The Politics of the Rural-Urban Divide

Experience the Event

Presented by The Notre Dame Democracy Initiative

Listen in to a dialogue between Jane Kleeb (Democratic Party Chair of Nebraska) and Mayor Mattie Parker (R- Fort Worth) focused on the unique opportunity that urban Republicans and rural Democrats have to reduce polarization in their communities, and moderated by Christina Wolbrecht, C. Robert and Margaret Hanley Family Director of the Notre Dame Washington Program. Explore the question, “When competing for each other’s geographic base, what principles can unify and transcend polarization?”

This event was presented by the University of Notre Dame Democracy Initiative as a part of the conference Democracy and Bridging the Rural-Urban Divide in March 2026. To learn more about the Democracy Initiative, please visit their website or connect with them by signing up for their newsletter at this link.

Meet the Faculty: Christina Wolbrecht

Christina Wolbrecht teaches and writes about American politics, political parties, women/gender and politics, and American political development. Wolbrecht’s most recent book (with David E. Campbell) is See Jane Run: How Women Politicians Matter for Young People (Chicago 2025). She has written extensively on women voters after suffrage, including two books with J. Kevin Corder: A Century of Votes for Women: American Elections Since Suffrage (Cambridge 2020) and Counting Women’s Ballots: Female Voters from Suffrage Through the New Deal (Cambridge 2016). Both were recognized with the APSA’s Victoria Schuck Award for the best book on women and politics. Her first book, The Politics of Women’s Rights: Parties, Positions, and Change (Princeton 2000), received the Leon Epstein Outstanding Book Award from the Political Organizations and Parties section of the APSA. She has published articles on topics including party change and women’s representation in the American Journal of Political Science, the Journal of Politics, Perspectives on Politics, and Political Behavior, among others. Wolbrecht is currently working on a project examining women’s access to local political power and on a new book investigating the impact of women’s suffrage on state legislative politics. She teaches undergraduate courses on American government, political parties, and gender, politics, & power, and as placement director, a graduate seminar on The Academic Career.

Meet the Speaker: Jane Kleeb

Jane Fleming Kleeb is an experienced grassroots organizer, author, manager, political strategist, and nonprofit entrepreneur.

Since December 2016, Jane has served in a volunteer capacity as Chair of the Nebraska Democratic Party. She has been re-elected three additional times with her current term being served until November 2026.

Under Chair Kleeb’s leadership, Democrats elected up and down the ballot have grown from 500 in 2016 to over 900 in 2023. Innovative programs such as Block Captains, 93-County Voter Guides and the Candidates of Color Fund were created under her term. She is the longest serving Chair of our state party.

Jane serves on the Executive Committees of the Democratic National Committee and the Association of State Democratic Committees. 

For her years of work in rural communities, Jane was named a Climate Breakthrough awardee in 2023, the highest honor in the climate change field. Jane is setting out to create a new project called Energy Builders that works with rural communities to change the economic model of large-scale clean energy projects to benefit the people who live on the land that is creating America’s next 100 years of energy.

Jane is the author of Harvest the Vote: How Democrats Can Win Again in Rural America, published in 2020. 

Profiled by PBS in their short-film, “Blue Wind on a Red Prarie” and in the New York Times magazine, “Jane Kleeb vs the Keystone XL Pipeline” Jane is always working to elevate the national conversation on “red and rural” states.

In her professional work, Jane protects property rights while building an engaged base of citizens who care about the land and water. In 2010, she founded Bold Nebraska, which later became the Bold Alliance, a network of “small but mighty” coalitions in rural states working to protect the land and water with a focus on land justice and energy freedom with projects from the Pipeline Fighters Hub to the Easement Action Teams. 

Jane started her career as a Commissioner and then training director for Florida’s Commission on National and Community Service. She went on to serve as one of the youngest directors of an AmeriCorps project and then assisted a national AmeriCorps project develop their literacy and youth outreach programs.

As Executive Director of the Young Democrats of America from 2004 to 2007, Jane implemented the first-ever national youth coordinated campaign to mobilize young voters and worked with an alliance of diverse groups ranging from Punk Voters to Stonewall Democrats creating the “hangouts and home” model of voter outreach. Jane went on to be the co-founder of the DNC’s Youth Council, bringing together the Young Democrats, College Democrats, and other organizations to enshrine youth engagement into the institution of the Democratic Party.

Jane worked for MTV as their Street Team reporter in 2007 and for years was a regular contributor on Fox News, MSNBC and CNN. 

As Nebraska State Director of the SEIU Change That Works Project in 2008–2010, she brought together leaders from advocacy, faith groups, doctors, farmers, ranchers, and small businesses to secure a key vote for passage of the Affordable Care Act.

Jane has a B.A. in religious studies from Stetson University and an M.A. in international training and education from American University. She served as an elected Hastings School Board Member and currently serves on the boards of Our Revolution, Equation Campaign, Jane Fonda PAC and the Rural Democracy Initiative.

She currently lives in rural Nebraska with her husband Scott and three daughters– Kora, Maya, and Willa.

Meet the Speaker: Mayor Mattie Parker

Currently in her third term, Mayor Mattie Parker was first elected to lead the nation’s now 10th largest city in 2021. Mayor Parker’s priorities in office focus on key efforts and community partnerships to bolster Fort Worth’s economic development, improve public safety, expand access to education and workforce opportunities, and preserve the city’s rich heritage with a determination to leave things better than she found them. As the leader of one of the fastest growing cities in the United States, Mayor Parker has centered her attention on improving the quality of life for every Fort Worth resident.     

Understanding that strong public safety is the bedrock of any successful city, she has championed historic increases in the number of police officers and firefighters. Mayor Parker has worked with the Police and Fire Departments to build solutions for some of the City’s toughest and longest-standing issues, such as integrating services to provide an EMS system that prioritizes high-quality patient care. She has also shepherded the City’s initiative with the American Warrior Association and the R3 program – a partnership between the Police Department and Fire Department that takes a holistic approach to wellness, addressing moral injury through mental, emotional, physical, and spiritual support.   

In 2023, she created Good Natured, a Fort Worth greenspace initiative and a bold investment in natural community spaces. The partnership has set an aggressive goal to add 10,000 acres of open greenspace to Fort Worth by 2028. Mayor Parker – who serves as co-chair of the national Mayors for Parks Coalition – helped secure the City’s first-ever bond funding for open space conservation and built on that success with voter approval of the 2026 bond program, which includes more than $185 million for parks, recreation, and open space.    

Mayor Parker has positioned the City to continue growing for years to come. She successfully advocated for increased incentives for the film industry in Fort Worth, which has created more than $1 billion in economic impact since 2015. She has also worked with the Fort Worth Chamber of Commerce in creating the Fort Worth Economic Development Partnership to lead business recruitment for the city. Mayor Parker is focused on attracting innovative expansion and high-paying jobs to Fort Worth while fostering conditions that help companies and small businesses alike thrive.      

With an eye always on improving Fort Worth for the next generation, Mayor Parker is leading efforts to expand access to education so all students are given the opportunity to succeed. Her Mayor’s Council on Education & Workforce convenes school and business leaders to match students with careers and higher education pathways, ensuring students in Fort Worth are prepared to succeed when they enter the workforce and, importantly, that Fort Worth is prepared to meet the future workforce demand.    

Support for youth and families must begin at childbirth, so she has worked to improve access to quality care and resources for mothers and children by convening a coalition of nonprofits and hospital CEOs working to better streamline services for maternal and infant health in Tarrant County and North Texas. Because of this work and the leadership of the TCU Anne Burnett Marion School of Medicine, along with clinical leaders at our area hospitals, and dozens of partners in Tarrant County and across North Texas, the philanthropic community has committed nearly $25 million to support the region’s most vulnerable mothers and babies.    

When Mayor Parker ran successfully for the first time, she was the youngest Mayor and the first millennial to lead a major American city. And her next-generation, values-based leadership prioritizes people and productivity in today’s polarized political landscape.     

Mayor Parker is a licensed attorney, with more than 18 years of experience in national, state, and local public affairs, including her service as the chief of staff for Mayor Betsy Price and the Fort Worth City Council. She was the founding CEO of Fort Worth Cradle to Career and the Tarrant To & Through (T3) Partnership. Mayor Parker, a native of Hico, Texas, graduated from the University of Texas at Austin with a Bachelor of Arts in Government, and has a law degree from Texas A&M University School of Law. She and her husband David are the proud parents of one daughter and two sons.