POSSIBILITY & PROMISE

During his time as Chair of the South Carolina Democratic Party and his campaign for U.S. Senate, Jaime Harrison met countless voters who felt left behind by our current political system, voters who waited at the end of dirt roads for their voices to be heard or for candidates to make them feel valued. After his Senate race, Jaime founded Dirt Road Democrats PAC to invest in areas that are too often overlooked and to speak to voters that we have written off as lost causes. While Jaime is now serving as DNC Chair and has no role in the operation of Dirt Road Democrats PAC, our work to accomplish the vision is only growing.

We know that building and preserving Democratic majorities means competing everywhere and organizing year-round while also messaging to moderate and low-propensity voters. Dirt Road Democrats will invest in boots on the ground as well as in building a messaging machine to speak directly to voters across the rural United States.

Dirt Road Democrats PAC aims to fill a significant infrastructure and strategic gap in the Democratic Party’s electioneering system: the party’s chronic underinvestment in rural politics. Due to regional and coalition political realignments over the past few decades, the Democratic Party that once dominated rural politics has seen its vote share decline markedly over the past two decades, leaving Democrats as the distinct minority in rural counties across the nation.

Understanding both the external and internal factors driving this phenomenon is key to reversing it. Dirt Road Democrats PAC is an ideal vehicle to drive an aggressive, offensively-oriented economic message that moves the party off its current ‘defensive’ posture (Democrats left rural voters behind) into an offensive narrative that prosecutes the Republican Party’s record in rural investment and policies that benefit working Americans. Republicans have ‘ruled the roost’ in rural areas for decades now, and should be forced to defend their record.

WHAT WE WILL DO:

• We will invest in areas with large rural populations to flip tipping-point seats and cut margins in races at the top of the ballot while also supporting year-round organizing efforts to build trust in diverse communities
• We will use our platform to hold the GOP accountable for leaving these communities behind while pushing back against the propaganda machine that drives the tribalism that is currently dividing our country

This journey started on a dirt road in rural South Carolina. To some that dirt road could be failing schools, shuttered hospitals or simply the hardships we are all facing these days. But make no mistake: While so many challenges remain, we still travel on a road of possibility and promise.