Lost Dogs, Rural Progressives, and Political Alliances

Two runaway hunting dogs led to meeting a neighbor–you never know who you’re going to meet out in the sticks.

JESS PIPER – MAR 13, 2024

I live just outside of a tiny town in NW Missouri. I had to make a trip to another town to do some shopping last Saturday (my town has a gas station, a liquor store, and three smoke shops, but no place to buy milk.) I came home to find my big farm dog in a tizzy. I soon found out why — there were two hunting dogs just on the other side of the pasture. One was was very friendly and the other kept his distance, but both were wearing hunter orange collars with their owner’s name and number.

Whew! I was afraid they had been dumped on our place and I already have two rescues. The hunting dogs had already started on the wrong foot by trying to get my mini donkey riled up. He was having none of it — when they approached him barking, my donkey turned around and was ready to deliver two concussions when they thought better of going after him.

In the meantime, I called up the number on the collars. Their owner lives several miles from me, down the highway and on the gravel. He pulled in a few minutes later to collect his dogs — they were so excited when they heard his diesel pulling into the drive. Tails were wagged!

Their owner ended up being an older farmer — he backed up to put the dogs in their boxes until he got them home. He was sweet and gentle with them and thanked me for calling him. And then he did something I was not prepared for—he put his hand on my shoulder and whispered: I know who you are and I’m fond of your politics. We were outside, so there was no reason to whisper, but I’m sure it was out of habit.

I bet you think this is a freak encounter, but you’d be wrong. It happens to me all the time.

This man is in one of the reddest districts in the state. He’s a farmer and has to be in his 70s. And, he’s a progressive? Yup. I met so many folks just like him while running for State Rep back in ‘22.

I ran in a very red and very often uncontested district. I lost, and not by a little, by a lot, but here’s the thing: It was worth it. It is undemocratic to let seats and districts go without a contest — to let a state slip into a supermajority and to walk away from rural areas.

I know that my race mattered because I hear from so many of my neighbors and those outside of my community. I know it matters because they tell me it matters.

I have folks come up to me at TJ Maxx when I’m in St Joe. I have people in Walmart and Sutherlands ask, “Are you Jess Piper?” I had a man at Sam’s wait on me to finish checking out before approaching me. A man at a car lot, a woman at the nail salon, another woman at HyVee. And guess what? They don’t want to ask me questions or even hear about the latest extremism in the state house. They want me to listen to them—need me to listen to them—because there aren’t many folks they can talk to.

And, I like to listen to them. I ask them questions. I ask them how they think we got into this state and how they think we can get out of it. I ask them if they are supporting a local candidate. I ask them if they’ve thought of running. But, I mostly just listen.

That’s the point. Rural progressives, dirt road Democrats, are here and have always been here. My great-grandpa was a coal miner from Alix, Arkansas and was part of a union—he lived through the Depression and was an FDR man. My grandpa was a truck driver with a high school education who raised a family on one income because of union wages. They were progressives.

Many of the old school Dems feels like they need to be quiet to keep the peace, or preserve a friendship, or even a keep their business open when 75% of the folks around them seem to be Republican.

That’s just it—they seem to be Republican, but they may have been driven underground too. They don’t always have someone to vote for, so they have pulled a Republican ballot for years, voting in Republican primaries for years to reduce the harm an extremist Republican may pose. They vote for the person less likely to harm them because they can’t vote in their self-interest.

We don’t know how these folks would vote if someone explained the policies of the Democratic Party—gave them a message. Or even an Independent message—something other than the hateful bills and legislation that come out of the Capitol under a GOP supermajority.

We can’t say that we are for the people when we leave the people behind. We can’t pull out of an area because it’s “too red” and expect anything other than more red. We have to do better, and when we say folks matter, we show them they matter by finding and funding Democratic challengers for every race on every ballot in every state. We bring rural people a message and we don’t leave…we don’t abandon them.

The least we can do is give everyone a choice. It is undemocratic to leave swaths of America with ballots filled with only Republicans. We can’t sway anyone when they can’t vote in their self-interest.

Here’s to no seat uncontested. Here’s to more farmers finding political alliances on the left out in the sticks. Here’s to not leaving rural America behind.

~Jess