Former Democratic senators launch plan to gain rural votes

FARGO, N.D. (AP) - Two former Democratic senators from red states who lost re-election bids in 2018 are leading a campaign to help their party win back votes in rural America.

North Dakota’s Heidi Heitkamp and Indiana’s Joe Donnelly announced Thursday they are starting an initiative called the One Country Project. Its website states that Democrats need to “reopen the dialogue” in areas where people have traditionally voted Republican.

The group says that without rural support, Democrats will fall short in Electoral College votes in 2020. Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton won the popular vote by about 3 million ballots in 2016, but gained only 227 of the 270 electoral votes needed to win.

Heitkamp tells KFGO radio in Fargo that one-party voting in rural America is a “formula for disaster.”