Boy I love this!
Not long after she got in the presidential race this year West Virginia Senator and nominal Democrat Joe Manchin immediately declared that she’d have a hard time in West Virginia but encouraged her to come down nonetheless, adding “maybe she could change her positions.” Well, Elizabeth Warren went to the little town of Kermit, West Virginia and near as I can tell she didn’t change a thing. And boy, look at that packed room full of folks who’ve probably never gotten to see a presidential candidate in person, much less one that stays and talks to all of them individually, and who talked directly about the problems they’re facing and what she’s going to do them.
Images all taken from Warren’s Facebook Page.
The last picture by the way came when she asked everyone in the room to raise their hand if they knew anyone struggling with addiction. This was a powerful moment in this primary and it shouldn’t be overlooked.
Now look, it probably doesn’t matter what kind of Democrat we run-conservative, progressive, centrist, democratic socialist, one that could walk on water and turn water into wine-there’s very little chance of us carrying West Virginia or many other conservative, rural states in 2020 or the foreseeable future. But the long term reality of electoral politics and the simple fact that people matter no matter where they’re from or how their states tend to vote both mean we need to figure it out. I don’t pretend to have the answer on how to do that but I know we have to find a way to do it without compromising our values. Actually going and talking to people like this about the problems their communities deal with is probably a good way to start. And hey, even if we don’t win the state in the general, someone’s got to win it in the primary.