This is a tremendous harm to eorts to

engage Black men, and it should be seen as

a highly pressing issue for anyone concerned

with how we grow this demographic’s footprint

in electoral politics.

There are some continued hurdles in our

rural work as well. The biggest hurdle in

reaching Black men in rural areas is that many

donors don’t understand the importance of

this work. So many people only want to fund

voter registration and canvassing of Black men

in urban areas. We have to constantly make

the argument that rural spaces—in the South

especially—are Blacker percentage-wise than

our overall national population. The setback is

the false narrative about who rural voters are

and how they see the world. Rural Voters are

not a population that is against progress and

supports the status quo; instead, this population

has been underinvested in. The result is they

don’t show up for elections as no one has made

clear the value in voting.

WORK

P. 1 1