Harris makes new push for rural voters
Campaign announces record ad investment targeting rural voters.
October 23, 2024
Polls show rural voters favor Donald Trump, but that’s not stopping Kamala Harris from trying to win them over. On Wednesday, the Harris campaign announced it is investing more than $370 million on advertising in battleground states. More than $200 million of that will be used on digital ads across multiple platforms. Campaign officials say that it is the largest digital advertising investment in political history.
A sizable portion will be directed at rural voters in places like Wisconsin, North Carolina, Michigan and Georgia. Wisconsin dairy farmer Tina Hinchley is one of those rural voters supporting Harris. In an ad soon to be seen across the country, she says healthcare is a driving factor in her decision. She credits the Affordable Care Act created by President Obama saving her life and her farm after a recurring brain tumor.
“Trump is coming for our healthcare. That’s pretty damn scary,” Hinchley says. “Kamala Harris cares about us. She fought for us to get healthcare and she’s fighting for us to keep it.”
Trump, a longtime critic of Obamacare, has pushed back at suggestions that he would dismantle the program. Instead, he says he will improve the plan if re-elected. When pressed for specifics during the September presidential debate, he famously said he had a “concept of a plan” to be revealed at a later date.
The Harris campaign is touting a plan to add 10,000 healthcare professionals to rural communities. They say this, as well as expanding telemedicine, will keep more rural hospitals and pharmacies open and reduce the number of so-called ambulance deserts in half.
Harris says she will provide more incentives to help small and medium sized farmers compete against larger operations. They include increasing access to credit, land and markets. She also vows to build new markets for farmers.
Other policy proposals the Harris team plans to highlight include expanding the child tax credit by up to $6,000 and building more than 3 million new housing units. Harris is also proposing up to $25,0000 in downpayment assistance for first-time homeowners and increasing the small-business tax deduction for startups to $50,000.
While Trump may have a solid lead among rural voters, it will only take a few votes to swing the election in battleground states. Aggregate polling this week shows Harris and Trump virtually tied in Michigan, Wisconsin, Pennsylvania, Georgia, North Carolina, Nevada and Arizona. Neither candidate has a lead larger than the polling margins of error. Both campaigns are pulling out all the stops attempting to reach all remaining undecided voters.
“The feedback we’re getting makes us optimistic that our message is connecting with rural voters,” a source close to the Harris campaign says.
While the message may be connecting with some, many rural state voters say they’ve already made up their minds. Jacob Kaderly is a Wisconsin farmer and agronomist. He says he plans on supporting Trump for a third time no matter what Harris or Trump say between now and Election Day.
“I realize that it takes about two years for somebody’s policies to kick in and then they linger for a couple of years,” Kaderly says. “We were doing pretty good and now we’re the opposite, so I’m hoping he (Trump) can straighten us out again.”
Harris-Walz director of rural outreach Matt Hildreth says the campaign is committed to reaching rural voters. According to him, organizers have been building relationships and learning about important issues for more than a year. Those issues include support for agriculture and small businesses, better healthcare and expanded rural broadband. Hildreth emphasizes that Harris and Walz both come from large agricultural states and recognized the challenges farmers face.
“They both understand that rural voters are the foundation of our country, and they want rural voters to know that they have a home in their campaign - that is fundamentally about patriotism, freedom and opportunity,” Hildreth says.
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