Rural voters helped elect democrats in South Carolina and Texas; The Daily Yonder has the details

The Daily Yonder published two stories this week investigating how rural voters in two key states helped Democrats win on Election Day. In South Carolina, rural voters helped send a democrat to the U.S. Senate for the first time in 30 years, and in Texas, rural folks voted early more and helped break a midterm record while they were at it. 

"Historically deep-red rural counties flipped blue this cycle" in South Carolina, Sarah Alexander Melotte reports. Nearly 140,000 rural voters supported Democrat Annie Andrews, and without them, she would have only gotten 44% of the popular vote. The margin was tight, and "every type of county, from the cities to the countryside, contributed to Andrews' win," Melotte writes. Fifteen previously red counties out of the state's 46 flipped blue. 

More than 35% of registered rural voters participated in Texas' midterm elections, helping to break the previous early voting record for a midterm in the state by nearly two percentage points, reports Madeline de Figueiredo. The state has registered 9.5% new rural voters since 2022, and rural early voting this election was up by seven percentage points. 

"Rural voter participation [in Texas] has remained elevated throughout the 2026 election cycle," Figueiredo writes. "In March, rural Texas voters had the highest primary turnout rate of any geographic group in the state, with approximately 26% of registered rural voters casting ballots, compared with 24% in major metropolitan counties."

(Map screenshot from The Daily Yonder. Blue shaded counties flipped from red. See the full interactive map, here, and another of Texas, here)

Almost 1.2 million could be insured if Texas democrats expand Medicaid

After historic election-night wins for Democrats in Texas, nearly 1.2 million people in the state could become eligible for Medicaid if Governor-elect Gina Hinojosa can follow-through on her promise to pursue expansion of the program, reports Dylan Scott for Vox. 

"Texas has the highest uninsured rate of any state in the country," Scott writes, and statistically, the majority of those uninsured live in rural areas. 

"Democrats are in the strongest negotiating position they’ve ever had in the Lone Star State," Scott writes. They have the governor's office for the first time in 30 years, and control the house for the first time in 20 years. "You should expect to see Medicaid expansion bills filed on November 9, which is our first day for early bill filing," Bee Moorhead, executive director of Texas Impact told Scott. "Absolutely, it will be on the table."

Scott writes that Texans have been waiting for Medicaid expansion for decades, but Republican leaders "refused to budge." Now, even though there's no guarantee that Democrats will be able to make it happen because Texas' senate remains Republican-controlled, "for the first time, there is real reason hope." 

How rural Texas is trying to preserve a unique German-speaking dialect

Laughter of elders from all walks of life filled a small room in the historic Pioneer Museum of Fredericksburg, Texas. They shared childhood stories, life updates, recipes and jokes — all in a unique German dialect.

In Texas Hill Country, gatherings like these keep German on the tongues of those who grew up speaking it, Paul Holm reports for The Daily Yonder, especially as fewer and fewer pass it down to their families. According to Hans Boas, director of the Texas German Dialect Project at the University of Texas at Austin, the language developed from the German dialects brought to the state in the 19th century.

 

As people from different regions of Germany settled together in Texas, their dialect blended. Texas German developed independently and has its own unique words. For instance, an airplane is called a "Luftschiff," or airship, in Texas German, but a "Flugzeug" in modern German.

"There are a bunch of words that didn’t exist 175 years ago, so we don’t use them here," said John Bakke, a Fredericksburg native. For speakers like Bakke, who didn’t pass down German or marry into a German-speaking family, gatherings help him connect with his family memories and those who share them.

Researchers like Boas are working to record interviews preserving the dialect as it threatens to fade away with age. University of Texas-Austin estimates roughly 5,000 speakers remain, all mostly 70 or older. Boas said speakers were discouraged from passing down the language due to anti-German sentiments during the world wars, but he doesn't think the disappearance of Texas German would mean "the extinction of German culture in rural Texas." Boas expects music, food, dancing and social clubs to endure.

What a historic 'blue wave' means for rural communities and the climate

Voters across party lines were particularly concerned with gas prices, the Iran war and food and energy costs leading up to the 2026 midterm elections. Such issues hit rural communities hard, with farmers unable to afford diesel, data centers being built in small towns and SNAP reductions.

 

Democratic candidates won the midterms in a sweeping number of states, reports Grist staff, including in typically red states like Ohio and South Carolina. “The sweep will have profound consequences for climate action in the United States, even with President Donald Trump still in the White House,” Grist staff writes. “Flipping control of Congress will allow the Democrats to hinder Trump’s numerous attempts to roll back federal climate policy.”

In Trump’s first two terms, Democrats could not curtail Republican climate proposals or the hollowing out of agencies, such as the United States Forest Service and FEMA. With Congress flipped, though, the party will be able to issue subpoenas, potentially impeach members of Trump's administration, and control must-pass funding bills like the Farm Bill. Grist staff writes that Trump will have to negotiate with the party to avoid a government shutdown.

Listed below are some highlights of the "blue wave" that will help rural areas the most:

• Asheville — devastated by Hurricane Helene and a lack of federal assistance — flipped the house blue. “In a rally held on the eve of the election, President Trump promised to deliver more hurricane aid money, but only if North Carolina elected Republicans.”

• House Democrats could make the administration spend money on climate by unfreezing President Biden’s 2022 Inflation Reduction Act.

• Texas elected a Democratic senator for the first time in nearly 40 years; he supports renewable energy while maintaining oil and gas jobs.

• Montana voted for a Democratic house seat. The candidate is anti-data center, pro-renewables.

• Democrats flipped Georgia’s utility commission, which will determine "how the state’s largest utility makes energy and how much customers pay for it."

• Statewide Democratic wins in transportation expect to raise money for public transport.

• Voters rejected adding a "right to natural gas" clause in Colorado’s constitution.

Voters restricted data centers in communities across the country this Election Day

Voters across the country made one thing clear on Election Day 2026: They don't want data centers in their communities. Data centers can be built anywhere, but in recent months, there has been a big  push to build them largely in rural areas.

Alex Brown reports for Stateline (republished and linked here from Next City) that 35 "ballot measures to restrict data centers were passed by voters or were leading in ongoing vote counts" as of Wednesday morning. In Ohio alone, Brown reports that voters in 21 municipalities "overwhelmingly backed new restrictions or declined to approve measures that affirmed the buildout" of data centers. 

Ballot measures on Tuesday "included outright prohibitions, temporary moratoriums, limitations on energy use, mandating voter approval before construction and advisory measures urging local officials to restrict data centers," Brown reports, adding that an NBC exit poll found that 56 percent of voters said data centers were a major issue for them.

Rural voters helped Democrats win on Election Day 2026, Washington Post data shows

Rural voters were a significant part of the Democrats' overwhelming victories on Election Day 2026, according to data compiled by The Washington Post on Wednesday morning. 

"Rural areas, suburbs and major cities all moved toward Democratic candidates by double digits compared with the 2024 election," report Clara Ence Morse, Eric Lau and Ted Armus for the Post. 

They write that voters from a range of demographics "backed Democrats by overwhelming numbers" this midterm election, catapulting Democrats into control of the U.S. House and Senate. Midterm turnout is historically and consistently low and almost always favors the sitting president, "but these results included new high-water marks for Democrats, who won in multiple states for the first time in decades — and in nearly a century in the case of Kansas," where rural voters swung Democrat by 20 points. 

Read more about historical races and wins, and see some compelling visuals of the Democratic pendulum swing, here. 

Trump Administration's proposed recension of Roadless Rule could threaten protected lands with future development

The Trump Administration filed a proposed rule and draft environmental impact statement (EIS) in August to rescind the Roadless Rule that protects inventoried land without roads from further development, reports Ilana Newman for The Daily Yonder. Many in rural communities say the Roadless Rule protects their economy and way of life.

The ruling applies to 59 million acres of public land, spanning the Western U.S. and Alaska to New England and Appalachia. Established in 2001, the Roadless Rule protects lands without roads, but “there are plenty of primitive roads in what is known as inventoried roadless areas, or the land that is protected by the Roadless Rule,” Newman writes. “What the Roadless Rule does is prevent any additional development, road building, or logging in those areas.”

As of Aug. 18, the filing of the proposed rule opened a 30-day public comment period. Rescinding the ruling would allow local hands to better manage forests for wildfire risk, according to Secretary of Agriculture Brooke Rollins. Rural commenters from Alaska, Appalachia, Montana, New Mexico and Washington disagree:

• Washington: Those touched by some of the state’s biggest wildfires think roads would add to risk. While roads are a critical firefighting tool, most wildfires are caused by humans — ignited adjacent to roads. Arguments for the rescission say roads allow for better forest management before and during fires, but locals say there isn’t enough evidence, especially with low-maintenance on current roads.
• New Mexico: In the mining town of Silver Springs, “even those who work in mining, [are] opposed to proposed new mines that overlap with inventoried roadless areas in the Gila National Forest.”
• Montana: Inventoried Kootenai National Forest in Montana is used as a conservation site for grizzly bears, with forests designated for growing bear foods such as salmonberries and thimbleberries. New roads in the area could threaten those efforts. 
• Alaska: In Alaska's Tongass National Forest — the largest in the U.S. — locals believe rescinding the Roadless Rule would allow for the return of a bygone logging era that would threaten the forest. 
• Appalachia: Rural communities in parts of the region rely on drinking water that comes from land protected by the Roadless Rule. Forested areas in the south are important to keep water treatment costs down.