustainable,' Elridge said. 'It's not like we haven't won here before.' Angst over GOP domination and 'caricature' of Democrats For two hours in downtown Paintsville, Elridge listened as Stumbo and others took umbrage at conservatives' policy agenda, expressed frustration over Trump's standing in eastern Kentucky and said they were determined to sell their neighbors an alternative. Many brought their personal experiences to bear. The event was part town hall, part catharsis, part pep talk. In some ways, the complaints in Paintsville mirrored how Democrats nationally are angry, often for very different reasons. Sandra Music, a retired teacher who called herself 'a new Democrat,' converted because of Trump. She bemoaned conservatives' success in advancing private school tuition voucher programs and said they were threatening a public education system 'meant to ensure we educate everybody.' Music criticized Republicans for making a 'caricature' of Democrats. 'They want to pull out keywords: abortion, transgender, boys in girls' sports' and 'distract' from the rest of the Republican agenda, she said. Stumbo, the former justice, lamented what she called the rightward lurch of the state and federal courts. 'We are going to suffer irreparable damage,' she said, 'if we don't stop these conservative idiots.' Michael Halfhill, who works in health care information technology, was incredulous that the billionaire president has taken hold of voters in Appalachia, which is historically one of the country's poorest regions. 'It's not left vs. right. It's rich vs. poor,' he said, shaking his head at working-class white voters — Johnson County is 97.5% white — 'voting against themselves.' Ned Pillersdorf, who is married to Stumbo, went after Republicans for their proposed federal tax and spending plans, especially potential cuts to Medicaid. He said Paintsville still has a rural hospital, which is among the largest employers in the region, in no small part because Kentucky is among the GOP-leaning states where a Democratic governor expanded Medicaid under the 2010 Affordable Care Act. Elridge, the first Black chair of a major party in Kentucky, mentioned Trump's attacks on diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives and related civil rights laws and regulations. 'This is where Trump and MAGA excel –- if somebody who looks like me is your enemy, then you don't care if the guy in the White House is peeing on your leg and telling you it's rain,' he said, referring to Trump's 'Make American Great Again' movement. Republicans say their Democratic 'caricature' is accurate By definition, a 'listening tour' is not meant to produce concrete action. Elridge and Nicholas Hazelett, the Johnson County Democratic chair who is a college student doubling as a Paintsville City Council member, acknowledged that the small crowd was Democrat-friendly. Despite a few recent converts, no one was there waiting to be convinced. Across the street, antiques shop owner Michelle Hackworth said she did not even know Democrats were holding a meeting. Calling herself a 'hard-core Republican,' she smiled when asked if she had consider attending. 'They wouldn't convince me of anything,' she said. Bill Mike Runyon, a self-described conservative Republican who is Paintsville's mayor and loves Trump, went immediately to social and cultural commentary when asked in an interview to explain Johnson County politics. Democrats, he said, 'have to get away from the far-left radical -– look at the transgender message.' Further, Runyon said, 'Everything got kind of racial. It's not like that here in Paintsville and in Johnson County, but I can see it as a country. … It's making people more racist against one another.' Asked specifically who he was talking about, he alluded to progressive U.S. Reps. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, a Latina from New York City, and Jasmine Crockett, a Black woman from Texas. 'It's the ones you always see on TV,' the mayor said. Beshear wins plaudits from across the spectrum Beshear seems to be the one Democrat who commands wide respect in and around Paintsville. Democrats hailed the 47-year-old governor for supporting abortion and LGBTQ+ rights while still attracting support beyond Democratic strongholds of Louisville, Lexington and Frankfort. Beshear did not win Johnson County, but got 37% of the vote in his 2023 reelection. He carried several nearby counties. Multiple Republicans, including the mayor, complimented Beshear for his handling of floods and other disasters in the region. 'He's been here,' Runyon said. 'I absolutely can get to him if I need him.' In 2024, Beshear landed on the list of potential vice presidential running mates for Kamala Harris. He also remains Senate Democrats' top pick for a 2026 campaign for the seat coming open with Republican Mitch McConnell's retirement. Beshear, whose father once lost to McConnell after having won two governor's races, has said he will not run for Senate. But he has stepped up his cable TV interviews and launched his own podcast, fueling speculation that his next campaign will be for the 2028 presidential nomination. 'Andy is not like those national Democrats,' Runyon insisted. Hearkening back to the 1990s, he added, 'Bill Clinton wasn't like these Democrats today.' Hackworth, the shop owner, noted that she voted against the younger Beshear twice. But over the course of an extended interview she, too, commended the governor's disaster management. She also questioned some moves from Trump, including the idea of getting Washington completely out of the disaster aid business. She blamed Trump's predecessor, Democrat Joe Biden, for a 'tough time at my store,' but acknowledged that federal aid had helped many businesses and households stay afloat through the COVID-19 pandemic. Hackworth said she was not familiar with details of Medicaid expansion, but she identified the nearby hospital as among the area's largest employers. The others, she said, are the public school system and Walmart, which a day earlier had announced it was increasing prices because of Trump's tariffs. While supporting Trump's 'America First' agenda, Hackworth said widespread tariffs would upset many consumers. 'You can walk through my store and see where the new stuff is made,' she said. 'I try to buy American, but so much of it is China, China, China.' Asked again whether any of that should give Democrats an opening in places like Paintsville, she said, 'Well, there's always an opening if you show up.'
