Kansas Sen Pat Roberts easily won his fourth term in the Senate, beating independent Greg Orman by 9 points. Roberts says he expects to be Agriculture Committee chairman when Republicans take control of the Senate in January. He would be the first person to chair the both the House and Senate Agriculture committees.
Democrat Gwen Graham defeated two-term Rep Steve Southerland by roughly 2,200 votes in a Florida panhandle district that includes the state capital of Tallahassee. Southerland, a Tea Party conservative, proposed the largest cuts in food stamps in a generation during work on the 2014 farm law.
Roberts and Mike Conaway of Texas, expected to become House Agriculture chairman next year, have criticized food stamp benefits and Roberts voted against the 2014 farm law. A strong defender of federally subsidized crop insurance, Roberts was House Agriculture chair in 1996 when he spearheaded passage of the Freedom to Farm law that greatly deregulated agriculture.
For the Senate committee, a top issue in the coming session of Congress will be reauthorization of child nutrition programs such as school lunch.
While Republican senators have to meet and agree on committee leaders, Roberts was viewed as a certainty for Agriculture, assuming Thad Cochran, now the GOP leader on the committee, takes the Appropriations chair, as expected. “I don’t know who else it would be,” said Roger Johnson, president of the National Farmers Union, referring to Roberts’ likely selection as Agriculture chair.
Rep Rodney Davis, an early and vocal advocate of a waiver from school lunch reforms for some districts, won his second term by a landslide in central Illinois. In other races that could affect food and agriculture policy:
Collin Peterson, the Democratic leader on House Agriculture, was re-elected, 54-46, in western Minnesota. Peterson backed the new dairy support program of the 204 farm law and renewal of sugar supports.
Steve King, a conservative and critic of food stamp spending, rolled to re-election in northwestern Iowa. King is chairman of the House Agriculture subcommittee overseeing public nutrition programs.
Republican Tom Cotton, a military veteran, defeated Sen Mark Pryor, a Democrat and chairman of the Senate Appropriations subcommittee on agriculture, in Arkansas. In Iowa, Republican Joni Ernst, also a veteran, defeated Democrat Bruce Braley for election to the Senate.