politics

At a campaign stop in Michigan, Republican vice presidential nominee JD Vance said on Wednesday, “We’re going to fire the agriculture secretary, right? She’s not doing a very good job.” Vance seemed to confuse the energy secretary, Jennifer Granholm, governor of Michigan from 2003 to 2010, with Tom Vilsack, who is serving his third term as agriculture secretary.

Former president Donald Trump won 60 percent of the rural vote in Iowa’s Republican presidential caucuses, well above his statewide total of 51 percent. But his victory Monday in the first-in-the-nation test of voter support for presidential candidates was built on the vote in towns, where most Iowans live, said a Daily Yonder analysis.

Reps. Mary Miller of Illinois and Andy Harris of Maryland were part of the Republican bloc voting repeatedly against elevating Kevin McCarthy to House Speaker. Harris was the senior Republican on the House Appropriations subcommittee in charge of USDA and FDA spending, and Miller served on the House Agriculture Committee in the past session of Congress.

Two Democrats on the House Agriculture Committee, Reps. Tom O’Halleran of Arizona and Cindy Axne of Iowa, are in uphill fights for re-election against Republicans, according to political handicapper Sabato’s Crystal Ball.

Farm bill veteran Colin Peterson, a former chairman of the House Agriculture Committee, offered some firsthand advice on Monday for drafting the 2023 farm bill: Make an agreement on SNAP the first order of business. But he doubts lawmakers will avoid the prolonged fights over public nutrition that derailed the 2014 and 2018 farm bills.

Politically conservative Americans tend to overestimate and liberals to underestimate the annual inflation rate for food, according to a poll of 1,200 consumers by Purdue University. The difference in views is 3 to 4 percentage points, said Purdue researchers on Wednesday.

The political environment looks promising for Republicans in the House, said Sabato’s Crystal Ball on Wednesday. The political newsletter said two Democrats on the House Agriculture Committee, Sanford Bishop and Antonio Delgado, are facing races that have become more competitive than they once were.

The campaign committee for House Republicans put Georgia Rep. Sanford Bishop, chairman of the Appropriations panel that oversees USDA and FDA spending, on its list of Democratic targets for the 2022 midterm elections. "In a cycle like this, no Democrat is safe," said Minnesota Rep. Tom Emmer, chair of the National Republican Congressional Committee, on Wednesday.

New Jersey Rep. Jeff Van Drew, who changed parties to become a Republican after voting against the impeachment of President Trump, is the second lawmaker to lose his seat on the House Agriculture Committee in a year. The other was anti-immigrant Republican Steve King of Iowa.

House Agriculture chairman Collin Peterson of Minnesota and committee member Jeff Van Drew of New Jersey voted against the impeachment of President Trump on Wednesday.

On the same day that President Trump praised soon-to-be Republican Rep. Jeff Van Drew, a straw poll of farmers gave Trump an approval rating of 82 percent, his highest tally yet.

House Agriculture chairman Collin Peterson and committee member Jeff Van Drew voted against the Democratic-led impeachment inquiry of President Trump on Thursday, though both men said they are reserving judgment on impeachment itself.

With Sino-U.S. trade talks scheduled to resume next week, President Trump said on Thursday that “China should start an investigation into the Bidens.” He also said his administration was “looking at a lot of different things” to increase pressure on China to resolve the trade war.

Former two-term Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty says he will not run for the Senate this year, “dashing Republican hopes that he would mount a strong bid for Al Franken’s old seat,” said the Minneapolis Star Tribune.