Rural Caucus Newsletter September 25th 2026
Vance and other Trump hacks are gearing up to kick 760,000 people off their Affordable Care Act plans, Rural Democrats - claiming they’re “fraudulent” or “don’t exist.” Trump administration to remove 760,000 ACA enrollees over fraud claims | AP News, and they're also reviewing another 419,000 enrollments for eligibility. Dr. Oz even called part of these enrollees “ghosts” because they haven’t filed a claim - which raises a pretty obvious question: So now healthy people have to go to the doctor just to prove they’re real? That’s not fraud prevention; that’s bureaucratic "might be" hunting they've used time and time again. And it’s happening at the same time ACA enrollment has already dropped sharply nationwide and in Missouri, where coverage fell from 347,424 to 260,999 in a single year Missouri ACA marketplace enrollment dropped significantly for 2026 - one of the steepest declines in the country.
And here’s the kicker for rural Missouri: when you strip coverage from hundreds of thousands of people - including folks who haven’t even needed care yet - you don’t magically make them healthier. Missouri’s rural hospitals are already drowning under rising uninsured rates, skyrocketing costs, shrinking staff, and families forced into longer drives and riskier births as maternity wards disappear one by one: Rural Missouri families face longer drives, riskier births as maternity wards vanish • Missouri Independent. Yank coverage from thousands more Missourians and you don’t save a dime - you just dump the bill onto rural ERs, local taxpayers, and families who were already hanging on by the next paycheck. Potential CMS ACA Marketplace Disenrollments: Implications for Health Insurers - Wakely.
Going into the midterms, the KFF and AP Survey KFF/AP Rural Voters Survey | KFF say rural voters are getting really anxious about the rising cost of living Economic Frustration Tests Trump’s Standing With Rural Voters, New KFF-AP Poll Finds - KFF Health News - especially health costs. KFF found that health care costs play a large part in rural voters’ concerns about the cost of living. Two-thirds of rural voters say they worry about affording health care for themselves or their families. KFF/AP found that most rural voters aren’t buying Trump’s health‑care record. A solid 54% say they disapprove of how he's handling health care and think his policies made things worse - higher costs, shakier Medicaid, and fewer options close to home. That’s more than half saying, plain as day, their care isn't getting better.
Missouri News
The Republican candidates and state officials arguement now to SCOTUS is to blame the Missouri Supreme Court for forcing the state to switch to the legal map before the general election: Missouri Republicans dragged out the battle over their gerrymander. Now they’re trying to blame the state’s top court - Democracy Docket. As of this morning (Friday), Missouri is waiting for the US Supreme Court to decide which congressional map we're going to use: The only one legally passed (from 2022) or the one that Missouri's Secretary of State forced Missourians to use in the primary election (from 2025). You watch...as soon as we hit "Send," we'll hear from SCOTUS.
We can't help but roll our eyes when the Republican State Auditor “discovers” problems in agencies that have been run by Republican appointees and micromanaged by a Republican‑controlled Legislature for 23+ years: State audit finds repeated issues in Missouri federal fund use. Democratic MO Auditor Nicole Galloway submitted the same findings two separate times during her tenure. And the Republicans did nothing. Hell...the only thing Fitzpatrick uncovered was his own party’s homework from the last two decades.
OK...another eye roll…Hawley is suddenly deeply troubled about Flock cameras (AND the Constitution) - but only after regular folks and whole communities already stepped up and handled the problem themselves: Missouri Sen. Josh Hawley raises privacy alarms over nationwide AI camera network • Missouri Independent. He's wandered in late, saw everyone cleaning up the mess, and declared, "Don’t worry, I’m here to save you!"
Rick Brattin and Denny Hoskins are asking the Eighth Circuit for qualified immunity after they reposted a photo falsely identifying Denton Loudermill as the 2024 Super Bowl parade shooter. If y'all remember, police disproved that claim within ten minutes: Missouri pols demand immunity over Chiefs Super Bowl parade shooting posts | Courthouse News Service. Instead of owning the mess their posts created - a mess that made Loudermill’s life a living hell - Brattin and Hoskins are arguing Section 230 should bail them out of an invasion‑of‑privacy suit, even though they added their own comments about violent illegal immigrants to a photo that misidentified an innocent man. After Loudermill’s death, his sister kept the case going. A federal judge already ruled against Brattin and Hoskins, they’re appealing - still insisting the real problem is “the internet,” not the fact that they hit repost without checking whether Loudermill was actually the shooter.
Just in case you’ve seen that totally false TV ad claiming Missouri’s Amendment 3 will “save kids from transgender surgery,” here’s the part they leave out: it’s already illegal in Missouri. That law is on the books right now. The groups pushing Amendment 3 are using that scare line to distract from what the amendment actually does: overturning the reproductive‑rights protections Missourians approved in 2024. Amendment 3 is about abortion and a woman’s right to make her own healthcare decisions. The “transgender surgery” claim is a political prop tossed in to confuse voters. So we created some memes for you to counter their ads.
We saw that the campaign to keep Missouri’s abortion‑rights amendment in place has outraised the effort to overturn it by a whopping 7 to 1 - thanks in part to $5.3 million from the Fairness Project, a D.C. nonprofit that doesn’t have to disclose its donors: The Fairness Project remains largest funder of effort to stop Missouri abortion ban • Missouri Independent. And look, we’re not pretending this sits perfectly with us. We’ve spent years calling out Republicans for hiding donors behind dark‑money curtains (recently - Amendments 4 & 5), so it feels a little strange to just smile and applaud when the same thing happens on our side - even when we’re fighting for basic rights and the other side plays dirty. You know the other side will crow about it. The honest truth is that nondisclosure raises questions no matter who benefits. So what is our response? How do we handle it?
This is a great tool to let your communities know how Missouri legislators voted: Voting Record — WE STAND UNITED MISSOURI
National News
Trump made multiple false claims in his address to the United Nations General Assembly. He was a total embarrassment to the United States. Here is a fact check of some of his crap; Fact check: Trump’s false claims to the United Nations | CNN Politics.
WHAT?! The Republican National Committee is telling folks to request mail ballots… while simultaneously dragging mail‑in voting through the courts: ‘Hypocritical’: RNC pushes mail voting for its supporters while attacking it in court - Democracy Docket. That’s not a contradiction, that’s a full‑blown pretzel twist. They’re shouting “Don’t trust mail voting!” with one hand and whispering “But seriously, go ahead and use it” with the other.
RFK Jr. has brought his dangerous vaccine skepticism into every home in America, and now he wants to implement HHS' own vaccine categories, including vaccines that are recommended but not for babies: HHS Appears to Be Prepping for Big Changes to Childhood Vaccine Recommendations - TPM – Talking Points Memo so we posted this funny-not so funny clapback on social media: RFK, Jr - Vaccines - Google Docs. Holy cow...did it resonate with people: almost 4,300 clicks and over 1,200 shares.
Unbelievable…The EPA didn’t just consult Bayer - it asked the company to pick its own restrictions for dicamba, then lifted those choices straight into a proposed federal rule: .US environment agency let Bayer pick regulations for destructive weedkiller, documents show | Trump administration | The Guardian. It’s the regulatory equivalent of saying, “Tell us what rules you’d prefer, and we’ll make them official." The EPA received Bayer's response then incorporated Bayer’s choices into a proposed federal rule.
Mortgage rates just blew past 7% - the highest in almost two years - and honestly, nobody is shocked: US mortgage rates top 7% for first time in 20 months | US economy | The Guardian. The Fed hiked interest rates for the first time since 2023 and like clockwork, mortgage rates followed. After years of high interest rates and not nearly enough homes being built, the housing market didn’t need another kick in the shins…but here we are.
After Mike Johnson sent all the representatives home until after the midterms, Republicans hauled themselves down to Dallas for a so‑called “field hearing” - the first one in thirty years. It was basically a closed-door hearing about cutting Social Security with billionaire Harlan Crow - yes, that Harlan Crow, the one who gives elaborate gifts to Supreme Court Justices: Opinion | House Republicans Pitch a Plan to Cut Social Security to Billionaire Donor Harlan Crow | Common Dreams. Now, you’d think if Congress is gonna drag itself across state lines, they’d at least let all the public in as seating was available. Nope. Seniors and people with disabilities were left standing outside in 100‑degree Texas heat, told there were only three chairs available. THREE. For a congressional hearing. In a giant building.
Other News
We ran across an article saying the AI investment boom is so massive that U.S. spending is shifting away from building homes and toward building data centers AI Investment Boom Is 'Massive' — Top Economist Says US Spending Is Moving Away From Homes and Toward Data Centers and naturally wondered what that means for working families. Short version: fewer new houses going up, and more giant industrial complexes landing in rural towns where homes could be built. And yes, it circles right back to the same old data-center headaches: huge demands for electricity and water, which usually means higher utility bills for low‑ and middle‑income families. It also means farmland, open space, and residential‑zoned land suddenly competing with billion‑dollar server farms. Will home values crash? Hard to say. But honestly… who’s eager to find out the hard way?
More on the health care picture...A major new study reveals that nearly one-third of working-age Americans with private health insurance are actively paying off medical bills or medical debt: How Medical Bills and Debt Impact Americans with Private Insurance | Commonwealth Fund. The Commonwealth Fund’s new report lays it out plainly: commercial health insurance is about as protective as a screen door in a hailstorm. Millions of people end up in debt for routine, everyday care - nothing fancy, nothing catastrophic - just the basic stuff insurance is supposedly there to cover. In other words, the system keeps saying “you’re covered,” while families keep finding out the hard way that, actually, they’re not.
In closing...
As we all know, Trump barred reporters from CNN, MS NOW, and Politico from entering the grounds, saying their coverage was unfair and pointed to several articles citing "national security." And the big scary "national security" leaker Trump pointed to when justifying his ban? Yeah, it was Vance: JD Vance Outed as Source of ‘Threat’ to National Security for White House Media Ban of Politico The ‘national security threat’ was the Vice-President - sitting at Trump's own kitchen table. A federal judge stepped in and ordered their press credentials restored. Even after that ruling, Trump simply ignored it White House ignores court order to restore access to CNN, Politico, MS Now | Courthouse News Service - turning away reporters at the gate and had their passes taken, prompting emergency filings that the administration was ignoring the court. After the back and forth, the press credentials were reinstated: White House reinstates access for banned reporters.
The heart of the matter is simple: the First Amendment protects a free press so the public can keep an eye on its government. When Trump shrugs off a judge’s order and shuts out reporters he doesn’t like, that’s a classic authoritarian shortcut - no accountability, no transparency, just a whole lot of “because I said so.” And the First Amendment doesn’t let anyone in government - least of all a president - punish reporters under the banner of “fake news” or “national security.” Those may be his handy catch‑all excuses, but they aren’t real legal categories. Let's see...do we want to discuss the new state-run media called “Trump TV?” Yeah… we see what it is. We're gonna pass on pretending that’s normal.
Joshua Dunne
Chair
Jacqueline Farr
Vice-Chair
John Parks
Treasurer
