Democrats Can Win Big In The Deep South

Democrats will win again in the Deep South if they engage truly progressive policies. Yes, I said it. They must run on marijuana legalization, Medicaid expansion, tuition-free college, and an increased minimum wage. As a liberal born and raised in southern Louisiana, I believe this is the only way Democrats will consistently win the most conservative part of the nation in the foreseeable future.

Let’s be clear here: when I say progressive, I’m talking about southern progressivism that has proven that races can be won in the likes of Randall Woodfin and Chokwe Antar Lumumba, the mayors of Birmingham, Ala. and Jackson, Miss., respectively.

In today’s southern political climate, we see moderate Democrats running and losing. To make matters worse, the Republican Party has legislative supermajorities in all eight states that constitute the Deep South. On top of that, they boast leaders residing in seven of the eight governor’s mansions.

Democrats nationwide rejoiced in 2015 when Louisiana elected John Bel Edwards as governor, and again in 2017 when Doug Jones won a Senate seat in Alabama that had been held by Republicans since 1992. Although Edwards’s and Jones’s wins were historic, they were not unpredictable. Edwards ran against a Republican embroiled in a D.C. prostitution scandal, and Jones’s opponent was an accused pedophile. Nevertheless, the moderate wing of the Democratic Party claimed credit for winning again in the South. Yet one wouldn’t be wrong to categorize their wins as outliers due to Edwards’s and Jones’s political vulnerabilities.

Once Republicans nominate a decent consensus candidate, Edwards and Jones will be relics of a political pastime.  The reason for this is simple: middle-of-the-road doesn’t energize the southern Democratic base. Moderation only excites when Republicans nominate nut jobs (I’m looking at you, Roy Moore).

If Democrats want to win regularly in the Deep South, they must reject middle-of-the-road, moderate candidates. Politics is about exciting your base and getting the most votes cast in your favor. The only way for Democrats to accomplish that in a sea of red is by engaging the party’s progressive grassroots. Therefore, the party must run a truly progressive platform if they want to mobilize their base.

Democrats have done just that in Georgia with the nomination of Stacey Abrams, the first African American woman to be a major party’s gubernatorial nominee. Abrams beat her moderate primary opponent with over 75 percent of the primary vote. While a primary is much different from a general election, the margin by which Abrams won demonstrates that the party is shifting further left and that progressive stances excite more than moderate ones. Put simply, Abrams has a much better chance of turning out the base than her primary opponent.

[su_pullquote]There is no denying that both parties are shifting away from centrist ideas, for better or worse.[/su_pullquote]There is no denying that both parties are shifting away from centrist ideas, for better or worse. This shift will undoubtedly give progressives a boost, since voters are tired of politics as usual. The issues that minority, LGBTQ+, and other marginalized communities face have not been solved in the past 20 years because of moderates’ tendencies to cede too much ground to conservatives. Voters and candidates alike understand that. Southern progressives want candidates who will take the fight to conservatives, not cower in the name of moderation.

[su_pullquote align=”right”]Southern progressives want candidates who will take the fight to conservatives, not cower in the name of moderation.[/su_pullquote]The Deep South is home to some of the nation’s highest percentages of African Americans, the Democratic Party’s most reliable voters. It is also home to a sizeable amount of people of Latinx descent, another large voting bloc in the party. On top of that, the demographics are continually shifting in the Democrats’ favor. According to the Institute of Southern Studies, five Deep South states are expected to be majority-minority by 2040.

However, it is not enough to run a Southern progressive candidate. The party must also engage in intense voter outreach. When the party directly targets these communities and appeals to their concerns, voters will turn out in droves. That is the blueprint Lumumba and Woodfin have used, and other southern progressives like Abrams are following suit.

While it remains to be seen whether Abrams will win the governor’s race in Georgia, she will not go down without a fight. Even if she loses, one thing remains true: Republican-lites don’t energize the base. In the Deep South, trying to convince Republicans and Independents to vote for moderate Democrats is ineffective because moderates are still relentlessly tied to national party figures such as Clinton, Obama, and, as of late, Pelosi and Schumer.

[su_pullquote align=”right”]Southern progressives deserve candidates that truly inspire them, not moderates viewed as the lesser of two evils.[/su_pullquote]The best path to victory is cultivating the existing base and turning out the liberal vote in higher numbers. Southern progressives deserve candidates that truly inspire them, not moderates viewed as the lesser of two evils. And for those who believe moderates have a “better chance” at winning, what good is a better chance when these candidates still fall short? Even if progressives lose, at least they’ll lose with conviction.

Tyrin Truong ‘21 studies in the College of Arts & Sciences. He can be reached at tyrin.truong@wustl.edu.