2 weeks Ago
After rural voters in past elections turned out big for former President Donald Trump, a narrative emerged that rural, white America had shifted right. The emergence of Tim Walz and JD Vance as vice presidential nominees this election offers a chance for a deeper understanding of rural America, the people who live there and what each candidate's policies would do for these communities. We have to recognize what rural America is and isn't.
Rural America is not all white, and it's not in total decline. The rural population has expanded since 2020, while poverty has declined. Rural America is also diverse and becoming more so.
These communities and the people who live in them will continue to play critical roles in the future vitality of America. Because rural communities aren't a monolith, their economies are tied to local assets and opportunities. But most rural communities share similar, yet often overlooked, needs.
Strong institutions — including good schools, health care facilities, parks, libraries and infrastructure — are essential to thriving rural communities. Communities struggle to escape poverty and lose trust in government when those institutions fail. But government failure is the intended outcome of the anti-tax, anti-government movement that the Trump administration advanced by pursuing deep tax cuts, deep budget cuts to rural-serving federal agencies and the weakening of federal agencies' regulatory authority.
The conservative Heritage Foundation's Project 2025 goes a step further by providing a playbook for the erosion of the government's ability to tax, regulate and deliver services if Trump is elected. Government's failure to regulate the pharmaceutical industry enabled the opioid crisis in rural areas, where access to health care and treatment is limited. The Biden-Harris administration's record reveals a different approach to rural policy.
Their strategy is to rebuild the institutions and partnerships that give communities the power to advocate for their needs and goals. For example, the Inflation Reduction Act, Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, and CHIPS and Science Act direct public and private investments to rural communities. These investments are rebuilding trust that the government is listening and responding to rural America's needs.
Minnesota Gov. Walz, recently named Kamala Harris' Democratic running mate, explained how his rural upbringing and experience as a public employee helped him understand why government institutions and policies — done well — positively affect people's lives. The Biden-Harris administration funded programs that rural advocates have been asking for, such as Head Start, the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program and Medicaid.
It also made historic investments in rural resilience through programs such as Empowering Rural America. This program is expected to be the most significant investment in rural electricity since the New Deal, delivering reliable power at lower cost to nearly 1 in 5 rural homeowners. Vance offers an alternative narrative of rural America — one where rural people are responsible for the poverty and misery they may experience because they're inherently lazy and ignorant.
The anti-government movement supported by Vance would eviscerate local power and the institutions that support personal and economic well-being in rural America. Vance believes government is inefficient and that public services — including public schools — should be privatized. Walz and Vance claim to advocate for the needs of rural America, but only one has demonstrated an understanding of these communities' realities.
Haggerty is a senior fellow for energy and environment policy at the Center for American Progress Action Fund. He wrote this for InsideSources.com .
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