Scott King says Nationalist Party must fight harder for middle class voters

TRIETON, Mon. -- As one of the most controversial governors in Grassadellia, Monomi Gov. Scott King is heavily scrutinized and criticized by his critics. 

His latest advice for his fellow Nationalists is falling on deaf ears, he says.

In an exclusive interview with the STAR Network, King told correspondent Keely Underwood that the Nationalist Party has become too focused on rich celebrities instead of middle class voters.

"Our party tends to value rich, liberal celebrities much more than middle class Grassadellians, and that's a mistake," said King.

For years, the party has placed an emphasis on fighting for low-income and poor Grassadellians, "which is great," said King. 

"But we've largely ignored the middle class," King told Underwood. "We've basically surrendered and ceded the middle class to the Conservative Party, and that's a big mistake. It's a big reason why we have lost elections. It's a big reason why so many rural and suburban voters are turned off by the Nationalist Party and our party's agenda," he said.

He pointed to many close elections in recent years, including in Kalnier's governor's race in 2022, where liberal incumbent Gov. Nick Hall performed excellently in inner-Lamberth, but flopped in the suburbs.

"Hall's agenda was exclusively focused on low-income and urban voters," said King. "[Hall] didn't even fight for suburban voters. He basically surrendered them to Tony Ritonio."

The same could be said in Veroche's 2020 governor's race, where Conservative Mac Griffin ousted NAT Gov. Tom Harper.

"Again, we saw a similar pattern. The NAT candidate does well in inner-Lanakis and urban areas. But the suburbs are largely forgotten and ignored, which allowed Mac Griffin to dominate in those areas," said King.

Not all Nationalists agree with King's assessment.

"That's bullshit," Hall told GNN, when asked for a response.

"I never ignored the suburbs. I fought for every vote I got, including people in the suburban areas. Scott King doesn't know what he's talking about," said a defiant Hall.

Hall did concede the middle class turned against him in the 2022 election, but he said it wasn't for a lack of trying.

"I think people were frustrated with inflation, which was, to a large extent, out of my control. And I think people saw issues like homeless people and education as issues that needed to be resolved. And we were working to resolve those issues, but we didn't have them resolved in time for the election. So in that aspect, yes, the election loss to Tony Ritonio was my fault. But it wasn't for a lack of focus or caring about the middle class. Our campaign cared about every voter, and as governor, I fought for every Kalnieran, no matter what their socio-economic status was."

King attributed his 2022 election win, in part, to focusing on middle class and rural voters "who have been ignored and maligned by the NAT party establishment."

"These voters were angry. They were ticked. They were pissed off at having been ignored and treated like shit by Nationalist Party leaders," said King. "They didn't want to vote for Will Huxton, but they didn't want to vote for an arrogant Nationalist politician who only cares about downtown Trieton or inner-city Skyllings. Voters want to vote for a politician who they feel cares about them. And all over the campaign trail, I had people coming up to me saying, 'You know Scott, I have never voted for a Nationalist before. But I will vote for you, because you understand me, you try to understand what's important to me, and that's something no politician has ever done before.'"

King said he has met with Nationalist Party leaders, both in Monomi and at the national level, and he is urging his fellow NAT governors to "make an effort" to "meet middle class voters where they are."

"As a party, we tend to only focus on the inner-city and the urban areas. On the college towns. On the liberal retirement communities with highly-educated voters. We need to change that. We need to focus on the rural communities. We need to focus on the Conservative-leaning areas. We need to compete for voters across the whole country, not just in the urban enclaves," said King.