More Kid Rock than Norman Rockwell

An interview with JD Scholten about rural America and what the Democrats are doing all wrong

This is Men Yell at Me, a newsletter that explores the intersection of politics and power in red-state America. If you like it, consider subscribing. If you hate it, you can subscribe too.

---

JD Scholten at the Wing Ding Dinner on August 9, 2019 in Clear Lake, Iowa. (Image via Getty)

In 2018, J.D. Scholten, a baseball player from Sioux City, decided to run against Iowa Congressman Steve King. King had just lost his congressional assignments after Republicans finally decided to care about his long history of white nationalist sentiment and unadulterated racism. And Scholten made the race far more competitive than it should have been in Iowa’s largely rural fourth district. Scholten ran again in 2020, but lost to Randy Feenstra, a Republican.

Scholten isn’t running again. But he isn’t giving up. This spring, Scholten announced that he would be the executive director of RuralVote.org, a PAC focused on the rural areas of Middle America that Democrats have all but given up on. I spoke to J.D. about running for office, how to bridge that infamous American divide, and why he is still here. This interview was edited for length and clarity.

---

Lyz: Why did you decide not to run for office and decided instead to work for RuralVote.org?

J.D.: It is extremely difficult to run for office. And in 2018 it took everything I had. I would campaign until like nine o’clock and then I’d work until one or two in the morning. And then just do the same thing the next day. And politics is a very zero sum. You either win or you lose, and you move on regardless. I got caught in this middle ground where we lost, but we did something so special that I didn’t want to just let that go.

And so, after four years of campaigning, I looked in the mirror and I didn’t know what was next after the election. But I didn’t want what we created to just go to waste again. And so, I talked with Matt Hildreth who runs RuralOrganizing.org, and then he founded RuralVote.org last fall. And we talked almost every single day or several times a week, at least since the election. And it’s just so clear there is a need here to build a bridge between the parties.

I’d rather be doing a thousand different things, but after the insurrection and after the elections and everything, I don’t want to play around. And once you see behind the curtain a little bit, you can’t unsee that. This is too important for us to continue to screw up.

Lyz: Arlie Russell Hochschild in her book Strangers in Their Own Land points out that Democrats are offering policies and solutions that are popular among Republicans, but Republicans won’t vote for them because they come from Democrats. There is a huge gap here in need and the way we vote. Is that what you’re talking about when you’re talking about a bridge, or are you also talking about Democratic policies that are missing the mark too?

J.D.: I think our policies are extremely popular. But I don’t think that is the issue. This administration has already been able to do a lot. But what we’re seeing with the administration is they’re having a significant megaphone problem.

We did a poll a few months ago. And in the poll we asked people to tell us who gave them the stimulus checks. And this was in rural battleground states, eight different states, and 50% of people believed they were from Biden; 39% thought Trump did it.

I think about Carroll, Iowa, in Carroll County, that county voted for Obama in 2008 at 51%, and it voted for Trump in 2020 at 68.5%. And you look there now, and their state rep, state senator, their member of Congress, their governor, all Republicans. And you look at what has shifted since 2008. And to me, it is clear. Look what messages are being sent there. You have every elected official going on the radio and talking there. You have the Farm Bureau. You have the Chamber of Commerce. And then the biggest thing is the mess and disinformation on Facebook. That is number one. The rise of Republicans in rural areas goes hand in hand with disinformation on social media.

Lyz: I could talk about this for 47,000 hours. But it’s not just the closure of local media outlets and consolidation that’s made this vacuum. It’s that many of the few outlets that remain refuse to do the work. Or do poor work. And God bless, people don’t want to pay for that. And who can blame them? I’m simplifying this a lot. But the result is people go on to Facebook, which is free, and get their information, which is rumor and unvetted information. And I mean, it’s so bad here, The New Yorker deigned to write about it. That’s when you know it’s bad.

J.D.: There’s a Twitter account that shows the top 10 posts on Facebook every single day. I mean, every single day, at the minimum, seven out of 10 and often 10 out of 10 are Ben Shapiro and Candace Owens and Breitbart. Every once in a while, you’ll see CNN or you’ll see Rachel Maddow, but we are getting crushed.

Lyz: Republicans in Iowa know, all you have to do is lie once, and it gets spread everywhere. You can tell the truth after that, you know, you can fact-check it a million times, but the lie spreads faster than the truth. So okay, how are you combating this? What’s the answer?

J.D.: One of our plans is to have a network of rural brand ambassadors. So in our polling, we showed that the most trusted people in their communities are doctors and nurses, number one. Farmers and ranchers, number two, and then teachers are up there as well.

And so we’re trying to find people who are willing to put their face on camera and build mini campaigns. So, for example, with the infrastructure bill, we had someone tweet last week, saying he heard this ad in Waterloo about how the infrastructure bill is going to ruin farmers. And so, if we have somebody local in their community say, “This is not the case. Here’s the facts. And this is what’s going to happen to Carroll County if this passes.” We are trying to work with folks all across this nation to do that. And so we have both a 2022 plan and a much larger 2024 plan. The 2022 plan is to take 39 counties, which are the equivalent of what the fourth district was, but across the nation, and try to influence them by 5% in non-metro areas.

Lyz: I’m interrupting. Isn’t that plan really reactive? Because as we established, if you’re combating the lie after it comes out, it’s too late. Or is this question entirely unfair because there’s more parts to your plan?

J.D.: It is, it is reactive, but it also can be proactive. That was just an example. But we can do it on the forefront of it and get ahead of the stories. And so that’s the goal, but as of right now, it’s also countering the misinformation.

So it’s more of a rapid response. 

Lyz: What’s the rollout? TV ads? Facebook posts?

J.D.: So our polling also showed that 55% of rural battleground voters are completely untouchable the minute you have a Democratic name. So, then we’re only getting 30 to 35%. So, we aren’t out to reach everyone. Not everyone can be reached. But it is about 10 to 15%. That’s part of our strategy for 2022. But our poll also showed that if a person feels strongly for Republicans or strongly for Democrats, you can’t reach them. The real battleground voters, they don’t like Republicans, but they hate Democrats. And that hatred is what’s really fueling everything.

Lyz: Why do they hate Democrats?

J.D.: I mean, I am guessing. But I feel like it’s the character of what they believe a Democrat is versus the reality.

RuralVote.org @RuralVotePac

A recent poll we commissioned showed that Party ID costs Democrats 35 points in rural areas. Democrats have a lot of work to do getting their message out to rural America.

Lyz: Political scientists are arguing that political affiliation is becoming the most important aspect of our identities. So there is that entrenchment, but also I don’t know why people hate Democrats also. If I had to guess, I’d think it was abortion.

J.D.: I would also say that the way that Democrats have and are continuing to campaign isn’t really helping us.

Lyz: Oh, say more about that. What do you mean?

J.D.: So, we rely so much on campaigns that come and go. I think about all the Senate races across the nation, last cycle, and the ungodly amounts of money that were raised. But do the parties have better infrastructure because of that? Or is the data better? And we rely on data. In my campaign, we use the same database just like everybody else, but there were 60,000 independents we had no records for. And, how can we reach every voter that way? And when we’re not connecting with a third of voters, what are we doing here? And so, that is what I’m really trying to push for, doesn’t matter what year it is. We should have year-round organizing.

We should have certain things in place. So we can insert candidates rather than just relying on campaigns, because campaigns come and go.

And, let’s say I didn’t do this. All the data, everything I had for the last four years was just going to go to waste. And nobody’s picking up on this. There are these campaigns that, you know, they might not have won, but so what? So much of campaigns are outside of your control. But they gain so much information and data and just, it’s crazy that people are just willing to let that go. And then it’s like a startup the next cycle.

Lyz: Reinventing the wheel every time.

J.D.: Every single time, until we squeak out a victory. And if we do, it’s more luck than anything right now. And that’s what I’m really trying to fix

Lyz: I don’t think I really understood that fully. It seems like such a waste. But, I wonder, what roadblocks, besides a lack of data and misinformation, do you face in your work.

J.D.: Fundraising. Like everything else, we’re limited with money, because traditionally there’s been little to no money in rural organizing. And that’s, that is one of the huge problems that we’re seeing. In January, I rented a car and took a COVID-safe trip down to the Southwest to go hike and just kind of hang out by myself for a little bit. And when I was going through Navajo country, there were still signs up, “Navajos for Trump.” And I read all about Trump focused on Latinos and people of color. And so, you see that investment, but then on the other side, where’s the Democratic investment in rural?

I’d rather be doing a thousand different things, but after the insurrection and after the elections and everything, I don’t want to play around. And once you see behind the curtain a little bit, you can’t unsee that. This is too important for us to continue to screw up.

Lyz: Does it feel like Democrats have kind of just given up on rural? I always hear from people asking me why I don’t leave. Or I hear about and see people giving up and leaving. I understand it’s complicated because people need to feel safe. But that’s individually. Organizationally, it does feel like the attitude is, “You’re not gonna win there. So just give up.” Why aren’t you?

J.D.: I can’t give up because the reason I started is my grandma’s my biggest inspiration in my life. And she told me when last time I saw her, when she wasn’t doing that well and pretty much on her deathbed, she told me, “You gotta take care of the farm.” And at the time, I was living out of state too. And so she told me, “You got to move back to and you got to take care of the farm.” And so at her funeral, I just held that promise to come back home. And, ultimately, that led to running for Congress in Iowa.

And then now, because of that, it feels like I know everybody. And I can talk to everybody. They may not vote for me, but I can talk to them. I understand them. And the majority of these folks I see say, “I like you. I just don’t like the Democratic party.” And, well, if you don’t like it, you can shape it.

And, you know what, I get frustrated at certain aspects of the party, but I want to shape it to be better and not just give up on it. And I definitely don’t like the alternative. So no, it’s, it’s not easy.

And like I said, there’s a thousand other things I would rather be doing. I would love to coach baseball. My dad was a college baseball coach. I have a lot of friends who are coaching. And I was talking to a startup company about potentially working for them. But then, January 6 happened, and I can’t let that go.

Matt Hildreth, my partner in RuralVote.org, he has a great line that says, “Rural America is far more Kid Rock than Norman Rockwell.”

Lyz: That’s what Sinclair Lewis wrote. The heart of the Midwest is a rebellious girl. [Note: The full quote is, “A rebellious girl is the spirit of that bewildered empire called the American Middlewest.”]

J.D.: I like that. On the campaign trail, there were certain issues that I felt I could talk to anybody about and get them on my side. Things like campaign finance reform and too much special interest dictating what’s happening in D.C. But the thing that nobody’s talking about is, you know what, the number two issue that people are or feel strongly about? Equal pay.

Right now, we have a consultant class problem in the Democratic party. And that’s a huge problem with why we’re, we’re not doing better. But look at the legacy of Iowa Democrats and my two heroes from, from Iowa, Tom Harkin and Berkley Bedell, they’re very populous. And Berkley, he was a man of faith and, and he used his faith and talked about it on the campaign trail. This is not part of RuralVoter.org. It’s just a theory that I have. I recently listened to William Jennings Bryan’s “Cross of Gold” speech.

And I think that’s something. There’s a tone in there that I think is missing for people. And I’m not, I’m not telling someone who’s not super religious to start quoting the Bible or anything like that. You got to run as who you are. You got to run in an authentic way. But who do the candidates talk the most with? They talked to their consultants and they talked to donors. They don’t talk to voters. And that is one huge, huge problem that I see in the party right now.

Lyz: What has surprised you the most when you go out and you talk to people, and what is the thing that just has surprised you the most about your state?

J.D.: Oh, I was a bit naïve in 2018. But we ended up moving the needle 24 points. I was telling people months out that this was going to come down to the wire, and it did. I was encouraged that we ran a persuasion campaign, and we persuaded a lot more people to vote for us. In a district where there’s 70,000 more registered Republicans with Democrats, we’ve lost by 10,000.

In 2020 we ran a persuasion campaign, but because of the Senate race, because of the presidential race, we could not get our message out. And even driving the RV, me driving personally, driving the RV to all 374 towns, we couldn’t do it.

That was difficult and humbling. I think you mentioned you wanted to ask if Iowa is even winnable. It absolutely is for Democrats, but we have to do something different than what we’ve been doing. And we need to build the infrastructure in place. If we had the infrastructure in the fourth district in 2018, we would have won, but we started from absolute scratch. And, and that last little 3%… we moved the needle by a lot, but we just couldn’t get that last little 3%. But we have to be ready for the next candidate or the next campaign that is something special in a difficult area. And I just feel we’re not there right now.

Lyz: Something I think about a lot is what columnist Molly Ivins wrote about how you’re not gonna win every fight and you’re gonna lose. But how do you win through losing? And how do you build on a loss and then come back from it?

J.D.: Here’s what I always say: Iowa is geographically between Wisconsin and Dakota and Nebraska. I think this is a pivotal time for Iowa to see, are we going more towards Wisconsin, or are we going to become Nebraska? I feel that there’s enough Democratic sourcing throughout the whole state that you can get energy and people and money and all that stuff. There’s enough to win. We just need to be better at strategizing. And I just, I feel like the people who are making decisions in a lot of these races, whether it’s coming out of D.C. or elsewhere, they don’t get Iowa and what’s happening in this moment. And it’s, it’s very frustrating to see.

But I have a competitive sports background. And, and then the appreciation for my grandmother and her last word, you combine those things together. And I won’t quit. And I mean, there were many times on the campaign trail where it was brutal and just tough. I didn’t get to see my folks a lot, and it’s not easy to date when you’re a candidate.

But that’s a huge part of my life that I just had to put aside, just be committed to this thing. And I think there is a fire that’s burning inside me the last few years that’s just driven me in two campaigns, two congressional campaigns. And now, it’s the same thing. I see what we need to do. We have a game plan now. It’s about executing our game plan and trying to raise awareness for this issue.

---

Men Yell at Me is a newsletter about the places where our bodies and politics collide and yes, the occasional yelling man. Learn more about it and me (Lyz) here. You can sign up to receive the free weekly email, which includes interviews, essays, and original reporting. The Friday email is a weekly round-up of dinguses, drinks, and links. On Monday I have a subscribers-only open thread where we discuss politics, food, dogs, our bodies, and more.