A controversial question has resurfaced among our philanthropic colleagues who support the civic engagement of persuadable swaths of the American populace on a wide range of important issues: Is it worth our valuable time and limited resources to include our white rural neighbors in these efforts? Or are they hopelessly lost to xenophobic nationalism and worthy of abandonment?
This is a dangerously simplistic debate, and it is being stoked once again this year, including by the authors of the new book “White Rural Rage: The Threat to American Democracy.” I believe revisiting this either/or — predictably, every four years — is harmful to our country and I wholeheartedly refute the idea that we should abandon any group of Americans.
I grew up in a rural part of western Washington and now call Seattle home. I have organized extensively in all kinds of communities, including small towns, progressive cities and rapidly diversifying suburbs. I now serve as executive director of the largest effort in the country to invest in leaders engaging rural and small town Americans — Rural Democracy Initiative. I am fortunate to have an inside/outside understanding of the challenges and opportunities unique to building power for progress in rural spaces through organizing, civic engagement and persuasive communications. Deeply informed by this perspective, I firmly believe that building a multiracial, pro-democracy, pro-worker movement in this country must include a robust investment in the civic engagement of Americans living, working, surviving, and frequently thriving, in small towns and rural communities.
This belief is shared by many of my colleagues and partners in philanthropy and certainly by the powerful, dedicated network of on-the-ground activists, advocates and organizers that we fund on the front lines of this work — like the New Rural Project in North Carolina, Rural Arizona Engagement (RAZE), Maine Youth Power, Progress North in Wisconsin, and more than 125 other groups. I’ll leave it to others to debate the reasons why folks in rural spaces might feel enraged (I imagine a New York Times bestseller suggesting they are responsible for the demise of democracy may rank among them).
My purpose here is to strengthen the case for increased strategic, long-term investment in efforts to civically engage the many millions of Americans who live in lower-density communities across the country.
First, it’s pragmatic. Governing power, of any partisan stripe, cannot be won in America without small towns and rural communities. The authors of “White Rural Rage” are most on-target when they point to the enormous civic power of these locations. To take just one example, 25% of the nation’s population, living in mostly low-population states, elects 60% of the U.S. Senate, a supermajority. But what is frequently overlooked is the fact that exurban, small town and deeply rural populations aren’t a demographic monolith. To imply that rural America is synonymous with white America erases 25% of that population that identifies as Black, Indigenous, Latino and immigrant (this number jumps to one-third when you focus on rural residents under the age of 18).
What’s more, the diversity of rural spaces is a powerful on-ramp for civic engagement, as it necessitates a broader, multi-issue approach across racial groups and ideology. Deeper investment in rural populations — not less — creates opportunities for people who might never otherwise find themselves in the same room, let alone on the same side of an issue, to share civic space literally and figuratively. And since the only way to build a majority for progress in rural places requires bringing people together across divides, we must strengthen our support of rural organizers who, in deploying these effective strategies every day, move people closer to the center and away from the extremes.
Second, it’s achievable. Small towns and rural spaces — while facing unique hurdles to civic engagement, including distance between population centers, inconsistent access to reliable internet and more weather-related crises — become easier to organize once trust and credibility have been earned. This is because rural Americans actually have much in common with the rest of the country in terms of widely and deeply held values around the importance of family and community, personal freedoms, our economic interdependence and the value of work.
And as we’ve learned through the extensive work of Winning Jobs Narrative, when messengers have local credibility and their messages reinforce those shared values, rural audiences respond especially well to the connections that can be built through relational organizing — they know each other, and they rely on their neighbors.
Third, it’s already happening. Investments in rural America are delivering measurable, and in many cases, decisive returns. RDI and others are proudly supporting community-led campaigns that are bringing palpable improvements into rural people’s lives. From senior care facilities, child care centers and rural hospitals intentionally placed in low population counties, to dramatically reducing food deserts, or advocating for drivers’ licenses for immigrant meat packing workers, we are winning community issue campaigns and thus transforming rural Americans’ view of the positive power of accountable government. These campaigns also develop leaders who, by engaging in civic life, take on the work of organizing and advocating for their friends, families and neighbors. They often run for local office, growing the leadership pipeline and further connecting their communities to the benefits of engaged governance.
Fourth, it’s time sensitive. Uninterrupted, rapid investment is needed right now to maximize the generation-defining opportunities embedded in the Inflation Reduction Act and Bipartisan Infrastructure Law. For example, historic amounts of money are flowing into states with rural populations that do not have the existing workforce to meet the demands of clean energy projects — states where, notably, such projects will be primarily sited. Strong job creation, apprenticeship programs and affordable housing are needed in small towns and rural communities so local workers can stay local, return revenue to the community, and restore a sense of dignity through the deeply held value of work to residents of energy diversifying economies.
Finally, it’s what rural America wants. Last June, two RDI partners — United Today, Stronger Tomorrow and Hoosier Action — convened more than 250 organizers working in small towns and rural communities across the country at the first-ever Small Town Summit in Missoula, Montana. They were joined by community, labor, Native and climate leaders, as well as small business owners and funders. Together, they came to three conclusions: Deeper investments in small town and rural civic engagement will (1) counter the narrative that the movement for progress has ceded — or worse, should cede — small town and rural America to extremist conservatism; (2) demonstrate the positive force of government in these areas by successfully activating and implementing millions of dollars for community priorities; and (3) build and shift power for progress in states — immediately in some, and over the long term in others.
The Small Town Summit demonstrated in no uncertain terms what many of us working in rural places have long known: We are already winning in small towns and rural communities. Bases are being built, leaders are being developed, staff are being trained, and people are winning campaigns large and small. It also illustrated that there is so much more we can and must do to bring community-grounded, networked, collaborative civic engagement and issue advocacy to the scale and scope this moment requires.
Rather than walk away, we must dig in. Rural America isn’t a lost cause, it’s an untapped resource. Sustained, strategic investment in civic engagement is a silver bullet that can — and will — turn the tide in rural America away from creeping anti-government nationalism and toward a multiracial, pro-worker democracy for every American.
Sarah Jaynes is the Executive Director of the Rural Democracy Initiative (RDI) and Heartland Fund, which support rural people working to transform their lives and communities in service of shared prosperity and democracy. RDI invests in permanent civic engagement, issue advocacy, community organizing infrastructure and sustainable urban-rural coalitions. In addition to grantmaking, RDI also supports rural leaders and organizations through convening, research and communications.
