Democrats Turn to Rural Issues: Rural, Midwest Democrats Promote Infrastructure and Divergent Strategy From Trump Years

August 20, 2020

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by Chris Clayton (DTN Progressive Farmer) Democratic leaders put a heavy emphasis on rural broadband and health care while criticizing the Trump administration and President Trump directly on trade, biofuels, climate change and the pandemic response.

A western Pennsylvania soybean and hay farmer who voted for Donald Trump in 2016 spoke at the Democratic National Convention on Monday. “The last year has been the biggest challenge, financially, that I can remember,” said Rick Telesz of Volant, Pennsylvania.

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Trump “was a hell of a salesman,” he said. “But all you’ve had to do was watch television every day and ask yourself, ‘Why did I vote for this guy?'”

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Farmers outside of the convention also have been championing the Democratic ticket in different ways. Justin Jordan farms corn, soybeans and hay in south-central Iowa. He partners with a livestock farmer in the area, providing hay and pasture for the operation. Jordan also focuses on climate issues and sees more volatile weather patterns as a big concern for farmers in the future. Last year, Jordan hosted Biden and California Sen. Kamala Harris on his farm during different events.

“What attracted me to Harris — and I was actually a Harris supporter from the get-go — is her energy,” Jordan told DTN. “We have some really major, big problems in this country and we need someone who has got the drive and energy to tackle these issues.”

Jordan said he was thrilled when Biden picked Harris as his running mate, and he quickly wrote an op-ed in the Des Moines Register. He noted Biden’s “Build Back Better Plan” would invest in farmers, ranchers and rural America to address climate change. “I’m confident that their leadership will create new opportunities for my farm to be more sustainable and successful,” Jordan wrote. https://www.desmoinesregister.com/…

Regarding Trump, Jordan said he feels as if programs in the Trump administration such as Market Facilitation Program (MFP) payments have turned farmers into “pawns” for the re-election campaign.

“Let’s face it, the next president is going to write the next farm bill and farmers need to ask who do we want to write the next farm bill?” Jordan said. “I don’t really see a lot of good, long-term concrete ag policies coming out of the Trump administration.”

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(Former Agriculture Secretary Tom) Vilsack talked about a bio-economy and agriculture that creates a market to pay farmers for conservation practices. Vilsack laid out what he sees are steps to rebuild the rural economy.

“Let’s pay farmers to sequester carbon,” Vilsack said. “Let’s pay farmers to capture methane and turn it into energy. Let’s pay farmers to use their agricultural waste and truck it down the road to a bio-manufacturing facility that creates jobs in rural America, and converts that agricultural waste into a variety of products and new chemicals and the new materials and new fabrics and fibers and energy and fuel.”

Vilsack added, “Let’s make sure we’ve got an administration that understands the significance of renewable fuel and energy and invests in it.”

In separate, “virtual rooms” on Tuesday afternoon, groups such as the National Corn Growers Association held different discussions on agriculture. NCGA leaders talked about the Soil Health Partnership and the value of stewardship practices such as carbon sequestration. Iowa farmer Mark Recker highlighted the importance of ethanol, not just to the Iowa economy, but also as a fuel strategy to help address climate change because ethanol has a lower carbon footprint than fossil fuels.

“We, as farmers, know ethanol can play a big part in that because it has a low carbon footprint and it’s getting lower every year,” Recker said.

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Rep. Cheri Bustos of Illinois, who chairs the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, said farmers in her western Illinois congressional district are continuing to struggle and “Donald Trump has betrayed congressional districts like mine in downstate Illinois.”

Bustos added to the biofuel theme. “He’s turned his back on biofuels by handing out these small refinery waivers like he’s handing out candy on Halloween, and in pursuit of a trade policy that no one can really comprehend.”

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Sen. Amy Klobuchar of Minnesota, in a recorded video, also challenged Trump on small-refinery waivers and trade. “Sometimes I feel like every single day I’m just working against Donald Trump and all of those waivers he gives to big oil companies, and then he goes back to Iowa and says, ‘Oh yeah, I’m gonna fix it.’ Yeah, right.”

In Cedar Rapids, Iowa, on Tuesday, Sen. Joni Ernst, R-Iowa, asked Trump at an event related to the derecho storm to address the EPA and the small refinery exemptions. In an exchange, Trump said he would talk to EPA Administrator Andrew Wheeler about it. “We’ll speak to them. I’ll speak to them myself,” Trump said. READ MORE

Trump Losing Support Among Farmers Over Handling of Virus, Survey Says (Bloomberg Quint)

Agriculture Confidence Index: Farmers Look to Future (DTN Progressive Farmer)

Excerpt from Bloomberg Quint: President Donald Trump is losing re-election support among farmers over his handling of the coronavirus outbreak, according to a survey by agriculture publisher DTN Progressive Farmer. A survey of at least 500 farmers showed 71% plan to vote for Trump, down from 89% in April, DTN said Wednesday in a statement. The data showed 43% were satisfied with the response to the pandemic, down from 84%.

Farmers and ranchers tend to be conservative and have applauded Trump’s deregulation efforts, even as a trade war with China damped exports of soybeans, cotton and pork. The virus prompted lockdowns across the U.S., roiling agricultural markets with corn-based ethanol plants closed because of fewer drivers on the roads, while meat plants shut after workers caught the virus.

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A farmer-sentiment index reading of 47 for the current environment is the lowest in over 10 years. Levels above 100 are considered optimistic. “Comparatively speaking, in August 2020, pessimism is even lower than it was in August 2016, but the future outlook is much greater,” DTN said. “This indicates that farmers may believe their vote for the current administration will result in a better outlook over the coming months and year.” READ MORE

Excerpt from DTN Progressive Farmer: LEVEL OF SUPPORT FOR TRUMP ADMINISTRATION

This is the third ACI survey in which DTN examined farmer support for the current president. Asked how they would vote if the election was held now, 71% said they would likely vote to retain the Trump administration. While a solid majority, that is significantly lower than the 89% of farmers who said they would vote that way in the April 2020 DTN survey.

That change in support also showed up in questions regarding the current pandemic. In both the spring and pre-harvest ACI surveys, farmers were asked if they were satisfied with the way the Trump administration was handling the coronavirus crisis. In August, only 43% said they were satisfied, while 20% said they were not satisfied and 37% said they were undecided. In April, as the pandemic was just beginning to take a hold and the administration was downplaying its severity, 84% said they were satisfied with the way the pandemic was being handled, only 9% said they were dissatisfied and a smaller amount, 6.7%, said they were unsure.

The reason for that dissatisfaction likely has many prongs. Social media commentary from rural America seems divided between those concerned with the rise in COVID-19 cases and the lack of answers to stop that rise, while others feel the issue has been overblown and control methods such as lockdowns and social distancing have overly hurt the economy.

HEALTH, ECONOMY TOP CONCERNS

Farmers continue to be most concerned about the health of those close to them, and the U.S. economy in general, echoing the split opinion on how the pandemic has been handled. In the latest survey, 42% of farmers said the U.S. economy was their highest concern; 40% said they were most concerned for the health of family, friends and employees. Eleven percent said they had no concerns about the global health issue.

In April, 47% of farmers surveyed put health concerns first, 32% were worried about the overall economy, while only 3% had little concern about the pandemic.

REGIONAL, COMMODITY DIFFERENCES

Turning to regions, Midwestern farmers were slightly more pessimistic, with an ACI of 80, up 10 points from April. Those farmers also turned in a record-low present situation rating of 31.9, while their future expectations were 113.9, a level similar to December of 2017. Southeastern farmers scored in the middle in terms of ratings, with an ACI of 91.7, while the Southwest took the strongest turn to the positive, with an overall ACI of 122.3, a 56-point jump from the April 2020 score. Southwestern farmers also had the highest current and future scores, with farmers there giving a 78.3 to their present situation, nearly flat with spring 2020 feelings, while future expectations jumped a whopping 79 points to 142.5, levels not seen since spring of 2019.

Crop producers were more pessimistic than those who said most of their income came from livestock. READ MORE