In some far reaches of rural America, Democrats are flirting with extinction. In Niobrara County, Wyoming, the least-populated county within the least-populated state, Becky Blackburn is one in every of simply 32 left.
Her neighbors name her “the crazy Democrat,” though it’s extra a time period of endearment than derision.
Some much less populated counties have fewer. There are 21 Democrats in Clark County, Idaho, and 20 in Blaine County, Nebraska. However Niobrara County’s Democrats, who account for simply 2.6% of registered voters, are probably the most outnumbered by Republicans within the 30 states that monitor native get together affiliation, in accordance with Related Press election knowledge.
In Wyoming, the state that has voted for Donald Trump by a wider margin than another, overwhelming Republican dominance could also be much more cemented-in now that the state has handed a legislation that makes altering get together affiliation way more tough.
Tuesday’s major would be the first election because the legislation took impact.
In Niobrara County’s grassy rangelands and pine-spattered hills adjoining Nebraska and South Dakota, it’s not straightforward being blue.
A paralegal for the Republican county legal professional, Blackburn hears plenty of right-wing views round city.
“Normally I just roll my eyes and walk away because I’m fighting a losing battle and I’m fully aware of that,” she mentioned. “Maybe that is why I’m well-liked, because I keep my mouth shut 10 times more than I want to.”
Not that she’s politically shy. She flies an LGBTQ+ flag in assist of her lesbian daughter at her home in Lusk, a ranching city of 1,500 and the Niobrara County seat.
In political season, Blackburn shares up on Democratic political indicators to interchange people who get swiped. She speaks approvingly of policing reform, taxation for presidency providers and the transgender social media celeb Dylan Mulvaney.
Perhaps as a result of she’s open about these views — and much too outnumbered to place them into motion — Blackburn actually does appear well-liked in Lusk, the place she lately served 9 years on the City Council.
“I won two elections here. Even though that’s nonpartisan, people still knew I had left-leaning values,” she mentioned.
Nationwide, Democrats account for fewer than 3% of voters in three counties this yr, up from one county in 2020 however down from seven in 2016. There have been none with such a low proportion of Democratic registrations within the presidential election years of 2012, 2008 and 2004, in accordance with the AP knowledge.
Essentially the most Republican counties lately are concentrated in Idaho, Utah and Wyoming. Essentially the most Democratic areas, in the meantime, are a lot much less one-party-dominant.
The District of Columbia, the place 77% of voters are Democrats, ranks second for Democratic dominance. First is Breathitt County, Kentucky, which via custom is 79% Democratic however to not the core. Republican vice-presidential candidate JD Vance has household there and in 2020 the county went 75% for former President Donald Trump.
Niobrara County was not at all times fairly so Republican. It had greater than twice as many Democrats, 83, in 2012, and in 2004 there have been greater than 4 occasions as many, 139.
The Democrats’ wrestle in Wyoming mirrors the get together’s challenges throughout rural America, the place the get together has been shedding floor for years.
It wasn’t at all times this manner. Seventy years in the past, Democrats had been a political pressure throughout southern Wyoming, the place union mining and railroad jobs had been ample. Now, the get together’s solely strongholds are within the college city of Laramie and resort city of Jackson.
In the meantime, as Wyoming Democrats face issue fielding viable candidates in any respect ranges, many Democrats have been switching their registration to vote in additional aggressive Republican primaries, then altering again for the final election.
“You feel skeevy and dirty when you do it. But you do it anyway and you change it back as soon as you can, because you don’t want to start getting the Republican mailings,” Blackburn mentioned.
Republicans determined they’d had sufficient. The Wyoming Legislature, the place the GOP controls over 90% of the seats, handed laws final yr banning voters from altering their get together registration within the three months earlier than the August major.
Social gathering-switching had “undermined the sanctity of Wyoming’s primary process,” Wyoming’s Republican secretary of state, Chuck Grey, mentioned in an announcement of approval.
Wyoming’s Republican and Democratic primaries on Tuesday would be the first in trendy reminiscence the place voters gained’t be capable to change get together affiliation on the polls.
For Democrats, it is going to be slim pickings. Statewide, obscure candidates who’ve accomplished little campaigning are unopposed for the Democratic nomination for U.S. Home and Senate.
In Niobrara County, no Democrats are working. They aren’t contesting a seat within the Wyoming Home of Representatives or an open seat on the county fee, the 2 main races, and even working for native get together positions.
But the world had a Democratic state consultant not too way back: Ross Diercks, who’s acknowledged and warmly greeted on the Outpost Cafe, a homey breakfast and lunch spot in Lusk.
A former center faculty English instructor, Diercks was a Republican earlier than deciding the GOP didn’t do sufficient to assist public training. He beat a Republican incumbent in 1992 to launch an 18-year run within the Legislature.
Realizing voters personally and maintaining on points helped him maintain workplace. When he acquired a C-minus on a Nationwide Rifle Affiliation questionnaire, for instance, he resolved to enhance. For subsequent elections, he scored A’s on the survey.
Many Republican lawmakers are buddies. When one from simply down the highway died, he sang at his funeral.
Then in 2022, Diercks quickly switched events to vote within the GOP major towards Harriet Hageman, who was difficult then-Rep. Liz Cheney for the state’s lone Home seat. What number of different Democrats did the identical is tough to depend, however Diercks was removed from alone. Hageman, the daughter of the lawmaker he sang for at his funeral, nonetheless gained the race by a large margin.
The brand new legislation retaining Diercks and others from switching their registration so simply has him exasperated with the GOP.
“How far are they going to go to limit one’s ability to vote? If it really comes down to purifying the party, on a voting level all the way up to the elected officials, pretty soon there isn’t going to be anyone left who’s pure enough to be in the party,” Diercks mentioned.
Truck driver Pat Jordan helps many left-leaning targets, together with common healthcare, however mentioned he solely registers as a Republican.
“The best way to participate in meaningful change is to try to sway the dominant party,” mentioned Jordan, who lives in Niobrara County. “You know, we need to have a government that serves the people, all of them, not just Republicans and not just rural and not just urban and not just Democrats — and definitely not just the rich and the wealthy.”
Final winter, dozens of locals gathered exterior to honk and cheer as one Democrat left city. However they weren’t cheering as Ed Fullmer was headed off for good.
Fullmer was on the highschool boys basketball staff bus as they left for the state championship. They misplaced, however Fullmer coached the Tigers to their greatest document in a decade, 20-8.
He mentioned folks know his views however not often put him on the spot about politics.
“Most people don’t want to dive into those type of discussions,” he mentioned. “They respect you for what you do, how you work.”
Blackburn, for one, intends to carry her political floor, even because it shrinks round her.
“I am who I am, and I have the views that I have,” she mentioned. “And I don’t care if it bothers people or not.”
