Republican Glenn Youngkin secured the Virginia governor race, and riding on his success included other Republicans who secured the win in the lieutenant governor and attorney general races. For Democrats in rural America, they’re hoping it serves as a wakeup call for reconnecting with rural voters.

Biden carried Virginia by 10 percentage points last year, so the flip to Republicans could be seen as a referendum of the current priorities pushed by the Democrat-controlled executive and legislative chambers in Washington, D.C. Yet others hope the results force Democrats to prove they can deliver. The White House is trying to build support in rural America for the Build Back Better plan, as seen in a fact sheet provisions that would benefit rural communities. But will their efforts prove effective?

“The disconnect between rural America and Washington, D.C. only continues to widen,” warns Chris Gibbs, an Ohio farmer and board chair of Rural Voices USA, a nationwide network of rural leaders to hold policymakers accountable on rural issues. “The divide is evident in one-sided election results in rural counties that are increasingly frustrated they are not being heard and that lawmakers are not delivering on their priorities. Virginia voters in particular sent a strong message [Tuesday] night that results matter.”

Gibbs says it is imperative for Congress to pass the Build Back Better and the bipartisan infrastructure plan before Thanksgiving to show rural America that government can actually make a difference in their lives.

“After passing those key pieces of legislation, lawmakers must get out into rural communities and actually talk about what those bills do. We need meaningful engagement on how universal preschool will create opportunities for rural parents and kids, how construction projects will create good jobs locally, how broadband will expand in their communities and more,” Gibbs says. “The only way smart rural policy beats cynicism about government and far right-wing talking points is if rural folks can feel and see it in their everyday lives. We are constantly being reminded that we have a lot of work to do to make that happen.”

One Country Project founder Senator Heidi Heitkamp, a former Democrat from North Dakota, says the Republican sweep in Virginia “makes it clear that Democrats will be doomed to walk in the electoral wilderness until they reestablish trust and rebuild a track record of accomplishment with rural Americans.”

Democrat incumbent Governor Terry McAuliffe's campaign spokesman Christina Freundlich also attributes headwinds from Washington and the national political environment which led to rural areas “extremely energized in the face of the Biden presidency,” the AP adds.

Some estimate as many as 70 House seats could be in play for flipping in the 2022 midterm elections. The New York Times quotes Virginia moderate Democrat Abigail Spanberger who is critical of the Democrats’ use of their power and warned it could lead to losing their congressional majorities.

“We were so willing to take seriously a global pandemic, but we’re not willing to say, ‘Yeah, inflation is a problem, and supply chain is a problem, and we don’t have enough workers in our work force,’” Spanberger says.

She also criticized the notion that the 2020 election results allow for wide sweeping reforms. “Nobody elected him to be F.D.R., they elected him to be normal and stop the chaos,” the Times quotes Spanberger as saying.

In tiny, rural Lee County at the southwestern edge of Virginia, where Trump won 84% of the vote last year, Youngkin managed to improve that margin. He won Lee County with 87.6% of the vote, the Associated Press reports.

While the ground that McAuliffe gave up in the northern Virginia suburbs mattered, he carried each of those counties by double digits – and by bigger margins than President Barack Obama when he won the state in 2012. Yet even margins of nearly 30% and 54% in places like Fairfax and Arlington were not enough to counter the Republican surge in rural Virginia, Heitkamp notes.

Heitkamp says a strategy based on running up stratospheric margins in a few key areas while ceding large swaths of rural America is one that will leave Democrats short time and time again. “Democrats need to learn from [Tuesday] night’s results, listen to the message being sent by rural Americans, and put together a platform that serves them,” she says.