Ag Policy Blog

By Chris Clayton, DTN Ag Policy Editor, and Jerry Hagstrom, DTN Correspondent

This article was originally posted at 1:21 p.m. CDT on Wednesday, Oct. 16. It was updated with additional information at 4 p.m. CDT on Wednesday, Oct. 16.

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OMAHA (DTN) -- The Harris-Walz campaign is making a bigger push to chip away at former President Donald Trump's support among rural voters in the final weeks of the campaign.

Since Tuesday, the campaign has held the following events:

-- Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz held a rally on a Pennsylvania farm wearing a flannel shirt and ball cap as he laid out the campaign's rural agenda.

-- The Democratic National Committee held a press event to emphasize the potential negative impacts about the Heritage Foundation's Project 2025 proposed cuts for agriculture and rural America.

-- The Minnesota Farmers Union led an online event spotlighting two studies showing the negative impacts of another trade war with China.

Rural voters and farmers have been critical for former President Trump and Republicans since he first ran in 2016, winning 62% of the rural vote. An NBC poll this past week showed a dead heat nationally between Trump and Vice President Kamala Harris. That same poll showed Trump leads among rural voters 75% to 23% over Harris.

Trump often talks about farmers at his rallies and has held multiple events with farm audiences. During his time in office, he spoke each year at the American Farm Bureau Federation annual meeting. At a rally on Monday in Pennsylvania, Trump was asked about groceries and inflation. He talked about farmers, saying "our farmers aren't being treated properly." He pointed to China failing to meet the terms of his agreement over agricultural export sales.

"But the farmers are very badly hurt," he said. "The farmers in this country, we're going to get them straightened out."

Walz held a rally on Tuesday at a farm in Volant, Pennsylvania. He praised Harris for "securing" the $19.5 billion in the Inflation Reduction Act "for families and farmers to promote sustainable agriculture, increase resilience against extreme weather."

Walz also criticized Trump's running mate, Ohio Sen. J.D. Vance, for helping fund the app AcreTrader, a company that allows passive investment in farmland. Walz said the app allows investors, including foreigners, to speculate on short-term investments in farmland, "trying to squeeze every dollar out of soil that they'll never work or never step foot in," Walz said. He added: "That's not right. That makes it difficult for your kids to buy the land. That's why an acre of land costs $10,000 and makes it impossible for young people to get in because these guys are speculating on it with no intention of ever farming that land or doing a damn thing with it."

The Harris-Walz campaign also rolled out its agenda for rural America. The campaign emphasizes plans for improving health care with measures such as dealing with "ambulance deserts" and adding 10,000 new health care professionals in rural areas.

For farmers, the plan proposes "boosting access to credit, land, and markets, building new markets and streams of income for small- and mid-sized farmers and producers, and supporting the rise of the next generation of American farmers and ranchers."

The Harris-Walz campaign said Walz planned to participate in a series of rural radio interviews in Michigan, Wisconsin, Pennsylvania and Georgia "to discuss the new policy proposals, as well as his own background as someone who was born and raised in a rural community."

The Harris campaign also launched a new radio ad targeting rural voters, "Like Us," featuring Walz, to run on 535 rural radio stations across Wisconsin, Michigan, Pennsylvania, Georgia and North Carolina, reaching over 2.15 million battleground state rural voters who live outside of major cities and suburban counties.

Walz will campaign with former President Bill Clinton on Thursday in North Carolina on the first day of voting in that state and next Tuesday with former President Barack Obama in Wisconsin on the first day of voting in that state.

On the DNC press call, Wisconsin farmer Dylan Bruce also praised Biden for taking a strong position fighting monopolies while Trump "is siding with big corporate business" and is of the "get big or get out" farming viewpoint. Bruce also said Trump "treats farmers like we are hayseeds, and we are stupid."

Gary Wertish, president of the Minnesota Farmers Union, led a press call Wednesday highlighting the impacts of Trump's tariffs on farmers. Wertish pointed to the study released by the American Soybean Association (ASA) and National Corn Growers Association (NCGA) on Tuesday. Another study conducted by North Dakota State University last month showed the risk of billions of dollars in exports for soybeans, corn, beef and wheat as well.

"The whole point is to avoid trade wars," Wertish said. "Obviously, you have got the one candidate saying he's going to implement tariffs and the other one who isn't." He added, "Farmers need a fair shake in the marketplace, and trade wars take away that fair shake from us."

In response to the Harris campaign's push, Anna Kelly a spokesperson for the Republican National Committee (RNC), highlighted a list of results that Trump delivered for rural America, including the passage of the U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA) and providing farmers with $23 billion in trade-aid payments "straight out of the tariffs China was paying."

"Rural Americans have long felt left behind by Kamala Harris' weak, failed, dangerously liberal policies to cripple our economy, impose red tape on our farmers, and create uncertainty through measures like their burdensome WOTUS rule," Kelly said. "While working hand-in-glove with Tim Walz, who reduced rural America to 'rocks and cows,' Harris opposed the USMCA because she will always cave to Communist China over farmers, workers, and families in Middle America. In contrast, President Trump stood up to China, delivered fairer trade deals, supported rural infrastructure, and put America First. Harris can try to rewrite history, but it's too little, too late -- rural voters are tired of being failed by Democrats, and they are lining up to support President Trump."

Trump's supporters in agriculture also worry about tariffs. Lance Lillibridge, former president of the Iowa Corn Growers Association, told the news outlet Investigate Midwest that he plans to again vote for Trump, but he's concerned about tariffs.

"His policies didn't do us any good; his tariffs didn't do us any good," Lillibridge told Investigate Midwest. He added, "Trump will get my vote, but it comes with reservations."

Also see "China Trade War Threatens US Corn, Soybean Exports as South America Stands to Gain" here: https://www.dtnpf.com/….

Investigate Midwest: https://investigatemidwest.org/…

Chris Clayton can be reached at Chris.Clayton@dtn.com

Follow him on social platform X @ChrisClaytonDTN

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