Jack Risbridger
“We are basically all the same people we just live under different systems”
This was said to me at the end of this informative event, and I can’t stop thinking about what it could mean for us moving forward. The intent of the comment was to highlight how “rural” campaigners across different countries are very similar and that the way we try to win our elections has much overlap. For many on the left, to win a “rural” seat is out of the question or only happens rarely. But as someone who has campaigned in “rural” seats for some time now, and having attended this event, I think we have much to be optimistic about; we just need to start to view these seats as winnable.
‘Winning in Small Towns: Insights from Campaigning in Rural America’ was the title of the event but what was covered was so much more. We heard from Matt Hildreth, one of America’s leading experts in effective small town and rural campaigning and founder of RuralOrganizing.org, Hannah O’Rourke, a co-founder of Campaign Lab who are thinking about how we can campaign differently and more effectively, and Hywel Lloyd, our own co-founder here at Labour Coast & Country.
From Hannah I was able to learn about the importance of going to where people are. If you want to fight a rural campaign, it cannot be done from just one central location. You have to go to where the voters are because they will not come to you. Go to that village of 40 people, that hamlet of 5 farms. They may not say that they will vote for you, but they will remember that you asked for their vote and cared to hear their concerns.
But most importantly your message and messenger will matter. Campaign Lab have been able to find that focussed issues do matter (I think many of us do know that) but also that the radius of where the issue is cared about is 1km. This means that your village of 40 may not care about the same issue as the hamlet of 5 even if they are only 1 mile apart. And, your messenger will be extremely important; people interact better with local voices. This does not mean turning down activist help from other areas but that pushing central Labour messages into local forums will not help your campaign. Find that local issue and local voice and make your campaign about that.
Matt was able to highlight to the room something that I have been struggling with for some time now. What is rural? In America, Democrats appear to have lost the idea of what “rural” is. They have framed “rural” around the idea of farming. But it is so much more; it’s mining, its small towns, it’s coastal communities, it’s industrial areas, it’s America. They see it as an area of whiteness and no diversity. But there has been immigration of various communities to places like Michigan, Kansas, and Washington. “Rural” is more than farms, and to abandon these communities and voters as a group that are “unwinnable” is to the detriment of any political party.
As for myself, I grew up in Luton, so “rural” was everything outside of Luton until you hit the next big town or city. “Rural” was farms, villages, hamlets. It was not very diverse and not very industry heavy. How wrong I was. I have lived in “rural” England for nearly half my life now and “rural” is none of those things. Yes, there are farms, but they can be very industrious, and with the diversity of business and growth on their land they can offer real insight into business policy, beyond that of agriculture. There are many “rural” towns, many of them are historic. Just look at places like Hertford, Whitby, or Yeovil. And diversity is certainly found in “rural” England, in fact, some of our “rural” communities can be more welcoming to new people than our urban areas. In our big cities we find places called Chinatown or Little Italy, this does not scream of inclusion, this tells a story of exclusion to the point where these groups had to build their own space within our large metropolitan areas to find a community who would welcome them and make them feel like they belonged.
This brings me to the next important point that Matt raised. Community. In America, there is a community crisis. The younger generation are moving from their small towns to large cities, or if they are not, they are no longer developing the same large friend groups as generations gone by did. Fewer people are going to bars and just socialising; they have insular friend groups of less than 6. It has been found that the smaller your friendship circles, the less likely you are to engage with civic projects. Rural America gave rise to many important civic engagements, from the small religious towns in the South giving a microphone to the civil rights movement, to the mining communities across Appalachia and the Rockies giving rise to a burgeoning “labor” movement.
Introspection has been needed in this area and it has meant the development of the organisers best friend: A Vocal Local. These are true locals to the area who are happy to talk to people both in person and online. They provide a strong local connection and are tied to the community. They can be developed into someone who may want to run on your party’s ticket or to just be a supporting voice in the community. These are invaluable individuals in “rural” communities and seats. If you represent 50 towns and parishes across a constituency you cannot “be” from all of them, but if you have enough supportive locals you can show a real connection to each community.
Lastly, Matt touched on the idea of organising. The Democrats, and I would argue us in Labour, have conflated organising with campaigning. It is so much more than that. Organising can focus on communities and community events which are non-partisan; for example cleaning up the streets, helping to host fetes, or attending community events such as Remembrance services. Once you have started to organise within these communities you can begin to look at how to bring them together despite their diversity. When I lived in America, I had friends who could not quite believe that in the UK you could drive for an hour and pass through nine regional accents and dialects. We know that this exists, and therefore in rural constituencies we need to remember this and stop trying to view them as one block of voters to win.
Let’s look at St Austell and Newquay Constituency as an example, now held by Labour’s Noah Law (who really impressed me when I met him in the 2023 by-election for the “rural” constituency of Mid Bedfordshire [which Alistair Strathern also won for Labour] when he came up on the train to campaign for Labour). This is a constituency which spans from the North Coast to the South Coast of Cornwall, covering 15 different electoral divisions (when the legislation was written).
Without having gone there myself to study the area, I would bet that the local issues which affect those in Talskiddy will differ greatly to those who live in Mevagissey. As an MP, Noah will have to find the common trends which affect the constituency as whole while also helping in local issues where possible. This will likely mean looking at national policy which affects regeneration of high streets, better access to primary care and building of primary care infrastructure, and tourism. While also having to keep an eye on local issues ranging from potholes to bin collection, to overzealous planning applications, to calls for regional independence. This task will be made easier with good local organising. Having a councillor in each area would help massively, but beyond that, having good local voices he can rely on to keep him informed of local issues will mean that he can act proactively, rather than reactively, to issues which are bound to arise.
Now, here we are at the end of the event, having learned a lot from Hannah and Matt, but what do we take away from it? Well, first I would say we on the left should not fear “rural”. It is not one homogenous blob but an outdated amalgamation of everything which is not metropolitan. We can win in “rural”, and when Labour wins big we do win everywhere. Now we need to hold it. Let’s not sit back and hope for the best, let’s get out there, organise into communities, find vocal locals, and become the party who looks after everyone, not just those in the cities.
Secondly, we cannot forget that organising is not just campaigning. It feels like we have been campaigning for years, but now we are in power, we need to organise to ensure that the good we can deliver is done so properly. We need to win in towns and parishes, at district and county level. Do not fear seats with the word rural in their name; we can win there, we recently have in order to form this government. Labour votes can be found there; we cannot ignore them until the next time we are desperate to get the Tories out. In the last couple of years, I have knocked on doors who say they haven’t heard from us since 1997. We cannot do that again; communities will not vote for us if we do not ask them to.
Lastly, we need to learn from and help to teach other progressive campaigners out there. We share the same issues when it comes to campaigning, and we share common views on the world and progressive policies. While our systems are very different and elections can take many different forms, the ideals of rural organising will be similar. We all have small towns and villages in our countries, all of which the Left often overlook when campaigning. We need to work for those votes but there will be some there.
Every vote is worth our effort. Let’s organise properly in “rural” areas to provide a solid group of local supporters from where we can provide solid representation at every level of government. Labour Coast & Country has nearly 200 MPs; let’s ensure we can provide those areas with great councillors and community leaders.
Leave a Reply