Flyover

Only one woman, U.S. Rep. Tulsi Gabbard, remains in the Democratic race for president. But that picture doesn’t tell the whole story. Across the country, more women are running for office than ever before. The 2018 election was widely hailed as the Year of the Woman, as women ran for office and voted in record numbers – many of them Democrats galvanized by the election of President Trump.

“This is so much larger than a political reaction,” says Stephanie Schriock, president of Emily’s List. “[It’s] a cultural change. So many women are saying, ‘I need to serve, I have something to offer, I can do this.’ That’s not gonna go away when Trump’s out of office.”

On Flyover 2020, we took a closer look at this new wave of women entering politics. What motivates them to get in the ring, knowing they will face discrimination and attacks?

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In the Upper Midwest, farming maintains a wholesome glow. Red barns, picket fences and photos of kittens weaving among jugs of frothy milk loom large in our collective psyche.

But reality is more stark. Farm bankruptcies are up. Thousands of farms have simply closed. Farm debt is at an all-time high. Add in a trade war, severe weather and tanking crop prices, and it’s not hard to understand why health workers are worried about a spike in suicide and depression.

At the same time, new farmers – usually young and passionate about regenerative practices and helping others – are entering the field.

Thursday, for our Flyover 2020, we talk about the changing farming identity, and what it means to be a farmer today.

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The Upper Midwest is patriotic. But how that word is defined varies, depending on where you are standing and to whom you are talking.

Thursday on Flyover 2020, we delve into the concept of patriotism and the role that the urban/rural divide plays in how the value is expressed – and how people vote.

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When Maya Angelou stepped to the podium on a cold January day in 1993, she became the first African-American and the first woman to offer an inaugural poem. And what a poem it was. “On the Pulse of Morning” garnered immediate praise for its sweeping portrait of American history and wisdom.

Elizabeth Alexander remembers that moment – and contrasts it with her own time on the same stage – on MPR News with Kerri Miller, in the first installment of an occasional series, “They Believed.” At this pivotal moment in U.S. history, we want to look back at the words of America’s firebrands, visionaries and truth-tellers. What do they reveal about who we were then – and who we are now?

The Upper Midwest is one of the most unpredictable places in politics right now. Voters in more than 50 counties in Minnesota, Wisconsin, Iowa, Illinois and Michigan flipped from President Obama in 2012 to President Trump in 2016. And so-called identity politics played a role in that, for better or worse.

Today on Flyover 2020, we talk about how both political parties try to activate specific segments of voters – and whether that practice is leaving us even more fractured. We also talk with a conservative pastor from a small town in Iowa who defies some of those labels.

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It’s a surprise to many: Rural America is more politically diverse, more educated and more economically optimistic than stereotypes lead us to believe.

Maybe most encouraging to the Upper Midwest: Many small towns are reversing the so-called brain drain and showing a brain gain. Young people who left their hometowns to go to college are increasingly likely to move back in their 30s and 40s, bringing with them college degrees, new businesses and families.

On this episode, we look at the changing demographics and misunderstood labels of rural America. It’s the next installment in our Flyover 2020 series, which examines the issues that matter to the Upper Midwest and the 50 or so flipped counties in our region.

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When it comes to flipped counties, the Upper Midwest is ground zero. More than 50 counties in Iowa, Wisconsin, Minnesota, Michigan and Illinois that voted for Barack Obama in 2012 voted for Donald Trump in 2016. And many of them flipped big — in some cases, by more than 30 points.

So this year, we are reviving Flyover to examine how our life experiences, beliefs about issues and compatibility with candidates shape the perception of Upper Midwestern voters as we move toward the 2020 election.

Our first topic: polarization anxiety. It’s a term created by anthropologist Jose Santos to describe what he sees in the classroom: students unable to discuss topics because of the polarized climate we live in. That inhibits conversation and learning.

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To listen to the full conversation you can use the audio player above.

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We close our week-long series of conversations about the Mississippi River with a townhall event from deep in Louisiana's Mississippi River delta.

Our "Voices from the Bayou" special wraps up our journey with a community conversation on solutions to the problems faced by people in the river's watershed.

This episode brings us to New Orleans to explore the way the river divides people and the way a changing climate exacerbates that problem.