Harris-Walz campaign unveils more rural initiatives: 10,000 healthcare workers, affordable internet, easier farm equipment repairs

The campaign started new ads on 75 rural Wisconsin radio stations, hitting Trump’s Project 2025 for the harm it would inflict on the farm economy.

New proposals from the Harris-Walz campaign would improve the lives of rural residents in Wisconsin, they claim, by increasing healthcare access, giving farmers more freedom over their own equipment, and bringing back an affordable internet program that congressional Republicans killed earlier this year.

UpNorthNews was first to report about the new wave of ads on at least 75 rural Wisconsin radio stations that talk up the initiatives from Vice President Kamala Harris.

Scholarships, new grants, and loan forgiveness would be deployed under the plan to 10,000 new healthcare professionals to serve in rural and tribal areas. Grants would bolster the growth of local EMS programs to cut in half the number of Americans living more than 25 minutes away from an ambulance. Medicare would permanently cover telemedicine, a pandemic effort that helped millions of rural residents maintain access to quality health care—which is scheduled to expire at the end of this year.

The Harris-Walz plan would also restore the Affordable Connectivity Program, which made high-speed internet service more affordable to some 23 million households through $30 monthly discounts. Republicans in Congress refused to take up President Joe Biden’s request to fund and continue the program, which expired in June.

The package also addresses the controversial issue of “Right to Repair” for farmers who feel trapped by manufacturers who insist repairs to major pieces of equipment can only take place at authorized dealerships. Advocates want manufacturers to make instruction manuals, spare parts, and software codes more readily available so that farmers can either make their own repairs or choose their own third-party repair technician.

“In a small town, you don’t focus on the politics, you focus on taking care of your neighbors and minding your own damn business,” running mate Gov. Tim Walz says on the new radio ad. “Now Donald Trump and JD Vance, they don’t think like us. They’re in it for themselves.”

Democrats point out how Project 2025, a conservative wish list assembled by a host of former Trump officials, allies, and political groups, would harm rural America by giving corporations more power over consumers and ag producers, reducing protection for farms impacted by sudden price drops, slashing rural childcare options by eliminating the Head Start program, shifting federal money away from rural schools and giving it to private voucher schools, gutting rural internet expansion, and removing support programs for airports that serve rural markets.

“The Harris-Walz campaign is making a real commitment to rural communities,” said Matthew Hildreth, the director of rural engagement for the Harris-Walz campaign. “Both Vice President Harris and Governor Walz hail from large agricultural states. They both understand that rural voters are the foundation of our country, and they want rural voters to know that they have a home in their campaign – that is fundamentally about patriotism, freedom and opportunity.”

Walz represented a Republican-dominant congressional district in southern Minnesota for 12 years before becoming governor—passing three Farm Bills and expanding veterans’ access to crop insurance, farm education, job training, and healthcare. As governor, Walz presided over the largest broadband investment in state history. The campaign estimates about 600,000 rural Wisconsinites—more than 10% of the state population—live in the Minnesota media markets of the Twin Cities and Duluth, and are already familiar with Walz’s rural accomplishments.

The campaign previously targeted rural voters with a TV ad campaign centered around Jefferson County dairy farmer Tina Hinchley, who warned that former President Donald Trump would try again to kill the Affordable Care Act, a program she credits with saving her life and her farm as she battled cancer. 

The centerpiece of Trump’s economic plan—imposing high tariffs on imported products—has been blasted by critics who recall his trade wars that led to a loss of global markets for farm commodities and other products.

“We lost hundreds of thousands of jobs,” said Ambassador Miriam Sapiro, a former US trade representative, on UpNorthNews Radio Tuesday. “We really hurt our farmers. Some of the bigger ones were able to get support, but smaller farmers had a really, really hard time in Wisconsin and across the country.”

“The crush of problems that came up in 2018 as a result of the tariffs with China and how the US took a unilateral, go-it-alone approach to dealing with our largest trading partner, the reverberations are still felt in agriculture today,” said Mike Stranz, vice president for advocacy with the National Farmers Union, on UpNorthNews Radio Tuesday. “And I think that gives us a clear sign of the tumultuous approach we would likely see in a Trump administration.”