The RegenNarration Podcast
The RegenNarration podcast features the stories of a generation that is changing the story, enabling the regeneration of life on this planet. It’s ad-free, freely available and entirely listener-supported. You'll hear from high profile and grass-roots leaders from around Australia and the world, on how they're changing the stories we live by, and the systems we create in their mold. Along with often very personal tales of how they themselves are changing, in the places they call home. With award-winning host, Anthony James.
The RegenNarration Podcast
228 Extra. Q&A after the Rural Runners film screening in West Virginia
This is a bonus extra to episode 228, featuring the Q&A that took place after the film screening of Rural Runners in the Shepherdstown Opera House, West Virginia. That award-winning film is the story of Chloe Maxmin’s incredible community-based electoral wins in Maine from episode 225. By Chloe’s side every step of the way was her best mate, and then campaign manager, Canyon Woodward, with Canyon’s parallel rise as a champion ultra-distance runner woven into the story. After this screening, Canyon hosted a conversation alongside three local candidates at the upcoming elections, who had each been through the program that Chloe and Canyon subsequently founded, called Dirtroad Organising.
You’ll hear from Lucia Valentine and Maria Russo (my 2 guests in the main episode), alongside Canyon, and the other local candidate in the room that day, Troy Miller. And we hear about some of the other candidates and their experiences across the country, too, including in the so-called ‘battleground’ states.
If you’ve come here first, tune into the main episode with Lucia and Maria, ep228 ‘Grassroots Transformation in Rural West Virginia: Breaking the Political Mold with Lucia Valentine & Maria Russo’.
You’ll find a few links in the show notes as usual, along with transcripts, and a few photos on the episode web page, with more for subscribing members.
This episode has chapter markers and a transcript.
Recorded (on the phone in the audience!) 13 October 2024.
Title slide image: Maria Russo, Troy Miller, Lucia Valentine & Canyon Woodward (pic: Anthony James).
See more photos on the website, and for more from behind the scenes, become a subscribing member via the links below.
Music:
By Jeremiah Johnson.
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Oh yeah, oh yeah, let's give it up again for the stars of the film and everybody involved in the campaigns that Canyon and Chloe helped run. So, canyon, come on up. Lucia, whoever else, we're going to say a few words and then we want to talk with you all and have a little bit of a discussion of what we just saw. That film is incredibly profound. I looked around, I teared up a few times. I looked around the room, saw some other people tearing up, and so we just want to give a huge thank you to everybody in this movement. I think the film really goes far to show us that it's not about any one of us.
Maria:It's really about all of us. So I'm going to let Canyon here kick it off. I did want to say Chloe was supposed to be here with us today too, but she had family thing come up, which we totally understand, so she was here canvassing with us yesterday but she sent her regards to everyone that she had to leave early, but she is here with us in spirit too.
Canyon:Thank you. Yeah, I guess all the credit to my brother for u. He's just an incredible filmmaker, as you can see, and didn't have any funding to make this or anything. It's just like y'all are doing something cool and I want to come up there and yeah yeah, I think when, I guess yeah, as maria was alluding to.
Canyon:Like, the point of this is to plant seeds when, when, we set out on this journey we felt like there was not a ton by the way of a roadmap for young progressives, especially in rural small towns like we grew up in, and so I wanted to try and plant some of those seeds. I'm embarrassed to say it. I remember two weeks before Chloe decided to run for office, she came down to visit me in North Carolina I was 24. She was 25 at the time. She was like was like. You know, we were both involved with climate activism and policy at the time. She was like we should run for office and I was like, yeah, maybe in a few cycles we're in our early 20s, but that that was just my mindset.
Canyon:I didn't see people running and so, yeah, I feel like the storytelling's important Tell, shout to the rooftops what Maria and Lucia are doing and other folks who are on the ground doing. In my opinion, troy, who is these folks are doing. I think I also want to impress upon you like, oh my gosh, what they are giving of themselves right now, in the past year, is really impossible to fathom without fully being in your shoes. So, thank you all, thank you all for what you're doing. I think it's some of the most important work that's being done in the democracy spaces going out into these small towns and connecting with the community. So thank you all.
Audience:Thank you. Thank you, can I ask a question real quick? Yes, were your family and friends affected by the floods?
Canyon:Oh, thanks for asking. All my family and friends were really fortunate. Okay, good Did okay.
Audience:Yeah, thanks yeah.
Lucia:Yes, everybody can hear us, and that's okay. My name is A Valentine. I'm also running for House of Delegates alongside Maria. And I just kind of want to give a little back story about the film how we met Chloe and Canyon, how we all got connected and why we thought it was important to bring this message to our town and to our supporters. So credit to Hilary Lowe for sharing the film with me. Hilary was here. She was at the Constitution Film Festival. She was like this film has been submitted to us. You need to watch this.
Lucia:I think you know I've heard that you want to run for office, you really need to see this, and so, of course, after watching the film, I was immediately like, okay, I'm running from this. I'm in with this.
Lucia:And it was the first time that I really saw anyone doing what I kind of imagined myself doing or what my community needed, that, that type of leadership and that type of campaign. You know, we're in a deep red supermajority state right now, and to imagine myself as a young woman Democrat running for office is kind of like where do I even start? How do I get the support? What does that look like? And so, watching this film and then reading their book they also have a book on the race that you should check out Dirt Road Revival it really was just the first kind of semblance of guidance and structure that I saw for how it is possible for someone like myself to run for office, and so I'm really really grateful for their amazing storytelling and that we got connected and seeing you know, the book in the movie and so around the time that I saw the film after, after I watched it, I was like, okay, I need to learn more about these folks.
Lucia:I need to you know, find them on social media, follow them, see what they're up to now, and so I did a quick Google search and saw that they had just launched Dirt Road Organizing, which is now a candidate training cohort organization that they have put together to help train other candidates across the country.
Lucia:And so it was really serendipitous and perfect timing We've all talked about this that the organization was launching right around the time that we were deciding to run for office, so we immediately applied to be a part of their first cohort. MARIA: Lucia was their first application ever! LUCIA:, so super, super sweet. So applied to work with them and train with them and my cohort was last fall.
Lucia:We worked from like October to December somewhere along the lines and then have had their support on the campaign trail ever since. So, Maria, if you want to kind of speak to your experience, maybe talk a little bit about what Dirt Road Organizing is doing and how they've kind of transitioned from Chloe running for office and serving into now helping to train up other candidates across the country.
Lucia:MARIA:
Lucia:My name is Maria Russo. I'm running in District 100, which includes this space right here, and so my good friend . Lucia sent me the film after Hillary had sent it to her, so it was like a chain of wildfires and she said you've got to watch this. I think I'm going to run for office. She had already convinced me to come down to Charleston and help advocate at the Capitol which we did together and so.
Lucia:I then I got the juice flowing too. I was like alright we're doing this.
Lucia:But at the time I applied um, thinking that I was going to be on Lucia's team as staff. So okay, we've got to help get you elected. And then she was like, but what if you ran too? And I was like what a lot of people were trying to get folks to run, folks to get involved, folks to step up. So it was within the same month that I applied for Dirt Road to work as staff. I said all right, actually.
Lucia:I emailed Chloe and Canyon. I said, hey, I've got to switch my application from staff to candidate because I've decided to run too. They were like awesome, that's even better. So I actually did the cohort directly following Lucia, so she did the fall cohort and then I did the winter cohort and I think the most profound piece of that- group, so it was about 15 people or so 10, 15, and it was from all over the country. It was folks doing rural organizing all across the US and so I was a West Virginia candidate we had people from Vermont and Pennsylvania and Minnesota, and so many - Tennessee - so many states.
Lucia:So we come together on these zoom calls and we talk about the messaging challenges that we were facing, or how we're talking about being Democrats in fairly red spaces and how we were using certain keywords or avoiding others. And it was so interesting to see how, across the geographic spaces, we were from such different communities. But we had so much in common and we were finding these roots of support.
Lucia:I was like oh my gosh, you're facing that same challenge. You're so many hundreds of miles away from me, but we're facing the exact same thing and we were able to support one another and I want to shout out. Troy, who I think is going to come up and say a few words and introduce himself too, but he did the cohort directly following mine, so he did the spring cohort so we've been represented in West Virginia, of all three cohorts so far, for a dirt road, and then Amanda Vincent, who is also running in house, district 88.
Lucia:Thank you, okay 88. She did the cohort with Lucia as well, and so we've kind of been well represented in this space thanks to just the network and community that came from the film festival and conversations. And just to close out my piece I'll just say before we take some questions from you all is I think that's at the root of what we're doing so much of what we've been fighting for these last 10 months. What you all can see so clearly in that film is it's all about relationships.
Lucia:We have our parents here in the rooms, we have our neighbors, we have people we've grown up alongside and this is really what community looks like is all these people in the room and all the people who can't be in this room with us here today for various reasons or aren't right? So, then, speaking up on behalf of those folks too and making sure that we are really in this movement all together and that we're lifting up everybody as we continue to move forward, to try to make positive change. So thank you again to Canyon for traveling to be here with us, thank you to Lucia for telling me about dirt road and bringing it back here to our hometown, and thank you all for being part of the movement too part of the movement too.
Canyon:Yeah, we'd love to roll in a second into any comment or questions folks have from the audience.
Canyon:I think before that, just a real quick zoom out on Dirtroad, which is flipping the page on the film. But we experienced so many dynamics both within the party and outside of our own party that gave us the feeling that there's really a need all over the country for more investment in rural campaigns. When we were in high school, koi and I, the partisan lean amongst rural Americans, was dead, even as recently as 2009, which is wild, um Obama's. You know rural has always underperformed for presidentials, but Obama's 2008 campaign, amazing grassroots effort, was a high watermark for presidents in this century and since then there's been huge disinvestment in organizing and campaigning in rural spaces. So we desperately, desperately need more folks to run and be present and be going door to door, having those conversations and building trust in these communities. So if we can be a small wind in the sails and share any of the lessons that we've learned through doing that, that's our goal. Before we go in the Q&A, I'd love to bring Troy up, if you're up for it yes, it's nice to meet you in person.
Troy:Finally, um, and I think I'm the summer cohort properly, but I am. My name is troy miller. I'm running in district 98, which is probably, in jefferson county, the most rural of the district, of the rural districts we have. Um, yesterday I spent all day middleweight day, which is, you know, probably the biggest event for my district for this run, and then I went to the Breeders Classic to make sure that I'm standing up for the horsemen, because that is such a big part of this district.
Troy:One thing I'll say about the organizing cohort is that, while this has all been about young people running, getting up and running, my cohort, for instance, had people of all ages all over the country, first-time candidates, bringing just the same amount of energy as any of us could possibly bring, and so I absolutely want to encourage anybody who thinks that, oh, our politicians aren't working for us.
Troy:It doesn't matter what your age is. You could probably do a better job than them, and I encourage you to take all of this that you're hearing today. I don't have much more else to say beyond all that, except for thank you all for coming out, thank you all for supporting Maria and Lucia and the efforts of your organizing and myself I will leave it with this is I know whether I win or lose on November 5th. I'm going to be running this campaign again in two years and that's how we need to be thinking about all of this. It does not end on November 5th. It starts basically November 6th, talking to your friends and holding whoever wins to account. We all have a role to play in this, whether we're elected or staffed or just concerned citizens trying to work the levers of power and make them work for us.
Canyon:Awesome. Thank you so much, troy. Strongest retweet possible on that mentality. T hat was for us going in. You're like this district. There's a very low chance of real illness, and it's about getting out there and organizing. A ny, any comments or questions, jokes?
Audience:Is Dirtroad Organizing getting any funding - are you doing that as a full-time job now?
Canyon:Yeah.
Audience:I mean, is it getting funding from the party?
Canyon:Not. We are a non-partisan organization. It's a C4, so it's a nonprofit. They can do political activity, so we screen based on values and issue areas, and so we work with progressives. We get grant funding and then individual contributions are the way that we're able to work directly with candidates, which most organizations do not do because of campaign finance laws. We we can't use. I don't need to go into the weeds of that we can't use grant funding for that.
Canyon:so we were able to find individuals who have been really generous in sponsoring the training for the individual candidates, so that we can work directly with them without being fired or pulled off, like most organizations are.
Audience:I'm curious about something you three, what kind of support do you guys get from, say, our state Democrats, our county Democrats? And I mean primarily financial? Do you guys get any assistance from our groups here in West Virginia? I have no idea.
Lucia:Yes, we have. You know, I'm running in one of the only districts that is dual county, so been really gracious. Grateful to receive support from the Berkeley County Executive Committee and Jefferson County Executive Committee by way of a donation to support our campaigns.
Lucia:I think, that overall, we kind of all went into running for office knowing that this is a multi-year effort of trying to build back our Democratic Party and presence in West Virginia, and so I think we were all really conscious also of the need to build infrastructure around our campaigns outside of the party. So build infrastructure around our campaigns outside of the party so that we're not, all you know, relying on one, you know person or group to help us get elected and so I think you know our county parties and state party are full of, you know, dedicated folks who really want to help move our state forward.
Lucia:We really made grateful for that, but I think that's part of the challenge for candidates right now is there's not a lot of infrastructure in place because we don't have a lot of democratic leadership in the state, and so Maria and Troy may have more to add, but I know they both work on the state executive committee so they're kind of more tied into the party. But I think I'm really grateful for the support that we have gotten and we're really interested in using these campaigns to help build back party support.
Lucia:MARIA:Yeah
Lucia:, I would second a lot of that. We we have received contributions from the Democratic Association and the Democratic Executive Committee or that's penance in the it's in the process sometimes it's difficult because we haven't been able to get support for them throughout the campaign, because they wait to see how much support they receive from members to then be able to say here's how much we have, and we're going to split it across all of the campaigns evenly. So I know like their contributions, for example, came a lot later than some of the contributions we needed to really get our campaigns going, and so that's a little bit of a push and a pull, but I would say it's both and we do get support.
Lucia:and also, like Lucia said, the support, the amount of support we've needed, is much larger than the current infrastructure can really support. So it's been up to us to build a volunteer base and to build the infrastructure really within our own campaigns, to be like okay, how do we formulate door knocking, how do we formulate phone banking, how do we formulate all of these pieces which none of us have ever done before? We've maybe helped on various campaigns, but we're all first-time candidates most of the change candidates that you see out in Jefferson County right now our first-time candidates, which is amazing. And also we're all doing this for the first time so I know we've gone to dirt road a lot.
Lucia:They've provided us with a lot of that infrastructure support. So I guess my point is, yes, we've received some support and also we've had to look other places because there's so many pieces to organize and so it's much larger than any, than any one entity.
Audience:I was thinking about that in the beginning of the film where you were talking about how so many people, especially in the red areas, just feel like they've been abandoned, and certainly on your level too. I've seen so many candidates come and go since I've lived here and I've often wondered. I've seen some young people stand up and they're like they don't know how to talk to a group, or surely they're getting some help. So kudos to those, to what you're doing.
Canyon:Yeah yeah, there are a lot more out there and also we need so many more. You know, all of us find ing what little thing we can do and make that add up to as much as possible.
Audience:Well done, thank you, we're so excited for you.
Audience:What is your biggest need right now? For some on-ground canvassing?
Lucia:Yeah, I think for me definitely Canvas and volunteer help. We have about like a 3,000 household persuadable universe that we're chugging along at. So you know the next three weeks is three weeks for me is going to be canvassing almost every night. So if anyone in the community wants to come out and help us, we have lots of shifts that you can plug into.
Audience:Is that true for both of you as well?
Troy:Yeah, and if you know people in district 98, if you know your neighbors in there, talk to them and get them, you know, out. And again, the rural districts are the most challenging because while there are some neighborhoods that I can head and ransom especially, there's lots of long driveways that we don't necessarily and I speak as somebody who lives on seven acres I don't like when somebody comes out.
Maria:Same for us. I mean, people come down our driveway. We're like who's here? We were not expecting anyone right, and so I think part of what our challenge is right now is like yes, absolutely, we're canvassing as much as we can, we're pouring on the persuasion game, especially in those more walkable neighborhoods or neighborhoods where you can get house to house to house. But then the other question becomes how do we reach the people who we aren't going to reach that way? Because, I will be honest, I have been kicked off porches right, which probably doesn't convince anyone in the room to want to come canvass with us but you should, you should come back, it's super fun.
Maria:Most of the time we're really well received. But a few of the times people say to me I don't want you on my property, and I think it's more of a private property thing than even a values thing, because we haven't even gotten to that conversation right. It's just like they don't want you in their space. And so then how do we reach those folks? Is it mailers, is it text messages? Or are they totally disillusioned to the point that we aren't going to reach them? And those are like the big questions we're asking right now.
Maria:If anybody has insight on reaching any folks in communities. We're here for it.
Troy:Yeah, that's where the relationship building, that we can only do so much as candidates. And if the sort of civic trust among neighbors is so broken that we can't talk to each other, then it becomes an insurmountable goal for us to not insurmountable, but just very difficult. And so I also know we have a bunch of town hall and debates coming up on various different dates and things like this, and people coming out to those having friendly faces in the audience, telling your friends and family about that, recording clips and putting them on social media. All of these types of things. Whatever you think of that you can do that might help get the word out,
AJ:As an australian following this story from over there and then being keen to zero in on in this election year as to how it's playing out, i t's magnificent to see this and to be here with you. Cany y on, I'm wondering if it's fair to say that the four years you and Chloe spent with those two runs and two terms took a toll? A nd obviously you you go to the burnout factor in the film too. But I'm wondering, in the wake of that four years of experience and with these guys posturing to move into it, how you deal with that in the program potentially?
Canyon:Yeah yeah, If folks can hear at the back. There's a question about the toll that running and running again in a tough district and serving takes, and you know, I think that's.
Canyon:I wish Chloe was here to answer that because she could do it much better than me, but I think the long and the short of it is that, especially as a young person, as a young woman, stepping into that role is really hard without a community around you, and so that was yeah, that was really hard for her. The leadership was super toxic within her own party, let alone going back to her community and being there in the community and really connecting deeply. She knocked over 20,000 doors, going and talking to folks and having those hard conversations with folks who weren't in your own party, and so that was a lot of inspiration for Dirt Bearers like how can we, how can we try and build some semblance of community and relationships amongst, like, other folks who like really get it or are really in it for campaigning or serving and be that support network for each other so that we're not just isolated in there.
Audience:Okay, so we have three weeks left, a little over three weeks, right? Not telling you, I'm one of the dads.
Maria:We'll leave you guessing, yeah.
Audience:So, in my experience, fine. Okay, we're down to three weeks now. The fundraisers have been held, the mailers are already in the queue, the meet and greets are winding down.
Audience:Thank goodness right, it's like two a day, but thank people for helping with meet and greets Now over three weeks. The issue is how do you gain maximum visibility in a relatively ex-urban or rural community? And the way you do that, I think, is through signage, through t-shirts, through groups of people standing going to the farmers market. We had a farmers market today. Wouldn't it have been great if there were ten people with Troy Miller shirts on at that farmer's market?
Audience:Any big events that are happening over the next three weeks, we should be proud to wear our Lucia, valentine, maria, russo, troy Miller paraphernalia and show up proud and do some sign waving the day of the election and do some sign waving down at the courthouse between now and then. That's about the best way to reach a lot of people in a short amount of time because, believe it or not, there are still a lot of voters. They don't know what any of these positions even do in the real world and they go into the ballot box not even knowing who they're gonna vote for. They don't know what district they're in. They don't even know what district they're in Exactly.
Maria:They hear us say the numbers and that means nothing.
Audience:So if you just want to go down to the courthouse between now and November 5th and wear a t-shirt, that would be helpful. Or stand at the corner of 340 and something in a careful spot. That would be very helpful, that's things we can all do, and I do, and I think our next layer of friends out there would be willing to do that as well.
Lucia:Yeah, and to piggyback off of that, I have Kate Didden in the room. She's doing all the awesome organizing of my volunteers. One of the things that I think Maria and I have also talked about this too on actual election day making sure that we have at least one or two volunteers at each polling location or signs present so that, like Tony is saying, we're really visible on election day. Making sure that we have, you know, at least one or two volunteers at each polling location or signs present so that, like Tony's saying, we're really visible on election day so you know if you can't commit to canvassing a whole ton or maybe you know.
Lucia:You know you're gonna be off work on election day and you want to help support us on election day. Showing up at our polling locations and helping just be that visible person for us is gonna be really important because we have about, I think, eight precincts or so in my district, similar to Maria's that will - and Troy's - that will be needing volunteers to be stationed at too. So keep that in mind.
Lucia:MARIA: We
Lucia:have to stay a hundred foot from the polling entrance but you can be outside of that. So I know on primary day we were at the four-way stop waving signs. Now I was running unopposed in the primary so it didn't mean much, but it was the hope that as people rolled up to the polls they know who we are right and they have an idea of, oh, I've seen that person and maybe they see somebody they know waving that sign, and so then there's an extra layer of trust. And so to lucia's point you can cast your vote early. Early voting starts october 23rd and for jefferson county um, the early voting location it's only it's at Charles Washington Hall.
Lucia:So it's right across the street from the courthouse. It used to be held in the courthouse, now it's across the street. You know where Bushel and Peck is in Charlestown, right in that same area. So October 23rd to November 2nd you can cast your vote early and then, if you are off on election day, you can come out and help us in any way possible, because really the goal now is to just be spreading the word and making sure that people know.
Audience:I wanted to piggyback on that. One thing that we've talked about a lot is there's still a lot of time for people to submit their absentee ballot application and it will be mailed to them in Jefferson County and Berkeley County, actually, statewide, you can mail that application up until the 30th, so that's anybody who is homebound, anybody who can't get off work. I've made a bunch of copies for Lucia, for you have to mail it into each County. So Berkeley County has to go to their County Registration Office but their ballots will get mailed to them and then we have information on postmark dates, so that is really, really important.
Audience:If anybody knows somebody who works at an assisted living or a nursing home, all of those people are voters that are not going to get out unless, unless they have that absentee ballot. And then there's one other thing I wanted to say, back to the film, and you can comment on this after we have this discussion is how important it is to have people running for office that just look like the person sitting next to us in this room. You know, we kind of, just because of our culture, we think that politicians look a certain way, and that is the beauty of what you and Chloe have done is bring real people into the real conversation, into the real process, and I think that's what everybody here is doing and that is really important, and it kind of touches on what you were saying about. You know, we still have so many voters that don't understand what a delegate is doing or who a delegate is, or how to even go vote or there's still so much misinformation.
Audience:so there's so much work everybody can do on the ground just by talking to your neighbors and talking to people.
Troy:So yeah, yes, also, it is West Virginia law that employers must give up to two hours off work for employees on election day. So make sure that if anybody you know thinks they might not be able to get off work, their employers are legally obligated to give them time off, and if they don't, then there's a problem. We filed it later on too. And just to reemphasize also the neighbor to neighbor contact, I think it's really easy to understand that oligarchs and tyrants love isolation, love it when all of us are isolated and none of us are talking to each other, and they are terrified of a united electorate, united community and all this. And that's why the entire game is to divide and tell everyone that that person's getting something that you deserve and that you should give everyone all their money back and not have a government law, right. So I just wanted to throw that out there too.
Lucia:Yes, thank you Awesome, thank you guys. Yeah, thank you all. So Awesome, thank you guys, thank you.
