There’s no doubt about it. 2024 was a challenging year for politics.
From authoritarian threats to attacks on reproductive rights and Democracy itself, rural communities faced one hit after another.
But through it all, we proved one thing: we are resilient. And when we organize together, we can make a real difference.
At RuralOrganizing.org, this year was about defending choice, freedom, and Democracy, and the 2024 election cycle marked a turning point in rural political engagement.
In partnership with RuralVote.org Super Pac, our campaign went beyond traditional campaign tactics, mobilizing thousands of volunteers and placing nearly 100,000 yard signs in small battleground towns during the 2023 – 2024 cycle.
Based on reports and surveys from the field, our campaign facilitated nearly half a million conversations between neighbors, friends, and families about the issues and values that matter most in small towns and rural communities across Ohio, Pennsylvania, Michigan, Wisconsin, and Montana.
While many of our candidates faced unbeatable headwinds during the 2023-2024 cycle, our efforts in 2024 recruited thousands of new “Vocal Locals” in hundreds of battleground towns who were critical in protecting abortion rights at the ballot box.
As we move into 2025, we’re doubling our commitment to organizing in rural and small-town America. We know the road ahead will be difficult, but we also know that we are stronger now than at any point in our 13-year history.
But before we turn the page on 2024, here’s a closer look at what we accomplished over the last several months.
With our paid canvass team, we mobilized thousands of small-town and rural Ohio voters to support democratic values and Democratic candidates.
We have been organizing in small towns and rural communities across Ohio since 2016. However, in 2024, our team in Ohio took our campaign to a whole new level.
Dozens of our paid canvassers knocked on 96,632 rural and small-town Ohio doors in just 78 days. By anchoring our work in Athens, Franklin, Hamilton, and Jefferson counties, we amplified the voices of rural and small-town voters in key districts like OH-1, OH-9, and OH-13.
Building on our success in Ohio, we helped secure a historic win for abortion rights in Montana.
In the fall of 2023, we mobilized over a thousand local volunteers across Ohio to successfully pass the abortion rights ballot initiative.
This year, we leveraged the lessons learned from our work in Ohio for the Abortion Rights ballot initiative in Montana.
Our work on the Montana ballot initiative met rural voters where they were, listening to their concerns and fostering dialogue. Once again, voters in Montana—just like voters in Ohio—made history by codifying abortion access into state law through a statewide ballot initiative.
Our network provided valuable support in this landmark achievement, demonstrating the transformative power of organizing in rural communities. We recruited 1,171 volunteers in 94 small towns and communities across 39 of Montana’s 56 counties who used yard signs and personal connections to turn out rural and small-town voters for the “Yes on 128” campaign.
The yard sign strategy proved incredibly impactful in key counties such as Yellowstone, Lewis and Clark, Missoula, and Park, where visible support helped drive significant voter engagement.
We mobilized thousands of vocal locals to support Sen. Jon Tester and Sen. Sherrod Brown.
Most of our partisan power building for the 2024 election focused on mobilizing rural voters to support Democratic candidates and democratic values in Ohio and Montana.
These efforts significantly enhanced Democratic visibility in traditionally conservative areas, encouraging dialogue around critical issues. In these two states alone, we recruited 2,055 Vocal Locals who placed 48,796 signs across 515 communities—covering 39 of 56 counties in Montana and 87 of 88 counties in Ohio.
These volunteers formed a collaborative network through community calls and shared strategy sessions, cultivating new leaders and strengthening rural Democratic infrastructure for future campaigns. 85% of our “vocal locals” had no prior connection to organizing efforts. Many of these volunteers were sporadic voters, with 30% skipping the 2022 General Election and 25% skipping in 2018.
In the five counties with the highest sign placements, Sen. Tester outperformed Harris by 5.81% in Montana. Sen. Brown exceeded Harris by 4.20% in Ohio.
We dramatically expanded our footprint in Blue Wall battleground states to support Vice President Harris and Governor Tim Walz.
In addition to our extensive power building in Ohio and Montana, our Vocal Local campaigns in Michigan, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin empowered Democratic voters to engage their friends, family, and neighbors about voting for Vice President Harris and Governor Walz.
Across these states, we strategically distributed 29,901 signs to maximize impact. In Wisconsin, signs were placed in 56 of 72 counties, while in Michigan, vocal locals in our network distributed signs across 76 of 83 counties. In Pennsylvania, volunteers in our network deployed in 51 of 67 counties.
This robust visibility campaign demonstrated our commitment to reaching voters in often-overlooked areas. It fostered conversations and a sense of solidarity in communities historically neglected by the top of the ticket.
We will continue building power in small cities, towns, and rural communities to support our democratic values.
This year was full of challenges but highlighted the power and potential of rural organizing. This year, we conducted a comprehensive survey of 854 RuralOrganizing.org members across nearly every state.
The results painted a stark picture of what rural and small-town communities face in today’s political climate.
Over 60% of respondents reported witnessing authoritarian warning signs, with more than 25% experiencing political violence or threats. These challenges were slightly more prevalent in rural areas, underscoring the unique vulnerabilities small towns face.
In 2025, we expect attacks on our Democracy only to worsen, and we know our work is more important now than ever. That’s why we are launching a comprehensive program to recruit, mentor, and empower a cohort of young rural leaders with the skills they need to lead our most important rural civic institutions for the next generation.
The authoritarian drift in our politics isn’t unique to small towns and rural communities, but heavily gerrymandered congressional districts and the rural skew in the Senate mean this shift in rural America can have an outsized impact on our Democracy.
None of this work is possible without your support. While we have undoubtedly had setbacks this year, we know that we are growing stronger and more resilient every day.
The power we have built in small towns and rural communities over the last decade is needed now more thanevert in our organization’s history.
