A Conversation About Democracy with Dee Davis

In the third episode of our seventh series, "Courageous Conversations About the 2024 Election-Rural Issues Impacting Real Lives," Michelle talks with Founder and President of the Center for Rural Strategies, Dee Davis. Dee has helped design and lead national public information campaigns on topics as diverse as commercial television programming and federal banking policy.

Dee began his media career in 1973 as a trainee at Appalshop, an arts and cultural center devoted to exploring Appalachian life and social issues in Whitesburg, Kentucky. Dee is on the board of the Kentucky Historical Society, Fund for Innovative Television, and Feral Arts of Brisbane, Australia. He is also a member of the Institute for Rural Journalism’s national advisory board. He is a member of the Board of Directors for the Institute for Work and the Economy and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences commission on the Practice of Democratic Citizenship. Dee is also the former Chair of the board of directors of Mary Reynolds Babcock Foundation.

During this conversation, Dee and Michelle discuss the stark differences in past and present elections, how we should look at the rural electorate in 2024, as well as breakdown of Dee’s book review of White Rural Rage: The Threat to American Democracy. They continue the conversation by discussing the book The Rural Voter: The Politics of Place and the Disuniting of America, differentiation between the politics of metropolitan and nonmetropolitan places, and how policies impact rural America.