Rural Iowa was important but not decisive for Trump, says analysis
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.
Ethanol stands out in nationalized campaigning in Iowa
Republican presidential candidates pledged allegiance to corn ethanol ahead of the first-in-the-nation Iowa caucuses in a contest dominated by former president Donald Trump and his personality. There was little room for any farm policy debate in an effectively nationalized campaign.
McCarthy foes include two aggies
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 House Agriculture facing uphill fights
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.
In race to control the House, three Agriculture Committee toss-ups
A relative handful of contests in the Nov. 8 general election — one month away — will decide whether Democrats or Republicans control the House in 2023. Three of those toss-up races are in farm-state districts with seats on the House Agriculture Committee.
Fights over SNAP are likely to delay farm bill
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.
Political views shape how Americans see food inflation
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.
Election outlook softens for two House Democratic aggies
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.
House Republicans target Sanford Bishop, Democrat who oversees USDA funding
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.
Assessing the 2020 candidates on trade, from Trump’s unilateralism to ‘insular’ Warren and Sanders
President Trump employs a policy of “aggressive unilateralism” that views agriculture’s trade war losses as collateral damage that can be mitigated by a multibillion-dollar bailout, say the authors of a paper on the 2020 presidential race. The paper says Michael Bloomberg is “perhaps the strongest supporter of free trade among the various Democratic candidates” while Sens. Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren “are the most protectionist.”
With change in party, Van Drew vanishes from House ag panel
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.
Calling impeachment ‘a mistake,’ Peterson votes against it
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.
Farm support for Trump is highest ever ahead of impeachment
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.
Peterson leaning, Van Drew certain to vote against impeachment
“Blue Dog” Democrats Collin Peterson and Jeff Van Drew voted in October against the House impeachment inquiry of President Trump — the only Democrats to do so — and they may vote against the impeachment articles next week. As Agriculture Committee chair, Peterson would be the most prominent House Democrat to oppose impeachment.
Two ‘Blue Dog’ Democrats vote against House impeachment inquiry
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.
Ahead of trade talks, Trump asks China to investigate Biden family
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.
Trump acolyte presses ahead in Mississippi Senate race
Sen. Cindy Hyde-Smith, a member of President Trump’s agriculture advisory committee in 2016, is following the president’s no-apology campaign style in the Senate runoff election against former U.S. agriculture secretary Mike Espy, a Democrat. Hyde-Smith is the front-runner in strongly Republican Mississippi.
Though outnumbered, the ‘farm vote’ has a lot of friends
Even in the most agricultural districts of America, farmers are hardly thick on the ground, the result of decades of mechanization and consolidation, which has driven down farm numbers, as well as the United States becoming ever more urban. Nonetheless, the “farm vote,” while small in numbers, is a mighty force in U.S. politics.