There will be dollars coming from Raleigh and from Washington to help places like Ashe County and for that we are grateful. But local people, those of us who have raised generations here, need to make sure that those dollars are used to provide for everyone in our community.
Western North Carolina remains in crisis in the aftermath of Hurricane Helene, with ongoing recovery operations underway. Dozens of deaths have been confirmed, and hundreds of people remain unaccounted for.
Harris has vowed to provide significant federal funding to support rural communities across the United States, expand small business financing for entrepreneurs in rural America, and invest in rural technical and higher education programs.
With abortion, public education, and decency on the ballot, the NC Democratic Party chair believes rural voters can be convinced to break up with Republicans.
Vance’s career has been built on a phony image of him as a product of and de facto spokesperson for poor, rural Appalachians, despite the fact that he was raised in a middle-class family in Middletown, Ohio – a city of about 50,000 people situated between Cincinnati and Dayton.
Conveniently, Vance blames my people for their struggles and paints them as lazy while blaming his circumstances on his mother and her battle with addiction. He seems to believe that all his traumas should be attributed to a culture that is not even his.
It’s going to be the community here in Northampton who will make it happen. We need to advocate for more: more clinics and more providers to deliver the healthcare that Medicaid covers. When new businesses set up shop, we should ask them to invest in the community’s health, knowing that they will benefit when all of us have access to the care we need.
State and federal leaders say they’re making progress extending access into NC broadband internet gaps—mostly because of Biden infrastructure funding—but the Republican closure of an affordable broadband program for lower-income people threatens to dampen progress.
In an election year where abortion is set to loom large, Down Home NC is organizing and knocking on doors in rural North Carolina with in-depth conversations focused on issues rather than candidates.
This isn’t just a rhetorical question. It carries real consequences for the González Mendoza family—and thousands of H2-A visa recipients across the state. North Carolina is home to the fifth-most H2-A workers in the country, nearly 15,000 migrants who labor in the agricultural sector with few protections.
| July 15, 2025
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