Rural organisers say Medicaid and Snap Cut could help Democrats win rural votes in 2026. Republicans say: Don’t expect that.
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Dom Holmes, 28, learned the important thing by organizing a decade-long progressive in rural Pennsylvania. You have to sit down and listen to them.
In recent weeks, when he stopped listening, he listened to the tax and spending bill passed by the Republican-led Congress in July.
“People are particularly concerned about how it will affect them at a local level,” he said. They are particularly “furious,” he said, about food stamps and Medicaid cuts and possible damage to rural hospitals. “People should know what the impact is, not immediately, but what is on them, and they should know who has had that impact on their community.
His message resonates with local organizers across the country about GOP’s groundbreaking legislation cuts and when it comes to talking to rural voters who voted for them.
Rural Democrats are seeing the implementation of the GOP Tax and Expenditure Act, coupled with other changes from the Trump administration that they directly hurt rural communities as moments Democrats can use to rebuild the Maga nation’s brand for a decade.
And while National Democrats have their own plans to walk into these communities, locals say they know these places and their neighbors best. They don’t sit around. I hope that the national group will dive.
“I’m a country Democrat. We really don’t have a tendency to wait. There’s already a lot going on,” said Matt Hildres, executive director of RuraleRganizing.org. “Energy is already happening on the ground.”
“The complaints about Republicans are obvious.”
Republicans now have four vacant seats and control the House with a voting margin of 219 to 212. Democrats will need to win four seats next year to take over the Senate. By controlling either chamber of commerce, Democrats can freeze many of President Donald Trump’s policy proposals for their term.
The parties hope that the new spending law and how voters think about it will become one of the biggest issues of the medium-term campaign.
Frustration has risen in rural America and there is an ambition to be identified as a Democrat who has not seen in years, several progressive, democratic organising groups told USA Today. It’s important to build relationships and set up stories, they said.
“The complaints about Republicans are obvious,” Hildres said. “Maybe we’ll never win a voter in Maga — we’ll probably never do that — but there are a lot of independents just looking at this and saying, ‘Man, this isn’t what I voted for’. ”
Hilldres’ group is already open in Congressional battlefield districts in Iowa, Ohio and Pennsylvania, and focuses on getting people to talk about Medicaid.
“Our entire strategy is built around the locals, just the idea that local messengers are the most effective,” he said. “We need to rebuild our democratic footprint from scratch, starting with localizing democratic brands, starting with these voices.”
The frustration he hears from the rural community is about how the number of changes brought about by the Trump administration is being hit at once.
The rural economy is more likely to rely on a single industry with strong connections to federal funds such as agriculture, university and healthcare. All of this has changed over the past eight months. They have seen the freeze on farm subsidies and the end of public land revenue and clean energy subsidies.
“We put tariffs on top of Medicaid cuts, put snaps on top and we put the country service that’s being refunded over everything else, but that’s just not sustainable,” Hildres said. “It’s everything at once, and honestly, I don’t think anyone in the White House recognizes that.”
National Democrats and Republicans are busy during Congress summer holidays
The Democratic National Committee has been investing in rural voters for months, including sign ads near local hospitals that are likely to close due to the law, and has donated $22,500 a month to Democrats in the Red State and City Hall in Republican districts.
“Donald Trump is disastrous for our rural community, and the DNC will continue to show rural voters exactly how Trump and the Republicans have betrayed them every time,” DNC Deputy Director Libby Schneider said in a statement.
Republicans are spending breaks talking about tax and spending laws, fighting Democrats’ attempts to set a story of tax cuts for the rich that hurt the poor and middle classes.
“Democrats have locked their image into snobby, contacted, and fixed their image as indifferent to the everyday struggles of Americans. They have abandoned rural America by voting for tax cuts, border security, and small businesses. While Democrats recycle fears and slogans, Republicans are offering real results for working families.”
The NRCC memo, which houses Republicans obtained through politics, told members “the best defense is a good crime,” saying “it is an important opportunity to define how this law can help all voters and help push back the fears of Democrats.”
Republican voters support work requirements and emphasize the removal of ineligible recipients from the scope of Medicaid insurance, but the five-page memo does not explain how Congressional GOP members will deal with the bill’s expected hits to rural hospitals.
Building on the momentum of protest
Stephanie Porta, campaign manager for the Battleground Alliance PAC, said progressive rural supporters should take advantage of the protests attended by millions of Americans this spring and summer in rural towns as well as in large cities.
Her organization, a coalition of over 30 national labor, community and advocacy group, pledged $50 million in 2026 to turn over more than 35 vulnerable Republican-owned districts.
They want to build protests and rely on local organizers to coordinate their education campaigns with the district.
“They put together their plans based on what their district looks like, what council members did to ensure that the public is educated and conscious, and what council members know that the public is unhappy with what they have done,” she said.
They are already planning backpack giveaways when school starts, welcome home parties at the airport for members of Congress and have made a canvas to inform voters about the impact of the bill.
“There’s a protest, and the next step after the protest is to build great momentum to reach even more people,” Porta said.
The proposed cut is “motivation for people to speak up.”
Lily Franklin drives between the houses for 10 minutes as he knocks on the door in the Appalachian area, which runs to represent the Virginia home. She says people are worried about rural healthcare access and the future of Medicaid.
“There are a lot of hospitals in this area that are under threat. People are already driving from an hour to an hour and a half to seek care,” she said. “All of these proposed cuts will disproportionately hit southwest Virginia.
When she knocks on the door, she spends most of her time listening, she said. She grew up in the area and her family was there for generations.
“They’re not showing up for them and seeing where they are, so half of the fight is talking to voters at their doors, listening to them and listening to them,” she said. “People just want to hear.”
Despite running for state legislative sessions, people want to talk about how worried they are about rural healthcare access and the future of Medicaid, she said.
They are also concerned about other aspects of the new law, such as reducing food benefits and energy assistance.
Franklin surpassed both President Joe Biden in 2020 and Vice President Harris in 2024. She lost her bid to represent primarily rural areas, including Blacksburg and Virginia Tech, with just 183 votes.
Franklin said several national groups contacted the 2025 campaign. She said Democrats can’t accept their message and expect it to resonate in every district.
“We often tried to come up with a message that was hypertested somewhere in the lab, but realistically, people just want to hear it. That’s the secret source,” she said.
