Rural America & The Progressive Movement
Rural America - and rural voters - play a critical role in the future of the progressive movement. A solid, informed and participatory base of rural citizens paired with urban progressives would make for a powerful partnership. But how do we do it? What are the issues that unite metro riders and tractor drivers? There are more than you think, and they matter to all Americans, regardless of your zipcode.
A former elementary educator, Deb serves as CAP Chair for the National Writers Union, United Auto Workers, Local 1981. She has broad background as a business and technical writer and small business consultant as well as a long career in real estate. In 2004 she served as liaison between the Kerry Campaign and Rural Leaders for Kerry and was a co-founder of the DNC’s Rural Working Group. A lifelong resident of western Massachusetts, Deb currently serves as Vice Chair of the Massachusetts Democratic Party and is a member of the Executive Board of the Association of State Democratic Chairs.
Sean Reagan is a former Vermont-based land use attorney, currently working as a freelance writer in the same small western-Massachusetts town where he grew up. His stories, essays and photographs have appeared in more than 70 local, regional and national journals such as Yankee Magazine and AmericanStyle Magazine. He is a former rural life columnist for the Daily Hampshire Gazette and currently serves as town moderator in his community. When not writing, he can be found hiking and fishing with his three children, and tending to the family flock of Ancona, Austrolorp and Wyandotte chickens.
Bill Bishop, of Austin, co-edits the Daily Yonder, a website on rural affairs. He has worked with the Center for Rural Strategies on an ongoing poll of rural voters, and with Tim Murphy has written The Big Sort about the rural/exurban/urban geography of the presidential primary vote. Bishop worked as a reporter at The Mountain Eagle, in Whitesburg (Ky.); a columnist at the Lexington (Ky.) Herald-Leader and with the Austin American-Statesman. He and his wife, Julie Ardery, owned and operated The Bastrop County Times, a weekly newspaper in Smithville, Texas.
Jim Slattery is running to represent the state of Kansas in the United States Senate. Jim was born in Good Intent, Kansas in 1948. He served in the Kansas State House of Representatives from 1972-1978 and from 1983-1995 he represented Kansans in Congress. After serving in Congress, Jim went to work for the law firm of Wiley Rein LLP in Washington, DC. Jim is a member of the Kansas, Washington, DC, and American Bar Associations. He and his wife Linda have been married for 34 years and live in Topeka. They have two grown sons, Jason and Mike.
