Retiring Democratic Rep. Jim Cooper, who has represented Tennessee’s fifth congressional district since 2003, said in an interview this week that his party is “facing extinction” in his state.
Cooper made the remarks in an interview with Nashville Scene published on Tuesday. Cooper, who served in Congress for a total of 32 years, previously represented Tennessee’s fourth congressional district from 1938 to 1995. As I covered last month, Cooper announced he would not seek reelection this year following a redistricting process that he claimed “dismember[ed]” Nashville, the state’s capital.
“We’ve [Nashville] been crippled politically,” Cooper told the Nashville Scene. “I was alert to the danger. I tried to warn everyone I could. Very few people wanted to listen, and now the worst has happened. I feel terrible for the city, and I hope I’m wrong.”
“The Democratic Party in Tennessee is basically facing extinction,” he added. “We’ve been on a long downhill slide for a long time.”
Cooper continued, explaining that Democrats are not alert and are ill-prepared to future dangers to their party.
“Our party needs to improve its management capabilities,” he stated. “We do not anticipate and organize and plan.”
Specifically, Cooper noted that Democrats focused in the state’s capital do not have a strategy to reach and “change the minds” of rural voters who found former President Trump unappealing.
“People in Nashville don’t realize how many kindred spirits there are in these rural counties who feel trapped by the Republican representation. We saw last election a 10-point swing against Trump because the more educated folks in rural counties do not find Trump appealing. What steps have we taken to capitalize on that? What outreach do we have to Republicans and independents? Most of the rhetoric you hear is, ‘Let’s double down, let’s force it down their throats.’ That’s not the way to win votes. You have to have mutual respect and trust. First, that takes familiarity,” Cooper said in the interview.
When the Scene pressed if he thought he had a shot at winning an election in Tennessee’s newly-formed 5th congressional district, Cooper said he chose “the only sensible” option – to not seek reelection.
“I considered all the options, and I chose the only sensible one. It’s much easier for someone without a 32-year voting record and someone who’s not so tied to Nashville in the public’s eyes,” Cooper said. “You have, what, five or six rural counties out there. And someone who’s not the brother of the mayor of Nashville. That offers a clean slate, a new look, a very exciting new possibility.”
At the time of his retirement announcement, The Washington Post noted that Cooper was the 29th House Democrat to announce they will not seek reelection this year. The 2022 midterms are predicted to be a bloodbath for Democrats.