In 2024, I founded the Indiana Rural Summit, a coalition organizing Indiana House candidates, connecting 30 counties, to give rural and small-town Hoosiers a voice. There was a reason I wanted to use “E Pluribus Unum” for the Indiana Rural Summit slogan—it is the core truth that is coming to full bloom amidst the weeds trying to choke it out. “Out of Many, One!”
I’ve felt deeply connected to two rural places in my life. The first was the Rio Grande Valley in south Texas in a small town called Mercedes, about 5 miles from the Rio Grande River and the Mexican border. I was 3 ½ when I arrived at the small farmhouse on a rural route, surrounded by cottonfields. It was ½ mile to the nearest neighbor. My “swimming pool” was an irrigation ditch and some rather deep potholes in a gravel driveway. A propane tank was my “pony”. My imagination grew as wide as that Texas sky.
