Economic Concerns Are Top-of-Mind for Rural Battleground Voters, New Poll Shows Rural voters across Senate battleground states are deeply worried about the rising cost of living, and while that concern cuts across party lines, a new poll suggests it is especially pronounced among women. The survey – conducted by the Daily Yonder’s publisher, the Center for Rural Strategies, and Lake Research Partners, a Democratic research firm – interviewed 600 rural voters in 13 Senate battleground states in March.

Rural battleground voters list rising cost of living as a top concern this midterm cycle, but economic pessimism differs by gender, according to a Center for Rural Strategies poll.

‘We’re Harvesting the Sun’: A Huge Solar Project Grows in California This story was originally published by Canary Media. Harris Ranch Resort isn’t close to much. Residents of California’s major cities know it mainly as a rest stop about halfway between Los Angeles and San Francisco on Interstate 5’s long run through the San Joaquin Valley. The sprawling stucco building has a Western-themed gift shop and a couple of good restaurants where travelers can enjoy regional specialties like tri-tip tacos and almond-smoked prime rib — perhaps while they charge their EV at one of the Tesla stations outside.

A sweeping plan to build 21 gigawatts of solar plus batteries on 136,000 acres could be a lifeline for Central Valley farmers facing devastating water shortages.

Alabama Considers Robotics to Augment Rural Obstetrics Care While some government leaders in Alabama are working on implementing robotics to augment missing obstetrics care in rural counties, others are questioning the technology’s effectiveness in a rural setting. The robotic ultrasound program is part of the state’s Maternal and Fetal Health Initiative, designed to connect rural healthcare facilities with specialists and address shortages of obstetric healthcare professionals, with a goal to reduce infant and maternal mortality.

State’s vision for robot-led ultrasounds doesn’t tackle the biggest issue facing its rural patients - access to obstetric facilities.

Q&A: Author Sid Shroyer on Destruction in the Name of “Economic Development” Editor’s Note: This interview first appeared in Path Finders, an email newsletter from the Daily Yonder. Each week, Path Finders features a Q&A with a rural thinker, creator, or doer. Like what you see here? You can join the mailing list at the bottom of this article and receive more conversations like this in your inbox each week. Last month, I spoke with author and public radio veteran Sid Shroyer to talk about his recent book, …

Shroyer’s new book investigates the planned destruction of his father’s childhood home in rural Somerset, Indiana.

Yonder Radio: Data Centers, Gun Art, and ‘Reframing Rural’ Tune in for conversations about how virtual crisis care helps rural law enforcement, data centers in southern Virginia, a blacksmith program helping turn guns into garden tools, dam removal on the Klamath River, and music from Sparrow Smith.

Tune in for conversations about how virtual crisis care helps rural law enforcement, data centers in southern Virginia, a blacksmith program helping turn guns into garden tools, dam removal on the Klamath River, and music from Sparrow Smith.

Deep Listening, Rural Roots: A Big Ears Music Festival Roundup Editor’s Note: A version of this story also appeared in The Good, the Bad, and the Elegy, a newsletter from the Daily Yonder focused on the best, and worst, in rural media, entertainment, and culture. Every other Thursday, it features reviews, retrospectives, recommendations, and more. You can join the mailing list at the bottom of this article to receive future editions in your inbox…

Taking place in churches, bars, and concert halls all across Knoxville, Big Ears is a little U.S. city festival with fascinating connections to rural communities all over the world.

Maine Is Set to Ban Data Centers, Becoming the First State in the Nation to Do So The Maine Senate took a final vote on April 14, 2026, to enact first-of-its-kind legislation banning large data centers in the state until November 2027. The bill, LD 307, puts a moratorium on data centers with power needs of 20 megawatts or more, stymying proposed developments in several parts of the state, including in the rural mill town of Jay in Western Maine and at the former Loring Air Force Base in rural Limestone, Maine, near the Canadian border.

The legislation still requires the Governor’s signature to become the law, but it represents a growing bipartisan concern among voters over potential energy rate hikes and water usage.

Commentary: Why I Left National Media to Run a Small Town Newspaper Within my first few hours of being in Valley County, I learned people are hungry for local news. A new face in Glasgow, a town of 3,202 people, folks immediately asked what brought me, a born and bred Appalachian, to the high plains of Montana. When answering, “I’m the new editor of the Courier,” the local newspaper, I am inundated with stories – of alleged crime, alleged corruption, alleged affairs – residents eagerly want covered.

The new editor of the Glasgow Courier in Glasgow, Montana, reflects on his step up to lead a newspaper serving the scientifically-determined “middle of nowhere.”

Half of All Rural Counties Are Losing Population. What Is Contributing to Those Declines? Editor’s Note: This post is from our data newsletter, the Rural Index, headed by Sarah Melotte, the Daily Yonder’s data reporter. Subscribe to get a weekly map or graph straight to your inbox. After writing recently about how population growth in rural America is uneven, I got an invitation from Eastern Standard, a weekly public affairs radio program out of WEKU, to talk specifically about population change in Appalachian Kentucky.

For years, the dominant headline has been that rural America is growing again. And that’s partly true. But zooming in reveals a more complex picture.

Alaska Voters to Decide Measure Affirming Noncitizen Voting Ban This story was originally published by Governing. Alaska voters will be asked this year whether they want to affirm state statute banning noncitizen voting, Lieutenant Governor Nancy Dahlstrom said Tuesday. Dahlstrom, a Republican who is one of 17 candidates running for governor, is charged with overseeing Alaska's election system, including the ballot initiative process. A group called Alaskans for Citizen Voting, formed by three Republican former state lawmakers, has met the requirements to place an initiative on the ballot seeking to add a single word to a state law that already requires Alaska voters to be U.S.

The initiative comes as federal proposals to require proof of citizenship raise concerns about voting access in rural areas.

Research: Urban Hospitals Use a Dual-Classification Loophole to Exploit Aid Programs for Rural Hospitals A recent study published in Health Affairs found that the incidents of dual classification have exploded over the past decade, increasing the money dual-classified hospitals get to run their operations, while rural hospitals continue to struggle. According to the study, the number of geographically urban hospitals located in urban areas that are dual-classified rose from three in 2017 to 425 in 2023.

Hospitals that manage to get dual-classified and be considered “administratively rural” can tap into funds dedicated for facilities that are geographically rural and underserved.

Q&A: The Photographer Documenting Appalachian Poverty, And Resilience Editor’s Note: This interview first appeared in Path Finders, an email newsletter from the Daily Yonder. Each week, Path Finders features a Q&A with a rural thinker, creator, or doer. Like what you see here? You can join the mailing list at the bottom of this article and receive more conversations like this in your inbox each week. In 2009, Maddie McGarvey first visited 3-year-old Paige Casto and her family in a southeast Ohio town to take photos for a college photography class.

Maddie McGarvey spent a decade and a half photographing one family in rural southeast Ohio. The photographs tell a story of difficulty and hope.

Yonder Radio: Featuring Rural Childcare, Baseball and Appalachian Weaving Tune in for conversations about innovative childcare solutions, Appalachian weaving traditions, reminiscences of a post-war baseball league, and the network of southern schoolhouses that transformed the country’s educational landscape.

Tune this week in for conversations about innovative childcare solutions, Appalachian weaving traditions, reminiscences of a post-war baseball league, and the network of southern schoolhouses that transformed the country’s educational landscape.

45 Degrees North: Just Asking Questions This year, my part of rural northern Wisconsin got hit with a March blizzard that dropped 30-plus inches of fresh snow. That's a lot of weight on a roof. So as soon as the wind calmed down, we got out the roof rake – a long-handled tool used from ground level to scrape away snow on a roof. Removing even a portion of that snow to reduce the weight can help prevent a roof collapse.

At some point, sticking to safe topics feels like sticking your head in the sand. But you don't want to argue. Maybe the answer is to just ask questions.

EPA Launches a “Back-to-Basics” Blueprint to Help Rural Drinking Water Systems  The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) launched a technical assistance program for water infrastructure in early March 2026 designed to help rural communities update and repair aging water utilities and get into compliance with federal regulations. The program, called the Real Water Technical Assistance (RealWaterTA) initiative, rescinds a Biden-era memorandum that the Trump administration criticized for prioritizing storytelling and climate change mitigation projects rather than practical water infrastructure updates that could be more applicable to rural communities.

The new program rescinds a Biden-era policy that the Trump administration called “nebulous” and which prioritized projects less relevant to rural areas.

Finding Cow Horn School Mildred Trammell Elliott taught school for 46 years. She spent just over half of that span in Eastern Kentucky. Her arduous introduction to the profession at age 18 in 1929 came after just one year of college. The place, rough in terrain and reputation, was Cow Horn, in a very rural stretch of McCreary County west of the Big South Fork River.

Mark R. Elliott investigates the mystery of his mother’s one-room school in Eastern Kentucky.

RAWtools South Turns Guns Into Garden Tools In The Mountain South On a chilly spring morning in downtown Spruce Pine, North Carolina, a town of around 2,400 in the Blue Ridge Mountains, a double line of tents stood parallel to the railroad tracks, filled with people working at forges and anvils. The air reverberated with the hiss of gas forges and the rhythmic clanging of hammers striking metal. This was the 2025…

In Asheville, North Carolina, RAWtools South brings together blacksmiths, gun owners, and faith communities to transform surrendered guns into art.

Farm Bureau Plans Are a Less Pricey Alternative to ACA Coverage — With Trade-Offs This story is co-published with KFF Health News. Robin Carlton pays about $650 a month for a plan on the Missouri health insurance exchange that covers him and his two teenage kids. That monthly total is $200 higher than what he paid last year, due in part to the expiration in December of covid pandemic-era premium tax credits. But the self-employed St.

Fourteen states now allow health coverage through state farm bureaus. Though they generally share many features of Obamacare marketplace plans, they aren’t insurance. Neither are they typically subject to federal or state health insurance requirements, and the benefits may be less generous.

Yonder Radio: April 3, 2026 Every week, Yonder Radio brings rural conversations with national reach to listeners around the country. This week, we’ll hear about an innovative healthcare approach in rural Wisconsin that combines daycare with elderly care. Intergenerational care, as it’s called, has been shown to improve community connections along with wellbeing and social skills. We’re also talking rural representation in reality TV this week, breaking down the TLC show "Suddenly Amish," which follows six participants who leave their digital worlds and modern-day comforts behind to join an Amish community in Lancaster, Pennsylvania.

We're talking about intergenerational health care, rural remote workers, a 50-mile canoe journey down the Hudson River, and TLC's "Suddenly Amish" this week on Yonder Radio.

Commentary: Philanthropies Need to Invest and Build Roots in Rural America I grew up in rural America. My home county in South Dakota spans more than 2,800 square miles, larger than the state of Delaware, but its population density amounts to just one person per square mile. Imagine sharing the borough of Manhattan with only 22 fellow New Yorkers. Rural life comes with strengths and challenges. Distance shapes everything from access to healthcare to education to economic opportunity.

“If philanthropy wants rural insight at the table, it needs to make space at the table through remote work policies, satellite offices, and a commitment to hiring rural talent.”

‘No Kings 3’ Highlights What’s Changed in Rural Minnesota Thawing from a difficult winter, Minnesotans in small towns across the state joined the third wave of nationwide ‘No Kings’ protests Saturday, March 28. A lot had happened since they protested last October. Over the winter, the Trump administration launched a war with Iran, withheld Medicaid payments from Minnesota, and deployed thousands of ICE agents across the state…

With ICE in their communities, a war in Iran, and cost of living on the rise, residents in small Minnesota towns took to the streets.

“The Testament of Ann Lee” Shines Light on a Radical Religious Community Despite the Shakers’ penchant for simplicity (the hymn “Simple Gifts” is one of their best-known cultural contributions), “The Testament of Ann Lee” has a baroque sensibility. The film is a riot of movement, emphasizing the practice of ecstatic dance during worship that gave the Shakers their name.

Despite the Shakers’ penchant for simplicity (the hymn “Simple Gifts” is one of their best-known cultural contributions), “The Testament of Ann Lee” has a baroque sensibility. The film is a riot of movement, emphasizing the practice of ecstatic dance during worship that gave the Shakers their name.

Part 2: Hands-On Telehealth Helps Reach Rural Texas Communities  For some rural Texans, the closest link to a doctor may now be the local library. Across the state, libraries are helping residents, particularly older adults, access telehealth appointments and digital health tools in communities where clinics, broadband, and transportation remain limited. Telehealth has emerged as a key tool for improving health care access for older adults in rural communities, where long travel distances, physician shortages and higher rates of chronic illness are common.

In rural Texas, libraries offer a new access point for telehealth appointments and trusted, in-person support, especially for older people.

Rural Counties: New Arrivals Offset Natural Declines for Fifth Consecutive Year Editor’s Note: This post is from our data newsletter, the Rural Index, headed by Sarah Melotte, the Daily Yonder’s data reporter. Subscribe to get a weekly map or graph straight to your inbox. Thousands of people moved to rural America last year, resulting in the fifth year of continual population growth in nonmetropolitan counties, according to my analysis of new data from the…

Rural America would have lost population last year were it not for in-migration.

Commentary: I Never Thought I’d Participate This Much in Politics In the parking lot outside of City Hall, I Googled two questions: what’s a referendum and what’s a PAC? Digging for a pen under my car seat, I filled out the paperwork to form a political action committee, then promptly filed a referendum to veto my city council’s decision to sell 500 acres of recreational land to a data center developer in Page, Arizona.

Organizing against a data center in a small community provides an invaluable lesson in civics.

Part 1: Hands-On Telehealth Helps Reach Rural Texas Communities  A shipping container in Fort Davis is at the center of a new experiment in bringing telehealth to an aging rural population. Perched in the Davis Mountains of West Texas, Jeff Davis County faces steep barriers to care. Nearly one in five residents lacks reliable broadband. The only doctor in Fort Davis, the county seat, is semi-retired, and most people make the 30-minute drive to Alpine for care.

Rural innovation is reshaping the delivery of telemedicine to better serve aging populations.

Q&A: Bringing Agriculture Research and Education to New Hampshire Editor’s Note: This interview first appeared in Path Finders, an email newsletter from the Daily Yonder. Each week, Path Finders features a Q&A with a rural thinker, creator, or doer. Like what you see here? You can join the mailing list at the bottom of this article and receive more conversations like this in your inbox each week. Last month, I sat down with Anna Wallingford, the founder of the nonprofit, New Hampshire Community Supported Research (NHCSR), and a former U.S.

Anna Wallingford, founder of the nonprofit New Hampshire Community Supported Research, talks about her work at the USDA, losing her federal job, and hopes for her new organization.

Yonder Radio: March 27, 2026 Yonder Radio is a new, free, hour-long show that is fresh every week and designed to help fill programming gaps. We feature nuanced stories that represent the 60 million people who live in rural America, and the distinct communities they call home. Every week we bring rural conversations with national reach to listeners around the country. This week we start off with a Daily Yonder story about rural counties whose sheriffs are collaborating with ICE to increase immigration enforcement.

Yonder Radio is a new, free, hour-long show that is fresh every week and designed to help fill programming gaps. We feature nuanced stories that represent the 60 million people who live in rural America, and the distinct communities they call home.

45 Degrees North: 5 Big Tips About Rural Restaurants Most of us know someone who can be found daily (or even multiple times a day) at a rural restaurant: Retired farmers and widowers who breakfast at the place the rest of us call The House Of Knowledge. The new moms who meet up for coffee and complete sentences and leave quickly when naptime comes. The old couple who will take their noon meal at the corner table as long as one of them can drive.

Restaurants may not be plentiful out here, but they're important to rural communities. So let's not forget the challenges they face doing business in the boondocks.

Ozarks Notebook: A Non-Profit Running Two Clinics in the Ozarks Has an Unexpected Need–More Patients From monetary costs to physical proximity, receiving health care in the rural Ozarks – and beyond – can be challenging. In southwest Missouri, Dr. John Lorette explained to me how he is working to make it easier for people to cope with those realities. In 2018, the retired emergency physician founded Volunteers in Medicine Christian County, a nonprofit that cares for uninsured individuals who are 18 to 64 and live at or below 200% of the federal poverty level, which in 2025 was about $64,300 for a family of four, …

Sometimes getting the word out and the people coming can be harder than fundraising or organizing.