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Grantee Spotlight
Shifting Margins to Win Races
Down-Ballot Victories Powered by Rural Organizers
Last year’s federal outcome exposed alarming trends that our coalition cannot continue to ignore. Yet our grantees overcame national shifts to drive key victories that will help keep people and the environment safe and healthy in the face of anticipated attacks, shore up core freedoms and economic opportunity, and make sure everyone has a voice in our democracy.
Close races see electoral shifts
Make the Road Nevada’s efforts helped elect pro-democracy Senator Jackie Rosen. Compared to the 2020 presidential, they contributed to a shift of 1%‒2.7% across six rural counties. The corresponding 2,069 vote increase for Rosen was an important part of the Senator’s narrow victory of 24,000 votes.
Through canvassing, phone banking, and relational organizing programs, Make the Road connected with 33,000 rural people of color and young voters. Their work focuses on rural Latine voters, who are an increasingly important part of Nevada’s electorate, and they successfully mobilized many people who had never been contacted by an electoral campaign.
Flipping district with worker-centered issues
In Nebraska, She’s Electable helped flip representation in the district encompassing the small city of Grand Island — Dan Quick won by 1,100 votes. The win marked a 10-point vote swing compared to his loss to the same candidate in 2020. She’s Electable and Quick ran a campaign that reached beyond partisan identity. They centered workers and championed issues like affordable housing, economic development, and elder care. In particular, She’s Electable effectively mobilized white women to have honest conversations with other white women.
Looking ahead, She’s Electable recruited and trained rural women to take on more leadership. They built candidate pipelines in several burgeoning small cities and counties. Future successes will require candidates like these. Our pro-democracy coalition will also need to reproduce the results from groups like She’s Electable and Make the Road Nevada and boost turnout from undercontacted groups while persuading undecided voters.
Please note that the grantee work described above may include activities that were not directly funded by Rural Democracy Initiative but are included to provide a clear picture of the impact of our grantees’ work.
