U.S. Senator Heidi Heitkamp served as the first female senator elected from North Dakota from 2013 – 2019. he is the founder and Chair of the One Country Project, an organization focused on addressing the needs and concerns of rural America. Heidi was recently named the Director of the Institute of Politics at the University of Chicago, a university she has long been committed to and a place where she enjoys engaging with students over civic discussions while encouraging them to seek opportunities in public service to our country. Heidi also serves as a contributor to both CNBC and ABC News.

He is an multi-award winning talk show host both regionally and nationally. Before radio, he served in the North Dakota Senate from 1995-2008.

Candidate for Colorado’s 3rd Congressional District

Anderson Clayton is an organizer by trade, a proud rural North Carolinian, and the current Chair of the North Carolina Democratic Party, becoming the youngest state party chair in the country.

Producer at Voxtopica

Brandon Tensley is Capital B's national politics reporter. Previously, he was a national political writer at CNN, where he covered the intersection of culture, identity, and politics. Prior to that, he was a co-host of Slate's Outward podcast and a contributing writer at Pacific Standard. Brandon was also a Luce Scholar in Thailand and a Fulbright Scholar in Germany.

Assistant Producer at Voxtopica

Chairman of the Shelby County Ohio Democratic Party and Chair of Rural Voices USA

Head of Production at Voxtopica

J.C. Bowman is the Executive Director and CEO of Professional Educators of Tennessee, with nearly 40 years of experience in the field of education. He began his career teaching high school social studies and special education in Tennessee public schools. Since 2011, he has led Professional Educators with a focus on legislative priorities and education policies.

J.D. Scholten is a State Representative from Iowa House District 1, a board member of One Country.

Jess is a fierce advocate for rural communities and public schools. She was an American literature teacher for 16 years and decided to run for a house seat in Missouri’s first district in 2022. Although she lost the race, she continues her activism. She is the Executive Director of Blue Missouri and writes a substack called "The View from Rural Missouri."

He is an American attorney, politician, and diplomat who who served in the U.S. House of Representatives from 2007 to 2013 and as a U.S. Senator from 2013 to 2019.

John Volk is a researcher and journalist with Northwestern University’s Local News Initiative. He manages, updates and analyzes the LNI’s nationwide database of news organizations and reports on trends in the American local news landscape.

Joshua P. Darr is an associate professor at the Newhouse School of Public Communications and a Senior Researcher in the Institute for Democracy, Journalism & Citizenship at Syracuse University, teaching classes in political communication. His research focuses on local news, partisan polarization, and campaign strategy. Darr has co-authored two books: Home Style Opinion: How Local Newspapers Can Slow Polarization (2021) and Storefront Campaigning (2024). He received an Andrew Carnegie Fellowship in 2022 for his project investigating how newspapers can earn trust and reduce polarization. Darr earned his Ph.D. in political science from the University of Pennsylvania.

Julie von Haefen has represented the 36th District in the North Carolina House of Representatives since January 1, 2019. Rep. von Haefen was a Parent Teacher Association (PTA) leader at the school, county and state level and is a fierce advocate for North Carolina’s public schools. Rep. von Haefen served as the President of the Wake County PTA Council from 2017-2018 and served on the Board of Directors for five years. She also served on the North Carolina PTA Board of Directors from 2017-2019 and was the State Advocacy Chair and Federal Legislative Chair for NCPTA. Rep. von Haefen is still a proud member of the PTA at the schools her children attend in Wake County, and she also works as a substitute teacher with Wake County Public Schools.

American politician serving since 2025 as chair of the Democratic National Committee. Martin formerly served as chair of the Minnesota Democratic-Farmer-Labor Party, president of the Association of State Democratic Committees, and a vice chair of the DNC.

Host of The Rural Impact podcast

Executive Director for Kansas Farmers Union

Richard Fawal is founder and CEO of Voxtopica.

He is the president and founder of PRRI and a leading scholar and a New York Times bestselling author.

Outreach Coordinator at Voxtopica

American comedian

CEO of The Back Forty media company