To my fellow Democrats: We should not give up on rural and conservative areas, the South or Appalachia. These places may be known as “Trump Country,” but the right type of Democrat can win in these areas. Let’s look at Louisiana, Mississippi, and West Virginia, three states that voted overwhelmingly for Former President Trump in both 2016 and 2020.

Louisiana’s Democrat Governor, John Bel Edwards, is preparing to leave office after serving two full terms as Governor. Edwards was first elected as Governor of Louisiana in 2015 with 56% of the vote against his Republican opponent who, at the time, was Louisiana’s Senator. The very next year, Donald Trump won the state with 58% of the vote, just 2% more than Gov. Edwards, a Democrat, got the year before.

In Mississippi, a state that Trump won with 57% of the vote in 2020, the incumbent Trump-backed Republican Governor Tate Reeves barely won re-election. Reeves got just over 50% of the vote against his Democrat challenger, Brandon Presley (who, yes, is a relative of that Presley) in this year’s election for Mississippi Governor. Presley may have come up a little short in the end. Still, Presley, as a Democrat, got within four percent of winning in Mississippi against a Trump-backed incumbent. Presley even outperformed President Obama in majority-black areas in the Magnolia State.

In 2022, of the 17 State Senate races on the ballot in West Virginia, Democrats won just one. Mike Woelfel was re-elected to the State Senate from District Five, which covers Cabell and Wayne Counties, with about 54% of the vote. Trump won Cabell County with over 58% of the vote in 2020 and won in Wayne with almost 75% of the vote. Outgoing Senator Manchin also won these counties in 2018 after Trump won both in 2016.

Democrats can win in these places even though many people think we can’t. We can take back the South and get these places moving again. We can elect more Governors in Southern states like John Bel Edwards, who, in my opinion, has done some incredible things. Edwards expanded Medicaid, and he just recently announced paid parental leave for all state employees. These are things most Republican Governors, like Gov. Reeves in Mississippi, refuse to do.

It is clear though that being opposed to abortion is what helped Edwards, Presley, and Woelfel. John Bel Edwards signed Louisiana’s abortion ban into law (which was authored by a fellow Democrat), and Presley said multiple times that he supported Mississippi’s abortion ban. Both Edwards and Presley have said they support exceptions for rape, incest, and life of the mother and Presley has also said that he would protect birth control. State Senator Woelfel was the only Democrat in the State Senate to vote for West Virginia’s abortion ban and his Republican opponent was pro-abortion. Senator Manchin is also, at least somewhat, pro-life.

So, if Democrats do want more people in the South & Appalachia who will fight for working people and families, they must open the big tent and run moderate to conservative Democrats like Gov. Edwards and Mr. Presley who are pro-life for the whole life.