Representatives from America’s electric cooperatives attended the 2016 Republican and Democratic National Conventions to ensure that the voice of rural America is heard this election season. Co-op leaders from around the country were joined by representatives from the National Rural Electric Cooperative Association (NRECA), the national service organization for America’s electric cooperative network.

At the Democratic National Convention in Philadelphia, NRECA secretary-treasurer and Roanoke Electric Cooperative CEO Curtis Wynn participated in a panel discussion at the Global Oval Summit on July 26. He noted that efforts by NRECA International to electrify places from Guatemala to the Philippines in 2016 are strikingly similar to what happened in 1930s rural America.

“America’s electric cooperatives have taken the knowledge and the skill set developed over these years to developing nations,” said Wynn. “When you look at the parallel relationships between what we went through in the 1930s and what’s happening now in developing nations, supporting this effort was really an easy decision for NRECA to make.”

NRECA president Mel Coleman was on a July 20 panel at the Global Oval in Cleveland during the Republican National Convention.

“If you lived in rural America 80 years ago, you didn’t have power. And that’s what’s happening in these countries every day,” Coleman said. “We’re not in the electric business; we’re in the life improvement business. And that’s what we’re doing in the countries that we’re in.”