Harvest the vote How Democrats can win again in rural America

Grassroots organizer and Nebraska Democratic Party chair Kleeb debuts with a savvy political strategy guide for Democrats looking to make inroads in rural communities that typically vote Republican. Noting that liberals and rural voters can find common ground on such issues as Medicare and Medicaid expansion, fighting climate change, and "end eminent domain for private gain," Kleeb suggests that Democrats can have success simply by showing up to rural towns and asking locals what's important to them. She also offers advice on how to respectfully agree to disagree on issues including guns, abortion, and immigration. Kleeb cites FDR's New Deal and the 1980s farm crisis as moments when urban Democrats advocated for rural communities, but her most inspiring example is the campaign to stop the Keystone XL Pipeline. National environmental groups, farmers, and Native Americans worked together, Kleeb writes, in a "David versus Goliath battle" that led to the Obama administration's 2015 rejection of the pipeline proposal. Kleeb's account is somewhat repetitive and might have worked just as well as a long-form essay; nevertheless, her advice is cogent and well-supported by both history and personal experience. Democrats hoping to win in the next election would be wise to take note. (Jan.)

A grassroots Democratic organizer suggests how rural and urban voters can find common ground on a variety of issues and perhaps wrest elective offices from the Republican Party.Though Kleeb's extended essay is candidly partisan, her overarching message often transcends political party and approaches why-can't-we-all-just-get-along territory. "At my coreis a desire," she writes, "more than anything, to have our country work for everyone, not just for a few people at the top." Using her personal life as an example in numerous extended passages, the author discloses how she morphed from someone who knew nothing about farming or ranching or Native American tribal land to someone happily married to a Nebraska man, living enthusiastically in a rural sector of the country. Currently, Kleeb is the chair of the Nebraska Democratic Party and founder of Bold Nebraska, a "grassroots advocacy group" that welcomes not just Democrats, but also Republicans, Independents, and even nonvoters. The author expresses alarm that outside of Nebraska, few federal policymakers understand the lives and challenges of farmers and ranchers. She illuminates how farmers of all political persuasions pulled together in the 1980s to descend on Washington, D.C., by way of a tractor brigade, which resulted in new legislation and government regulations ameliorating a farm crisis. Today, however, only one U.S. senator is an active farmer back home: Jon Tester, a Montana Democrat. As Kleeb notes, while helping organize rural residents against the massive Keystone XL energy pipeline project, she found common ground among unlikely allies. She wants to build similar alliances to bridge an urban-rural divide on other issues, including affordable health care, the abuse of eminent domain land grabs to undergird deleterious corporate projects, the looming extinctions of climate change, sensible gun control, and much more.The book contains twin delights: Kleeb's sensible approaches to bridge building and a pleasing, conversational writing style. Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.