Democrats launch 11th-hour ads to boost turnout among Black rural voters in South

(WASHINGTON) — The Democratic National Committee on Saturday is launching a new ad campaign targeted at rural voters to boost turnout in two southern battlegrounds in the final days of the presidential election.

The effort, backed by a six-figure media buy, comes as Democrats are especially concerned that early vote turnout is low among Black voters in rural areas. The effort will span 15 counties that are part of the “Black Belt” in Georgia and North Carolina.

The ads, which will run on multi-media billboards and on radio stations in the area, will feature DNC Chairman Jaime Harrison, a Black South Carolinian who has spoken extensively of his upbringing in rural Orangeburg. The effort will promote policies that Democrats say will help rural voters, including expanding rural infrastructure, making health care more affordable and ensuring rural hospitals can remain open.

“In the final days of this election, Democrats are not taking our foot off the gas as we communicate our plan for rural America. From affordable and accessible health care, to lower costs, and economic opportunities, the Democratic Party will fight for the policies that make a tangible difference for rural Americans,” Harrison said in a statement provided first to ABC News.

“Growing up in a rural town, I know how important it is to show up and truly meet rural voters where they are. The DNC’s latest rural ‘I Will Vote’ initiative does exactly that, ensuring that the final message rural voters in the critical battlegrounds of Georgia and North Carolina receive in this election is Democrats’ commitment to fight for them.”

The ad buy comes as Democrats grow concerned that Black rural voters are not participating in early voting at the rate that the party needs.

Democrats hope to be competitive in Georgia and North Carolina, where Black rural voters are key. Vice President Kamala Harris is expected to clean up in urban areas, but she’ll have to keep former President Donald Trump’s rural margins down enough to stop him from offsetting her advantage in cities like Atlanta and Raleigh.

In Georgia, 41% of early voters are Republican, and 42% are Democrats, according to 538 analysis of voter data from L2, a non-partisan political data company. In 2020, early voting was 41% Republican – 46% Democrat.

It’s the same story in North Carolina, where 34% of early vote ballots have been cast by Republicans, and 33% by Democrats. In 2020, early voting was 32% Republican – 35% Democrat.

Of voters who voted early in 2020, only 66% of Black voters have cast an early ballot this time around so far. That number drops to 63% of Black voters in rural areas.

The drop is likely explainable in part by this year’s election not taking place in the middle of a pandemic, whereas in 2020, many voters leaned on early and absentee voting to avoid long lines and possible COVID-19 exposures.

Still, both states remain highly competitive. Polling averages from 538 show Trump up 1.6 points in Georgia and 1.3 points in North Carolina.

Early voting has also had some promising signs for Democrats, including high female turnout, particularly as polls show a widening gender gap, with women leaning toward Harris and men toward Trump.

And while operatives said Democrats were not hitting their marks with Black rural voters early on, that trend has begun to be mitigated, with veteran North Carolina Democratic strategist Morgan Jackson conceding that while “they had started early vote a little low,” the turnout has “picked up pretty substantially.”

“My suspicion is by Saturday’s close, they’ll be at parity with where they were four years ago,” added Michael Bitzer, a political science professor at Catawba College in North Carolina who is tracking the early vote numbers.