These Progressive Groups are Organizing in Rural America
Contrary to popular belief, progressive rural voters not only exist, they’ve also been sounding the alarm for years that Democrats need to start investing in rural outreach. Here are some of the groups working to organize rural progressives and win over rural voters.
Rural Organizing is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization that describes itself as “boldly progressive and proudly rural.” Its stated goal is to empower rural progressives to develop and implement the necessary policies to help rebuild small towns and rural communities across the country.
Rural Organizing offers a number of resources on reaching, organizing and mobilizing rural voters. Among these resources is a toolkit called “Progressive Strategies for Rural Engagement.” In it, Rural Organizing argues that it isn’t policy disagreements that have driven a wedge between Democrats and rural America; it’s stereotypes that pertain to both sides.
“Over the last two decades, many progressives became convinced that most rural people opposed their agenda of justice, equality and solidarity, while many rural people became convinced that progressives are coastal elitists who care only for urban flourishing and want to fundamentally change their rural way of life,” the report says.
Rural Organizing offers the following recommendations for progressive organizers: Address the distrust and stereotypes that are hindering engagement between rural voters and politicians; build local power and leadership; develop progressive policy visions that are rooted in rural prosperity.
Rural Organizing is present in all 50 states and has more than 150,000 online advocates working in conjunction. It also has a super PAC called Rural Vote.
People’s Action is a 501(c)(4) nonprofit organization that advocates for democracy and economic fairness. Although it does not focus solely on rural America—it describes itself as working for “family farms to big cities, from coast to coast”—it does have dedicated strategies exclusively for rural and small-town organizing.
In 2019, it published a report titled “How To Build A Progressive Populist Political Movement in Rural and Small-town America.” In it, People’s Action describes a path toward what it calls a new “great majority” of “multiracial, working class communities across rural, small-town, suburban and urban areas.”
People’s Action and its allies have also launched extensive organizing efforts in rural and small-town communities. According to the 2019 report, member organizations and allies knocked on almost 400,000 doors and had more than 115,000 conversations with rural voters.
Much like Rural Organizing, People’s Action found that Democrats must make significant investments in order to “rebuild trust in rural communities.”
“The lack of investment in progressive communications infrastructure and the inability to communicate around shared values has led to a vacuum that has been occupied by extremist forces that do not represent the interests of rural communities,” explains the report.
Additionally, People’s Action President George Goehl has written about why Democrats need to win over rural voters and what they can do to accomplish this.
Rural Organizing Project (ROP) is a nonprofit organization that works to build a “multi-issue, rural-centered grassroots based in Oregon.” ROP is made up of volunteer-run member groups that operate autonomously throughout the state.
ROP works to build rural leaders through its Rural Organizing Fellowship and its Community Organizing Center. Additionally, ROP also has a monthly podcast and radio show called Rural Roots Rising, in which rural organizers share stories about how and why they organize.
In 2020, ROP launched its Defend Democracy campaign, which “issued a toolkit, set up a hotline and ran public service announcements and radio ads out of concerns about voter intimidation and disinformation and how they might affect folks’ ability to vote freely, openly and easily.” During the recent election, progressive Oregonians were able to identify and stop several instances of voter intimidation thanks to the Defend Democracy campaign.
The Rural Democracy Initiative (RDI) is a nonprofit organization that works to connect rural groups and leaders with funders so that they may build civic and political infrastructure in small towns and rural areas.
Additionally, through its 501(c)(3) arm—Heartland Fund—and its 501(c)(4) arm—Rural Victory—RDI also provides grants to rural groups. Its goal for this year was to raise $10 million by July 2020 and distribute the money through grants to various state and local groups with the goal of swinging rural votes during the general election.
RDI argues that a strong coalition between rural and urban voters is key in advancing progressive interests, especially given the disproportionate amount of political influence rural counties wield in elections.
“But in recent decades, progressive leadership and funding infrastructure has largely withdrawn from non-metro areas,” writes RDI. “At the same time, regressive interests have invested heavily in rural voters. They’ve built massive organizing, policy and communications machines to spread misinformation and ignite fears among rural electorates, promoting their own political agendas to deepen urban-rural divides.”
RDI seeks to combat this by building capacity in four areas and connecting national funding with “growing local and state-level funder networks to support rural civic infrastructure.”
These four areas are organizing, communications, coordination and civic technology.
Rural Coalition describes itself as “an alliance of farmers, farm workers, indigenous, migrant and working people from the United States, Mexico, Canada and beyond, working together toward a new society that values unity, hope, people and the land.”
It is made up of about 50 member organizations, including the Alianza Nacional de Campesinas (“National Alliance of Female Farmworkers”), Black Farmers and Agriculturalists Association, Friends of the Earth, and Family Farm Defenders.
Rural Coalition’s work includes “public policy monitoring, technical assistance, capacity-building, participatory collaborative research, and education.” Some of its recent efforts include advocating for COVID-19 relief for farmworkers, ranchers and rural communities, as well as legislation to protect immigrant families and supporting D.C. statehood.
***
These are only a handful of organizations that are working to organize rural progressives, but they offer an entry point for Democrats and progressives looking to make inroads with rural Americans.
As several groups have argued, rural voters tend to support progressive populist policies, but Democrats’ lack of outreach and hostility toward outsiders has hindered relationships between rural and urban voters. Democrats who are looking to gain ground in rural America can—and should—take advantage of the resources and guides these groups offer to build strategies for winning over rural voters.