Heartland Politics with Robin Johnson

Author Challenges Commonly-Held Views About Rural America

By Robin Johnson

Published November 30, 2023 at 11:01 PM CST

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Steven Conn questions the idea of a single rural America that is “left behind” or in crisis and instead says there are many rural Americas and they have been shaped by the same forces that impacted the rest of the country. His book, The Lies of the Land: Seeing Rural America for What It Is—And Isn’t also challenges the notion that rural America values capture the “real America” and why rural areas supported Donald Trump.

Heartland Politics with Robin Johnson

Robin Johnson

Robin A. Johnson is a governmental relations, public policy and political consultant. He is an expert on government reform issues and has consulted with numerous local governments on consolidation/merger, public-private partnerships and full-cost accounting of public services. Robin has also helped candidates win elections for the U.S. Senate, U.S. Congress, state legislature, judiciary and local government. Robin served as a consultant to the Office of Statewide Performance Review in the Illinois Governor’s Office and is former director of the Illinois Center for Competitive Government, a partnership between the Illinois Comptroller’s Office and the Illinois Institute for Rural Affairs at Western Illinois University. Prior to that, he was Director of the Local Government Affairs Division of the Illinois Comptroller’s Office. Robin served on the Board of Directors of the National Council for Public-Private Partnerships (NCPPP) in 1999-2000.

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