By Julia Tilton for The Daily Yonder.
Broadcast version by Chrystal Blair for Missouri News Service for the Public News Service/Daily Yonder Collaboration

With the 2024 presidential election less than three weeks away, Democrats and Republicans in rural areas are directing their focus beyond the top of the ticket and toward state and local-level offices. So-called “down-ballot” races feature candidates for state legislature, city council, local school boards, and even judges and police commissioners. These elected officials make decisions on issues in their community like education, housing services, public transportation, and healthcare. 

Thus far in 2024, 75% of these down-ballot elections were uncontested nationwide, meaning a candidate ran for office without opposition. This trend is common in rural America’s red districts, according to Contest Every Race, a group that tracks races where Democrats do not put up a nominee. The group said one reason Republicans run unopposed in red districts is because Democrats have historically felt their odds are so slim it’s simply not worth it to campaign.

However, this year’s presidential election has directed fresh attention to districts where down-ballot candidates have historically run unopposed.

Lauren Gepford, vice president and executive director of Contest Every Race, said down-ballot races are important for Democrats this year given how disengaged many voters are with politics.

“Politics isn’t just about whatever’s on CNN or Fox News or MSNBC, but it really is about the policies that affect your local life,” Gepford said. Contest Every Race told the Daily Yonder they are funding grassroots organizing partners in 292 rural counties this year as part of their rural grants program for Democrats to contest races in rural communities where Republicans would otherwise run unopposed.

Bill Greener is a Republican strategist based in North Carolina. In an interview with the Daily Yonder, he said this is an election where every vote – from rural to urban – matters. 

“This is an election of ‘leave no vote behind,’” Greener said. 

Looking at the top of the ticket, two vice presidential candidates claiming rural roots means both Democrats and Republicans are overtly vying for rural voters’ support in November. But for both parties, the strategy goes beyond campaigning for the White House. 

At the state level, the Republican State Leadership Committee (RSLC) has invested over $22 million across 21 states as of September 2024. Total investments from the RSLC top $34 million for the election cycle, and include distributions in swing states like Arizona, Michigan, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin. 

The Democratic Legislative Campaign Committee (DLCC), the RSLC’s counterpart, told the Daily Yonder they have made $10 million in state-level investments this year. The investments have gone to the DLCC’s target states, which include (but aren’t exclusive to) swing states like Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, North Carolina, and Pennsylvania. This comes after Vice President Kamala Harris’ campaign announced it would transfer an additional $2.5 million to the DLCC as part of its strategy to support down-ballot candidates. 

For Republicans, Greener said these investments are aimed at earning more votes in rural areas. 

“Our money goes there – to rural areas – to drive up the margin,” Greener said.

The story in rural areas is more complicated for Democrats. Rural organizers in places like Missouri, said that funding for down-ballot races historically has not come from the national Democratic party.

Jessica Piper ran for state representative as a Democrat in Nottoway County, Missouri, in 2022. She lost after receiving 25% of the vote. Then she joined Blue Missouri, an organization that provides crowdfunding for under-funded Democratic nominees in some of the reddest and most rural districts in the state. These districts, according to Piper, have often been neglected by investment from the national Democratic party. This creates a self-fulfilling prophecy, she said.

“Don’t give us any money, don’t invest in us, and look what happens,” Piper said.

Democrats Build a Bench in Rural Areas

The strategy in Missouri is changing this year, Piper said. Money – to the tune of $100,000 – has come in from the Democratic National Committee. 

“It's going to take a while before we see the fruits of our labor,” Piper said. “We know it's a long game, but we know it's worth playing.” 

Other Democratic rural organizers hold a similar sentiment to Piper’s, regardless of whether they have also received national party funding this year.

In upstate New York, Paolo Cremidis runs the Outrun Coalition, a grassroots group of 523 local Democratic elected officials from across rural America. Cremidis, the coalition’s executive director, said each official also brings a diverse identity not often represented in politics, including women, immigrants, young people, Latinos, Indigenous people, people of color, and members of the LGBTQ+ community. 

“We need to delve into this diversity, because if we don’t, we are not going to have a candidate base or bench going into the future,” Cremidis said. Much like building a team of players, Cremidis and other rural organizers are looking to field a group of candidates they can train and then tap to run in future races. 

Building a bench of Democratic candidates in rural areas is a part of what Piper called a “long game” for Democrats. Gepford said Contest Every Race has similar goals with its recruitment efforts, which focus on races at the local and state level. 

Republicans Look Beyond Rural

As Republicans outspend Democrats on down-ballot races by more than 2 to 1, they are looking beyond rural America to pick up voters.

This is part of the national strategy, said Nicholas Jacobs, a professor of political science at Colby College and author of The Rural Voter: The Politics of Place and the Disuniting of America. 

Jacobs said former President Donald Trump needs to win in more districts than he did in 2020 in order to win the presidency. For the Republican candidate, Jacobs said there are more votes to be won in the suburbs.

“Even if you start to lose a little bit in rural areas, if you can pick up in suburban areas, then you do just that,” Jacobs said. 

Greener said turnout can actually be a challenge for Republicans in rural areas.

“There are a whole lot of people that don’t turn out and vote in rural America,” Greener said. For elected offices down the ballot, community turnout decides the fate of local candidates.

Additionally, Jacobs said local candidates are not immune to the hyper-polarization and partisanship happening on the national scale this election cycle

“It is becoming harder and harder for candidates running down-ballot to escape the nationalized images of the party,” Jacobs said. 

Some Democrats, though, have maintained a degree of separation. Gepford said this is the “reverse coattails” effect. 

“Our [Democratic] candidates down-ballot will outperform the presidential [race], because they’re more likable in the area than the presidential candidate is,” Gepford said. Contest Every Race is focused on identifying reverse coattails in rural counties, and particularly in swing states, this year.

That is, if rural Americans vote. Even as vice presidential candidates JD Vance and Tim Walz bring up their connections to small-town America while on the campaign trail – the word “rural” was used multiple times during the vice presidential debate, after no mention at all during the presidential debate – rural strategists and organizers from both parties said it remains to be seen how community members will cast their support this year, if at all. 

In some rural areas, Jacobs said local candidates could push people to cast ballots more than anything else. 

“Sometimes local candidates’ ground games, especially for state legislative office, do actually have an important bearing on who turns out, so it’ll be interesting to see,” Jacobs said.


Julia Tilton wrote this article for The Daily Yonder.

By Marilyn Odendahl for The Indiana Citizen.
Broadcast version by Joe Ulery for Indiana News Service reporting for the Indiana Citizen-Free Press Indiana-Public News Service Collaboration.

For St. Joseph County Circuit Court Clerk Amy Rolfes, the statistics only confirmed what she had been seeing and hearing from voters in the days and weeks leading into the Nov. 5 election.

Nearly 59,000 registered voters in the Northern Indiana county cast a ballot either by mail or by going to the polls before Election Day, topping the number of voters who visited the polls on Nov. 5 by more than 5,000.

However, Rolfes already knew early voting was popular by the public's reaction to St. Joseph County's third early-voting site that was opened this year for the first time. The new polling place was opened two weeks before the general election in Center Township's public library, located in the southern portion of the county.

The site was busy every single day it was operating, Rolfes said, and voters were thanking the staff giving them a convenient place to vote.

"Clearly the voters have spoken," Rolfes said. "They enjoy early voting."

The final vote tallies from the November election show the popularity of early voting was similar across the state to what Rolfes saw in St. Joseph County. According to data from the Indiana Secretary of State, 1.6 million eligible Hoosier voters - 54% of all who cast a ballot in the 2024 general election - voted either absentee or in person prior to Election Day. Comparatively, 1.87 million registered Indiana voters - 61% of those who voted - went to the polls early in the 2020 general election.

Despite the early voting numbers, Indiana's overall voter participation slipped this year. The secretary of state reported that 4.84 million Hoosiers were registered to vote in November, which is 86,085 more than were registered in November 2020. However 2.97 million, or 61%, voted in the 2024 general election, which is 94,349 fewer than the 3.07 million, or 65%, who voted four years ago.

Julia Vaughn, executive director of Common Cause Indiana, said she is disappointed that lawmakers are not doing more to improve the state's voter turnout numbers. Changes that would enable more Hoosiers to vote include same day voter registration, extending voting hours, and prohibiting candidates and their supporters from being any closer than, at least, 100 feet from the entrance of a polling site on Election Day.

"That's frustrating when clearly we have a big problem with turnout and zero problems in term of (election) security, yet our policymakers continue to make voting more restrictive in the name of making it more secure," Vaughn said. "We should be opening it up in the name of getting more people involved."

Demand continues for early voting

Like St. Joseph County, Clark County in Southern Indiana opened another early voting site for the November election.

Clark County Circuit Court Clerk Ryan Lynch said the second polling place, at the R.E.M.C. building along U.S. 60, was a more convenient option for voters in the middle and northern parts of the county. They did not have to travel to the courthouse in downtown Jeffersonville to vote.

Lynch said he believes the additional polling location motivated more people to vote early. Although the 22,522 voters in Clark County who voted either by mail or in-person before Election Day was down from the 28,666 who cast an early ballot in 2020, he does not expect interest in early voting to wither.

"I think we should definitely plan for big turnouts for early voting and put more resources into that to be prepared," Lynch said.

After the Marion County Election Board voted against extending early voting by two hours in the morning, Marion County Circuit Court Clerk Kate Sweeney Bell kept the polling site in the City County Building open until 10 p.m. the Saturday and Sunday before the Nov. 5 election. She said she added hours in the evening to make voting more convenient and had noticed that individuals who voted in the evening were wearing uniforms, indicating they were shift workers in hospitals, law enforcement agencies and private companies.

"It worked," Sweeney Bell said, but she did not commit to extending the hours in future elections.

In Marion County, 165,186, or 46% of registered voters, cast an absentee or early ballot in 2024. That was down from the 215,931, or 55% of registered voters, who voted before Election Day in 2020.

Not only were Hoosiers voting early this year, but they were, apparently, seeking answers to their voting questions sooner.

Ami Gandhi, director of strategic initiatives and the Midwest Voting Rights Program at the Chicago Lawyers' Committee for Civil Rights, said during the early-voting period, more Indiana voters were calling the 866-OUR-VOTE election protection hotline the CLCCR established. Also, they were calling before the voter registration deadline passed and before absentee voting began.

"Across the board, we heard from voters in many different parts of the state who have an interest in expanded access to early voting, including voters who wanted more locations in their county (and) voters who were seeking expanded hours and who were shocked, and at times upset, by the relative early end time to early voting on any given day," Gandhi said.

A 'chilling impact,' low turnout

Wells and Whitely counties recorded the highest turnout rates in Indiana at 73% each in November. Marion and St. Joseph counties tallied the lowest turnout rates in the state at 55% each.

Sweeney Bell was disappointed by her county's low turnout. She said the first hour the polls were open on Election Day, about 40,000 people voted in Marion County; however, the rush of voters that usually comes between 4 and 6 p.m. never materialized.

"I'm baffled when people have such power and choose not the exercise it," Sweeney Bell said, adding that voting is essentially asking people who they want making the decisions that will affect every part of their lives. She said she is disappointed and not sure why people chose to stay home, rather than go vote.

"If I knew why, I could do something about it," Sweeney Bell said.

Rolfes tried to encourage voting in St. Joseph County by producing a couple of educational videos. She was allowed to use the local public television station's studio for an hour and half and she made four "super nerdy" videos, providing instruction on such things as voting by mail and using the voting machine to cast a ballot.

"Voting information is key to increasing voter turnout," Rolfes said.

Vaughn, of Common Cause Indiana, said she believes some new voters and naturalized citizens did not go to the polls this year because of the claim by Indiana Attorney General Todd Rokita and Indiana Secretary of State Diego Morales about noncitizens voting in state elections. The two elected officials announced a few weeks before the Nov. 5 election, that they had asked the federal government to verify the citizenship status of 585,774 individuals on Indiana's voting rolls.

Calling the move by Rokita and Morales a "political stunt," Vaughn alleged the whole point of creating the list and the making announcement was to have a "chilling impact" to discourage people from voting. She said the election protection hotline did not get any calls from individuals who had their citizenship status challenged when they tried to vote, but some new voters did call the CLCCR hotline with concerns about causing trouble if they cast a ballot.

"How widespread that (was), I can't really say, but we, at least, heard from a few people and I've done this long enough to know when you get a few calls, there are many more people who didn't call," Vaughn said. "They just stayed home."

Intimidation incidents rising on Election Day

Along with Indiana voters asking for the location of their polling place and what they should do if the poll book does not have them listed as a registered voter, Gandhi said the election protection hotline also received calls about voter intimidation and aggressive electioneering at some polling places.

Reports of intimidation included Hamilton County, where a group of individuals were standing outside a polling place waving Make America Great Again flags and harassing voters, according to CLCCR and Vaughn.

Sweeney Bell said in Marion County, poll worker training was updated to include de-escalation techniques. The additional instruction was in response to the false rhetoric about insufficient election security and ineligible voting, she said.

"I have no worries about the security of the ballot," Sweeney Bell said. "I worry about the security of the poll workers."

That training appears to have helped defuse an incident at a Marion County polling place that is still being investigated and could result in criminal charges. According to Sweeney Bell and Vaughn, a man became belligerent and shouted profanities, after he was told he had to remove his Make America Great Again hat and turn his T-shirt, which identified a specific candidate, inside out. The man took off his shirt, revealing he was carrying two guns and a knife. The police were called and the poll workers were able to get the man through the voting process as quickly as possible so he left with harming anyone.

Sweeney Bell said a report detailing what happened is still being compiled. The Marion County Election Board is scheduled to meet Dec. 12, she said, and the members will talk about the incident.

"I don't think it's over," Sweeney Bell said.

In Clark County, Lynch said poll workers at one voting site were also able to defuse a situation on Election Day. Someone came to the polling place and wanted to sit and watch the machine that tabulates all the ballots. The workers at the site enlisted help from the clerk's office and the staff was able to mitigate the situation so the individual left and police did not have to be called, he said.

Vaughn said the misinformation and intimidation has gotten "exponentially worse" since 2016. Indiana's laws do not provide much protection or prevention of escalating situations, she said, noting the state allows people to electioneer within 50 feet of the polling place, one of the shortest distances in the country, and while the state permits voting sites to restrict weapons and post signs, the statute has no teeth, so officials can do little if anyone violates the restrictions.

"People (are) being very hostile to voters who they perceive to be making different choices from them," Vaughn said. "Hoosiers need to practice a lot more tolerance during election season than we have been. It just seems to be getting worse each presidential election year. We desperately need somebody to bring the temperature down."


Marilyn Odendahl wrote this article for The Indiana Citizen.


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As 2025 begins, there will be a record number of women serving in state legislatures nationwide.

More than 2,400 women will hold state legislative offices, representing more than 33%. Maine ranks ninth in the nation for statehouse gender parity with women holding 43% of seats.

Jean Sinzdak, associate director of the Center for American Women and Politics at Rutgers University, is pleased the trend is moving in the right direction.

"We need to see bigger jumps in terms of the numbers of women running and then getting elected in order to get closer to parity," Sinzdak pointed out. "We're certainly making progress but there's a ways to go."

Sinzdak explained when women run for office, they win, and it is good for democracy. She noted research shows women are more likely to build consensus among lawmakers and work across the aisle.

The election of Republican Kelly Ayotte as New Hampshire's next governor means a record 13 women will serve as a state chief executive next year, including Maine Gov. Janet Mills. Sinzdak argued the women serve as role models for other women to run for public office but cautioned recruitment efforts for women candidates are still lacking.

She acknowledged caregiving responsibilities often prevent women from running, along with the double standard they face from the public.

"Voters want them to be likeable as well as tough," Sinzdak observed. "Whereas for a lot of male candidates, they don't necessarily need to be likable they just need to be seen as being able to do the job."

Sinzdak emphasized women bring their unique life experiences to the job. In Maine, women lawmakers were instrumental in passing the state's new Paid Family and Medical Leave program and codifying reproductive freedoms into law. Still, the gains for women in statehouses nationwide come as Vice President Kamala Harris failed in her effort to become the first woman president.

Support for this reporting was provided by The Carnegie Corporation of New York.


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Some experts contend part of the reason Vice President Kamala Harris lost the 2024 presidential election was because of what they're calling "misogynoir", the intersection of sexism and racism.

In 2016, Nevadans supported making Hillary Clinton the first woman president. In 2020 the Silver State backed Joe Biden and Harris, the first woman vice president. But last month, Nevada was won by President-elect Donald Trump.

LaTosha Brown, cofounder of the Black Voters Matter Fund, said despite the loss and Trump's relentless personal attacks on Harris, millions of Americans did vote for her because of what she embodied.

"We cannot also accept this idea that because she was a woman and she was Black, that in fact was a scarlet letter for her," Brown asserted. "In fact, part of the reason why he attacked it was because it was a superpower as well."

Brown argued while Trump made a conscious effort to weaponize gender and race, it also was what made Harris so attractive to many others. But since the election was called and Harris lost every battleground state to Trump, the Democratic Party has been regrouping and trying to figure out what went wrong. While some are citing outside forces, others believe it was Democrats' inability to address issues affecting the working class.

Melanie Campbell, CEO of the National Coalition of Black Civic Participation, said despite 92% of Black women voting for Harris, she is now deeply worried about why no Black women are in the running to become the next chair of the Democratic National Committee. The committee is responsible for organizing and coordinating strategy for Democratic candidates to win local, state and national offices.

"That is one of the things that I see that we have to address and that is how we deal with our money, how we put our money in and make demands because we do write checks," Campbell noted. "And the other has to do with how we find ways to fund our politics."

Campbell pointed out exit polling showed more than 50% of white women voters supported Trump. She added it raises the question of who is a true ally of Black women's interests.

Support for this reporting was provided by The Carnegie Corporation of New York.