Since the election of Donald Trump, I’ve read every post-mortem report I can find on rural voters in the 2016 election. Inevitably—almost without fail—every analysis misses the complexities and nuances that I saw on the ground in my town of Larchwood, Iowa—a town of 800 people in the rural northwest corner of the state. [...]
One year out from the 2020 election — as political pundits highlight the critical role small town and rural voters will play in President Donald Trump’s re-election strategy — Democrat Andy Beshear’s come-from-behind win in the Kentucky Governor’s race proves that smart, inclusive rural organizing must be included in every statewide red state campaign. [...]
Che Apalache is a bluegrass band that knows what rural America is all about. The band, featuring three powerhouse Latin American musicians (Franco Martino on guitar and Martin Bobrik on mandolin are from Argentina. Banjoist, Pau Barjau, is from Mexico.) and North Carolina native, Joe Troop, looks more like the true rural America than the simple cliches too often portrayed in the media. [...]
The new music video for the bluegrass song, “The Dreamer” features the story of Moisés Serrano, an openly undocumented and queer DACA recipient from North Carolina. [...]
Congress must promote mental health awareness in rural America and pass the "Seeding Rural Resilience Act," a bipartisan bill in the Senate recently introduced by Senators Jon Tester (D-Montana) and Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) to curb the rising rates of mental health issues and suicides in rural Ame [...]