John,

There’s no doubt about it, our work is shifting the political landscape of many small towns and rural communities.

During the 2022 election cycle, with your support, we reached over 600,000 voters in Iowa and Ohio alone.

This map from the New York Times shows how votes cast in Ohio this year compared with votes cast in the 2020 presidential election in the same area.

This map of Ohio shows our organizing efforts in Ohio in 2022.

These two maps clearly demonstrate that we are moving the margins in the right direction. This year, we proved that our playbook cuts Republican's margins in small towns and rural communities.

But -- this is what still keeps me up at night.

In 20 years, 70 percent of the U.S. population will live in the 15 largest states.

These 15 states will choose 30 Senators, and the remaining 30 percent of Americans—living in the remaining smaller states, which are statistically more rural—will choose 70 Senators and, ultimately, decide who sits on the Supreme Court and judiciary.

There’s no way around it, Democrats have to do better in rural America.

Extensive polling shows that Democrats’ biggest vulnerability is on the question, “are Democrats fighting for rural Americans?”

Democrats, and our democracy, cannot afford to ignore rural voters and these trends. Given the stakes of our elections and the significance of rural voters, Democrats cannot afford to write off rural America.

We know that until Democrats improve their brand in small towns and rural communities, candidates will continue spending millions of dollars on losing campaigns.

We are a super PAC created by the leading rural strategists in the country.

Our work is built on a foundation of deep firsthand knowledge of rural voters and over three years and $500,000 worth of public opinion research.

Our campaign in 2022 proved that our strategy works and we're already looking ahead to 2023 and 2024.

With your help, I know we can prove to rural voters that Democrats are fighting for their communities.

Click here to support our work today.

Thanks so much for all that you did this year!

Sincerely,

Matt Hildreth
RuralVote.org Super Pac Treasurer

P.S. Here's the full breakdown of our work in 2022 in partnership with RuralOrganizing.org

• We held a national rural strategy summit in March. Over 100 people attended
• We organized over 80 1:1s with state, local, and national organizations and held six monthly training calls with over 100 people participating who were running rural campaigns this cycle
• We commissioned a national poll showing a candidate's pro-choice position was the most important issue tested among rural voters polled in 10 battleground states, even outpacing party ID (i.e., being a Republican), which came in second. Planned Parenthood used this polling to inform their rural flyers
• We erected over 1,000 pro-abortion access yard signs in our target Ohio counties in key precincts with young and newly registered voters
• In Iowa, Minnesota and Wisconsin, we researched, documented, and tracked American Rescue Plan Act dollars allocated to small towns and rural communities while supporting rural civic leaders in effectively communicating the impact of this funding in their communities.
• We published over 30 op-eds and letters to the editor in key counties highlighting the role of ARPA dollars in local projects in Iowa, Minnesota, and Wisconsin
• We published over 100 local case studies highlighting the positive impacts of the American Rescue Plan on the 501c3 website www.ruralprogress.org
• We ran political visibility campaigns in key U.S. Senate and U.S. House districts highlighting rural champions facing a tough reelection and supporting rural newspapers
• We spent $100K (501c3 dollars) on rural newspaper ads highlighting the American Rescue Plan in Iowa’s Greene County Jefferson Bee & Herald, which is located in Rep. Cindy Axne’s district (IA-03)
• We regranted $20K 501c4 dollars to My Rural America to supplement their program in incumbent districts Rep. Matt Cartwright (PA-08) and Rep. Susan Wild (PA-07).
• We ran accountability campaigns raising awareness of those incumbents who voted against Biden’s rural legislative agenda and other pieces of progressive legislation, like Senator Ron Johnson in Wisconsin and Senator Chuck Grassley in Iowa
• We erected two billboards in rural Wisconsin, one in Pierce County and one in Douglas County, drawing public attention to the local ARPA dollars and how they would be spent
• We ran this ad highlighting Grassley’s antiquated views on abortion access targeting Iowa colleges and universities which has yielded over 386,000 impressions
• We also texted over 40K voters in Iowa with a pro-reproductive freedom message asking them to vote for Admiral Mike Franken
• We harnessed the power of the emerging rural field by convening new groups and rising rural leaders that have surfaced since 2020 via our Rural Strategy Summits

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