From Alaska to Marshall County: How One Woman is Building a Progressive Resistance in Rural Tennessee

In this powerful episode, the Cast Iron crew sits down with Jess Limbird, the Democratic Party chair in Marshall County, Tennessee—a place so red it went 78% for Trump in 2024. But don't let those numbers fool you. Jess, who spent two decades in Alaska working with Native students and fighting broken systems, came home to Tennessee with a fire in her belly and a clear mission: prove that progressives aren't isolated blue dots drowning in a red sea. From organizing "Bearing Witness" protests every Saturday on the town square to mobilizing the community to save their beloved Black city manager from a racist firing, Jess is showing rural Tennessee what real grassroots power looks like.

This isn't your typical political organizing story—it's about finding joy in the fight and building relationships that transcend party lines. Whether she's talking about the "blue dot syndrome" that keeps progressives feeling defeated or sharing how rural values are actually progressive values when you strip away the Fox News talking points, Jess embodies the Cast Iron spirit: standing sturdy, speaking truth, and refusing to let the South slide into hate. As she gears up to run for city council, her message is clear—we crawl before we run, we show up for our neighbors, and we never forget that resistance starts at the kitchen table, not in Washington D.C.