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Why rural voters don’t vote Democratic anymore
U.S. Rep. Collin C. Peterson of Minnesota is one of the last members of a dying breed: the rural conservative Democrat. He has represented Minnesota's 7th Congressional District for a quarter-century, since 1991. The district encompasses most of the western half of the state. It's farm country, a broad swath of fields and open prairie running from the South Dakota border all the way up to Canada.
The people Peterson represents are overwhelmingly white and moderately conservative.
The Washington Post: What kind of things had you been hearing from voters in this district in the run-up to the election? What issues and policies were people concerned about?
Collin Peterson: They talked to me about farm programs and farm prices. Different specific issues that deal with agriculture. But I could tell something was going on. Just the amount of Trump signs that were out there.
TWP: More than usual?
CP: Way more. It was clear that [the number] just kept growing, and there were no Clinton signs. People were fed up. It was kind of interesting: They didn't really want to talk about it too much. And then after the election, it's kind of like they've been unleashed.
TWP: What do you mean by “unleashed”?
CP: A lot of it is backlash against all this political correctness that's going on. That's what I hear from people, and I was hearing that before the election, too.
They don't like the government telling them what to do or telling them how to live their lives. They think [the government is] coddling people, like when people's feelings are hurt at the colleges and they send somebody in to make them feel better. Stuff like that drives [voters here] crazy.
Why rural voters don’t vote Democratic anymore
U.S. Rep. Collin C. Peterson of Minnesota is one of the last members of a dying breed: the rural conservative Democrat. He has represented Minnesota's 7th Congressional District for a quarter-century, since 1991. The district encompasses most of the western half of the state. It's farm country, a broad swath of fields and open prairie running from the South Dakota border all the way up to Canada.
The people Peterson represents are overwhelmingly white and moderately conservative.
The Washington Post: What kind of things had you been hearing from voters in this district in the run-up to the election? What issues and policies were people concerned about?
Collin Peterson: They talked to me about farm programs and farm prices. Different specific issues that deal with agriculture. But I could tell something was going on. Just the amount of Trump signs that were out there.
TWP: More than usual?
CP: Way more. It was clear that [the number] just kept growing, and there were no Clinton signs. People were fed up. It was kind of interesting: They didn't really want to talk about it too much. And then after the election, it's kind of like they've been unleashed.
TWP: What do you mean by “unleashed”?
CP: A lot of it is backlash against all this political correctness that's going on. That's what I hear from people, and I was hearing that before the election, too.
They don't like the government telling them what to do or telling them how to live their lives. They think [the government is] coddling people, like when people's feelings are hurt at the colleges and they send somebody in to make them feel better. Stuff like that drives [voters here] crazy.
Why rural voters don’t vote Democratic anymore
