Hello John!
This past weekend I traveled to Alexandria, Minnesota to speak at a Democratic-Farmer-Labor Party event featuring Gov. Tim Walz. To be honest, I didn’t know what to expect. Alexandria is right in the heart of Minnesota’s 7th Congressional District that was once held by Democrat Collin Peterson for 30 years before the 2020 Trump wave flipped the seat red.
Minnesotans welcomed this Iowan with open arms and some good food, including some Scandinavian coleslaw. I anticipated some Paul Wellstone stories and maybe even a Herb Brooks one and I was not disappointed!
The energy I saw at the event in Minnesota was similar to events I have attended across the heartland. There is a passion for change, an eagerness to chip in and always the question, “What can I do to help?”
One issue that really resonated with folks was talking about the mis/disinformation that we see daily. Many of us have neighbors who may not have always agreed with us politically, but now they are speaking a language we don’t recognize. Full of conspiracy theories and outright falsehoods. And there’s an appetite for “owning the libs” rather than finding any common ground on policy.
While the energy at the event gave me hope, it also reminded me what we are up against. The mis/disinformation permeating on social media and into rural communities is not something that will be fixed overnight. But it did reinforce why our mission at RuralVote.org is so important.
We can’t ignore the rural and urban political divide any longer. We must change the messaging game on the ground if we want to make inroads in rural communities and stop the misinformation before it takes hold.
Standing Tall for All
J.D. Scholten
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