Chloe Maxmin - Dirt Road Revival: How to Rebuild Rural Politics and Why Our Future Depends On It

Dirt Road Revival is exactly what you want it to be: a fast-moving political road trip, through the winding back roads of deep-red rural America to a joyful destination that will have you leaping to your feet and lunging for the collection plate. Maxmin and Woodward share the driving as generously as their hard-won wisdom. Along the way, they lay out a detailed and powerful map for transforming electoral campaigning in the United States. If enough insurgent politicians follow them down the road theyre traveling, it could lead to a progressive super-majority across the country.

NAOMI KLEIN, author of On Fire and The Shock Doctrine

In a story told with urgency and passion, Maxmin and Woodward offer a practical playbook for anyone who wants to get into politics to achieve a better future for those who have been left behind. They show us that rural communities are moral communities that respond more to personal stories and values over policies. Building trusting relationships is the key, and this takes time and effort and demands humility and a willingness to learn, but the future of American politics depends on it. The Democratic Partyindeed, all Americamust take heed, and Dirt Road Revival offers us a path forward. This is a wonderful, powerful bookand one of the most hopeful Ive read about a possible future for American politics.

ROBERT B. REICH, former US secretary of labor and author of Saving Capitalism: For the Many, Not the Few

Rural white America has gone red. So how do two rural-born, Harvard-educated, Bernie-minded activistsone the candidate, one her campaign managerwin big in the most rural county in the nations most rural state? And how might others do the same? Knock on many doors. Get up potluck suppers. Listen more than talk. Recycle old campaign signs. Talk about climate change as hurting winter ice fishing on the lakes. Dont write off people who voted for Donald Trump. This is a beyond-timely tough-love letter to the Democratic Party, helpful, consequential, brilliant. Read it and pass the book and message onquickly!

ARLIE HOCHSCHILD, author of Strangers in Their Own Land: Anger and Mourning on the American Right

Chloe and Canyon did not win because they knew it allthey won because they listened to and believed in rural voters and the stories they told them at the doors and along the many dirt roads they traveled. Dirt Road Revival explains how we got here as a partylosing ground every cycleand the road we can take to start connecting with rural voters again. Its our job as Democrats not to come in with capes but rather to do exactly what Dirt Road Revival lays out: deeply care about the voters you are looking in the eye, advocate with them, and never back down from a fight. It is exactly that fighting spirit that earns respect from rural folks and starts to win back their hearts and their votes.

JANE KLEEB, author of Harvest the Vote: How Democrats Can Win Again in Rural America

As someone whos spent almost his whole life in rural America, both red and blue counties, Im not sure Ive read a more loving and realistic account of dirt road country. And as someone with a keen interest in American politics, Im certain Ive never read a more gripping (and practical) account of how to win elections than Dirt Road Revival. Not many political books make you both weep a little and then stand up and cheerbut this will!

BILL MCKIBBEN, author of The Flag, the Cross, and the Station Wagon: A Graying American Looks Back at His Suburban Boyhood and Wonders What the Hell Happened

If bridge builders like Chloe and Canyon could be cloned, rural America would experience a political renaissance. Their empathetic, homespun politics as unusual depicted in Dirt Road Revival is exactly what our country needs.

ERICA ETELSON, cofounder of the Rural Urban Bridge Initiative and author of Beyond Contempt: How Liberals Can Communicate Across the Great Divide

Dirt Road Revival offers a unique and compelling blend of rigorous research, political expertise, and personal storytelling. Maxmin and Woodward open up about their own experiences and adventures, showing their passion for rural America and the people who sustain it, generation after generation. Dirt Road Revival builds bridges across fractious political divides, combining clear-eyed, practical reasoning with honest assessment and empathetic observation. This book will inspire readers to believe in the possibility of rural revival and motivate them to act now.

JENNIFER M. SILVA, author of Were Still Here: Pain and Politics in the Heart of America

For our communities. For our homes.

The headlines indicated something unprecedented taking place on the dirt roads of Maine. In November 2018, Katrina vanden Heuvel, editorial director at The Nation, wrote in the Washington Post of the surprise winner of a Maine election: Her victory stands out even more because of where she was able to win: in a district that contains the most rural county in Americas most rural state. Two years later, the Bangor Daily News front page announced Maine Democrats Oust Top GOP Lawmaker as Republicans Erode House Majority in Mixed Election. Presenting its 2020 Buster Douglas Award, named after Douglass surprise boxing upset over Mike Tyson, the Daily News, Maines second-largest newspaper wrote, This year it goes to Chloe Maxmin for taking out Maine Senate Minority Leader Dana Dow.... Not since 1992 has an incumbent Senate leader been knocked out.

In 2018 and again in 2020, candidate Chloe Maxmin and campaign manager Canyon Woodward, two mid-twenties climate activists raised in rural red America, won grassroots campaigns in conservative rural districts where Democrats struggle to get elected. Chloe became the youngest woman in the Maine House of Representative in 2018. Two years later, she became the youngest woman state senator in Maines history.

This book tells our story and lessons learned on the campaign trail. From the beginning, we approached our campaigns determined to figure out a new theory and practice for a Democratic resurgence in rural America. Weve watched since 2009 as the Democratic Party abandoned rural Americansour communitiesallowing the rural vote to trend red, with little effort to stop the bleeding. The 2016 presidential election made clear that the consequences of these choices have produced an existential threat to American democracy, plainly illustrated in Donald Trumps ascendancy and the 2021 US Capitol attack. Rural red districts like the ones that we grew up in have become a decisive force swinging national politics toward an extreme right-wing agenda. Reuniting our country depends on forging a new political paradigm for Democrats in rural America.

Since 2018, we have chronicled each step of the learning process as our methods and beliefs are tested every day against the tough realities of Maines dirt roads. Our aim has not been just to win and create change but also to learn. Our conversations with Maines rural voters educated us. Shake enough hands and the hands shake youeach one a teacher. We let our campaigns transform us. We emerged from two campaigns and four years of lawmaking with a powerful, credible, honest, practical, detailed, and dirt roadtested playbook to share with you.