The term ‘ grassroots ’ is frequently thrown around in progressive politics. We speak of grassroots organizing to mobilize voters who may not otherwise vote, grassroots engagement about attending your county party meeting, or volunteering to be a precinct captain at the hyper-local level – but what can grassroots efforts genuinely do in a time when the national Democratic party has forgotten most Southern states, and left behind their blocs of progressive voters? The answer is never simple, but in the case of many southern states, organizers and advocates must turn to hyper-local politics, grow small-scale party infrastructure, and work as hard as they can until they can prove to the national party that Republican majority states are worth investing in. In my eyes, this work is personal. My political work started in Oklahoma – a state that was founded on agrarian Socialism, had a Democratic majority until the early 2000s and was swiftly taken over by the Republican supermajority a...