Matt Hildreth and Jane Kleeb discuss how local rural organizing can impact local, state, and federal elections

On this Episode of Rural Talk, we sit down with Jane Kleeb of Hastings, Nebraska. Jane, like so many rural leaders, wears many different hats.

She is an experienced grassroots organizer, author, manager, political strategist, and nonprofit entrepreneur. She has been serving as the Chair of the Nebraska Democratic Party since December 2016. Under her leadership, elected Democrats in the state have grown from 500 in 2016 to over 900 in 2023. Jane serves on the Executive Committee of the Democratic National Committee and the Association of State Democratic Committees. 

She is the author of Harvest the Vote: How Democrats Can Win Again in Rural America, published in 2020. Jane is also the founder of Bold Alliance, a network of coalitions in rural states working to protect the land and water. 

Transcript

00:00:00:00 - 00:00:22:00
Unknown
I hear a lot of kind of doom and gloom and voters feeling frustrated that we're having another Biden Trump, you know, at the top of the ticket and like, look, I don't have power over that. You don't have power over that. The reality is that that primary system at the moment is kind of baked in for both President Biden and probably Donald Trump.

00:00:22:02 - 00:00:40:26
Unknown
But what we do have power over and where we can generate a ton of excitement and energy is at the local level for candidates that we know that we actually have shaken their hand, that we know their family, we know the issues that they care about. We know what they're fighting for on the school board or the county board or the local election commission.

00:00:40:28 - 00:01:00:09
Unknown
So that's where I'm really trying to redirect folks energy so we don't get into this doom and gloom about the top of the ticket, the top of the ticket is absolutely critical. There is no question a Donald Trump presidency would damage democracy for decades to come. And so I'm focused on making sure we're turning out for President Biden.

00:01:00:11 - 00:01:19:08
Unknown
But I think the energy and the heart and at the end of the day, voters do vote with their gut and hearts. They do not vote on a policy paper. So how do we connect more with people's hearts and their guts about the issues that really matter to them in their backyards?

00:01:19:10 - 00:01:41:26
Unknown
I met Hildreth and Welcome to Rural Talk, the podcast from Rural Organizing dot org that highlights inspiring stories about daily progress being made in small towns across the country. Each episode, we'll explore the issues and challenges facing rural America. Talk to community leaders and experts and share insightful stories as we celebrate the power of our people and the resilience of our communities.

00:01:42:03 - 00:02:12:18
Unknown
On this episode of Real Talk, we sit down with Jane Club of Hastings, Nebraska. Jane, like so many rural leaders, wears many different hats. She's an experienced grassroots organizer, an author, manager, political strategist and nonprofit fit entrepreneur. She has been serving as the chair of the Nebraska Democratic Party since December of 2016 under her leadership. Elected Democrats in the state have grown from 500 in 2016 to over 900 in 2023.

00:02:12:25 - 00:02:37:17
Unknown
She serves on the Executive Committee on the National Democratic Committee and the Association of State Democratic Committees. She is the author of Harvest the Vote How Democrats Can Win Again in Rural America, published in 2020. She's also the founder of Bold Alliance, a national network of coalitions in rural states working to protect land and water.

00:02:37:19 - 00:03:04:05
Unknown
Thanks for joining us. And then taking a few minutes to talk. You wear a lot of hats in both politics and advocacy. You are a leader of of an advocacy organization. You're the chair of the state party here in Nebraska. You're also an author and a strategist. Can you just talk a little bit about the hats that you wear?

00:03:04:06 - 00:03:20:18
Unknown
I think that's something that a lot of people in small towns and remote communities can relate to is that you you often have to play a bunch of different roles. And that's definitely true for you. Yeah, no question. And, you know, to all my fellow rural folks out there, we do wear a lot of hats. And, you know, obviously we're an act state, so farmers and ranchers wear a lot of hats.

00:03:20:19 - 00:03:40:21
Unknown
It's not just a traditional 9 to 5 job. And we like it that way. Yeah. So I you know, first, obviously, I'm a mom. I'm a mom of three kids married to a guy in the cattle business. And we live in a small town of Hastings. I am the chair of the Nebraska Democratic Party, and a lot of our red states, the chairs don't have the resources that kind of blue states do.

00:03:40:21 - 00:04:02:22
Unknown
So we're all volunteers. So that's my volunteer. You know, I'd say often that that's my hobby, but it's really a full time job that I just don't get paid for. Then I did start a group called Bold Nebraska in early 2010, really, to try to bridge the urban and rural divide, because I had worked on about getting Obamacare passed in our state from the national level.

00:04:02:24 - 00:04:42:18
Unknown
And I wanted to continue what I saw as actually there's not a lot of differences on the core issues that we care about in rural and urban. We just talk about them in ways because they are just different. Obviously, perspectives. So we started all that, but then our identity became Keystone XL because that became such a big issue in the middle of 2010 and that has dominated kind of my life really being engaged in how do we make sure that energy projects aren't being done to rural communities like coal and oil and fracked gas have for decades and almost a century, and with clean energy projects Now, that's something that Bold is getting into currently.

00:04:42:18 - 00:05:01:18
Unknown
So that's a whole space. And then I'm an author. I was tired of seeing the book that I wrote is called Harvest the Vote How Democrats Can Win Again in Rural Communities. I was tired of seeing books written about rural communities where it was either talking about how we are all drug addicted and how we're racist and how it's all like doom and gloom.

00:05:01:18 - 00:05:22:18
Unknown
Right? And I wrote Harvest the Vote to say no. Like, there's some amazing stuff happening. Immigration is yes, an issue all over our country, but a lot of our real communities are being breathed with new life because immigrants are moving in and calling our rural towns home and we're creating community with them side by side. So that's what Harvest the Vote is about.

00:05:22:20 - 00:05:45:26
Unknown
You know, it's a little bit about Keystone XL and how we won on that in rural communities and how we really utilized rural culture to win that fight. Yeah, and you know, what are we doing now? Yeah. And that's I think I think that's something that people forget all the time about is how many definitive progressive fights where rural oftentimes started in rural communities.

00:05:45:28 - 00:06:07:27
Unknown
And I think if civil rights I mean, there were so many freedom fighters during civil rights that were based in rural communities and and the fights were uniquely rural. I mean, the bus boycotts, I think, is a good example of like, okay, when a lot of people think bus, you know, busses, there's like in New York City or L.A. or something like that.

00:06:07:27 - 00:06:31:18
Unknown
But these are, you know, hub cities. You know? Exactly. And and a lot of the sit ins, a lot of that kind of stuff was coming out of the South. And a lot of the people that were leaving those were, you know, former sharecroppers. And I think that's something that we saw with Keystone that a lot of the pushback that people on the front lines were in small towns and rural communities.

00:06:31:20 - 00:06:59:24
Unknown
Immigration is another example where you have people over in Iowa that, you know, push back on Steve King and other folks there. So I think that's that's one of the things I appreciate, especially about your book. And a lot of that thought leadership is just recognizing things are happening, always have been happening in these communities. But oftentimes the media is just in New York or L.A. or maybe Chicago.

00:06:59:27 - 00:07:22:23
Unknown
That's right. And they're just not seeing it 100%. You know, and I quote Jesse Jackson in the book because I talk about how he when he was running for president, he would go to rural communities. He wouldn't just do a rally in a, quote unquote, rural or red state. He would go to small towns and really talk about how the eaters in the feeders need to unite if we're going to really talk about real economic justice and land justice across our country.

00:07:22:25 - 00:07:46:15
Unknown
And there's so much in rural communities, we hate big you know, we hate big corporations. A lot of folks in real communities don't like big government. They love their local government, but don't particularly love big government because we're often having to be self-starters and really figure out solutions on our own because there's not a lot of resources maybe at the hand at the ready for us.

00:07:46:17 - 00:08:09:13
Unknown
And so I think if people can start to rethink and keep a more open mind about rural communities, because I do think that rural communities have gotten a bad rap and yes, we have racism in rural communities, just like urban communities have racism. And, you know, we yes, there are a lot of Republicans who are living in rural communities, but that's also because Democrats have really abandoned our rural towns.

00:08:09:13 - 00:08:26:24
Unknown
And. Yeah, but we still exist in rural communities, right? I mean, all there are so many of our rural communities who have dams and sometimes we whisper at the grocery store, there's no question when I'm walking around Wal-Mart sometimes and I have a Democratic sweatshirt on, you know, people will come up to me and say, I'm a Democrat, too.

00:08:26:27 - 00:08:47:14
Unknown
And, you know, you're very brave for what you do. And I'm like, you know, it's yes, I get that. Sometimes people see outward facing Democrats and loud Democrats as being brave. But, yeah, you know, that's why I think yard signs are really important in rural communities. It's like us putting something in the ground saying there is more of us out there and that we don't have to be helpless.

00:08:47:14 - 00:09:06:12
Unknown
And, you know, I think for years I was hoping the Democratic Party or other big institutions would start to change. And I still hope they do and invest more money into red states and in rural communities, even rural communities in blue states. But I also think we've got to start to figure more of this out on our own and network more with each other, because we're the only ones that are going to solve this.

00:09:06:15 - 00:09:38:12
Unknown
Yeah. C.J. Peterson, who ran for legislator legislative seat over across the river in Iowa, has this great quote about being a rural progressive means half of the time defending rural people to progressives and the other half of the time defending your progressive ideas to rural people. And I think that that was a really great way of summing up the tension that I think a lot of folks in our network feel where, yeah, you're a progressive, but you're just oftentimes so frustrated with the Democratic Party.

00:09:38:12 - 00:10:01:23
Unknown
That's right. And the people on the you know, that the people that have all of these ideas about our communities and also you do see like you do see like any any any person in any community, of course, see, there's there's issues out there. Tree Crowder has this really great joke about people in L.A. now that he lives in LA asking him, you know, my gosh, you're from the South.

00:10:01:23 - 00:10:20:03
Unknown
That must be so racist. Tell me about all the racism in the South. And he's like, Why are you asking me? We have the LAPD, this idea that, you know, there's something wrong with us, but we're great. You know, there's something wrong with you and your people, but we're great. It's like, you know, if you look anywhere, you're going to find issues.

00:10:20:03 - 00:10:45:20
Unknown
And there's definitely disproportionate issues in our communities, but there's other disproportionate issues in urban areas. And I think because we as real people are I always, always feel like we're butterflies or moths, like pinned up on a board. Yeah. For, you know, social scientists and journalists to come and research. We're not we're not like zoo animals for you to come observe our way of life for a day and then write about it or write a book about it.

00:10:45:22 - 00:11:06:17
Unknown
You know, the other thing that just absolutely drives me crazy is when I have my progressive friends always come up to me, or when I'm at DNC meetings and I'm watching pollsters give presentations about rural people where they say that we're voting against our best interests. And, you know, rural people have a lot of interests. They have, yes, economic interests, but they do have cultural interests.

00:11:06:17 - 00:11:28:15
Unknown
And sometimes their culture interests will be a higher priority for them than what they what they or others perceive as their economic interests. Yeah, and I think we've forgotten that as kind of a larger Democratic and a larger progressive community is that some of these cultural issues are deep and personal and important to folks. Obviously, I am pro-choice.

00:11:28:15 - 00:11:50:07
Unknown
I grew up in a pro-life home, and I think it's important, especially on that issue, that we never demonize or tell people, you can't call yourself pro-life. It's like telling somebody you can't call them a Husker fan. You can't call themselves a Catholic. It's that important for somebody's identity. But there are a lot of pro-life voters, as we've seen this in in Ohio, that believe that women's reproductive rights need to be protected and legal.

00:11:50:08 - 00:12:24:19
Unknown
Yeah. So as rural folks, we know that. And I think we need to talk more about that and remind some of our urban friends, like please stop saying rural people are voting against our interests because you aren't part of the rural ecosystem. Start to learn what our interests are right and John Ray, who is a pollster that we use often you Gov Blue was on a previous episode and he really debunked this idea during that episode of whether or not somebody identifying as pro-life reflects how they vote.

00:12:24:21 - 00:12:48:22
Unknown
And for years, pollsters just asked, Are you pro-life or are you pro-choice? But everything changed. When it was a question about do you think abortion should be outlawed? Exactly. And I think that's one of the biggest things that pollsters missed over the last, you know, maybe couple of decades. But but it's something that I think we as rural people would feel in our day to day lives.

00:12:48:22 - 00:13:13:17
Unknown
And and I think that that's I think that that's changing. And I think the books, like the book you wrote, are and people who have a deep connection into rural communities but also a national perspective, I think is changing. And I hope COVID is actually changing that where you now it's now more acceptable to be out in a rural community and have a national job.

00:13:13:18 - 00:13:31:03
Unknown
Yeah, that's right. And I think also a lot of rich people that make good decisions about politics moved out to the rural area during COVID and then like, boy. And I've, you know, there's donors and all these other folks that like when I was, you know, living out in the sticks during COVID, I was just shocked about this or that.

00:13:31:03 - 00:14:03:24
Unknown
And it's like, Yeah, yeah, yeah, it's pretty great. Like Hastings, I'm very proud. We have two breweries. We have like three, you know, independent coffee shops, and there's all this beautiful stuff that's happening in our small town, a total revitalization of our main street, and that's being driven by 30, 40 and 50 year olds. Yeah. And so I think that, you know, Scott and I did not have a lot of money when we got married and we could never have afford a home in Lincoln or Omaha, but we could afford a home in our small town of Hastings and where we are still in that house.

00:14:03:24 - 00:14:20:05
Unknown
And that is the beautiful thing about rural towns, is it really does give families a sense of home, a sense of place where you can not only raise your kid, but you can still do your career. Right. Obviously, I am involved in national politics. I do that from little town of Hastings, home of Kool-Aid people. We invented Kool-Aid.

00:14:20:05 - 00:14:46:00
Unknown
So that's amazing. So, yeah, and like in my hometown in South Dakota town of when I was there, it was maybe 15,000. Now it's pushing 30. I think the local hospitals run by the local government. Yeah. And, you know, the amusement park, the little water park is run by the local government. And for a long time our cell phones were were run by.

00:14:46:02 - 00:15:11:24
Unknown
I think still, technically, I don't fully understand the public partner or public private partnership there, but like, people actually are way more comfortable looking out for each other and and and using the democratic process, democratic institutions to fix big problems. And without the city investments, there wouldn't have been a a hospital that is, you know, a really great little hospital.

00:15:11:26 - 00:15:45:19
Unknown
And I think people have just completely missed that. Yeah. That dynamic in the in the in the larger perspective. But as you have this local perspective, this national perspective, what advice do you have for local county chairs that are out there or local indivisible leaders or people that have started their own groups that really just feel like the national Democratic infrastructure has left them behind or doesn't even know that they exist, that the politics on the national level are just so complicated.

00:15:45:21 - 00:16:15:25
Unknown
And, you know, oftentimes if you live in a red state or in a red county, this feels, you know, pointless to get involved. Like, what can people do to just start small, start local and just start seeing some like start seeing that their work is having an impact? Yeah, I think it can be overwhelming if you are at the local and county level and you're looking at the daunting task of trying to elect somebody statewide in a red state or even elect like a congressional person.

00:16:15:25 - 00:16:36:18
Unknown
So I often encourage our county chairs to truly stay local. And as we know, like that's where all the major decisions are happening. If you care about clean energy and climate change, the people who actually are making decisions on that are your county board members, because they're the ones who are determining zoning. If a project is going to come in or not come into a rural town to develop economic activity and of course impact the climate crisis.

00:16:36:24 - 00:17:03:29
Unknown
So my suggestion to county folks is pick one or two local races and really dig in on those, you know, truly create a volunteer infrastructure where you are doing the door to door campaigning, you're doing the parades, you're doing the cultural events. You know, for us in Nebraska, sometimes that's rodeos. Obviously in other places it's different cultural touchpoints where you're talking to people not only at their homes, which is absolutely critical, but talking to people where they hang out and where they're most comfortable, where their guards are down.

00:17:04:01 - 00:17:25:23
Unknown
You know, when you are talking to people at a rodeo or at a music show, they're not as kind of defensive or guarded as they sometimes are at the doorstep. So my suggestion is choose one or two candidates that you can really create a whole program around and you don't have to have fancy literature. You literally can create a one pager at home in word, cut it in half.

00:17:25:29 - 00:17:47:13
Unknown
And you know, you have fliers that you can use door to door in. Often that means more to your neighbors when you're visiting with them, that it's not some glossy brochure that they think has been, you know, shipped in from D.C. or a big consulting firm, but that it's a bunch of citizens who really care about their neighborhood and their neighbors in their community, and they're trying to have a positive impact.

00:17:47:21 - 00:18:25:20
Unknown
And do you think that do you think that there is like like for me, I think that sometimes there's a perception that if you don't have the latest tools or you don't have the latest version of the voter file or you don't have the fancy texting thing that you really can't have an impact. But it seems to me that especially as people have gotten sick of robocalls and their phones are better at tracking than detecting them and tracking them, they're sick of the emails.

00:18:25:23 - 00:18:49:08
Unknown
They're sick of, you know, all of that kind of stuff. It does seem like there is a movement back to that relational like those relationship strategies and from my perspective, I don't think the D.C. folks were ever going to be good at that. Right? Yeah, that that's always going to come naturally, always going to come from the grass roots.

00:18:49:09 - 00:19:05:05
Unknown
So from the grass roots that are doing that. So sometimes I think people feel like, well, I don't have the right tools, I don't have any money. Yeah, we don't, you know, our county, when I was in county chair in northwest Iowa, I think we had like 800 bucks. Yeah. And we were proud of that 800 bucks. But it was like, you know, there's so much you can do picnics.

00:19:05:05 - 00:19:23:24
Unknown
You can, you know, you can make things fun again. Exactly. And I think that creativity and fun is what people want to do, Right. You know, in Nebraska, we created something called the BLOCK Captain program because precinct captains was just too overwhelming for a volunteer to be in charge of 2500 voters. So. BLOCK Captain, is 50 voters on your block that you can walk to?

00:19:23:26 - 00:19:38:21
Unknown
You know, And you you know, our our program means you talk to them three times in a row because that's kind of what the political science tells us we need to do in order to convince somebody to vote. But, you know, I remember back in the day, MoveOn even did bake sales, which rural communities just rocked it at the bake sales.

00:19:38:21 - 00:19:58:10
Unknown
They were like the top sellers, you know, for a move on nationwide. And I really do think we need to get back to those creative things, you know, doing bake sales to raise money for our candidates in our county party. So then we have money for canvas materials. You don't have to have the voter file. And I know my party political people will start yelling at me and I'm sure I'll get some nasty emails about it.

00:19:58:17 - 00:20:16:04
Unknown
But going door to door and visiting with our neighbors, especially in rural communities, is so important, right? You know, you never know if a college kid has moved back home or, you know, somebody that was in that home. And now a younger families there that may not have shown up on the voter file automatically. So going door to door, visiting with our neighbors.

00:20:16:04 - 00:20:35:03
Unknown
And I think it's okay for us to have conversations with Republicans and conservatives. And we don't have to convince everybody. Right. But I think it's more important that conservatives and Republicans know that we're not giving up. We're not giving up on our community. We're fighting back. We're standing up. We don't have to yell at them and get into this deep argument and become enemies.

00:20:35:03 - 00:20:51:03
Unknown
We can just say, look, like you and I agree on property rights. You know, we both agree that this project over here shouldn't be using eminent domain for private gain. We're never going to agree maybe on immigration and abortion. But let's work on this one thing together. Yeah, that's what I think happens in rural communities, because you have no choice.

00:20:51:09 - 00:21:10:24
Unknown
When I was on the school board, there were three Democrats, three Republicans and two independents. We all worked together because we were all focused on making sure that our kids and teachers were taking care. And I think just for the sake of our democracy, you those conversations are important. I mean, you know, these oftentimes people nowadays, the only time they even see a Democrat is on Fox News.

00:21:10:24 - 00:21:41:19
Unknown
I mean, they're not there's this perception that voters out there are hearing a rational argument from Republicans and a rational rebuttal rebuttal from Democrats. That's just not how it happens. It's a Republican. You know, talking point on Fox News mixed with a you know, manufactured, manufactured or a straw man Democrat on the Ledger moment. Yeah. And it's just I think it's I think people have even gotten to the point where they just don't even remember what it's like to actually have Democrats in your community and talk to Democrats.

00:21:41:26 - 00:22:02:13
Unknown
And those Democrats are there, but they're you know, they're in hiding. And I think that that's I think that that's really important. And I think that that's not something that you need to wait for instruction on. I mean, one of the first one of the most common things that we hear from local folks is that the voter file is worthless.

00:22:02:15 - 00:22:25:08
Unknown
And the reason why they say that is because somebody is giving them a walk sheet saying these are persuadable voters. Right. And then they take that and they go talk to the first hundred voters on the list. And there's not a single persuadable voter on that list. And I think that oftentimes those voter files are only as good as the last election or they're only as good as the last time they were used.

00:22:25:10 - 00:22:49:02
Unknown
And, you know, there's so many times that I was in Iowa knocking on a door and they would say, What are you doing here? You're a Democrat. And I would say, Well, you're listed as a Democrat. And they said, Well, I haven't voted for a Democrat since Kennedy, you know, and they just never changed their voter. So even from that's that standpoint of like just like you know, assessing where we're starting from and who's actually with us.

00:22:49:05 - 00:23:07:24
Unknown
I think it's important. Yeah. And, you know, I tell our block captains, it's actually one of the tasks that we give them is to we do an issue survey once a year. Yeah. Where we're going door to door and asking folks, you know, what are the issues that you deeply care about right now? And it really starts so you don't even have to ask them if they're a Republican or a Democrat.

00:23:07:24 - 00:23:29:22
Unknown
You can. What are the issues that you deeply care about? And at that point, if you as a county, a county party or a group of folks in a rural town have already decided one or two candidates that you're going to support, you could even inject right then. You know, you know, Matt really does care about making sure that our public schools remain public and that this voucher system that, you know, these big donors at the national level want to come in and to our rural communities and dismantle our public schools.

00:23:29:28 - 00:23:47:17
Unknown
Right. So he really cares about that. So those are the things that I think we don't you don't need the voter file. If you have the voter file. Oftentimes our canvassers in rural communities are the one putting in the best information back into the voter file to make it better. Right. So if you're state party, we give our voter file for free to our county parties and our candidates.

00:23:47:17 - 00:24:07:24
Unknown
We're not all state parties do. But, you know, if you are in a state where you actually have access to your state party voter file, yeah, use it. But don't let that be the barrier. Yeah, and don't let that stop you from knocking on every door. If you have the volunteer capacity to do it. Because I find a lot of good stuff happens when we're doing that.

00:24:07:27 - 00:24:29:15
Unknown
Absolutely. Well, we're headed towards an election year. So what are you watching as we get late? You know, we step into the 2024 election cycle. You know, I hear a lot of kind of doom and gloom and voters feeling frustrated that we're having another Biden Trump, you know, at the top of the ticket and like, look, I don't have power over that.

00:24:29:17 - 00:24:52:24
Unknown
You don't have power over that. The reality is that that primary system at the moment is kind of baked in for both President Biden and probably Donald Trump. But what we do have power over and where we can generate a ton of excitement and energy is at the local level for candidates that we know that we actually have shaken their hand, that we know their family, we know the issues that they care about.

00:24:52:24 - 00:25:13:15
Unknown
We know what they're fighting for on the school board or the county board or the local election commission. So that's where I'm really trying to redirect folks energy so we don't get into this doom and gloom about the top of the ticket. The top of the ticket is absolutely critical. There is no question a Donald Trump presidency would damage democracy for decades to come.

00:25:13:21 - 00:25:32:13
Unknown
And so I'm focused on making sure we're turning out for President Biden. But I think the energy and the heart and at the end of the day, voters do vote with their gut and hearts. They do not vote on a policy paper. So how do we connect more with people's hearts and their gut about the issues that really matter to them in their backyards?

00:25:32:13 - 00:25:51:05
Unknown
And I think it's going to be a turnout election. I mean, I think the local elections are going to be absolutely critical, but especially for those in you know, because a lot of people are now worker not in battleground states, but for those that are in battleground states, really, it's going to come down to just getting the people who voted in 2020 for Joe Biden.

00:25:51:05 - 00:26:08:14
Unknown
That's right. To vote for him again, because that was in the end historic turnout year. I'm not sure that we're going to hit that again. I think I think energy is going to be down. Yeah. And I think that's encouraging for me to know that you don't really have to go out there and persuade anybody to vote for Joe Biden for the first time.

00:26:08:14 - 00:26:42:03
Unknown
That's right. We just need the people that showed up in 2020 to come back, do it again, like let's like save America one more time and also start planning for the future, which is, I think, something that people are getting really excited. Yeah, most voters do know the difference between Donald Trump and President Biden. Now, I will say that younger voters and this may come as a shock to people, but my college kid was saying that her and her friends were talking about things, and a lot of the younger voters in her circle are blaming President Biden for Roe v Wade being overturned because it happened under his, quote unquote, Watch.

00:26:42:05 - 00:26:58:08
Unknown
I do think it's important, as we're talking to voters, that we make it clear that we didn't get and Jon Tester actually does a really good job on this on social media. And when he's talking, you know, we didn't get the college student loan program, We got some of it, but we didn't get all of it. Not because Democrats didn't try, but because Republicans blocked it.

00:26:58:12 - 00:27:18:10
Unknown
You know, Roe v Wade got overturned not because Democrats didn't constantly push for women's reproductive rights, but because the Trump appointed Supreme Court did that. So I do think those type of things are super important to remind voters, especially younger voters who are just now coming into the election cycle. Yeah, I think there's a perception that the president gets to do whatever they want and we sometimes we wish, right?

00:27:18:11 - 00:27:59:27
Unknown
At least when our guys weren't well. Yeah, Yeah, exactly. So I think that's I think that's something we have to really remember and we have to take that frustration seriously and we have to address it. And I think personally, for me, if you know, if I'm a local Democratic leader or local activist, I would be much more interested in spending my time going after those people who voted in 2020 for Joe Biden but are a little bit frustrated, are on the, you know, feeling a little bit like they're on the edge of the party and bringing them in, then, you know, getting yelled at at the doors by, you know, 100 people who haven't voted

00:27:59:27 - 00:28:17:22
Unknown
for a Democrat since since Kennedy. Yeah. And if you don't have access to your voter file, one little thing that I will say, and maybe most folks know this, but as your county party, you're legally allowed to go to your local county election commission then and get the voters that voted with their contact information. You don't know who they voted for.

00:28:17:25 - 00:28:36:09
Unknown
You know, they know their party affiliation. If you're in a state that has party affiliation and that's free. So as a county party, you can go in and get that and you could then start writing postcards. If you don't have enough volunteers to do door to door. Doing postcards is really important and people love getting postcards in the mail, especially younger voters and older voters.

00:28:36:09 - 00:28:54:03
Unknown
It's not, you, you know, just one or the other. So there are certainly things my most, you know, best advice is to be creative. Choose a couple of things. Don't burn out. Your volunteers. You know, it's not something you have to do every weekend, but maybe it's something all do once a month, maybe one month. It's a bake sale, maybe one month.

00:28:54:03 - 00:29:15:26
Unknown
It's a chili cook off that y'all are going to have. The candidates are coming, too. So be creative and start to inject what we do best in rural communities, which is community. Yeah, and a lot of heart in what we do. Absolutely. One of the coolest stories that we heard from this yard sign campaign that we did in Ohio was about a community in western Ohio, which is very rural.

00:29:15:26 - 00:29:39:12
Unknown
It looks a lot more like Iowa then than the Appalachian part of the state has been completely ignored by Democrats forever. And they were planning to distribute yard signs and they were expecting five people to show up and they had over 40 and now they have 40 people going into the 2024 Senate race there with Sherrod Brown. And I think that's also something that people should remember as they're planning these things.

00:29:39:12 - 00:30:09:03
Unknown
It's like, you know what, maybe this one postcard isn't going to make or break this election, but think about where you're going to be in five years. Like, think about getting started now, doing something, bringing people together, having fun, and creating a local culture, a local community around getting engaged in democracy. And I think that's the first step for a lot of people in these civic deserts or places Democrats have completely ignored.

00:30:09:06 - 00:30:24:08
Unknown
And I think that's going to be key, not just this election, but I think where we're at 20 years from now. That's right. And it took 20 years for Democrats to dig themselves out of this hole. So unfortunately, it's going to take a few cycles to get out of it. But thanks so much for sitting down and talking with us.

00:30:24:09 - 00:30:54:13
Unknown
Can you tell folks where they can find more information about you? Yeah, So you can go to, I guess, you know, bold alliance dot org is one place you can go. That's where all the bold work that we do both on stopping pipelines but also building clean energy and Nebraska Democrats dot org. You can also find me there and harvest the vote book dotcom and you know I'll just say to close you me and Anderson Clayton down in North Carolina, all of us are those rural leaders and everybody that's listening where the people that are skating to where the puck is going to be, not where the puck is.

00:30:54:16 - 00:31:18:18
Unknown
And I think let's just keep that in mind as we're heading into 24th. Absolutely. Well, thanks so much for joining us tonight. You've been listening to Rural Talk, a podcast from Rural Organizing dot org. If you'd like to hear more stories about resilience and progress in small towns and rural communities across the country, visit Rural Talk talk for everybody here at Rural Organizing dot org.

00:31:18:18 - 00:31:22:04
Unknown
Thanks for tuning in on Matt Hildreth.