The Daily Yonder Book Review: ‘Rural Rebellion – How Nebraska Became a Republican Stronghold’ Ross Benes’ political memoir lays out the failure of Democrats to reach rural constituents in Nebraska. Reviewer Matt L. Barron offers some solutions, along with his reflections on Benes’ “wonderful new book.” Share this: When I say Nebraska, you say what? Cornhusker football? The wonderful writing of Willa Cather? The Sandhills? How about a ruby-red state about as inhospitable for Democrats as Mars is for humans? The chapter on Nebraska from my Almanac of American Politics 1980 opens with this: “By almost every measurement – its preference in presidential elections, its congressional delegations over the years, its state politics – Nebraska has usually been the nation’s most Republican state.” So why is this? Some answers are to be found in a wonderful new book by Ross Benes,