Beth Macy is an American journalist, author of five books including four national bestsellers Factory Man, Truevine, Dopesick, and Paper Girl. She is also running as the Democratic candidate for Virginia’s 6th congressional district. Brian Poindexter, a union ironworker and local councilman running for Congress in one of the most competitive working-class districts in America, Ohio’s 7th district joins the conversation.
Ethan Sweetland-May, a garbageman-turned-candidate for Indiana’s state senate seat, and Dr. Rashida Harrison, a working-class mom and a lifelong advocate for change who has lived and worked in Michigan’s 28th district for over 23 years. They both campaign for affordability and an economy that works for the people.
Highlights from two major brand-new messaging surveys: “Kitchen Table Messaging for the Populist Era,” a collaboration between RUBI and the Center for Working-Class Politics, shows how to hone kitchen table populist rhetoric and which popular-with-progressive narratives to avoid. In "Coalition Crisis," Joan Williams and Jared Abbott show that tapping working-class values, when combined with treating people with respect, can sharply increase working-class support on cultural and climate issues.
Rich brings a deeply personal perspective to this briefing. For years, he was a committed MAGA activist. But beginning in 2022, a series of events shook his convictions. Today, his work focuses on helping others who are questioning where they stand, and on teaching how to reach people across political divides without writing them off.
Join Alphecca Muttardy and Don Siefkes, as they describe efforts to create the National Infrastructure Bank (NIB), a $5 trillion public bank modeled on the New Deal era National Bank for Reconstruction and Development. The NIB will require no new federal spending or taxes and will invest $500 billion per year into infrastructure only. NIB is focused on covering rural infrastructure needs and is projected to create 20 million new high-paying jobs
Rural Democrats and liberals face at least three big challenges: a bad brand, opportunities for community engagement seem limited or intimidating and local Democratic Committees struggle, particularly to bring in new folks and young people.
Our new study analyzes the impact of our Community Works program as the solution to overcome these problems.
Erica Payne, Founder and President of Patriotic Millionaires, joins us to discuss The MONEY Agenda — a four-part policy package aimed at restructuring the tax code and wage floor to work for working people, not just the wealthy.
In this timely conversation, we explore new research on what’s often called “voter apathy” and uncover a different story: many people who don’t vote aren’t disengaged from their communities, they’re disengaged from a political system they experience as distant, unresponsive, and built for someone else.
What does it mean to run for office from a working-class background in rural America? This panel featured candidates who are challenging assumptions about who gets to lead and whose voices matter.
Panelist include: Nathan Sage (IA), Melissa Bird (OR), and Paul Nolley (IL)
Citizens' Assemblies bring together residents across lines of party and ideology to create home-grown, bottom-up solutions.
Join RUBI and Alejandro Salazar Executive Director of Unify Montrose in a discussion on collective problem-solving and how to put the "d" back in democracy.
This briefing presents a bold new strategy for states to use their long-standing authority to define the corporations they charter to no longer grant political-spending powers to their corporations, effectively making Citizens United irrelevant.
Barbara Kingsolver joined RUBI’s Anthony Flaccavento for a conversation about Appalachia, the challenges working people face every day, and her most recent book, Demon Copperhead. Barbara also discussed the concrete work she is doing to fight the drug epidemic in the region, and how those efforts have been joined by people across the ideological spectrum.
