There’s a lot at stake for rural America during each election cycle. When election season heats up, stay tuned to the Daily Yonder for reporting and analysis on the role of rural voters and rural issues in the race, the results, and the road ahead.
Live Results
See the maps below for the latest results for U.S. House and Senate races. The data updates automatically as polls close and votes are tallied. Click or tap on a state for more detailed county-by-county or district-level results. (Source: Decision Desk HQ)
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Top Story
Commentary: Why Do Richer Families Get More from a Program Designed to Relieve Poverty?
The president’s proposed budget calls for permanently expanding the Child Tax Credit to do what it’s supposed to do: help the most vulnerable families take care of their young people.
More Stories
Q&A: Building Strong Local Governments Is a Rural and Urban Project
Rural and urban governments experience many of the same challenges and understanding them as interconnected is one way to tackle those issues, argues Michelle Wilde Anderson in her book, The Fight to Save the Town.
How Infrastructure Funding Is Bringing High-Speed Internet to Hard-to-Reach Places
A fresh round of funds was pumped into the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s ReConnect Broadband project when the infrastructure bill passed a year ago. That investment is bringing connectivity to some of the most rugged and remote corners of the country.
Federal Grant Requirements Make it Hard for Rural Communities to Prepare for Climate Change
A 2023 study from Headwaters Economics shows that qualifications from federal grant programs disproportionately hurt under-resourced rural areas.
Commentary: The Right Ideas and the Wrong Policy
USDA’s policies point to the right issues but continue to fail to sufficiently support small farmers and curtail agricultural industries consolidation.
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SNAP Emergency Allotments Scheduled to Terminate in March
According to hunger relief experts, amending the 2023 Farm Bill is the only sustainable way to shield rural households from increased food insecurity long-term.
Analysis: Final 2023 Budget Maintains Rural Housing Funding at USDA and HUD
Besides support for existing programs for home-owners and renters, the legislation created a new program to improve the conditions of manufactured housing.
Commentary: Promises Kept – Democrats Invest in Connecting Federal Resources to Rural Communities
The Biden administration’s Rural Partners Network is looking for local applicants to fill federal liaison positions in eight states and Puerto Rico.
Commentary: Enjoy with Caution
Winning an extra Senate seat in Georgia shouldn’t obscure the fact that the Democrats are still falling behind the GOP in rural America. It’s good to celebrate a win, but Dems need to make sure the brutal race doesn’t turn into a pyrrhic victory.
Gap Between Urban and Rural Congressional Voters Widened in Last 16 Years
Voters in rural areas have become more Republican in their congressional preferences since 2006. Democrats, in the meantime, have held onto their advantage in the central part of the nation’s largest cities.
Commentary: Two Birds with One Stone with Farm Workforce Modernization Act
Lame-duck Session of Congress could address some of the immigration issues and inflation problems by passing legislation now pending in the Senate.
Analysis: Millions of Families Miss Full Child Tax Credit in Rural America
Families with higher incomes receive the full credit, but lower-income families may get less. Advocates call it an “upside-down” system that doesn’t deliver help where it’s needed most.
Commentary: The Dismantling of Rural Legal Aid
Starting with President Reagan, decades of Republican-led efforts led to a gradual corrosion of civil legal aid services. Rural communities saw legal aid offices close and some rural residents lost the only legal help available to them.
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Looking Back
2020: The Rural Vote
Trump Maintains His Large Rural Margin; Democratic Vote Grows the Most in Mid-Sized and Large Metros
A big drop in third-party votes means both the Democratic and Republican candidates get a larger share of the total vote than they did in 2016.
Breaking Down the Battleground States
In Georgia, Atlanta Suburbs Deliver for Biden, But Extra Rural Votes Are Part of His Lead
Biden did slightly better with rural voters than Hillary Clinton did in 2016, contributing to his narrow lead over Trump. But Trump won rural voters 2 to 1.
Major-Metro Suburbs Give Biden His Margin of Victory in Pennsylvania
Biden got beat 3 to 1 among rural voters. But he improved his rural turnout enough to allow his metropolitan advantage to give him the win.
Modest Gains in Rural Votes Help Biden Flip Michigan and Wisconsin
In Ohio, where Donald Trump maintained a nearly 50-point advantage with rural voters, the president won the race statewide by 8 points.
The Presidential Campaign: The Race for Rural Votes
Electoral Patchwork: Both Parties Look for Success in a South That Is Less Monolithic
Democrats are betting that demographic and economic change will improve their chances of success. Republicans are trying to preserve a Southern firewall.
Electoral Patchwork: The Midwestern Path to the White House
Wisconsin, Michigan, Iowa and Minnesota are once again at the center of the presidential race. Joe Biden holds a steady lead, but many experts believe the vote is still in flux.
Electoral Patchwork: Where Does the Rural Vote Fit in National Elections?
Could a decrease in rural support be part of a disappointing season for Republican candidates? The Daily Yonder looks at presidential and congressional races in three states: Pennsylvania, Maine, and Montana.
Analysis and Data
If Trump’s Rural Edge Has Eroded, What Does that Mean for Electoral Math?
The latest Fox News poll suggests Donald Trump’s rural advantage has dropped by two-thirds since 2016.
Distance and Density, Not Just Demographics, Affect Urban-Rural Vote
Are two people who are demographically identical likely to have different political preferences if one lives in a rural area and the other in an urban one? This study says yes.
What can we learn from prior Elections?
The Rural Buzz – A Special Series on Rural Social Media Activity During the 2020 Election
This Yonder-exclusive series analyzes the political sentiments of rural social media users in six battleground states.
The Rural Campaign Trail
How the Party Conventions Dealt with Rural America
High-profile speeches made limited mention of rural policy concerns, but new formats elevated stories from rural people and places.
Deep Canvassing: National Network Says Technique Offers a Way to Engage Rural Voters
A report from People’s Action says its “deep canvassing” project could have an impact on the 2020 election.
Commentary: In Wisconsin, a Democratic Plan to Reach Rural Voters Started with Listening
The party’s environmental caucus is helping candidates connect with rural voters by
fighting large-scale agricultural waste that they say harms communities.
Analysis: How Iowa Prepped the Field for Winning Back Rural Voters
This year’s Democratic candidates have better policies with which to court America’s rural voters. You can thank Iowa.
Book Review: ‘Harvest the Vote – How Democrats Can Win Again in Rural America’
The book by the head of the Nebraska Democratic Party makes strong arguments why Democrats should reach out for rural voters. The question is whether anyone will listen.
The 2020 Presidential Primary
2016 in Retrospect
The 2018 Midterms
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