Van Hollen: We Got Swamped in Rural Areas

Van Hollen: We Got Swamped in Rural Areas

There’s no two ways about it: Democrats got smoked in the 2010 midterms. As President Obama put it, his party endured a “shellacking.” No one’s trying to hide it.

In fact, Rep. Chris Van Hollen, the chairman of the Democratic Party’s House campaign arm–the man responsible for softening the blow across the country by raising money and spending it to help his Democratic brethren–marveled recently at how badly Democrats had done in rural areas.

“We got swamped by the vote in the rural areas,” Van Hollen told radio host Bill Press on Friday, off microphone before the show went on air. The pre-show comments were recorded on video and posted by C-SPAN, which saves the in-studio video footage of Press’s show in its online archive.

The Atlantic
11/9/10