In 2024, LaGrange County voted more than 77 percent for President Donald Trump. Local boy and Republican Marlin Stutzman reclaimed his 3rd District Congressional seat with 75 percent of the vote.
But Democratic candidate Kelly Thompson keeps showing up there anyway, drawing people to town halls and meet-and-greets. And her little crowds are growing.
On a warm late summer evening in downtown LaGrange, just a few blocks from the county courthouse, Thompson talked to the small crowd about how people avoided her campaign in its early days.
The 62-year-old grandmother and business owner has been campaigning around the area for 18 months.
"I would go to the fairs in Adams County and they wouldn't talk to me. I went to a meet-the-candidates forum in Kendallville, and they wouldn't touch my (literature). At first."
That was until Republican State Senator Sue Glick told those in attendance to give Thompson a chance.
"All of a sudden everybody was willing to talk to me. That's the unity we need," she said as the crowd applauded.
The North Webster resident has made a barn-storming style tour through the dozen or so counties that make up the mostly rural, reliably Republican district.
And by the LaGrange town hall, she had become less surprised by the growing numbers of people showing up to listen to her.
"People are hungry to hear from their legislators. We have been going through a drought of real conversation and communication, and the job of a representative is to be where the people are and to listen to the people," she said.
But getting the residents of the 3rd District to vote for anyone other than a Republican is an uphill road.
Rural political polarization is not new. It is a very real thing, and a problem for the health of a democracy. And in the U.S., rural places have outsized political power as well, due to the power of the Senate and the Electoral College.
That is according to Suzanne Mettler, the John L. Senior Professor of American Institutions at Cornell University. She has written multiple books on this topic and is watching intently what is shaping up around the country during this midterm election cycle.
"You're actually speaking directly to what is, like taking 150 percent of my brain at the moment. Like, I'm… this is, like, a burning question to me about what's happening in these midterms in rural places," she said, laughing.
Until the 1990s, America did not have this stark political divide between rural and urban spaces. But Mettler says it has only deepened over time.
"As recent… like, in the middle of the 20th century, the lines move together," she continued. "There's just a little tiny gap between rural and urban places in terms of how they voted for president each year. And then the gap started to grow in 1996, 2000, and on and on. It's grown pretty much ever since.
"And certainly, you know, it started to get a lot of attention once (Donald) Trump was on the ballot, and it, you know, became all the deeper with Trump, but Trump did not start it."
Such polarization is dangerous for the health of a democracy, Mettler said.
"Because of its geographic nature, it becomes much easier for politics to become this game of us versus them," she said. "If you're not even interacting with the other group, because they don't live where you are."
And it seems to be somewhat artificial when it comes down to the issues. While rural voters may lean toward a particular political party, when you remove the R or the D from the discussion, and just talk about the issues, there is more agreement than one might think.
On issues like gun rights and abortion, there is a larger gap. But Mettler's research has found that on most things, rural and urban Americans are not very separate from each other.
"Rural and urban Americans just agree with each other on most things, but they can't stand each other's political parties," she said. "That's how it's been."
Charles Curry, of Wolcottville, is the president of Ironworkers Local 395. He drove up to Thompson’s LaGrange town hall in September.
He said he sees a bit of a shift since President Donald Trump took office in 2025.
"Even the guys that in my local that were hardcore Republican or hardcore MAGAs, I should say, not Republican per se, have kind of changed or they've kind of silenced," Curry said.
Noble County Democratic Party Chair Kim Murphy sees the shift too. When she started organizing protests in connection with the national No Kings movement, Murphy saw just a handful of people showing up at the Noble County courthouse.
Those numbers have grown.
At a Thompson town hall in Albion, the candidate asked those in the room who identified as a Republican.
About half the people, mostly older men, raised their hands. A Republican elected official walked out with a yard sign.
Murphy said that in places like Ligonier, which is roughly 60 percent Hispanic, the impact of Immigration and Customs Enforcement activity is pulling voters over to the Democrats.
High prices and economic uncertainty are driving local Republicans are showing up behind the scenes and donating.
"Northeast Indiana is tired...This has started a fire 18 months ago. All of it is just building and building and building. It has really started something," she said as volunteers stacked chairs and cleaned up the room in the basement of the Noble County Public Library.
LaGrange County Democratic Chair and County Commissioner Candidate Tom Swihart was at another Thompson town hall, this one in Wolcottvillle.
He said it was another night he was overcome with emotion as he talked with his neighbors.
"Every meeting I've chaired there's been someone show up that hasn't been there before, with so much rage they were in tears for what they've been living through," he said. "The stories you hear are hard to hear. People are so angry. These aren't people who want to be involved. They have to be. And all I'm doing is trying to redirect the rage."
Mettler said this is interesting.
"If Democrats make inroads, if they're able to bridge divides, if there are Republicans coming to their meetings and taking away lawn signs, that's a big deal, because that has not happened for a very long time," she said.
A shift would be important for democracy as well, she said, giving people a choice on their ballots.
"You know, you've got to have, choices of candidates and parties that you vote for if there's going to be accountability in the political system, so it's huge," she said.
Earlier this month, Free Press Indiana released a small survey of Hoosiers. Democrats are leading on the generic congressional ballot, and carrying a larger enthusiasm to vote.
