PERRY, Ga. (AP) – Control of the Senate may turn on the ability of Democrats to regain some of the ground they’ve lost among rural and small town voters.
The question is whether Democrats can limit Republicans’ advantages outside cities, given how well the GOP has capitalized on many white voters’ disdain for President Barack Obama.
Senate Democratic candidate Michelle Nunn has campaigned heavily in rural Georgia, sometimes with her father, popular former Sen. Sam Nunn. And she talks often about agricultural concerns.
In Arkansas, Democratic Sen. Mark Pryor hammers his Republican opponent, congressman Tom Cotton, for voting against the farm bill. Kentucky Democrat Alison Lundergran Grimes filmed one of her ads at a gun range.
Many Republicans say their rural support has as much to do with cultural identity as with policy debate.