Good afternoon,

President-elect Trump has started to assemble his Cabinet and senior staff in preparation for his second term in the White House. In a recent interview, Trump said his "biggest mistake" of his first term was choosing "bad, disloyal people" to join his administration, so this new administration is expected to be stocked with those perceived as loyalists by Trump. It will be especially interesting to see who Trump selects to head the Department of Agriculture, the Department of Education, Health and Human Services, and more. Several of the roles will need to be confirmed by the Senate, though early indications are the Republican leadership plans to act as a rubber stamp on any nominee, regardless of qualifications.

Here are a few important updates ...

TRUMP'S PERFORMANCE WITH RURAL VOTERS

• We are still processing the results of the 2024 election. While the vote count is not yet final, it appears Trump managed to gain even more votes from rural America, including with rural Black voters. Additionally, he performed well with Latino voters and in diverse, urban areas, he decreased traditionally large Democratic margins. In Missouri and Kentucky specifically, the national Democratic Party continues to face challenges winning rural votes. While voters approved statewide ballot measures to guarantee abortion rights, raise the minimum wage and mandate paid sick leave in Missouri, Harris still lost by 15 points. Last year, Kentuckians re-elected Democratic governor Andy Beshear, but this year they rejected Harris with Trump winning the state by 30 points.

• In an unlikely overperformance, Trump won all seven swing states and the national popular vote. Several states that Biden won in 2020 flipped for Trump including Michigan, Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, Nevada, and Arizona. While the Harris-Walz campaign had momentum and strength following President Biden's exit from the election, it's clear it was not enough to win over voters, especially in rural America. All we can do is look forward and determine how we can improve our ability to connect with rural Americans.

TRUMP'S PROMISES TO RURAL AMERICA

• President-elect Donald Trump campaigned on several promises that – if implemented – would completely transform U.S. society. For starters, he aims to deport at least 11 million undocumented immigrants, and their family members – even if they are U.S. Citizens- close the southern border, and end birthright citizenship. "If some of the larger deportation efforts, like rolling back TPS, come to fruition, experts say there will be ripple effects felt in most sectors of the economy, in particular construction, housing, and agriculture." As we've seen before, Trump loves tariffs and has promised to implement tariffs of up to 200-percent on foreign goods from all countries, especially China. It will be interesting to see what impact this has on our economy as well as our relations with other countries.

• One major issue Trump campaigned on was the economy. Some of his plans include expansive tax cuts to benefit corporations and the wealthiest 1-percent of taxpayers Trump has also claimed he will pass tax cuts that will benefit tipped workers, seniors on Social Security and others. Based on his first administration it seems much more likley we will see the corporate tax cuts and handouts to the wealthy before we see any benefit for working folks.

• Trump also promises trillions in cuts in government spending and has claimed Elon Musk will become a budget czar in his new administration. Despite low unemployment, strong wage growth, and declining inflation, the U.S. economy remained a top concern for voters heading into the election and Americans will be watching to see if Trump can maintain the current hot economy, or if we will slide into another recession under his watch.

• Trump has also promised to reform the country's health and food systems with help from noted vaccine conspiracists and brain worm host, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., who has put forth a campaign called Make America Healthy Again (MAHA). This would likely end several vaccine requirements, unleash more science-free health conspiracies, and generally undermine our nation's public health system.

• Trump also promised to eliminate the Department of Education, which will slash almost all federal funding for special education funding and cause serious budgetary impacts for public schools across the country. It will not, however, reduce or delay student loan debt payments as Trump intends to require all borrowers to repay their loans and may attempt to reinstate some loans that had been forgiven under President Biden's leadership.

• Lastly, Trump has promised to withdraw from the Paris Climate Accords and "drill baby drill". This dead-end climate and energy policy will likely push the world past the breaking point of limiting global temperature increases to 1.5º this century and accelerate the worsening climate crisis.

• These are just a few of the drastic changes we may see with Trump's return to the Oval Office.

• GOP leadership elections are scheduled for November 13.

• House Democratic leadership elections are scheduled for November 19 and 20.

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