My winning 2023 slogan: ”Fixing Roads. Feeding Kids.”
2024: I gave the go-ahead to @lynleethorne.bsky.social for Rural GroundGame to use “Good Neighbors: Feed Kids. Fix Roads. Vote [Democratic ticket].”
2025: @aftynbehn.bsky.social put her own spin on it.
Why? It’s about getting the basics right.
Your reminder that they cannot arrest millions of people no matter how hard they try. They lack the infrastructure, they lack the personnel, and the economy would straight-up collapse
They are going to try to scare us by making examples out of a few people, and our job is to not fall for it
Awesome advance work and organizational effort for the Valley Dem committees and candidates, and my friends at Rural GroundGame.
It’s become a nice annual tradition for rural Dems to out-organize the Rs on Labor Day in an area where Rs should have home field advantage.
Compete in all of Virginia!
💙
We feed you.
They hunt us.
How could any person, let alone an elected official, think like this?
10 years ago, when I got my start in criminal justice advocacy, I stumbled upon a group of state lawmakers in Virginia. A naïve small-town Iowa kid, I hadn't met people like this before.
1/
www.rollingstone.com/politics/pol...
Get in, we're going road-trippin' on State of the States. @joesudbay.bsky.social takes 95 South from Virginia to Florida to catch up with @lynleethorne.bsky.social from Rural Ground Game and FL Sen. Minority Leader Lori Berman. #VALeg #FloridaPolitics
“…the result is trillions of dollars lost, with fewer jobs, products, goods and services for everyone in the country.”
barnraisingmedia.com/farmer-cost-...
Some excellent photos from folks on the Eastern Shore who had a great "Hands Off" rally in rural Machipongo yesterday... bluevirginia.us/2025/04/sund... cc: @lynleethorne.bsky.social
“…while rural schools are used to having fewer resources, the loss of REAP funds will strain them even more.” www.whro.org/2025-03-21/h...
Screenshot of a Signal message that says "Hey all. Have it on good authority from colleagues on the Hill that Schumer just came out of a meeting with Senate Dems saying theres 8 Senate Dems prepared to vote for this CR. He didnt say who. We need everyone to keep calling and yelling at every democrat NOT to do this. The sources for this info is solid. Plz inform networks and push everyone to call and yell"
Obviously I can't say where this is from, but it's legit from a friend of mine in a position to know (posted with permission). No idea who the eight are, so call your Democratic senator NOW and make sure they're a NO for the continuing resolution.
“Mass terminations at the U.S. Department of Agriculture are “crippling” the agency, upending federal workers’ lives and leaving farmers and rural communities without needed support…”
barnraisingmedia.com/usda-doge-tr...
Yes! I love Jess and it’s embarrassing that Dems talk as if rural = white farmers.
Scatterplot titled “Empirical Evidence of Ideological Targeting in Federal Layoffs: Agencies seen as liberal are significantly more likely to face DOGE layoffs.” • The x-axis represents Perceived Ideological Leaning of federal agencies, ranging from -2 (Most Liberal) to +2 (Most Conservative), based on survey responses from over 1,500 federal executives. • The y-axis shows Agency Size (Number of Staff) on a logarithmic scale from 1,000 to 1,000,000. Each point represents a federal agency: • Red dots indicate agencies that experienced DOGE layoffs. • Gray dots indicate agencies with no layoffs. Key Observations: • Liberal-leaning agencies (left side of the plot) are disproportionately represented among red dots, indicating higher layoff rates. • Notable targeted agencies include: • HHS (Health & Human Services) • EPA (Environmental Protection Agency) • NIH (National Institutes of Health) • CFPB (Consumer Financial Protection Bureau) • Dept. of Education • USAID (U.S. Agency for International Development) • The National Nuclear Security Administration (DOE), despite its conservative leaning (+1 on the scale), is an exception among targeted agencies. • A notable outlier: the Department of Veterans Affairs (moderately conservative) also faced layoffs despite its size. Takeaway: The figure visually demonstrates that DOGE layoffs disproportionately targeted liberal-leaning agencies, supporting claims of ideological bias. The pattern reveals that layoffs were not driven by agency size or budget alone but were strongly associated with perceived ideology. Source: Richardson, Clinton, & Lewis (2018). Elite Perceptions of Agency Ideology and Workforce Skill. The Journal of Politics, 80(1).
The DOGE firings have nothing to do with “efficiency” or “cutting waste.” They’re a direct push to weaken federal agencies perceived as liberal. This was evident from the start, and now the data confirms it: targeted agencies overwhelmingly those seen as more left-leaning. 🧵⬇️
“…I watch the second Trump administration, in just a few short weeks, dismantle the federal programs that feed, house and employ his rural constituents.”
kansasreflector.com/2025/02/18/d...
Mutual aid requests for communities impacted by devastating flooding in VA and KY Cumberland Mountain, Lonesome Pine, Eastern Ky Mutual Aids. Reputable, trustworthy people
Devastating flooding in #SWVA and #EKY tonight. Please support these excellent folks on the ground. They are trained in emergency response and ready to get out to help their neighbors as soon as possible. #MutualAid #FloodResponse
For the many rural hospitals that are already on the brink of closure, Trump’s Medicaid cuts could put them over the edge —further exacerbating the healthcare access crisis that rural areas face.
www.bu.edu/articles/202...
Graphic describing the benefits of USAID for Virginia Agricultural Producers
The pain from gutting USAID will be felt by farmers and businesses right here in Virginia and across the United States. #USAIDrural #FarmersFirst
American farms supply ~41% of the food aid USAID sends around the world each year.
In 2020, they bought $2.1 BILLION in food aid from American farmers.
“You start dismantling these [food aid] programs and it’s a ripple effect,” he said. “The farmers are affected; the farm economy is affected.”
Just spent a few hours listening to DNC chair candidates say what they'd do for rural America and folks, a gentle reminder...
- in the avg rural county, just 8% of jobs are in ag
- ag is the most common job in just 7% of rural counties
- most ag jobs... are desk jobs
Rural != Farmers.
"Surveilled": Ronan Farrow on the Spyware Technology the Trump Admin Could Use to Hack Your Phone
1. The conventional explanation for food deserts—that these places are too poor or too rural to generate enough spending on groceries, or too Black to overcome racist corporate redlining — fail to grapple with a key fact: food deserts didn’t used to exist. My new piece in The Atlantic.
