Building An Alliance

What Summit Attendees Said

Democratic political leaders on the ground at the county level are the change makers and ears that help support our Leaders who are elected and making policy and legislation. The plan is to form an Alliance that is powerful and vocal about issues that are important to rural Michigan and our communities. Everyone’s ideas and suggestions will go toward future lobbying for change within our State. Everyone has an issue/needs that are important to them that the Rural Caucus feels needs to be addressed. Addressing the needs of rural families and rural communities with meaningful legislative action should be a priority. The Rural Caucus plans to have Legislative Days when community members get together to go to Lansing for a day and help lobby for issues. Indirect lobbying is important: phone calls, emails, letters, letters to the editors in local papers, postcards, social media etc.

Here Is What A Michigan Democratic Party County Chair Had To Say About The Summit

The first Rural Caucus Summit was held in Sault Ste. Marie on April 13th, lasted three days and was jammed packed with information with lots of networking opportunities. Approximately 150 county leaders from all over the state attended. It was nice to be around so many like-minded folks for a change! The days were filled with committee meetings on many different topics, and we were broken into groups to attend as many as we could.

I attended the Identity, Messaging and Communications, and Community Building talks and came back with many useful points. As our party grows in Lapeer County, we need to make conscientious decisions as to what our “brand” needs to look like. We need cohesive messaging to tag onto our brand to create a clear, concise, and memorable identity. Knowing the importance of a good identity is foundational to build up our party. And let’s face it; the Democratic Party has had a fractured identity while Republicans have been good at it. The pick-up truck flying the Trump flag in the back, the red MAGA hat. What do these images do to you? They give me a visceral reaction. It’s emotional. And it’s emotional for them also. It gives a sense of belonging, and it’s clearly powerful.

We need an identity. And we need messaging to tag onto it. The Democratic Party is more than a political party. We own values. We put people first. We’re pro women. We’re pro workers. We’re inclusive. We won’t storm the capitol! Whatever we come up with we need it and we need to stick to it.

The Community Building talk was very interesting. Topics ranged from creating and building liaisons with other allied organizations and how “power mapping” could help identify them, as well as establishing community strategic partnerships with local businesses. (I know, easier said than done!) We need to grow the relationships that we have with one another. Let’s get a bowling team together, or start a trivia team, it doesn’t always have to be all work and no play!

Zoom speakers from Senator Debbie Stabenow, Congresswoman Elissa Slotkin, and a number of other local and state leaders who were in attendance filled our breakfasts and dinners.

This Summit was well worth the drive. The Rural Readiness Grant Program will be valuable to us, as well as the many other resources that are available. The Rural Caucus meets every 2nd Monday of the month via Zoom and I assure you I will attend them.