Morning Consult Poll: 65% of Rural Voters View Dems Unfavorably

While Democrats have locked down control of America's cities, their approval in the rural areas of the country are disconcerting for their party's hold on Congress heading into the 2022, according to the latest Morning Consult poll.

An overwhelming majority of rural voters (65%) view the Democratic Party negatively now, including 48% strongly, and just 29% view Democrats favorably, the poll released Tuesday found.

While crime is running rampant mostly in cities, inflation has hit a 40-year high of 7.5%, and rural America is feeling it. Also, rural voters are tied to Christian values — as Democrats largely seek to protect access to abortions over defending the right of the unborn — and illegal immigration has grated on rural voters more than urban ones.

"The root issue is that rural voters are worth more in both the Senate and the Electoral College," Democrat pollster David Shor told Morning Consult. "Either Democrats make these adjustments and do better with working-class voters, or they get locked out of the federal government for a very long time."

Also, Democrat agenda items on gun control, LGBTQ+, and support for the Black Lives Matter movement are less important voting issues for rural voters.

"This kind of data paints a superclear picture of what the Democratic Party has to do in these areas: Increase the salience of the issues they agree with us on, and decrease the salience of the issues they don't," Shor added. "If we're not careful, we'll end up only with the views of people who agree with us on everything."

Just 23% of rural voters believe the Democratic Party cares more about their community than Republicans, according to the poll.

Morning Consult polled 1,525 self-identified rural voters between Jan. 14-16, and the results have a margin or error of plus or minus 1 percentage point.

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