Rural Americans are angry. For the past four years, they have felt abused and ignored for an agenda they didn’t sign up for. Democrats, who claim to be a party of the people, proved they weren’t and left rural voters behind. So, on Election Day, they made their voices heard, with more than 65 percent of rural voters supporting Donald Trump for president.
The voice and population of rural America is growing. After declining for a decade, from 2020 to 2022, rural America grew, with individuals leaving urban communities and seeking the opportunity to live the American dream with their families.
With that growth, many living in rural communities worried that their values would transform—that the liberal ideas promoted by many urban elites would seep into our communities. However, the election showed this wasn’t the case. President Donald Trump held on to his margins in rural communities—in numerous areas, even surpassing them.
As we continue to look forward to the incoming Trump administration in 2025, America’s political elite must ask themselves why these voters in rural areas — including small business owners, farmers, and ranchers — supported a new Trump presidency with such incredible force. Community precincts are broad, sometimes requiring up to an hour’s drive to walk in and exercise our rights as Americans to vote.
Rural Americans are committed to driving further—frequently parking their construction equipment, tractors, trucks, garbage trucks, and school buses to cast their ballots. Several took unpaid breaks from work. However, for those Americans, voting was important. It was a chance to send a clear message to those in Washington who frequently dismiss the challenges and values of those in a “fly-over” country.
What Dems failed to determine throughout the 2024 election campaign is that rural communities comprised of families whose income would have been destroyed by their policies. Like taxes, tax proposals on unrealized capital gains and doubling the number of individuals paying inheritance tax would have halted the possibility of passing on a thriving business to a new generation. Leftist policies incentivize companies to move operations offshore, costing investment capital and American jobs.
While Democrats were proposing increased taxes — purchasing power shrunk — with out-of-control spending, regulation, and a misguided climate agenda leading to rampant inflation. Per the AP’s VoteCast survey, 96% of voters said “high prices for gas, groceries, and other goods” affected their vote. Nowhere is this more true than in ranching and farming communities, where every element of agricultural production is affected by the cost of energy. So, when our costs go up, so do consumers’ prices at the grocery store.
U.S. agriculture has additionally experienced the loss of international markets and the income that comes from being able to sell products to consumers around the world.
Under the Biden-Harris administration, we didn’t have a discernible “salesperson” for American agriculture, and it showed. Dems didn’t prioritize international trade, so the balance in the agricultural trade cratered, going from a surplus to a deficit over the past three years. On its current trajectory, the United States will suffer its fourth year of negative agricultural trade balances. This is an unsustainable trend.
On Election Day, Americans in rural communities examined the past four years. They looked at where we were when Trump left office and where we are currently. The answer was clear: Kamala Harris, Joe Biden, and Democrats had their opportunity. They did nothing to support rural America’s interests. They spent billions in taxpayer funds on “climate-smart” grants to support their new green deal; however, those dollars were never felt in most rural communities.
So, we selected a president who would. Trump’s solid energy policies will make the U.S. energy-independent and keep our rural communities thriving. The president-elect prioritizes the American introduction and workers, working to sign trade deals that will open up new global markets. Additionally, he will implement fiscal and tax policies that will help our communities grow.
The message for Dems is: It may be time for some self-reflection. Rural Americans have been called names by Democrats – “deplorables,” “garbage” and more — for years. However, at the ballot box, we have power, and our voices should not be ignored.
