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Welcome to a special midweek message from the North Dakota Democratic-NPL Insider, a newsletter that features regular updates about upcoming Dem-NPL events, legislative happenings, and news that affects North Dakotans!
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Join us for a Rural Voter Outreach Training with Nebraska State Party Chair Jane Kleeb
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On Saturday, March 28, Jane Kleeb will be leading a Rural Voter Outreach Training in Jamestown! Jane is the Chair of the Nebraska Democratic Party, President of the Association of Democratic State Chairs, and author of "Harvest the Vote: How Democrats Can Win Again in Rural America."
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Sat, Mar 28, 11:00am-2:00pm CDT
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North Dakota Farmers Union
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1415 12th Ave SE, Jamestown, ND 58401
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You can also catch Jane for some fun community gatherings!
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Friday, March 27, 2026, 4:30 – 7 pm CDT
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4571 S Washington St, Grand Forks
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Sunday, March 29 2–4 pm CDT
Fargo Labor Temple
3001 1st Ave N, Fargo, ND 58102
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This week's midweek message comes from an interview Jane did about her book and what the Nebraska Democratic Party is doing to engage rural voters. You can check out the entire conversation here!
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What are you in the Nebraska Democratic Party doing to invest in rural Nebraska?
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One of the things that we heard from rural folks is: one, we need organizers in our rural parts of our state. So we do have one rural organizer right now, and the funds that we're requesting from the DNC—we have a grant in for $150,000—we'll be hiring at least two other rural organizers and put them strategically around the state to help us win school board and state legislative races, and of course, help the congressional races earn votes at the local level and go up.
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We then created something called a 'mobile office.' This was something that had been talked about in our party for years, but we didn't have the resources or the focus to get it off the ground. So we have now eight mobile offices that people can check out and request. It has everything from a pop-up branded tent—so it's very professional, has the Democratic Party and our donkey on it—it has a pull-up banner, and has all the materials you'll need: voter registration, voting information. We created something called the 'Rural Bill of Rights,' which is in there, stickers, t-shirts; essentially all the things that you would need to table, but you might not have the money to pull all that together as a small county party. Those now are strategically placed all across the state, and counties essentially share those mobile offices or staff transport them one to the other.
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We worked hard on what's called the Rural Bill of Rights. Kansas has done this, Missouri—I'm sure some other states have as well that I'm leaving out—but essentially we created our platform, and we have a flyer called 'Democrats Believe,' because that was one of the things we got on college campuses was: 'What did Democrats stand for?' So we created a flyer on what we stand for and our values, but then we created one specifically for rural communities. On the front, it talks about all the policies that we stand for that rural communities are really looking to the Democratic Party to do, or the Republican Party, they think they're doing, but they're not. So things like we stand up for property rights, that we're against the use of eminent domain for private gain, that we believe in country-of-origin labeling because that puts a level playing field for small family farmers and ranchers against big ag corporations. So, very specific things that rural people take as cues that we are standing with them.
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The other thing is we have something called the Block Captain program. We have almost a thousand across the state. Obviously, the blocks in some of our rural communities are much bigger than they are in our urban communities. In concentrated areas, a block captain gets 50 voters—it could be Democrats and independents—and you contact those folks three times a year. We do training and materials before each contact, but for our rural folks, sometimes it's 25 or even 10, depending on how far those folks are from each other. So those are some of the concrete things that we're doing.
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You already touched on it, but when I am talking to Democrats in rural America, one common theme that I hear over and over again—including from my daughter who lives in rural Colorado—is: 'I'm the only Democrat I know.' How can these programs help other Democrats find each other and realize that they are not alone? How can there be more visibility of the Democratic Party in these communities, and how can we make those connections so they don't feel so alone?
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One thing absolutely is to do more visibility in areas. When you're having a rodeo, a pow-wow, a county fair—every small town has some kind of big thing that they do. For us in Hastings, it's “Kool-Aid Days.” The Democrats always have a booth at Kool-Aid Days; we always march in the parade at Kool-Aid Days, so people can physically see us.
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The other thing that we do is we send really cute postcards that are kind of kitschy. It has cows on them and has funny sayings. We send those postcards to the county chair, and we send them a list of the Democrats and independents who lean our way. Then we send them the mailing labels and the postage, and then the Democrats get together, and they write messages to the Dems in their area. I can't tell you, that simple gesture means more people are coming to county party meetings. They are getting a note from a fellow Democrat in their area that they didn't know existed. It means a lot. So that's another thing that we've been doing to essentially say, “You're not alone, we're here.”
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The Century Club supports our year-round work to build party infrastructure supporting candidate recruitment, local district and regional leadership, issue-based education, and tools for Dem-NPL success.
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Help us elect great Democrats up and down the ballot!
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The North Dakota Democratic-NPL is launching a new grassroots program called “Neighbor to Neighbor” where volunteers will connect with voters in your community to elect Democrats up and down the ballot. As a volunteer, you will be responsible for connecting with voters in 25 homes in your neighborhood or friends and family to help elect Democrats up and down the ballot about 3-4 times this year.
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Grassroots organizers are the lifeblood of the Dem-NPL! Sign up to volunteer with the Dem-NPL!
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