Get to know your rural neighbors, one weekly story at a time.
Issue 03 · November 5, 2026 · 9-minute read
Digging into how rural Americans voted on Election Night
I usually cry on Election Day. Typically it’s long before the results start rolling in – at some point in the day I become aware of all the Americans who are actively participating in democracy, together, and I get choked up. There’s just something about all the people volunteering at polling stations, the canvassers, the people waiting in line, the people who go early before work or late after work, the parents going into the booth with their kids, the teens slapping on an ‘I Voted’ sticker for the first time, hell, even nodding to fellow voters at the mail-in ballot box. Every two years, like clockwork, I am overcome by the magnitude of the act of voting and how it unites us as an American community.
This year I got a little teary at an iconic Mexican restaurant in LA, where a few dear friends and I joined a beautiful motley crew of patrons and wait staff to watch CNN projected on a wall. Together these folks of all ages hooted and hollered for faraway states, many of them predominantly rural. It made me emotional to see a diverse group actively engaged in the democratic process. It made me hopeful to see so many Americans across the country united in their desire for change. And it made me proud of this project’s mission and potential: to help us reknit the fabric of our communities, one neighbor at a time.
Polls have been closed for about 36 hours. Votes are still being counted in tight races (Mississippi! Alaska!). There is so much more information coming and I will keep a close eye on final county tallies to unearth more rural insights about voter demographics, patterns, and stories. Next week we’ll hear from a rural farmer, activist and friend living in the just flipped 3rd Congressional District of Wisconsin (WI-03).
But first in the absence of mainstream analysis, I got to work doing my own breakdowns of major races to find the rural realities. Hot off the presses, here’s what I learned:
Rural America’s Midterms:
• Rural strongholds flipped and held. Rural strongholds flipped in Iowa, Kansas, Texas, and Wisconsin, while Republicans held onto seats in Arkansas, Oklahoma, and Nebraska.
• The Democratic tide carried across a diverse set of states across the country. Of the 2,500 counties in states in Senate elections, just over 1,900 counties had enough votes counted by Wednesday morning for The Guardian to analyze their shift. They found that the vast majority of these counties swung to Democrats compared to 2024 results (The Guardian).
– The biggest state swings were recorded in Texas, Rhode Island, North Carolina, and Mississippi
– Rural counties in states with a Senate race were +10 in their swing to Democrats
· Democrats gained sharply in rural counties with high Latino populations, including Texas border counties and Kansas farm towns (Reuters).
Senate county shift map and biggest state swings chart: The Guardian
• Young rural voters shifted to Democrats. In 2024, 60% of rural youth voted for Trump and in 2022, 64% of rural youth voted for a Republican House candidate. Those percentages decreased in 2026, with young rural voters giving Republicans a small 6 point advantage (50% vs. 44%) over Democrats (Tufts).
• Data centers proved a primary issue, especially for rural voters. In 12 states, the winning or leading candidate for governor has called for a pause on data center development. And, of the 24 incoming governors who did not call for a pause, 22 back at least one limit on data centers. Nearly all of the gubernatorial winners (34 of 36) support ratepayer protections (The Information).
• Rural voters played a major role in Senate races. Rural voters always have a significant impact on the Senate as states have equal representation regardless of population, but this year’s impact on flipping seats was particularly notable. Across Iowa, Kansas, North Carolina, Ohio, South Carolina, and Texas, rural voters helped Democrats secure the majority. Some call outs:
– Kansas: Adam Hamilton “flipped three rural counties in the southwest of the state: Finney, Ford, and Seward” (TIME). Hamilton won Seward county by 13 points after Trump won it by 39 points in 2024 – that’s a 52-point swing! (Reuters)
· Early reporting shows that every county in Kansas shifted towards Democrats, including northwest counties that Trump won in a landslide.
– Ohio: AP reports that ‘the tariffs, trade war with Canada, and war with Iran gave Sherrod Brown a “fresh opening with rural and working-class voters”’ (OPB).
– South Carolina: Rural voters helped Democrats win a close Senate race – without the nearly 140,000 rural voters supporting her, Annie Andrews would have only received 44% of South Carolina’s popular vote (Daily Yonder).
• House seat flips happened in rural districts across the country. Based on US Census definitions, 8 of the 25 House flips were in congressional districts that are at least 40% rural (not highly populated). Those included IA-01, IA-02, CA-01, MI-07, KY-06, PA-08, TX-23, and WI-03.
House results map: The Guardian
My Major Midterm Takeaways:
1) Local organizing matters. People value IRL communication.
Local organizing stood up to billions of ad dollars across the country. Rather than focusing resources on a few specific battleground states, the DNC invested in every state party, pushing to field candidates in every race, which has not been the case for 20+ years. The DCCC (Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee) told Reuters that it implemented a program for engaging rural voters for the first time this year.
Across the country, candidates showed up to community meetings and town halls to listen to voters and engage directly with the electorate. Kansas Democrats knocked about 50% more doors than in 2022, and their county Democratic chapters grew from 57 to 68, landing more Dems on the ballot statewide. Rebecca Cooke’s campaign knocked on 54,000 doors in WI-03, helping her defeat the incumbent, Derrick Van Orden, and flip the House seat. And every week for 11 months, Iowa’s Christina Bohannan canvassed rural towns in her “Small Town Tuesday” effort, reaching residents who said no political campaign had ever contacted them before. Bohannan flipped IA-01, earning a seat in the House (Reuters).
2) The blue wave is fueled by people who want change. And, behind that wave is a sea of populism.
We, the people, are activated and looking for a change. The candidates who will ride this wave well are the elected officials who will keep their focus on the people, recognizing that the people hired them to make a meaningful change in their lives.
There is agreement and unity amongst the American people. But it’s not along party lines. It’s an alignment of values and primary issues. We can and should look at this election as a unifying force capable of breaking down barriers and tearing off labels. The divide isn’t as stark as we’ve been told. So, now, more than ever, we need to join our fellow Americans to push for change. We the people need to craft a sustainable future.
But don’t just take my word for it. In his victory speech, James Talarico proclaims that his win isn’t about the “Democratic Party or the Republican Party. It’s much bigger than that.” He goes on to declare this moment as a powerful opportunity for the American people. Check out an excerpt below or watch the whole speech.
You might notice that some of this message sounds familiar to the mission of My Fellow Americans (Issue 01). I swear I am not his speech writer.
Nina
KNOW
Adam Hamilton, the first Democratic Senator from Kansas in nearly 100 years, won Seward county by 13 points after Trump won it by 39 points in 2024 – that’s a 52-point swing! (Reuters)
CONSUME
“Despite our differences, we all want the same things, a safe neighborhood, a good job, a high quality, well funded public school, and the ability to see a doctor when we need one.
But the billionaires who own the social media algorithms, who own the cable news networks, who own the politicians fighting on our screens, they want us at each other’s throats.
They want us focused on how we’re different instead of on how we’re the same. They want us looking left and right at each other instead of looking up at them. The real fight in this country is not left versus right. It is top versus bottom.
The people at the top work so hard to keep us angry and divided because our unity is a threat to their wealth and their power…The people at the top divide us by party, by race, by gender, by religion, by culture, so we don’t notice that they are picking our pockets, that they are defunding our schools, that they are gutting our health care, that they are raising taxes on all of us while they cut taxes for themselves. It is the oldest strategy in the world, divide and conquer.
But tonight, we sent a crystal clear message to the people at the top, we will not be conquered.
I think it’s safe to say that we are tired of being pitted against each other. We are tired of being told to hate each other. It has been ten years of this kind of politics. Politics as blood sport. Politics as trolling and owning. Politics as professional wrestling. It tears families apart. It ends friendships, and it leaves us all feeling terrible all the time.
People across the political spectrum are hungry for a different kind of politics. Not a politics of hate, not a politics of fear, not a politics of division, but a politics of love. We can’t defeat the politics of division with more division. We can’t win that game. We have to change the game.
In my experience, when you extend an open hand rather than a closed fist, you’ll be surprised by who takes that hand. We didn’t win this race by alienating our neighbors or shaming our neighbors or ridiculing our neighbors. We embodied a new kind of politics. A politics rooted in a deep love for our state, for our country, and most importantly, for all of our neighbors.”
DO
Volunteer to join nationwide campaigns to help cure mail-in ballots! Curing ballots is the process that contacts voters to help them fix errors with their mail ballots, ensuring they can be counted before a state’s counting and certification deadlines. This is vital work to ensure that every vote counts. Sign up here for the DCCC phone bank to cure ballots in Mississippi and other close races across the country.
(This week’s DO is courtesy of the excellent newsletter, Hot Tip)
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The Nebraska Exception: Pete Ricketts defeats Dan Osborn in bitter Senate race
Nebraska Examiner, November 4, 2026
Republican Sen. Pete Ricketts claimed victory over independent Dan Osborn, with votes still being counted. While Kansas and Iowa shifted left, Nebraska held on. The Examiner’s reporting explains why this race went differently.
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