News from rural America.

New rural hospitals are becoming a reality in Wyoming and Kansas, a person who once served time in San Quentin has launched a media project at California prisons, and a Colorado church is having a 'Rocky Mountain high.'

TRANSCRIPT

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For "The Daily Yonder" and Public News Service, this is the news from rural America.

Less than two weeks from Election Day, political strategists are debating their rural campaigns.

Julia Tilton reports, in many small towns, local Democratic candidates swim against a red tide.

Republicans tend to dominate rural down-ballot races.

Jessica Piper, Democratic organizer with Blue Missouri, attributes this to a lack of long-term investment by the national party.

Democrats have said, "Hey, it's not worth it.

It's not worth the investment."

And it's a self-fulfilling prophecy.

Don't give us any money, don't invest in us, and look what happens, right?

This year, Blue Missouri got $100 grand from the Democratic National Committee, as the party boosts its rural reach.

But nationally, Republicans outspend Democrats 2-1 down-ballot.

And political scientist Nicholas Jacobs says local candidates might not be able to win by distancing themselves from national politics as they did in the past.

It is becoming harder and harder for candidates running down-ballot to escape the nationalized images of the party.

I'm Julia Tilton.

High school students in Montevideo, Minnesota, population 5,000, are getting a head start on future careers.

A partnership between public schools and local health agencies is giving high school students medical training.

The Montevideo Medical Academy was initiated by Superintendent Wade McKittrick, who says their hospitals and long-term care facilities have a hard time finding employees.

The more I thought, the more I started wondering, "Why couldn't we do something, train our high school students while they're in high school to be able to fill some of these positions?"

Now, in its second year, students can earn college credits, certifications, and multiple hours of clinical experience.

Principal Tanya Maitner says it also creates incentives to encourage young people to stay.

A lot of times, kids don't even know what jobs are available in a smaller community.

Getting them out into these spaces is opening their eyes to what is available here.

Oklahoma's tribal communities are reversing a decades-long trend of ranchers losing out in a market dominated by giant corporations.

Adrian Sinclair manages the 1839 Cherokee Meat Company.

He says their processing plant has strengthened Cherokee Nation sovereignty by letting ranchers sell their cattle and bison locally, and they now supply meat to area seniors, hotels, daycare centers, and others, a great option for their ranchers.

To be able to take their product, their beef, their pork, and put it into a local market rather than taking it to a large corporation processing facility.

Besides the Cherokee plant, the Osage and Muscogee Creek Nations have USDA-inspected plants in eastern Oklahoma.

For the "Daily Yonder" and Public News Service, I'm Roz Brown.

For more rural stories, visit dailyyonder.com.