In the spring of 2025, electric cooperatives in Texas battled some of the biggest telecom companies in the nation.

With an army of lobbyists and plenty of campaign cash, the telecoms appeared to have the advantage as the Texas legislature considered a bill to force not-for-profit co-ops to let the companies attach broadband equipment to co-op power poles.

What's more, the bill would set fees for the pole attachments so low that it would effectively require co-op consumer-members to subsidize multi-billion-dollar telecom giants.

“Rural folks are really good about taking care of each other, but they want everybody to pull their own weight," says Mike Williams, president and CEO of Texas Electric Cooperatives. “It felt like the balance had been tipped in favor of the big guys."

To make the fight fairer, Williams and Julia Harvey, TEC's vice president of government relations and regulatory affairs, sought a way to ramp up grassroots efforts to kill the bill. To do that, they and their staff reached out to NRECA's political programs team to employ Voices for Cooperative Power.

VCP—NRECA's grassroots network of more than 1.4 million co-op consumer-members, employees and allies—helps the national association reach members of Congress on federal issues that are crucial to co-ops. Increasingly, it also partners with statewide associations to advocate for co-op-friendly policies around the country.

After Williams reached out, VCP quickly mobilized and sent out email and social media appeals to co-op advocates to join the battle, urging them to tell their lawmakers to “say no to policies that put corporate profits over rural Texans."

From April 9 to May 15, grassroots advocates sent more than 12,000 letters to Texas legislators urging them to defeat the bill. On May 15, the bill was pulled from consideration by its sponsors in the face of growing opposition.

“Our folks wear the white hats; they're the good guys," Williams says. “We had a good story to tell and we thought we could beat the big guys, but we had to use every tool in the toolbox to do it."

VCP proved to be a crucial tool, he says.

“The bottom line is I think the grassroots engagement activation moved the needle," Williams says. “There were some lawmakers that got many, many messages. We think it really helped."

The key to a successful VCP campaign like the one in Texas is for NRECA to work closely with the statewide association and customize the message to that state, says Kelly Cushman, NRECA vice president of political programs.

“We make sure we understand the legislative environment, the opposition, the legislators involved, what the press is saying and what VCP advocates are saying," she says. “Then, we build a customized plan for the state."

NRECA is currently activating VCP advocates to help Minnesota co-ops try to convince lawmakers to lift the state's moratorium on new nuclear reactors. The ban, enacted in 1994, has discouraged the study, evaluation and planning required to even consider nuclear power alternatives.

For the last two years, the statewide association has led a coalition of more than 60 groups—including labor unions and environmental organizations—to push for state lawmakers to lift the ban.

“We do a good job as the statewide organizing directors and CEOs, but we're trying to get beyond our insider group," Johnson says. “So, we turned to VCP to mobilize grassroots support."

VCP and the statewide association worked together to inform people about the issue for about a month before NRECA activated the VCP network to start sending letters to state lawmakers.

In less than a week and a half, nearly 2,000 letters had been sent, with messages arriving as co-op leaders held their annual Co-op Day at the statehouse to lobby lawmakers.

Soon after, the statewide association reached its goal of more than 3,000 messages sent to lawmakers, with all 201 legislators receiving letters.

“Really, the grassroots stuff is so important to hit it home to lawmakers that their constituents want this," Johnson says.

With a short legislative session in 2026 that lasts less than four months, Johnson concedes that it's unlikely the nuclear moratorium will be lifted this year. But he is cautiously optimistic that lawmakers will agree to conduct a study of the issue.

“We're making progress," he says. “It looks like we have bipartisan buy-in to have a fair study that we can hopefully use next year to try to lift the moratorium."

NRECA listened closely to local input as the political team crafted the VCP advocacy campaign, Johnson says.

“There was an ad they were going to run, and the graphic included the Minnesota state flag," Johnson says. “What they didn't know was that Minnesota changed our state flag two years ago, and it was controversial. They listened to us and took it out. We worked together and got the graphic changed."

VCP was effective at reaching out to lawmakers in urban and suburban areas who don't have many co-ops in their districts but whose votes are crucial, Johnson says.

“With this campaign, we've been able to get some emails to lawmakers we've never been able to contact on the constituent level before," he says.

The New Mexico Rural Electric Cooperative Association and the VCP team also learned some key lessons as they worked together to try to pass a wildfire bill to limit legal liability for co-ops that develop and implement strong mitigation plans to reduce wildfire risk. The campaign tested Spanish-language ads for the first time.

Grassroots advocates sent about 1,800 letters to New Mexico state lawmakers in a 10-day period, but the bill didn't pass. Co-ops plan to try again.

Looking ahead, the statewide association plans to build on the momentum by aligning messaging and outreach efforts earlier in the process, says Tom Condit, the organization's editor and director of communications.

“Moving forward, we'll continue taking a proactive approach to our grassroots efforts and we look forward to working with VCP to assist us," he says.

“VCP was able to reach an incredible number of people—more than half a million on Facebook alone. They helped amplify our message in the areas where we needed visibility most, and we see a strong opportunity to build on that success."

The campaign did succeed in raising the number of VCP advocates in New Mexico from about 7,300 to nearly 11,000.

“We might not have won this legislative fight, but the longer-term battle of building an advocate base was a victory," Cushman says. “That puts co-ops in a much stronger place for next time."