Bhaskar Sunkara, a Guardian US columnist and president of the Nation, argues that democratic socialists need to do more than win in big American cities. With the right message, they can also win rural voters.
DSA's Urban Victories
Sunkara joined the Democratic Socialists of America (DSA) in April 2007 at age 17, when the group was small and aging. Last week, DSA candidates swept primaries across New York City. Darializa Avila Chevalier, an organizer in her early 30s, beat five-term incumbent Adriano Espaillat in an uptown-and-Bronx seat. Claire Valdez took the open seat Nydia Velázquez is leaving in Brooklyn and Queens. With state races, DSA will seat at least 15 endorsed candidates in Albany next year. The movement that made Zohran Mamdani mayor is becoming a governing bloc.
Critiques and Challenges
Centrist commentators quickly rebutted the wins. ABC News ran an analysis under the headline “Mamdani won big, but it’s a mistake to think all Democrats swung left,” noting that a moderate won the swing-seat primary in NY-17 and a centrist beat progressives in Utah. Andrew Mamo, a spokesperson for the centrist recruitment outfit The Bench, claimed leftwing candidates have “a ceiling of 30% in swing districts,” even as they clear 50% in New York City.
While DSA now has chapters in 47 states and some wins in Trump country, the broader progressive movement struggles across much of the country. According to Jared Abbott of the Center for Working Class Politics, of nearly 100 members of the Congressional Progressive Caucus in 2024, only one—Teresa Leger Fernández of New Mexico—represented a mostly rural district. Bernie Sanders endorsed nobody like her in 2022.
The Rural Math
Rural and rural-suburban districts make up 41% of the House and a larger share of most state legislatures. Democrats have sometimes won a thin majority without them but haven’t kept one. “The math doesn’t work unless we contest rural America,” Sunkara writes, noting the Senate gives Wyoming as many votes as California.
Yet Abbott’s research suggests hope. Rural voters are whiter, older, likelier to own guns and go to church, and hold more conservative views on immigration. On economics, however, they align with progressives: majorities support a $15 minimum wage and Medicare for All, and over 80% want background checks on gun sales. The Race-Class Narrative project found 89% of rural respondents agreed with the line “in small towns and rural communities, we believe in looking out for each other, whether we’re white, black, or brown, tenth generation or newcomer.”
Persuadable Voters
By Abbott’s count, 29% of rural Trump voters back a $15 wage and oppose banning abortion. These persuadable voters are enough to reshape American politics. Dan Osborn provides an example of progressive populism in conservative areas. A machinist who led the Kellogg’s strike, he’s running for Senate in Nebraska as an independent and polling far ahead of typical Nebraska Democrats. Osborn wants to protect social security, tax the rich, and promote “right to repair”—the idea that if you bought a tractor, you should be allowed to fix it without manufacturer permission. Backed by unions like the United Auto Workers, Osborn, who led in a May poll, shows that an anti-corporate pitch delivered by someone voters trust can land in “Trump country.”
Conclusion
A politics aimed at plant closings and capital flight that devastated small towns can win everywhere. But it requires rhetorical discipline from progressives and a willingness to have hard conversations across the country.
