Traditional Progressives can win rural America. Woke Progressives, not so much…

Here’s some serious message testing research from the renowned progressive Jacobin magazine that found that while “Woke Progressive” candidates are roadkill on the rural campaign trail, “Progressive Populist” candidates poll even stronger than “Mainstream Moderates”- No surprise that policies that “raise all boats” wins over a lot more voters than the currently popular “woke” identity politics. Here’s the short article: https://jacobinmag.com/2021/11/common-sense-solidarity-working-class-voting-report?campaign_id=9&emc=edit_nn_20211109&instance_id=44937&nl=the-morning&regi_id=109810810&segment_id=73890&te=1&user_id=d10aff235d7c2cd8b75796381348799a and the full report, rural content on pages 37-40: https://images.jacobinmag.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/11/08095656/CWCPReport_CommonsenseSolidarity.pdf

The researchers conclude: “These results suggest that wokeness may decrease working-class voters’ support for candidates in both rural/small-town and suburban/urban areas, but that while progressive populist messaging is the most promising anti- dote to woke messaging in rural/small-town areas, mainstream moderate messaging is likely more effective in suburban/urban areas.”

Rural campaigns, time to lose the “woke” strategy and dig out the Farmer-Labor campaign playbook that worked for Wellstone and still works today…