ROCK HALL, Md. When Dave Harden decided to run as a Democrat for Congress on Maryland’s conservative Eastern Shore, a friend gave him a piece of free advice.
“Democrats are losing out on three things: abortion, guns and regulations,” the friend said. “If you keep one, you have to give up the other two.”
Abortion and gun rights have inspired both passionate activism and countless front-page news articles. Regulations — not so much. Yet spicy government rules remain a powerful and undervalued source of populist anger against Democrats, especially in rural areas.
On the campaign trail, Mr. Harden got an audience of voters over insane and arbitrary restrictions: Why are wineries in Maryland restricted to serving only 13 types of food? Why would a woman selling her grandmother’s shoemaker have to shell out tens of thousands of dollars to build a commercial kitchen? Why should a federal inspector be on hand to watch wild catfish being stripped – but not other types of seafood? The short answer is that restaurant associations tend to have more political influence than wineries, and beaver farmers in Mississippi are more powerful than seafood poachers in Maryland. Large businesses can afford to hire lawyers to help them cut red tape and lobbyists to bend government rules to their will. Small businesses, especially in rural areas, are being hacked.
“The allegation of over-regulation is especially alive on the political right,” Joshua Sewell of Taxpayers for Common Sense told me. He said misleading rumors that the Environmental Protection Agency had planned to regulate farm dust or that President Biden’s Build Back Better plan would tax beleaguered cows fit right into the stereotype of Democrats as city people who were furiously eager to do almost anything in to regulate rural America.
In 2006, Democrats and Republicans had similar views on government regulation of affairs: About 40 percent of Republicans said there were too many, compared to about 36 percent of Democrats. But the percentage of Republicans who felt that way gradually climbed under President Barack Obama, who introduced more economically significant rules than his predecessors. By the end of his first term, 84 percent of Republicans thought the government was interfering too much in business, while only 22 percent of Democrats agreed, according to Gallup. Democrats were more likely to say the government is not regulating businesses enough.
With business owners more likely to be Republicans and state workers more likely to be Democrats, you have the making of a gaping biased chasm. Donald Trump has campaigned on a promise to remove two rules for every new one introduced.
Mr. Harden must first win a by-election on July 19 against Heather Mizeur, a progressive herbalist who once represented Montgomery County, a much more urban area, in the state legislature. Me. Mizeur has more money and name recognition than Mr. Harden, but he believes he has a chance because she seems out of step with the Conservative district, which is considered a safe Republican seat.
Mr. Harden is trying to chart an alternative path for Democrats in rural areas. He’s not a fan of Donald Trump. I left a career of 22 years in the Foreign Service in 2018 because I did not want to serve the Trump administration. But when it comes to regulations, Mr. Harden not so much different than mr. Trump does not.
“The regulations in rural economies are ridiculous,” he told me.
Mr. Harden is trying to walk a difficult line and is appealing to voters who are angry about government transgressions without shutting down the Democratic base. He says he is not opposed to reasonable environmental regulations, but he is voting against rules that make it harder for small businesses to survive.
This is a message that comes naturally to him. I have been trying for years to improve the business environments in Iraq and the Palestinian territories as a senior USAID official. He led a program in the West Bank town of Jenin that opened a border crossing with Israel and gave the Israeli government the upper hand to allow more Israeli cars into Jenin so that Israeli Arabs could shop there, helping a to begin economic revival.
Mr. Harden is now trying to bring those lessons home to Maryland, where he grew up. On a recent Saturday, I looked out at Chesapeake Bay and talked about how to promote local economic development with Capt. Rob Newberry, head of the Delmarva Fisheries Association, which represents licensed aquarians in the area. Captain Newberry is a Republican who once hung a sign cursing Joe Biden on his boat. But he supports Mr. Harden, who patiently listens to his complaints about regulations.
Captain Newberry represents people who harvest crabs, Maryland’s iconic cuisine, from the Chesapeake Bay, and he complains that excessive regulations are chasing watermen like him out of pocket. He claims that the approximately 1,800 fishermen, clams, crabs and oysters are in his association of the highly regulated workers in the state.
“When you come halfway to work and you pull at a stoplight, does a policeman pull you down?” I asked. “When you get to work, he comes in and bothers you two or three times and asks you what are you doing, do you have a license? It happens to me every time I go out to the harbor. ”
Captain Newberry has grievances with people across the political spectrum: with the environmentalists pushing for more restrictions on the Aquarius; with the cities and companies responsible for faulty wastewater treatment systems and wastewater polluting the bay; and together with mr. Harris, the incumbent.
He told me that Mr. Harris refused to speak out against a nonsensical regulation that stipulates that catfish should be treated like meat under federal law. The rule, which favors catfish farmers in states like Mississippi at the expense of foreign fish farmers and Maryland fishermen, requires federal inspectors to be on site when catfish are hidden, even though there is little evidence of a public health risk.
The rule is so outrageous that the state liability office once asked for it to be revoked. Yet it remains in place. When the watermen complained to their congressman, Mr. Harris arranged for the government to pay for the inspectors. But inspectors still need to be called in when a fisherman brings in catfish for processing. (Mr Harris’s office said he was still working on it.)
Captain Newberry says he has become disillusioned with the political sausage behind government rules. But he is still working within the system to try to change them. He testifies before legislators and serves on committees, hoping it will make a difference.
However, the same frustrations led to some other watermen falling under the power of the “sovereign citizens” movement, which proclaimed that the federal and state governments had no right to require licenses for hunting, driving or possessing a gun. Some supporters believe that the local sheriff is the only legal authority under the Constitution. Convictions about the illegality of the federal government appear to be at the root of an armed struggle between federal authorities and livestock farmers in Nevada in 2014.
Maryland’s Eastern Shore has never seen anything like it, Somerset County Sheriff Ronald Howard told me. But he said he was under increasing pressure to resist state rules and allow aquarians to harvest oysters from shrines declared off limits. I refused. “I said, ‘Look, if I interfere, it’s a hindrance to my duties; I can be criminally charged, “he told me. “I had one Aquarius tell me, ‘This is a chance you have to take.’
Sheriff Howard does not blame the Aquarius; he blames the rigid rules made by politicians who rarely take the time to listen to rural people. That’s where Dave Harden sees an opening for himself, no matter how slim.
Democrats must find a way to reconnect with rural America, Mr. Harden told me. Frank talking about regulations is a good place to start.
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