#Chloe Maxmin

[dontmeantobepoliticalbut]

After three decades of increasingly steep losses in rural America, Democrats are finally beginning to grapple with an inconvenient truth: An enduring Democratic majority requires winning back some portion of persuadable rural working-class voters.

Both Republicans’ and Democrats’ neoliberal economic policies have been harmful—in some instances ruinous—to rural communities. The GOP, on the whole, has caused more economic pain—but it has also been the party that has acknowledged rural struggles and put the people who’ve been harmed at the center of their rhetoric. None more so than Donald Trump, who said, in 2016, “Every time you see a closed factory or a wiped out community in Ohio, it was essentially caused by the Clintons.”

Too many Democrats, meanwhile, have sounded either dismissive of or exasperated by rural people. In 2016, Chuck Schumer’s catastrophically cavalier strategy willfully sacrificed blue-collar rural voters in exchange (or so he’d hoped) for high-income suburbanites. As far as the Democratic establishment was concerned, non-college-educated rural voters should quit complaining and simply get a degree—ideally in coding—and join the knowledge economy. Such contempt for a large swath of America has resulted in the ongoing erosion of Democratic support among working-class white and non-white voters.

Joe Biden, more than any president in decades, has prioritized rural people with a remarkable set of pro-worker policies and major investments in rural economies and infrastructure. We believe that this record offers a foundation for Democrats at all levels to begin to win back working-class rural voters—while holding on to the party’s multiracial urban and suburban base.

In 2022, the Rural Urban Bridge Initiative (which we cofounded) interviewed 50 Democratic candidates, from 25 states, who ran in rural districts between 2016 and 2020. Though they didn’t all win office, they all significantly overperformed the partisan lean of their district or state.

Our questions to them boiled down to, “What was your secret sauce?” From their answers, we identified several key ingredients: First and foremost, successful candidates were highly attuned to the concerns of their would-be constituents. Instead of running on a cookie-cutter national Democratic platform, they focused on the things voters in their district cared about most—kitchen-table matters like jobs and the economy, alongside ultra-local problems such as lousy roads, underfunded hospitals, and spotty Internet access.

Overperforming candidates also eschewed Beltway political consultants in favor of campaign staffers rooted in the community. This made for authentic campaigns with local flavor. Former Maine state senator Chloe Maxmin, for example, deployed homemade yard signs that were a folksy departure from the typically soulless campaign placards that litter the landscape.

Rural overperformers did something else that’s unpopular within the progressive left but widely appreciated by rural swing voters: They didn’t demonize Trump, no matter how richly he deserved it. And they didn’t try to scare or pressure persuadable voters into seeing the GOP or MAGA as an existential threat to democracy. Such rhetoric is music to the base’s ears but falls flat with key constituencies, most worryingly youth and Latinos.

Guillermo Lopez, a board member of the Hispanic Center Lehigh Valley in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, had this to say about Democrats’ hyping the MAGA threat to democracy: “I actually think that harms the vote.… [The average person who] just puts their nose to the grindstone and goes to work, I don’t think that motivates them. I think it scares them and freezes them.”

We’re with Lopez. Time spent enumerating and labeling Trump’s voluminous misconduct is time that could have been spent connecting with voters on what they care about most. We reserve judgment as to whether sounding the alarm about MAGA fascism appeals to disaffected or undecided urban and suburban voters, but we’re reasonably confident that this message does little to help rural candidates.

The superiority of depolarizing rhetoric is corroborated by a wide body of academic and poll-tested research documented in our full report. At the end of the day, the rural Democrats able to chip away at Republican strongholds were the ones who knew how to meet voters where they already were—not where they wished they were at. This sounds like Politics 101, but it’s a principle all too often cast aside by candidates and campaign consultants who spend too much time tuned in to MSNBC pundits and not enough listening to their own voters.

Democrats running in this cycle should study the 2022 campaigns of Representatives Mary Peltola, who won in solidly red Alaska, and Marie Glusenkamp Perez, who won Washington State’s Third Congressional District, which had been in Republican hands for six terms. Peltola ran on “Fish, Family, Freedom” and in her current reelection campaign calls on Alaskans to say “to hell with politics” and “work together to protect our Alaska way of life.”

Glusenkamp Perez won her 2022 race in large part because of her credibility as co-owner of an auto repair shop and her laser-sharp focus on issues her constituents prioritized, like the “right to repair” farming and other equipment. While some on the left are angry that she doesn’t toe the Democratic party line on every issue, her record shows her to be the kind of left-leaning populist who can win in rural districts. The Democratic Party would be wise to embrace socially moderate, economically and stylistically populist candidates like Glusenkamp Perez and Peltola as part of its coalition.

In the spirit of cross-racial populist solidarity, top-performing rural candidates put work and workers at the center of their policy and rhetoric, proposing a “hand up” rather than a “handout.” For the great majority of rural people, self-reliance—the wherewithal to solve our own problems and meet our own needs—is central to our identity. We don’t know a single farmer, conservative or liberal, who doesn’t feel this way. As Colby College rural political scholars Nick Jacobs and Dan Shea put it, “What rural residents want to hear is this: ‘Make it possible for us to improve our communities ourselves.’”

Rural residents might be disproportionately dependent on some form of government transfer payment, but they don’t like it. Farah Stockman, author of American Made: What Happens to People When Work Disappears, wrote, “Too often, those who champion the working class speak only of social safety nets, not the jobs that anchor a working person’s identity.” The key is in the delivery, ensuring that local communities can adapt and drive these investments rather than trying to implement ill-suited, top-down mandates.

The Biden administration’s aggressive anti-trust actions combined with rule changes favoring workers and organized labor are critical steps in giving non-college-educated working people agency. Its investments in rural infrastructure and manufacturing are essential as well.

Likewise, the Biden campaign’s decision to hire a rural coordinator bodes well. But that coordinator’s efficacy will be orders of magnitude greater if they hire a small army of locally rooted staff who know how to make a national campaign relevant and resonant for rural voters.

While Democrats will not “win” rural America in 2024, they can and must run up the margins with rural voters—a third of whom are considered persuadable—if they are to keep the presidency and control Congress and statehouses. Because it turns out the secret sauce isn’t that complicated: Find out what’s most important to persuadable rural people, and focus on that. That’s the only recipe worth cooking.

[butchguamares]

I get to start working on a project with Chloe Maxmin and Canyon Woodward this week holy fucking shit how did I get such a cool job, cool life

[whee38]

How The Left Wins Back Rural US Voters | Chloe Maxmin & Canyon Woodward ...

[arcticdementor]

NOBLEBORO, Maine — We say this with love to our fellow Democrats: Over the past decade, you willfully abandoned rural communities. As the party turned its focus to the cities and suburbs, its outreach became out of touch and impersonal. To rural voters, the message was clear: You don’t matter.

Now, Republicans control dozens of state legislatures, and Democrats have only tenuous majorities in Congress at a time in history when we simply can’t afford to cede an inch. The party can’t wait to start correcting course. It may be too late to prevent a blowout in the fall, but the future of progressive politics — and indeed our democracy — demands that we revive our relationship with rural communities.

As two young progressives raised in the country, we were dismayed as small towns like ours swung to the right. But we believed that Democrats could still win conservative rural districts if they took the time to drive down the long dirt roads where we grew up, have face-to-face conversations with moderate Republican and independent voters and speak a different language, one rooted in values rather than policy.

…

To us, it was proof that the dogmas that have long governed American politics could and should be challenged. Over the past decade, many Democrats seem to have stopped trying to persuade people who disagreed with them, counting instead on demographic shifts they believed would carry them to victory — if only they could turn out their core supporters. The choice to prioritize turnout in Democratic strongholds over persuasion of moderate voters has cost the party election after election. But Democrats can run and win in communities that the party has written off — and they need not be Joe Manchin-like conservative Democrats to do so.

This isn’t just a story about rural Maine. It’s about a nationwide pattern of neglect that goes back years. After the 2010 midterms, when the Democrats lost 63 House seats, Nancy Pelosi, then the House minority leader, disbanded the House Democratic Rural Working Group. Senator Harry Reid of Nevada later eliminated the Senate’s rural outreach group. By 2016, according to Politico’s Helena Bottemiller Evich, the Clinton campaign had only a single staff person doing rural outreach from its headquarters, in Brooklyn; the staffer had been assigned to the role just weeks before the election. And in 2018, the chairman of the Democratic National Committee, Tom Perez, told MSNBC, “You can’t door-knock in rural America.”

…

That blinkered strategy is holding the party back. When Democrats talk only to their own supporters, they see but a small fraction of the changes roiling this country. Since 2008, residents of small towns have fallen behind cities on many major economic benchmarks, and they watched helplessly as more and more power and wealth were consolidated in cities. We saw up close the loss, hopelessness and frustration that reality has instilled.

The current Democratic strategy doesn’t just lead to bad policy but also to bad politics. Our democracy rewards the party that can win support over large geographic areas. Ceding rural America leaves a narrow path to victory even in the best circumstances. When the landscape is more difficult, Democrats set themselves up for catastrophic defeat. But we don’t have to cede these parts of the country. Democrats have to change the way they think about them and relate to the voters who live there.

What much of the party establishment doesn’t understand is that rural life is rooted in shared values of independence, common sense, tradition, frugality, community and hard work. Democratic campaigns often seem to revolve around white papers and wonky policy. In our experience, politicians lose rural people when they regurgitate politically triangulated lines and talk about the vagaries of policy. Rural folks vote on what rings true and personal to them: Can this person be trusted? Is he authentic?

…

While these defeats ought to prompt real soul-searching within the party, some political scientists and many mainstream Democrats have taken them as proof not that their own strategies must change, but rather that rural Republicans are too ignorant to vote in their own best interest. It’s a counterproductive, condescending story that serves only to drive the wedge between Democrats and rural communities deeper yet.

…

Something has to change. The Democrats need a profoundly different strategy if they are to restore their reputation as champions of working people, committed to improving their lives, undaunted by wealth and power. In our view, the only way for Democrats to regain traction in rural places is by running strong campaigns in districts that usually back Republicans. This change starts with having face-to-face conversations to rebuild trust and faith not only in Democrats but also in the democratic process. Even though it’s hard work with no guaranteed outcome, it is necessary — even if we don’t win.

…

Perhaps the most memorable experience was in 2018 at the end of a winding driveway on a cold fall day. Several men were in the garage, working on their snowmobiles. Chloe stepped out to greet them. “Hi, I’m Chloe, and I’m running for state representative.” The owner immediately responded with a question: Did she support Medicaid expansion? Chloe answered honestly that she did. The man pointed an angry finger toward the road and told her to leave.

Taken aback, Chloe asked: “Hold on a second. What just happened? I’m honestly just interested to hear your perspective, even if you don’t vote for me.”

This gentleman went on to tell his story, how he grew up on that very property without any electricity or running water; how he had worked hard to build a life for himself and his family, which included paying for his own health care without any help from the government. This was his way of life and what he believed in. It was an honest conversation, and by the end, he said he would vote for Chloe.

Gradually, our own volunteers learned from Chloe how to find common ground. Despite the many doors shut in their faces, they largely succeeded.

…

When Covid hit in March 2020, we tried a new way of fostering these connections, pausing the campaign and pivoting all our resources to supporting seniors struggling with the isolation and upheaval of the pandemic. With some 200 volunteers, we made more than 13,500 calls to seniors in the district — regardless of their political affiliation — and offered them rides, pharmacy pickups, connections to food banks, and a buddy to call them every day or week to check in.

A volunteer spoke with an elderly woman who depended on the library for large-print books, but the libraries were closed. We found a bookstore that delivered some. Another volunteer talked with a gentleman who had no internet and therefore no access to the news. She bought him a subscription to The New York Times.

The Democratic campaign leadership was eager to replicate our success but also fundamentally unequipped to understand what we were doing. At the height of the pandemic, we told the Senate Democratic Campaign Committee about our approach. Almost immediately the committee’s staff was instructed to tell Democratic candidates to make similar calls, but only to seniors within their “persuasion universe” — people whose votes they thought they could win. Specifically, people over 60 who were likely Democratic voters. We read this in horror and immediately wrote back, imploring the leaders to not limit the scope of the calls. They brushed us off.

It was far from the only time party leaders told us they knew better than we did. In the final stretch of the 2018 campaign, they insisted that as part of their turnout effort they would send their people to conservative households that had told us Chloe was the only Democrat they would support. We were terrified that volunteers reciting a generic script, pushing folks to vote for Democrats up and down the ticket, would alienate the disaffected Republican voters whom we had worked so hard to persuade to vote for Chloe.

…

As Democrats, we feel every day the profound urgency of our times, the existential necessity of racial justice, the impending doom of the climate crisis, the imperative to reform our criminal justice system, and so much more. At the same time, as a party we’ve made some big mistakes as we walk down the road to a better world. Abandoning rural voters could be one of the costliest.

But it’s not too late to make amends, to rebuild our relationship with the quiet roads of rural America. We have to hit the ground running, today, this cycle, and recommit ourselves to the kind of politics that reaches every corner of our country.

[billmaher]

HBO Real Time May 6, 2022

The Interview: Chloe Maxmin is a Maine State Senator for District 13 and co-author of Dirt Road Revival: How to Rebuild Rural Politics and Why Our Future Depends On It.

Twitter: @chloemaxmin

________________________________________

The Panel: Paul Begala is a Democratic strategist, author, and CNN Political Contributor.

Twitter: @PaulBegala

Michele Tafoya is a former NBC Sports reporter, blogger for Substack's Michele Tafoya: Let’s Get Sane, and guest co-host for The View.

Twitter: @Michele_Tafoya

Tag your questions for this week’s guests with #RTOvertime and watch them answer after the show on the Real Time YouTube channel!

[forestwoodward]

This is my little brother Canyon and our friend Chloe Maxmin. They are 25 and 26 years old and together they are changing the face of politics in Maine’s district 88 - the most rural district in the most rural state in the country. It is neat, they are neat, the word neat is neat, and relatively speaking, politics are neat. If you are still reading this, I think you are neat too, cause you care at least a little bit. Here’s something else that’s neat: their youthful, empathic and engaged style of organizing -coupled with a rooted appreciation of rural America and the issues at stake - is serving to bridge long standing partisan gaps and create common ground in communities that have been left behind across America (and around the world). Chloe and Canyon’s model of campaigning and reaching people has been remarkably successful on a local level (they won the primary with record smashing %80) and has also been gaining national media attention + an endorsement from famous kite boarder and former prez @barrackobama. In closing, young people are neat, and young people are needed more than ever in politics. If you are an older(ish) person (like me) you probably would agree, and if you are a young person like Chloe and Canyon, I just wanted to share this with you to show you that there are other people like you who care and are making a difference and your voices DO matter. . "Our campaign in District 88 is more than just a small House race. It is an opportunity to pioneer new ways of restoring faith in politics, fighting for our overlooked communities, and listening to all perspectives. Our political system may fail us. We may be disillusioned. But everything that we care about circles back to politics. Our individual well-being revolves around our collective responsibility to hold our politicians accountable. We simply cannot afford to give up on politics." - Chloe Maxmin + Canyon Woodward . link in bio + story to full article, would love to hear what you guys think about their story and perspective within current political landscape https://www.instagram.com/p/BphXg_Pnci9/?utm_source=ig_tumblr_share&igshid=10jd40lepqczk

[trustednewstribune]

Liberals Are Celebrating a New Book on Rural Trump Voters That Falls Apart Under the Simplest Inspection

Maine state Sen. Chloe Maxmin correctly recognizes that coastal Democrats are confused by rural America. She’s exploiting their ignorance in “Dirt Road Revival.”

THIS PAST WEEK, Maine Democratic state Sen. Chloe Maxmin has received glowing media attention for a new book about how to woo rural Donald Trump supporters. Maxmin, a 29-year-old first-term state senator and former member of Maine’s House of Representatives, and her campaign manager, Canyon Woodward, argue in their book “Dirt Road Revival: How to Rebuild Rural Politics and Why Our Future Depends on It” that the Democratic Party has “abandoned rural communities” and given up on trying to persuade people who disagree with them. Their book tour, which has stretched from the pages of the New York Times and Teen Vogue to the studio of Bill Maher, has focused on the insights she says she gleaned in flipping a rural state Senate district.

Their recent New York Times op-ed “What Democrats Don’t Understand About Rural America” describes how Maxmin — a progressive, small-town politician — stood up to party bosses, rejected standard Democratic Party dogma, and flipped solid Trump voting districts blue by having 20,000 face-to-face conversations with Trump voters over two election cycles. In a recent appearance on “Real Time With Bill Maher,” Maxmin lays out her argument this way:

This is the kind of hopeful path forward in red America that Democrats in blue areas have been craving: that because she focused her campaign on engaging so many conservative voters, she was able to defeat a popular Republican incumbent in a Trump voting district. The possibility that Maxmin and her young team had cracked the “Make America Great Again” code is intoxicating. And it meant that Maxmin had no difficulty getting air and print space.I share Maxmin’s concern that the national Democratic Party needs to do a better job of winning back rural voters. As a former state Representative who also defeated a Republican incumbent in a similar rural district up the coast, I also firmly believe in the mantra of knocking on doors and engaging with and listening to as many voters as possible. Like other Maine Democratic candidates, I was also able to get a few Republicans to put my lawn signs next to their signs for Republican Governor Paul LePage. But many of Maxmin’s claims about Senate District 13 and the nature of local Democratic campaigns in Maine are distortions and exaggerations.

Readmore:https://theintercept.com/2022/05/12/maine-democrat-rural-voters-chloe-maxmin/

[hotfps]

undefined

Rural Runner is a short film about finding purpose and common ground in rural America as Chloe Maxmin makes a bid to be the youngest woman in the Maine house of representatives and Canyon Woodward balances his lifestyle with running rural trails and running political campaigns. Join us for the journey. Check out Chloe's campaign here: https://chloe.mainecandidate.com credits // Directed by: Forest Woodward A Gnarly Bay & Friends Film Executive Producers: Dan Riordan, Dana Saint, Sanjay Rawall, Forest Woodward Produced by: Anya Miller Berg & Laura Yale Creative Director: Anya Miller Berg Story Consulting by: Duct Tape Then Beer, Aidan Haley, Brendan Leonard Edited by Aidan Haley & Jordan Ingram Assistant Editor: Brendan Davis Camera: Forest Woodward & Tommy Penick Additional Footage by Morgan Robinson, Canyon Woodward, Chloe Maxmin, Dad Sound Design and Mix: Jared Blizzard music // Konrad Wert and Possessed by Paul James - There Will Be Nights When I'm Lonely -/HB Records 2014 Kevin Reilly - Appalachian Moon -  https://kevinbreilly.bandcamp.com/album/help-meat DJ Sol Rising - "The Journey" Portugal the Man - "Feel it Still"

[artwalktv]

Rural Runner is a short film about finding purpose and common ground in rural America as Chloe Maxmin makes a bid to be the youngest woman in the Maine house of representatives and Canyon Woodward balances his lifestyle with running rural trails and running political campaigns. Join us for the journey. Check out Chloe's campaign here: https://bit.ly/2HP6aDj credits // Directed by: Forest Woodward A Gnarly Bay & Friends Film Executive Producers: Dan Riordan, Dana Saint, Sanjay Rawall, Forest Woodward Produced by: Anya Miller Berg & Laura Yale Creative Director: Anya Miller Berg Story Consulting by: Duct Tape Then Beer, Aidan Haley, Brendan Leonard Edited by Aidan Haley & Jordan Ingram Assistant Editor: Brendan Davis Camera: Forest Woodward & Tommy Penick Additional Footage by Morgan Robinson, Canyon Woodward, Chloe Maxmin, Dad Sound Design and Mix: Jared Blizzard music // Konrad Wert and Possessed by Paul James - There Will Be Nights When I'm Lonely -/HB Records 2014 Kevin Reilly - Appalachian Moon -  https://bit.ly/35Q5AwI DJ Sol Rising - "The Journey" Portugal the Man - "Feel it Still"

[mrhenryharrell]

The VECAN Conference is December 7

The VECAN Conference is Saturday!

For those who are interested in energy or climate change, who you are in Vermont, or close to it, there are not many events that can even come close to matching the VECAN Conference. This year’s conference is on Saturday, December 7, at the Lake Morey Resort in Fairlee, Vermont.

Registration opens at 8:00, with a Welcome at 9:00. At 9:15 there will be opening remarks, followed by a presentation, by Energy Action Network, “Where Does Vermont Stand on Its Climate and Clean Energy Goals?”

There are 14 workshops this year. Seven of these will begin at 11:00:

Building Climate Resilience: Tools, Tips and Fundamental Approaches

Maximizing the Energy Transformation Opportunities in Vermont’s Renewable Energy Standard

Using Evidence and Data to Drive Rapid, Cost-Effective, and Equitable Emissions Reductions

Working Effectively with Municipalities: Tips and Tricks for Energy Committees

Legislative Lowdown and Look Forward for 2020

Zero Energy Now: A Whole-Home Energy Transformation

Transportation Electrification – Buses, Bikes and Cars

Lunch and networking with Vermont’s finest people will begin at 12:15, and this will be followed by the afternoon workshops:

Leading By Example: Collaborating With Schools and Students to Move Energy Projects Forward

Ramping Up Weatherization

Understanding and Alleviating Vermonters’ Energy Burden – Projects and Approaches

The Role of Vermont’s Forests in Climate Action – Heating and Sequestering

Capping Pollution and Investing in Solutions: The Transportation & Climate Initiative

Beyond Cars: Success Stories and Strategies

Accelerating Vermont’s Renewable Energy Future

Senate President Pro Tem Tim Ashe will present “Combating Climate Change in Every Committee Room: A 2020 Legislative Preview: at 3:00.

The keynote address will be from Maine Representative Chloe Maxmin. Rep. Chloe Maxmin, at the age of 27, has already been named a “Green Hero” by Rolling Stone and has been recognized by the Washington Post, CNN and other news outlets for her leadership.

All this will be followed at 4:30 by a reception, until 5:30. This is a perfect time to get to know those you have just met at the conference.

The VECAN conference is a highlight of the energy year in Vermont. It is an event not to be missed. And there is still time to register. You can visit the web site to register at https://vecan.net/conference2019/.

The VECAN Conference is December 7 posted first on Green Energy Times

[takebackthedream]

All MPA-Endorsed Candidates Win or Lead in Maine Primary by Mike Tipping

The Maine People’s Alliance endorsed five progressive women in contested legislative primaries and Rep. Jared Golden in the Second District congressional race. According to initial results from the Associated Press, all of these candidates have won or are significantly ahead in their races, with votes from some towns still trickling in.

Rep. Rachel Talbot Ross won the race in House District 40 with 76% of the vote.

Lori Gramlich won in House District 13 with 70% of the vote.

Chloe Maxmin won in House District 88 with 80% of the vote.

Michele Meyer in House District 2 is ahead with 63% of the vote with two-thirds of towns in the district reporting.

Jan Collins in Senate District 17 is ahead with 62% of the vote with just over half of towns reporting.

Rep. Jared Golden is ahead with 50% of the vote in a three-way race in the Second Congressional District with 68% of towns reporting.