The Rural Whisperer

Red state "empty seat" townhalls and rallies

I’ve been busy.

I have been on the road all week and weekend and it isn’t over yet.

I was in Iola, Kansas on Thursday night and Waldo, Missouri on Saturday. I was in St Joe, Missouri yesterday and I will be on a plane to Phoenix on Saturday.

I won’t even tell you what the next week is like.

I feel guilty. I am gone so much, but I can’t stop. The reason I feel guilty is because I’m missing my kids and grandkids. The reason I can’t stop is because of my kids and grandkids.

You see the conundrum.

I can spend more time with my family or I can spend more time speaking out to keep my family safe.

Mom guilt is bad. Mimi guilt is unbearable.

People streaming into a Democratic event in Iola, Kansas. 3/20/25

I was asked to speak in a small town in Kansas a few months ago. After some scheduling difficulties, we decided on a date. Mike, the organizer, told me the local Democratic meetings usually have 20-30 people. He thought they might get around 50 for the event he invited me to…there were about 150 who showed up.

One group of friends had driven two hours to come to the meeting. Another couple had driven four hours from Oklahoma to come to the event.

That’s one thing to know about Midwesterners…we aren’t scared to drive long distances and we often do it to be with others who are like-minded. To hear from other progressives. To be among friends. To feel safe to speak out.

I am often asked, “Why are you speaking to rural Democrats and not rural Republicans?”

I have had a plan since I started speaking regularly to rural people: empower rural Democrats to go into their own communities and reach their neighbors — even their Republican neighbors. Give them the rhetoric to speak to their local issues and the common sense points to speak back to the propaganda from the Trump administration. Get them excited to do the work. Help them find community and others who have the same mission.

A cheerleader for rural people.

I want to be a model for running for office knowing you likely won’t win, but that giving folks a choice is a win. Reframing a win — knowing that we make incremental change by showing up even when we know we can’t win for a few cycles. Knowing we gain trust by the act of showing up. Knowing wins will come eventually.

Handing the playbook to rural Democrats and setting them loose to go to work in their own hometowns.

A Missouri woman holds a “missing” sign for her Congressman Sam Graves.

We need loud and proud progressives out among the people. All the people.

Small town people have been traveling to midwestern cities to hear from Tim Walz. I know several who have driven to hear Bernie. I am so glad we are hearing from AOC and I am hopeful that Rep Jasmine Crockett will join the national progressive voices traveling from state to state.

But, I hope we remember the rural folks in the equation — don’t forget the lowest hanging fruit. People who are ripe for a progressive message.

The rural vote. The red-state vote. Flyover folks.

Standing room only “Empty Seat” town hall for Senators Hawley and Schmitt in Waldo. 3/22/25.

About 60 million people live in rural spaces in America. One in five Americans is considered rural. Why have we ceded all of these people and ground and power to the Republicans?

Why did we walk away from rural spaces especially when these spaces have outsized power in state houses and in the Electoral College? Wouldn’t it make sense to spend a little time and very little money to win back rural spaces?

It would mean huge gains at the top of the ticket and in the House and Senate.

Wyoming has as many Senators as California. Why are we not sending Democrats into Laramie or Casper or Cheyenne? There are people in every red state who are hungry for a progressive message.

Standing room only “Empty Seat” townhall for Congressman Sam Graves in St Joe. 3/24/25

I was speaking in rooms during the last Trump Presidency and I didn’t feel this current urgency from the rural people gathered. I spoke to groups about gun violence and public schools but I wasn’t speaking about fascism and authoritarianism. We knew the last administration was bad but we know this one will kill our rural towns and harm our elderly neighbors and let kids go hungry and close schools and deport people and send out accidental text messages with war plans.

I am also sensing that there is a ground swell of folks who are unafraid — ready to fight back. Many of them are seniors who feel that they already have too much to lose and are backed into a corner and will do the work of protests and boycotts and organizing meetings and writing and calling and showing up.

I attended an “empty seat” town hall for Congressman Sam Graves in St Joseph last night. It was standing room only with a crowd of about 300 people — a massive gathering for this part of the country. During her opening remarks for the town hall, an organizer said she represents POOL: pissed off old ladies.

I like that.

On the topic of the pissed off old ladies, I need to address something I hear so many people say when I post pictures of all of these events — where are the young people?

I do see younger folks at these events, but rural spaces are losing young people. A brain drain decades in the making.

Our schools are defunded and we lack childcare and many spaces still lack broadband to work from home and town jobs are hard to come by. The family farms are almost obsolete and there’s just not much to draw people back after college.

While I do have young people show up, in general, the crowds are older. And that made me think of something from my teaching career.

My American Literature curriculum started with Indigenous stories.

One of these stories told about the way one tribal society went into battle — older folks in front of the warriors. This made little sense to me the first time I read it. I wondered why grandmothers and grandfathers were in front of the young men while heading into battle.

And then I thought about it more. The young men were the sons and grandsons and nephews of the older people. Of course the older folks were in front.

I will stand in front of my children and grandchildren. I will go first. I want to put my body in front of theirs. I want to protect them and my community. I know they often can’t speak out because of their jobs, but I can. My retired friends can.

And this is what I am seeing over and over again in the rural rooms I speak in — many are ready to do more — I mean many of them already did so much through the civil rights movement. Not only are they talking about showing up, I see them on the street. People well into their golden years.

They are protesting. They are rallying. They are walking the walk.

They walk this walk in red Missouri. And Iowa. And Kansas. And Nebraska.

We live in red states and we are rural residents and some of us are of a certain age, but we are also people just like people anywhere else and we deserve lawmakers showing up and fighting for us. We deserve to hear the same messages and we need the same progressive policies.

For our children. For our grandchildren. For ourselves.

In the meantime, we are no longer huddling scared in church basements for our meetings. We are showing up in large numbers and we are letting our communities know we are here and we aren’t scared.

Rural Democrats can’t be scared anymore. We can’t be cowed. We have the courage and now we stand in front as we protect our country and our communities and our families.

See you in the streets.

~Jess

P.S. I’d love to invite you to a special joint Blue Missouri/Blue Tennessee meeting featuring Tristan Snell this Thursday. Tristan is a lawyer and legal commentator who has been featured on MSNBC, NPR, the Washington Post and others. He's the author of the book Taking Down Trump.

Here is the link to sign-up.