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By: Danielle Smith
Pennsylvanian’s general election takes place in November and a new poll from the Rural Democracy Initiative showed likely voters from rural areas of the state are up for grabs.
Patrick Toomey, researcher and partner of Breakthrough Campaigns, said the data in the survey show rural voters are what he called “economic populists,” and do not want the government calling the shots on certain issues such as abortion.
“Rural voters do feel like things are getting worse for them and in their communities economically,” Toomey reported. “The vast majority of rural voters, they are economic populists and their policy preferences align with many progressive goals. It is very clear that rural voters are not a cultural monolith either.”
Toomey added while rural America tends to be more conservative than its urban and suburban counterparts, certain conventionally progressive policy items such as focusing on retirement security and making taxes more fair are not being associated with President Joe Biden or Democrats.
Toomey pointed out half of rural voters consider Republicans to be more dedicated to prioritizing the needs of working families, compared to just 32% who shared those sentiments for the Democratic Party. While the increasing costs of housing, health care and child care are all important issues to rural voters, the data show reproductive freedoms are also a top priority.
“Rural voters are opposed to abortion bans,” Toomey explained. “They have nuanced views around abortion itself, but three-quarters either support it or don’t want the government interfering in something that should be left up to women and their doctors.”
More than 1,700 voters in 10 states participated in the poll, which found nearly half of rural voters would choose a “culturally aligned” rural Democrat over a Republican businessperson from a big city on the East Coast.
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