Donald Trump

Rural Mexicans who rely on funds sent my their undocumented relatives in the U.S. are praying for Donald Trump to lose on Election Day, says Reuters. Trump has said he would deport illegal immigrants if he were president, cutting off a vital economic lifeline.

At least $93.4 million has been donated to candidates and political action committees in 2015 and 2016 by people, companies and groups in the agribusiness sector, says DTN in a perusal of campaign records compiled by the Center for Responsive Politics.

The most partisan members of the Republican and Democratic parties — the people who vote in primary elections — cluster in different parts of the country. Democrats live in cities and Republicans in rural areas, says the Daily Yonder.

Myron Ebell, the head of Donald Trump's transition team for EPA, "is a long-time opponent of the Renewable Fuels Standard and ethanol policies," says DTN. In addition, Ebell, who works at the libertarian Competitive Enterprise Institute, "also is a renowned skeptic of climate science."

Traditionally Republican rural America, where many residents are social and fiscal conservatives, will vote overwhelmingly for Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump, according to a poll commissioned by DTN/The Progressive Farmer. The telephone survey found 46 percent supported Trump, 24 percent backed Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton, 10 percent said they were vote for a third-party candidate and 20 percent were undecided or preferred "none of the above."

Texas Agriculture Commissioner Sid Miller got himself in hot water when a tweet went out from his account calling Hillary Clinton the c-word. Miller, who was nominated by Donald Trump to serve as co-chair (along with GOP funder Charles Herbster) on Trump’s Agricultural and Rural Ag Committee, initially said his Twitter account had been hacked. Later, however, his staff admitted that the fault was theirs. They claimed they had retweeted another tweet without realizing it contained vulgar language.

National policy adviser Sam Clovis says the Trump campaign is "looking very hard at putting a farmer or rancher in charge of the EPA." Given the impact that federal regulations can have on the sector, Clovis said on the AgriTalk radio program, "we think this would be an appropriate issue for us."

The Association of Equipment Manufacturers, whose members make construction equipment as well as farm machinery, is running a pair of broadcast ads in swing states to promote infrastructure spending, each slanted toward a Trump or Clinton audience, says AgWeb. An AEM spokesman says it is a "unique way to approach our messaging to external audiences."

The leading contender for Interior secretary if Republican Donald Trump becomes president is Forrest Lucas of Indiana, the founder of Lucas Oil, says Politico, citing two sources familiar with the campaign's deliberations. Lucas is a long-time opponent of biofuels and a founder of a group that challenges animal-rights organizations.

Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump told a recent rally in Des Moines that Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton wants to shut down family farms, impose radical regulations, push tax rates on farms and other businesses to 50 percent and impose an estate tax of up to 45 percent on farms. "We rate the combination of claims as False," concludes the independent fact-checking site Politifact.

Due to voter distaste for Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump, Democratic strategists say their party may have chances to win in up to a dozen GOP-held seats in the House, including the district held by Kevin Yoder, reports the New York Times. Yoder, a fiscal conservative who represents the suburbs of Kansas City, is a member of the House Appropriations subcommittee that oversees funding for FDA and USDA.

Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump promised to protect the Renewable Fuel Standard and corn-based ethanol, eliminate burdensome regulations like the Waters of the United States rule ("which is a disaster") and provide tax relief to farmers in a speech in Des Moines over the weekend, says the Des Moines Register. Trump also said he would use immigration laws to prevent crime. "We will move justly but we will move fast, believe me. And we will move tough," he said.