From the beginning of our republic, farmers held an esteemed position in our society. “Cultivators of the earth are the most valuable citizens. They are the most vigorous, the most independent, the most virtuous, and they are tied to their country and wedded to its liberty and interests by the most lasting bonds.”—Thomas Jefferson, Founding Father

Jefferson conveyed the importance of rural America in preserving the blessings of liberty. Do we in rural America appreciate this responsibility placed on us to participate in the process?

As unbelievable as it seems, I am intimately involved in politics. I successfully navigated five campaigns for elected office. I am a perfect 5 and 0, winning every time. To be fair, I ran for our local school board, and I’ve never had an opponent. If someone else were to run, I would certainly vote for the other guy. In rural Idaho, not only is it possible that a farmer or rancher can be elected, but it is also likely.

Statewide office in Idaho may be the best example. In the past 50 years, a rancher, a farmer, a logger and a small-town banker have all been elected governor. The longest-serving statesman in Idaho was a wool grower from Carey, Pete Cenarrusa, as a member of the legislature and secretary of state. Knowing what I know about farmers and ranchers, I am astonished that our government functions at all … but it does.

To help rural voters, I have concocted a decision tree for rural voters to pick the best candidate.

First, are you actively feuding with the candidate? If yes, vote for his opponent. This must be an active feud. Don’t carry a grudge against someone who stole your milk money in second grade.

Next, are you related to the candidate? If yes, vote for the candidate. The feuding decision point supersedes the family point, but life is too short to feud with family.

Third, are you neighbors with the candidate? This decision point is not useful in all rural situations because of the nature of farms and ranches. You may be neighbors with half of the electorate in a local area taxing district.

Finally, do you attend club meetings or church with the candidate or perhaps know them from 4-H or youth sports with your kids; if so, vote for this candidate. Past this, you may have to study the candidate’s background, qualifications and platform to determine who gets your vote. I’ve never been related to or neighbors with a presidential candidate; I’ve always had to study up.

In all seriousness, rural values are the best of America, but there are very few of us when it comes to elections. In Idaho, the five most populous counties have 632,588 registered voters as of August. The more rural counties only have 381,795. That is a 62% to 38% split. However, in this spring’s primary, the five most populous counties turned out 24% of registered voters. The more rural counties' turnout rate was 34%. However, if the 39 rural counties could bump that rate to 40%, the rural counties would bank more votes than the more urban.

Rural voter turnout is typically high. Camas County is the highest with 61% of registered voters in the most recent election. Not to point fingers, but there are nine rural counties below the state average: Nez Perce, Teton, Madison, Shoshone, Latah, Clearwater, Jerome, Minidoka and Payette.

Idaho has neighboring states dominated by their population centers. Nevada, Utah, Oregon and Washington are governed by their urban centers. Rural Idaho still has a voice and may be the reason that rural issues are state issues here. So how can rural Idaho matter in elections?

To quote a famous politician, “The best way to be heard is to use your noisemaker.”—Gus Brackett, famous Three Creek lawmaker.

When it comes to politics, there is a wide variety of noisemakers. You can write letters to the editor, volunteer for a campaign, put a bumper sticker on your pickup (a bumper sticker is the '90s version of a meme) or post on the Twitters. You could become more directly involved by running for office (I hear the cemetery district is always looking for board members) or at a bare minimum, register and vote.

In 2018, Patagonia, PayPal and Levi Strauss created an initiative called Time to Vote to encourage their employees to vote for their companies’ values. The number of companies involved in this initiative has now grown to 2,023 companies. Maybe Time to Vote should come to our farms and ranches. If a buckaroo casting a ballot seems absurd, the purple-haired computer programmer who looks like they fell face-first into a tackle box is getting paid time off to vote. That buckaroo is more likely to vote rural values, don’t you think?

During his lifetime, Thomas Jefferson devoted 40 years advocating for rural America. Pete Cenarrusa represented rural values in Idaho for 52 years. I’m not suggesting that kind of time commitment, but could we spare a few minutes to become more politically active?

When it comes to politics, championing rural values seems like a daunting task for any one person. In the same way that everyone doing their small part feeds America, every rural voter doing their small part is the loudest noisemaker. Educate yourself on the issues, register and vote.