Until Sen. Bernie Sanders began holding rallies in Republican-held districts to address DOGE’s destructive impact on federal workers and programs,
most progressives had not dared to dream of rural America as fertile ground for a backlash.
But it’s central to the concept of the "Rural Urban Bridge Initiative" ( #RUBI ),
a group determined to breathe new life into rural organizing strategies.
Conceived in early 2020 by
#Anthony #Flaccavento, a small farmer, former Democratic congressional candidate,
and community organizer in southern Virginia, and
#Erica #Etelson,
a political writer and former public-interest attorney based in California,
-- RUBI is kindling a new way to approach -- and ultimately advance -- rural concerns within the progressive movement.
Through training sessions,
reports from local experts,
policy development,
and traditional volunteer work,
RUBI hopes to #depolarize rural politics and persuade other activist groups to #engage in good faith with the needs, fears, and aspirations of rural communities.
RUBI’s most prominent effort to date is its campaign to convince the "Democratic National Committee" and the broader fundraising network on the left
👉to devote substantially more resources to rural causes.
Since #Ken #Martin, chair of the "Minnesota Democratic-Farmer-Labor Party",
was elected in February to head the DNC,
RUBI has lobbied him to allocate $400 million
—10 percent of the Democratic ad buy for the 2024 general election
—toward rural districts and candidates.
Although RUBI has yet to secure Martin’s commitment,
co-signatories to the public letter include Rep. #Ro #Khanna (D-CA),
author and sociologist #Arlie #Hochschild,
veteran Texas populist #Jim #Hightower,
two state party chairs
and dozens of county committees,
and scores of other individuals and organizations
alarmed by Democratic decline in rural areas.
✅ Rural strategists hope to change the narrative and trajectory of American politics by transforming the everyday ways progressives think of and relate to left-behind Americans.
Regardless of the DNC’s final decision,
the campaign testifies to the perseverance of rural progressive populism.
It reflects, too, a growing recognition on the part of local groups committed to the welfare of rural workers
-- that they are not isolated in their anger over how national Democrats have burned through billions of dollars in the last several election cycles without improving their position in a single “purple” state.
🆘During Barack Obama’s presidency, Democrats lost well over a thousand congressional, statewide, and local down-ballot offices.
Tentative gains in critical presidential swing states since 2018 have been largely offset by Trump’s comeback;
-- He won all seven in November.
Other states where Democrats used to be competitive across the board,
such as Florida and Ohio,
are poised to go the way of Missouri, Indiana, and Arkansas.
A recent study from the "Carsey School of Public Policy" at the University of New Hampshire suggests that
💯a shift among rural voters to Kamala Harris of just 3 percent could have led her to victory over Donald Trump.
👍If even just a few dozen rural Democrats from the South and Midwest won back offices controlled by the GOP,
there could be a tectonic shift in how the party competes at the gubernatorial, congressional, and presidential levels.
As RUBI’s founders know well,
it is a herculean task just to get the party elite to admit the main facts
—that austerity, trade shocks, and monopoly power have distressed rural America
—much less own their own culpability in these issues.
But although it is tempting to place all the blame on party elites, the same, unfortunately, can often be said of the major progressive groups that have cropped up since the Bush years,
Flaccavento argues.
The overriding focus,
he says, on
“call[ing] out how horrible the Republicans are 24/7”
has left little energy to discuss what matters to rural folks:
👉“jobs, employment, the economy, livelihoods, manufacturing, trade policy, [and] antitrust.”
🔥This, then, is how rural strategists hope to change the narrative and trajectory of American politics:
not through conferences, white papers, and viral media,
⭐️but by transforming the everyday ways progressives think of and relate to left-behind Americans.
https://prospect.org/2025/03/21/2025-03-21-sowing-rural-insurgency-democrats/
