Beyond Resistance
Reclaiming our nation for the workers who build it
In addition to resistance today, we need a strategy for winning the future tomorrow.
This isn’t about softening resistance, it’s about making it durable.
Movements win when people can imagine a life on the other side, not just an enemy to defeat. Economic justice isn’t a distraction from fighting authoritarianism. It’s how you make sure it doesn’t come back wearing a new name.
We’re stepping up to build a united front for working people everywhere.
Join us — not just to resist, but to repair, rebuild, and reclaim our future.
To preserve our democracy and to rebuild our fractured nation, we need to mobilize a much broader and more diverse base of people, including rural and working-class people across race and geography.
To do this, we must offer a compelling vision that addresses the grievances of rural communities and working-class people.
Why Go Beyond Resistance? To Build Power, Not Just Opposition.
The Trump administration’s unprecedented attack on constitutional rights, critical government services, and human decency has galvanized an urgent and coordinated resistance movement. Millions of people have turned out for marches and protests as part of this resistance, contributing to a significant decline in Trump’s popularity and support.
However, Trump’s losses have not translated to Democratic gains. The opposition party remains unpopular with nearly three fourths of Americans.
How do we transform this moment of resistance into a lasting movement for justice, solidarity, and renewal?
Beyond Resistance has four pillars:
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In addition to advocating for immigrants, LGBTQ, and other vulnerable groups, build a broader coalition by addressing grievances of rural & working people.
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Help dispel the belief that rural America is dying - a misconception that helps justify underinvestment in and neglect of these communities by both parties.
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Prioritize policies that level the playing field for workers, farmers, small business, and consumers. The Rural New Deal is based on tested, locally-driven solutions.
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Community Works is a national network of chapters that are led by local volunteers who work side-by-side with neighbors to address concrete local needs.
Learn more
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Over the first six months of the resistance, millions of people have gathered to protest and fight back against many of the destructive actions and policies of the Trump Administration. While there has been a necessary focus on the treatment of immigrants, transgender people, federal workers, Medicaid and SNAP recipients and other vulnerable groups, there has been scant attention paid to the harms being done to unions and union workers, farmers, small businesses, factory workers facing job loss and rural communities more broadly.
Some may say, “They’re getting what they voted for,” but where has that thinking gotten the left? Or we can recognize that these communities have seen contracts cancelled, jobs lost and debts accumulating. Many of them voted for Trump because he promised to transform a system rigged against them. We must make un-rigging the system, not just saving it, the centerpiece of our protests.
This is easily remedied: Make working and rural folks as central to signs, protest themes, social media posts, articles, zoom calls and webinars, and letters to the editor as the vulnerable people already being lifted up. Trump has largely ignored, abandoned or actively hurt many of the very people and communities who supported him, especially their abilities to make a living. We must make this central to our messaging if we hope to build a broad enough base to defeat him.
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Many people on the left are unaware of the thousands of “success stories” that are taking place across much of rural America. These range from economic revitalization and new jobs in formerly coal-dependent regions, to effective mobile and community health care initiatives to farmer-led networks that are building new markets and expanding access to healthy food. Building awareness and understanding of these success stories allows us to devise better policies to support and expand them. It also helps steer investment into these successful enterprises, and their communities, from both public and private sources. And it demonstrates a commitment to many to address the very grievances which many rural and working-class people share.
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Since Trump assumed power and began attacking and dismantling countless federal programs, Democrats and others on the left have fought to protect the agencies, workers and programs being slashed. This is critically important. Unfortunately, this approach has also positioned the left in the role of defending the status quo, of arguing to maintain or return to the system that millions of Americans believe has failed them. As Congressman Ro Khanna has said, “The alternative to Mr. Trump cannot be a defense of institutions as they are. We need to stand for national renewal…by offering transformative solutions to deliver future prosperity for all Americans.”
While fighting to save or protect critical federal programs, the left must also put forth a clear, compelling and far-reaching platform to “un-rig” the system and level the playing field for working people, rural communities and Americans more widely. The Rural New Deal provides an example of one such platform we should be publicly supporting or considering.
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Mistrust - of liberals, Democrats, “experts” and the government - is extraordinarily wide and deep in rural and working class communities. While better policies for and communications with the people in these places is critical, the most essential challenge we face is rebuilding trust. To do this, groups of liberals, progressives and Democrats have started working regularly to solve problems in their local communities, usually side-by-side with their more conservative neighbors as well as a range of civic groups, churches, businesses and others. This “Community Works” strategy, underway now in five states, is rebuilding that lost trust through deeds rather than words. In the process, rural Democrats are seeing new energy, more volunteers, and a new approach to winning support for their ideas.
Our Partners
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Congressman Ro Khanna
“I’m proud to stand with the Beyond Resistance campaign in their fight for working-class Americans. This administration has abandoned working families and rural America by cutting Medicaid and food assistance while handing out tax breaks to the ultra-wealthy. It’s time to come together and fight for policies that work for all Americans.”
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Rural Democracy Initiative
“Rural and working people from all walks of life are getting hit hardest by the policies of this administration. We need their voices and vision in the fight for a better deal.” —Sarah Jaynes, Executive Director
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Center for Working Class Politics
"The Beyond Resistance campaign is exactly what we need right now: a clear call-out of the empty promises the Trump administration has made to American workers, coupled with a credible, forward-looking vision for helping working-class people and rural America—a vision sorely missing from both major parties.” —Jared Abbott, Director
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Progressive Democrats of America
“Trump's policies show that, in spite of his campaign rhetoric, he doesn't give a damn about the lives of working class and rural Americans. In sharp contrast, the policies promoted by the Beyond Resistance campaign address the top concerns of these Americans and will improve their lives. Without this component of tangible hope that life for the majority of Americans will improve, it's unlikely that the "resistance" can reverse Trump's authoritarian putsch. The inclusion of a policy program that centers the interests of working- and middle-class and rural Americans will take us Beyond Resistance to victory!” —Alan Minsky, Executive Director
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RuralOrganizing.org
“For 15 years, Donald Trump has defined rural politics—now it's time to turn the page and start a new chapter, one that is not defined just by resistance, but also resilience. Rural communities deserve leaders who focus on solutions, unity, and a future where everyone can thrive. The era of division is ending. It’s time for rural Americans—not billionaires or pundits—to lead the way in building a stronger, more united, and more prosperous future for all.” —Matt Hildreth, Executive Director
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Public Citizen
“We defend democracy, resist corporate power, and fight to ensure that government works for the people – not big corporations.”
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American Family Voices
“American Family Voices has long advocated for the Democratic Party to do more than just oppose Donald Trump. Democrats need to fight strongly for an economic program that makes working families lives better and takes on corporate power, which is why we are delighted to support coalitions fighting for that kind of an agenda.”
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Rust Belt Rising
“Rust Belt Rising is proud to partner with RUBI to organize and build power around our shared values: making life easier for working people. As an organization with a laser-like focus on pocketbook issues, we know the way forward is with a strategy and coalition to fight and win for workers - from the assembly line to the farm field.” —Katrina Shankland, Executive Director
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The New Populist
“There's never been a more important time for the Left to connect with rural and working class voters. RUBI is doing essential work to link these two worlds and launch a movement that builds genuine working class political representation.”
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No Dem Left Behind
“At No Dem Left Behind we are working to ensure that people in power finally put the people over the politics. It is time to fight for the change we so desperately need in our country.”
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Democratic Strategist
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The Policy Pulse
“I’m proud to stand with the Beyond Resistance campaign. Eastern Kentucky has seen jobs vanish with coal’s decline, families struggle for healthcare and addiction treatment, and communities left out of investments in education, broadband, and infrastructure. Yet our representatives have failed to act. We need policies that put our people first -creating opportunity, strengthening healthcare, education, and securing a future here in the mountains of Kentucky.” — Ronnie Collins
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Field Team 6
'"Field Team 6 is mounting the biggest in-person voter registration campaign in history in order to save our democracy. By turning rural voices, working class voices, diverse voices into votes, we will make this democracy work for all of us.”
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Missouri Democratic Party Rural Caucus
“The Missouri Democratic Party Rural Caucus is proud to stand with the Beyond Resistance campaign. Rural voices deserve real power, lasting investment, and a seat at every decision-making table. Together with the Rural Urban Bridge Initiative, we're fighting for policies that uplift working families, defend democracy, and build a future where every community can thrive.”
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Progressive Democrats of America Central New Mexico
"New Mexico is a beautiful multicultural state where people have a deep respect for long-standing customs and traditions, but our communities are being divided and weakened by forces beyond our control. PDA-CNM and many others understand the need to heal these divisions by lifting up the voices and stories of rural New Mexicans. We are eager to move beyond the current finger-pointing and actually build a strong movement encompassing all New Mexicans who want a livable future for our families."
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The Rural Impact
"The Rural Impact Podcast was founded on the basic premise that all roads to quality of life are paved by policy. Rural-serving organizations, their work, their funding, their institutions, and those they serve are facing unprecedented threats, driven by policies that prioritize urban Americans over rural Americans, leaving them behind. From health care to education, from actions on climate to addressing homelessness and food security, rural economies, tariffs, and immigration, we support those who are working to advance rural policy firmly rooted in equity and with the understanding that when rural fails, all of the U.S. falter."
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Indiana Rural Summit
“At the Indiana Rural Summit, we hold true to our motto: E Pluribus Unum—Out of Many, One. We are transforming our gerrymandered districts into a grassroots coalition of candidates, community leaders, and neighbors—creating lasting change so that rural and small-town communities are never left behind. We proudly support the Beyond Resistance campaign because their values and vision align with our own to turn isolation into coalition, empowering every Hoosier to have a voice, a vote, and a future with dignity and opportunity.”
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Galvanize Action
“Galvanize Action uses research-backed approaches to engage ideologically-moderate women, particularly white women (the single largest voting bloc in the country) living in rural, small town, and suburban communities. We support our audience to align their values with their civic behavior, strengthening their active involvement in standing up for our democracy. We are proud to be a part of the Rural Urban Bridge Initiative’s Beyond Resistance campaign, giving voice to millions of rural and working-class Americans who so often don’t have a seat at the table.”
