Rural GroundGame Update

Spring 2024

The first few months of this year have been spent reviewing our 2023 efforts to support 144 campaigns, making 2.2 million direct voter contacts, and shifting gears to build, test, and start implementing our 2024 plans. Each cycle requires an assessment of the last one and a willingness to take valuable lessons into consideration to better prepare for the next.

Since RGG was founded, we have always had a different (though transparent to anyone who asks) model—we raise funds so that we can acquire tools and hire campaign professionals to act as staff and assist Democratic campaigns and committees. We believe that the best way to elect Democrats in rural spaces starts at ground level—directly investing in activists, organizers, and organizations that are on the ground doing the work. As we firmly believe in the value of labor, we also strive to protect working people by providing a living wage and access to healthcare.

In doing so, RGG has employed 42 people over the last three years, and paid for some combination of their salaries, benefits, workers comp, and taxes associated with their employment so that campaigns and committees can focus on doing the work of electing Democrats. This is directly in line with the mission of RGG—to provide resources, tools, and infrastructure for rural Democrats that they would otherwise not have access to.

RGG has directly supervised and directed the employment of 7 (though no more than 3 full-time staff at a time) people—all of whom have had salaries less than the lowest seniority member of staff for a campaign. The remaining 35 people have been staff directly controlled and supervised solely by campaigns and committees at every level of employment, from multiple year-long campaign managers to interns and paid canvassers.

Rural GroundGame is proud of the work that we do, and of the work that we help empower. We cannot thank our supporters enough for helping make these resources a reality for Democrats that show up to fight for a hopeful future in rural areas.