Democrats must win back the trust of rural America if they want to win elections in Iowa and nationwide, party leaders and operatives said Friday at a forum aimed at pushing the party in a “radically pragmatic” direction for 2018 and beyond.

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“We need to be in those small towns, creating those conversations in the coffee shop, pushing back on those folks who are anti-government,” former Iowa Gov. and U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack said. “We can’t just organize in Ward 1 in Des Moines, we have to go to Ward 1 in Mount Pleasant.”

Kathleen Sebelius, who, like Vilsack was a Midwestern governor who joined the Obama White House as a cabinet secretary, echoed that argument in a taping later on Friday of Iowa Public Television’s “Iowa Press.”

“I’m a Democrat in a red state and I know that showing up matters,” said Sebelius, who served as Kansas governor from 2003 to 2009. “I campaigned in all 105 counties, I was on the statewide ballot four times, and I was successful four times. You can’t cede territory.”

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“This doesn’t mean becoming a Republican-lite,” Anzalone said. “It’s not about that. It’s about having a conversation with these voters to make them understand that we don’t think they’re idiots.

“Until we become more sensitive on these issues, they’ll never hear our economic message, they’ll never hear our health message, they’ll never hear our education message. They’ll never hear the things that we do well for them.”

more...http://www.desmoinesregister.com/story/news/2017/10/13/tom-vilsack-democratic-leaders-plead-party-reconnect-rural-voters/762572001/