The Conversation
In rural America, he explained, Democrats have stopped grassroots organizing and party-building.
“Our politics became nationalized by a cadre of professional operatives,” he told me. “It has become a big industry.”
Cole explained that media consultants earn a percentage of all campaign advertising spending. It maximizes their profits when they spend money in pricey urban markets and ignore rural media. Predictably, Democrats get shellacked in rural America, and the same strategists then blame rural voters for being unreachable.
A grassroots campaign
Ty Pinkins is trying to reverse the Democrats’ failure.
Slim and youthful, the 50-year-old African American army veteran is the Democratic nominee for a U.S. Senate seat in Mississippi. To defeat his Republican opponent, incumbent Roger Wicker, Pinkins is working with Cole to “build a grassroots pyramid.”
The Bronze Star recipient has put 70,000 miles on his Chevy Tahoe canvassing 67 of the state’s 82 counties. His goal is to have a campaign leader in every county and all 1,762 state precincts.
As Cole sees it, Pinkins’ grassroots campaign will last beyond the November 2024 election – and provide the key to a revived state Democratic Party.
But grassroots campaigning is not easy – and getting lost in rural Mississippi is is not always what one expects.
On a hot summer day, Pinkins took a wrong turn and found himself at a crossroads next to a rickety old house. After he knocked on the screened door several times, the 85-year-old Miss Maggie finally came out.
When Pinkins told her that he was running for the U.S. Senate, she smiled and laughed. Soon, the two shared steaming plates of fried chicken, brown gravy and sweet potatoes. She told the candidate, “Baby, now tell me about yourself.”
Once Pinkins finished, it was Miss Maggie’s turn, and the two talked until dusk. Before he could leave, Miss Maggie went back inside. She returned with a sack of coins.
“I don’t have much time left,” she told Pinkins. “I’m 85 years old. This is all I’ve got, and I’m giving it to you.”
For Pinkins, reaching rural voters is not an impossible dream – though sometimes it takes getting lost and hours of conversation to earn one vote.
