Suburbanization of rural Georgia will permanently change our politics

The outline of this column dates back to a conversation I had with a couple of friends in the aftermath of the 2010 elections. They were fresh off state wide campaigns, and were lamenting the fact that retail politics as they understood it just didn’t work the way it used to.  Specifically, they weren’t even sure how to directly reach voters anymore.  The state was just too big now.

The changes were about a lot more than size. That’s the important takeaway here that we’ll emphasize here up front.  

Part of the changes are due to cultural shifts.  We don’t socialize the same way in 2025 than we did in 2000, and certainly not like we did in the generations prior.  Candidates trying to go where the people are to meet them is now entirely different in suburban areas.  Much of rural Georgia is now looking more and more like suburbia.

A generation ago, candidates running for statewide office never really had to meet a majority of Georgians.  They could go into most rural counties with a checklist.  They needed to start with the Sheriff.  He was often the most influential and most popular person in the entire county.  If he was willing, he could also tell the candidate everyone and everything they needed to know.

From there they would probably also want to know the Chairman of the County Commission, a Mayor or two from their largest towns, the President of the local bank – maybe he could arrange a meeting with the board of their Chamber of Commerce.  They would want to speak to a Rotary, Lions, or Kiwanis Club – the Sheriff probably told them which one was most important.  And for good measure, they would want to make sure the pastor of the First Baptist Church knew them and would have nice things to say about their candidacy.

Entire statewide campaigns were once built on the premise that if a candidate was known and endorsed by less than a dozen people per county, the candidate could win an overwhelming majority of the statewide vote.  Anything else they could get in “Atlanta” would be gravy.

Somewhere in the last quarter century the people in the rough definition of suburban Atlanta became the pivotal focus. Campaigns became harder and more expensive. The expense of buying ads in a top 10 national media market was obvious and well understood. That barely begins to cover the difficulty of messaging to suburbanites.

Many of the suburbanites “aren’t from around here.”  The new residents are moving in from somewhere else. Not only do they bring their own ideas about what a community wants and needs, but they don’t do the same things that residents who have lived in a community forever have always done.

They’re much more likely to be involved in organizations that manage their kids sports than they are in civic clubs.  They may not attend church as regularly, or might be in one of those newer non-denominational ones. They probably haven’t met the local sheriff and might not even know who he or she is.

Making things more complicated is that they likely don’t read local newspapers, and don’t get their news from traditional news organizations at all.  They’re just as likely to be relocated away for another job in a few years, so they’re less interested in the past or long term future of the communities where they live.  

News for them – especially political news – is national.  More often than not, it comes from the cable news network reflecting their partisan bias, and the affiliated organizations that affirm their same positions.  It can be argued that all politics is no longer local.

While most communities don’t like to admit it, there is too much reliance on “we’ve always done it this way” as a solution to most issues. New folks don’t know, nor care, how things always have been done.  They want solutions, even if they’re not willing to spend the time in the organizations or with the candidates and officials charged with solving problems.

Worse yet, when things go wrong – or when the new folks become a majority and one of them decides to seize the opportunity this presents – the “good old boy network” is an easy scapegoat.  There will be entertainment for those who stick around long enough to observe this progression over time. Some of the new folks who take over in this manner will be ousted by newcomers in a subsequent election, with the insurgents finding themselves “the good old boys” just an election cycle or two later.

The challenge here for those currently elected or in any civic leadership position in a rural county that is experiencing growth is to get to know as many of the new folks as you can.  Go to where they are, and where they congregate. Invite them into your circles. 

Talk to them. More importantly, listen to them.  

Don’t get turned off when they tell you how they used to do things back home.  Instead, ask them how it worked, ask them how those ways might have fallen short. Then compare and contrast that for how things need to work to make your community the best place for them, and for you, to live an thrive into the future together.