With the support of evangelical conservatives, Texas Sen. Ted Cruz won Iowa’s Republican presidential caucus with a plurality of 28 percent despite the efforts of the ethanol industry to help a friendlier candidate to victory. Cruz supports a five-year phase-out of the ethanol mandate. Iowa Gov. Terry Branstad urged fellow Republicans to defeat Cruz, telling the Des Moines Register, “I think it would be a big mistake for Iowa to support him.” Iowa is the No. 1 state for corn and ethanol production.
Ethanol, like other agricultural issues, drew secondary attention during the campaign in Iowa. A nationwide poll of farmers found national security as their top issue, followed by morals, the deficit and immigration. Only 3 percent cited renewable fuels when asked to name the top issue for the presidential campaign.
America’s Renewable Future, a pro-ethanol group, rated Cruz as “bad” for ethanol and criticized him heavily in the weeks leading to the caucuses. Billionaire Donald Trump, who finished second in Iowa with 24 percent, was rated as “good” as a supporter of the Renewable Fuels Standard, and Florida Sen. Marco Rubio, third at 23 percent, also was rated “good.” Rubio would let the RFS expire in 2022. Trump said last September he was “totally in favor of ethanol 100 percent.”
While trying to sink Cruz, Iowa corn and ethanol groups did not suggest backers coalesce around a particular candidate.
A handful of anti-ethanol amendments have been filed for the energy bill under debate in the Senate. It was not certain if any of them will be called for a vote, the pro-ethanol group Growth Energy told The Hagstrom Report.