A newly disclosed report from a far-left-funded D.C. think tank discloses a leftist blueprint for dropping foreign migrants on especially rural and small American towns. In immigration work funded by leftist billionaire George Soros, the Niskanen Center proposes expanding migrant pipelines with state- and town-run visa sponsoring to displace “native labor supply.”
Following the patterns of states such as California, Illinois, and New York, of course such a program would increase Democrat voting rates, this time in traditionally Republican locales. This is one way Democrats hope to erase the will of rural voters in future elections.
Democrats usually cannot win fair elections in rural and small-town America. That’s why they’ve increasingly relied on blatantly deceptive and dirty tactics, like masquerading as Republicans. For example, in the rural state of Wyoming, a bunch of liberals backed by loads of dark money ran as Republicans in the August primaries, ousting some two dozen conservative Republicans from the 62-member Wyoming House of Delegates.
While Wyoming is a stark case of highly organized and funded meddling, we’re seeing a lot more of this sort of thing sprinkled throughout rural and small-town America. Consider how self-described “progressive” Sam Ronan tried to run as a Republican in the 2026 primary for Ohio’s mostly rural 15th Congressional District. The courts blocked him from doing so, but the attempt was clearly a bad-faith effort to pose as a member of another party, in violation of Ohio’s election laws.
Alaska’s ranked-choice voting scheme also allowed a random leftie named Dan Sullivan to run as a Republican against incumbent Republican Sen. Dan Sullivan. Known as “Decoy Dan,” he smells unmistakably like a Democrat plant on the general election ballot.
Democrats have embraced such fakery to even infiltrate GOP party leadership, on all levels. For instance, a candidate with strong ties to the Democrat Party prevailed in an election for chairman of the Warren County Republican Party in rural Virginia. That election was cleaned up and redone with the actual Republican winning, but such meddling — too often unchallenged by faux Republicans — should now be obvious.
Hiding Democrats’ Toxic Brand in Rural America
Democrats know that such blatant fraud can only go so far and only last so long. In the meantime, they are developing a “rural ground game” to render conservative voters irrelevant in rural America. In addition to applying heavy doses of propaganda, they walk back and lie about their woke positions to make themselves more suitable to voters in the countryside. Texas Senate candidate James Talarico has been particularly chameleon about his far-left agenda, which includes his odd religious stances and his support for the genital mutilation of children.
Beyond the left’s nonstop propaganda and use of corporate media to run interference for them, they rely on a bevy of blatant cheating strategies. Many of those strategies, such as gerrymandering, ballot harvesting, early voting, election fraud, and dark money from undisclosed donors, are well-known.
There are two lesser-discussed means of diluting the conservative voting patterns of rural America. First, through migrations of likely Democrat voters into those places. Second, by targeting low-turnout local elections throughout America to get their candidates in office.
High-Low Migration Trends Into Rural Areas
One trend that feels a lot like a Democrat strategy is the colonization of small towns and rural areas with people who would support Democrats running for office. The migrants could be urban and suburban white American citizens who habitually vote for Democrats. Or they could be foreign immigrants, such as the many settled during the Biden Administration and targeted for the future by organizations such as Niskanen — who quickly learn that voting for Democrats ensures their receipt of government-issued benefits.
Mostly white American leftists who move into rural areas might be motivated by nicer scenery as well as lower taxes, even though they’ll continue to vote for high taxes once relocated. Wealthy leftists are attracted to the natural beauty of certain conservative places, such as Teton County, Idaho and Shenandoah County, Virginia, and bring political baggage with them. For example, dark money “philanthropist” Amy Wyss, daughter of leftist Swiss billionaire Hansjorg Wyss, runs the LOR Foundation, undoubtedly meant to astroturf Wyoming politics while claiming to simply “improve quality of life” in rural places.
In their new idyllic settings, a lot of predominantly white lefties set up community-focused businesses like coffee houses, breweries, wineries, and garden centers. You might also find their book shops, art galleries, and yarn or pottery shops on various Main Streets, USA.
They tend to connect with the local Chambers of Commerce and join service organizations like Lions Clubs and Ruritans, where they network in their communities and support their comrades running for local office. They also take over the local newspapers. As Mark Pulliam wrote about the leftwing invasion of his Tennessee town, “the local paper is unfailingly and obnoxiously left.”
Foreign Migrants Pour Into American Towns
Another type of migration to conservative small towns are foreign immigrants dependent upon welfare benefits or attracted by job offers from big businesses, such as Tysons Foods looking for cheap labor in meatpacking plants. When the Biden administration flooded small American communities with immigrants, they could be automatically registered to vote when they applied for driver’s licenses.
If you are interested in tracking foreign migrations in American towns, county by county, Jennica Pounds has produced an extraordinary tool for doing so. Her website comes with a page that allows you to easily discover which nongovernmental organizations are involved.
Sudden waves of immigrants can increase a small town’s population by 50 percent or more, straining a community’s resources, such as housing, schools, and public safety. Many longtime residents end up moving out, further shifting the demographics. Whether it’s a flood of Haitians in Springfield, Ohio or Mauritanians in Lockland, Ohio, or Haitians that immediately doubled the population of Charleroi, Pennsylvania, there can be no doubt that Democrat politicians who’ve overseen these migrations are motivated by a quest for votes and power.
The rural leftist outlet “Daily Yonder” produces propaganda claiming that “immigration is the future of small cities and rural communities.” More to the point, the left craves a sudden and unregulated influx of such immigrants to shift the political landscape leftward in those places.
New Democrat Motto: ‘Blue Counties = Blue States’
National Democratic County Officials (NDCO) is the official campaign arm of the Democratic National Committee dedicated to electing Democrats at the county level throughout America. Its motto is: “Road to Blue: Blue Counties = Blue States.” Democratic Socialists of America (DSA) also makes a point of dominating local elections in places that might otherwise be hostile to their agenda.
Indeed, political analysts carefully watch political shifts in counties. Donald Trump consistently won 2,559 of the 3,112 counties in the United States across all three elections in which he was a candidate for president.
The DSA seems to especially target low-turnout local races to shift rural America in its favor. The Marxist DSA magazine “Reform and Revolution” explains how this was done in Altamont, Kansas, population 1,000: “We’ve also found a lot of opportunities with nonpartisan elections in our small towns, and have run and gotten our own candidate appointed … we did so with our member, Zac Sellers in Altamont, Kansas.”
Indeed, running locally is key, especially when the officeholder is an incumbent who was appointed to a vacant office, perhaps because there was no one interested in holding that office. There are also a number of small towns, such as lovely Bayville on Long Island, in which nobody is interested in running for mayor.
Such down-ballot races are low-hanging fruit for energetic leftist candidates who only need a tiny handful of votes to get themselves elected mayor or a seat on the town council. This is happening in a small town near you. Once the left captures more local offices, their candidates are on the way to gaining in statehouses and beyond.
Stella Morabito is a senior contributor at The Federalist. She is author of "The Weaponization of Loneliness: How Tyrants Stoke Our Fear of Isolation to Silence, Divide, and Conquer." Her essays have appeared in various publications, including the Washington Examiner, American Greatness, Townhall, Public Discourse, and The Human Life Review. In her previous work as an intelligence analyst, Morabito focused on various aspects of Russian and Soviet politics, including communist media and propaganda. Follow Stella on Twitter.