Building Trust in Rural America: Navigating Complex Conversations

Data centers, transmission lines, and new energy infrastructure are arriving in rural America faster than most communities can absorb. The projects are big. The timelines are tight. And the conversations they trigger are rarely about land use or power grids.

They're about trust.

If your organization is bringing a high-stakes project into rural America, that's where your real challenge lies — not in the engineering, but in the community's willingness to host it.

Speaking during a co-presented webinar with CoBank, Large Load Communications Tools and Strategies (July 2026), Matt Merritt, Director of Public Relations at Paulsen, laid out how organizations earn that willingness. His answer starts somewhere most developers don't expect.

The scale of the shift

The economic development moving into rural communities right now is hard to overstate.

"If you were to add up all of the money that the government spent on building the country's interstate highway system, and if you were to convert that into today's dollars, it would actually be less than what the industry is going to spend just this year alone on data center capex." — Jeff Johnston, CoBank lead economist

Money at that scale doesn't stay abstract. It shows up at the zoning hearing and the commission meeting, then races ahead of you on social media, in community Facebook groups, and across kitchen tables. By the time you're in the room, the questions aren't technical anymore. They're personal, and they're charged.

Facts alone won't fix a trust problem

When organizations engage the public on complex issues like large load growth, the instinct is to lead with facts and data. Merritt starts somewhere else — with the emotion in the room, because that is what determines whether the data ever gets heard.

He's not dismissing the data. He's pointing out its limits. Americans today are carrying real fear — about AI replacing their jobs, about a loss of control, about whether anyone in charge is listening. A spec sheet doesn't answer any of it.

"If you don't believe me, there are no numbers I can give you that's going to make you feel better about something," Merritt said.

The proof shows up in the room. When residents raise a concern about water usage, a factual answer rarely settles it. Without trust, they simply move to the next concern — noise, traffic, property values. The underlying worry isn't any single issue. It's the sense that things are moving too fast and the community is losing control of its own future.

Why the local meeting becomes the battleground

When a large company arrives to build, the zoning hearing and the county commission meeting become the one place citizens feel they still have a say.

"Where's the spot where we have any kind of influence over this? Local power, right? I'm going to show up and I'm going to be heard because I'm scared and I don't think people care about me." — Matt Merritt

That's not opposition for its own sake. It's people reaching for the only lever they have left.

Engage early — before you have all the answers

For years, the standard playbook was secrecy: hold everything under NDA, get the plan fully sorted, then announce it right before the zoning meeting.

That approach no longer works. Opposition groups can organize overnight on social media, long before your first public statement.

Merritt's advice is the opposite of the old playbook.

"You build trust by coming in as early as you can before you have all the answers, asking some questions, and having honest curiosity. Don't keep a wrap on everything and get everything sorted out before you announce it. Come in and ask questions. Be curious."

Rethink the language you use

Some of the most common words in a public-engagement toolkit actively undermine trust.

Merritt cautions against terms like "misinformation," "educating the public," and "buy-in." To a concerned resident, they read as condescending — proof that the company sees the community as a problem to manage rather than a partner to work with.

He recommends taking ownership instead of assigning blame.

"Instead of 'No you're wrong. That's factually incorrect what you're saying,' put it back on yourself in a way that's like, 'You know what, it sounds like we haven't done a good job of communicating about this.'"

The first goal isn't to win the argument. It's to lower the temperature.

"How can we lower the temperature, right? How can we calm things down a little bit?"

What good engagement actually looks like

The Northern Plains Connector transmission project is a case study in doing this well.

The developers engaged landowners early — and then proved they were listening. They shifted the route by more than 50 miles to accommodate unwilling participants. They set up community development grants to fund local priorities like nursing homes and recreation centers.

That's the difference. They didn't just inform the community. They strengthened it.

The takeaway

Rural America is at the center of a massive investment shift, and the organizations that succeed here won't be the ones with the best “messaging” alone. They'll be the ones who show up early, listen honestly, adjust their approach to meet the community’s needsand treat trust as something you earn before a project goes public — not something you manage after opposition appears.

"Advertising is what you say about yourself. PR is what other people are saying about you." — Matt Merritt

Let's talk

If your organization is bringing a project into rural communities and you want it built on a foundation of trust, we're here to help. At Paulsen, we've spent decades earning that trust across agriculture and energy — including the hardest, most polarizing conversations.

Call us at 605-336-1745 or reach out below. 

#MovingRuralAmerica