As primaries loom, downstate Democrats look for a way back
It's a brief pause for the Democratic candidate for governor, who was in the midst a flurry of phone calls with supporters in between campaign stops around western
Daiber and his small, but dedicated campaign staff have logged thousands of miles, zig-zagging across the state, since he first announced his run in
"This is
An educator and third-generation farmer from
"Being from southern
Daiber is the first Democrat to run for governor from downstate since former
Yet despite his Downstate roots, Daiber has struggled to break through, polling around 1 percent in a primary filled with
The struggles echo the broader struggle downstate
A battleground no more
Late
But, mirroring national trends, many traditional Democratic constituencies downstate have for one reason or another moved away from the party.
Party operatives who have worked downstate races cite a number of reasons: the decline of large industries like steel and coal, which caused union influence to wane; the subsequent exodus of young people looking for opportunity often in urban areas; and, most consistently, a national Democratic Party message out of step with the values of rural voters.
"The national brand has been damaged, especially in rural areas," said
These cultural and economic anxieties helped fuel President
Many Democratic state legislators had been able to survive past races without much help from the top of the ticket. These central and southern
But the sheer margins for Trump in 2016 trumped any ticket-splitting efforts, however, and downstate Democratic state Reps.
With the loss of voices like Phelps, who spearheaded the effort to bring concealed carry to
"On the Democratic side, you've lost geographic and ideological representation," Redfield said. "If the
To the contrary,
"If I'm a conservative downstate Democrat, I'm feeling that I have less influence on who gets fielded as a statewide candidate," Redfield said.
Case in point, Daiber is the only gubernatorial candidate from outside the Chicagoland area.
Daiber, a mild-mannered educator from
After watching his county -- once a hub of downstate Democratic politics -- trend toward the
"If southern
Poshard represented southern
Less than two decades after Poshard carried some southern
"I think a large part of that is the working class people -- coal miners, laborers, others -- that represented the Democrat party for all of those years because they were strong union people and generations of their families worked in those jobs, I think they have felt left out in a lot of the politics of the country and the state," Poshard said.
Since that 2016 presidential election loss,
Poshard said some of his first memories as a child were waking up before the crack of dawn with his father up to run traplines along the
"The party's going to have to come to some recognition that people who have different points of views on a few critical issues that are embedded in their culture, embedded in their faith, embedded in their family life, you can't just throw them out of the party," Poshard said. "Unless you want to stay in the minority."
Democratic gubernatorial candidate
"I think the Democratic Party needs to base itself around some fundamental principals like those kitchen table issues," Pritzker said. "Those are the things that have made Democrats Democrats for so many years. Whether you're a conservative or a progressive Democrat, I think you can rally around the idea of universal healthcare and of job creation and raising wages, standing up with labor unions and improving our education system. Those are the fundamental principles that I think we can have a big tent around."
Winning back voters
Views are mixed on if
"Basically, when you get a district that's held for a long time by a very conservative Democrat and they retire, you'll probably get a conservative Republican running against a conservative Democrat without the same name recognition, and people look at it and say if I'm going to vote for a Republican, I might as well vote for a real one," Redfield said.
But Redfield and others said a more favorable national climate mixed with the fielding of candidates that fit their respective districts could yield positive results for the party, with many pointing Democrat
State Sen.
"My approach has always been work hard, be honest with constituents, listen to all points of view and make the best decision you can make," Manar said. "And that's always been my approach going back to when I was a local elected official. That's always going to be my approach and that's not going to change because of the outcome of a particular election cycle."
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