Joy Reid says Dems’ focus on trans and immigrants harms party, leaving rural White voters behind

OKLAHOMA CITY, OKLAHOMA: Former MSNBC host Joy Reid shared her perspective on the ‘I’ve Had It’ podcast, advocating for a significant strategic shift for the Democratic Party. 

Reid argued that Democrats must pivot away from recent cultural and identity politics and pick up the rural voters by focusing on the affordability crisis that Republicans allegedly failed to address.

Joy Reid presses Democrats to fight for neglected rural voters

Appearing on the ‘I've Had It’ podcast, Joy Reid said Democrats must focus on rural states and called for the party to contest for those voters who Republicans don't actually represent.

"When's the last time a Democrat was in Oklahoma, or Mississippi, or Tennessee, or when was the last time they spent real money to try to win races in these states? They're absent without official leave in the whole South," he argued.

She made it clear that the problem is one of visibility and effort: “And Democrats, first of all, they have to get better at just showing up. When's the last time Democrats went into the hills of West Virginia?”

Joy Reid cited common economic interests of poor Americans

Joy Reid then turned her attention to the economic solidarity that ought to unite poorer Americans of all races, as well as the common challenge of low voter turnout.

She argued that poor White people have more in common with poor people of color than they do with rich Whites.

"Poor White people don't vote. Poor White people, poor Brown people, they don't vote," she said, suggesting they tend to "generally just sort of let it happen, right?"

Reid insisted that if Democrats were to engage, they would find common policy interests: “Bishop William Barber goes into the hills of West Virginia. Those people want the same thing that we sitting around this table want.”

She elaborated on those shared desires: "They want a decent life. They want to be able to feed their kids. They want to be able to have a decent home that they can't lose. They don't want to, you know, go broke because they need health care. They would like to go to a doctor every so often, go to a dentist. They would like normal things. They don't have them. And so, but they're left out there, not just by Republicans who didn't give a s**t about them."

Joy Reid said cultural issues distort Democratic economic message for voters

She further went on to take a jibe at the Republicans as to how they contain voters by asserting, "As long as they stay racist and stay angry at gay people and the trans people they'll never meet, they're happy with them. Democrats just don't go there at all."

Reid argued that the Democratic brand has become too linked to divisive, progressive cultural issues, which blocks voters from hearing their economic message.

“The brand is the issue in a lot of these red states because they view the brand as associated, to your point, with these cultural things with gay marriage and with trans,” Reid said, prompting host Jennifer Welch to agree in a humorous tone by mentioning "Pronouns."

Reid agreed, adding the perception includes "Black people," and "Brown immigrant," before they shared a laugh, concluding: “They’re just like, ‘That’s that brand’, and so people won’t even hear you if you say Democrat.”