November’s election results were heartbreaking to me and so many rural Democrats who were working hard to help our communities. For context, there are 3,143 counties in America. More than 2,500 of them have fewer than 100,000 residents (Ohio State's stadium seats more people than that) and 48.7 percent of them have fewer than 25,000 people.

I live in a town in the rural county where I was born. I returned after being gone for 26 years and was stunned at my community's decline. In 2016, I ran as a Democrat in my rural district. I narrowly lost in the 2016 Trump landslide. Since then, I have connected with thousands of rural people across the country to better understand why people no longer trust either party and opt to vote for Trump Republicans, and what happened to the once dominant Democratic Party. Donald Trump doubled his rural vote advantage over his Democratic opponent from 15 percent in 2020 to 30 percent in 2024.

As people evaluate what happened to Democrats in this election, it is important to keep in mind this is not just about politics. Republican control of the county commission in my county brought about an end to mental health funding. All elections matter.

As a rural Democrat I wanted to share a few insights from the field.

Lack of........

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