- Jul 13, 2005
- 33,982
- 3,318
- 126
How can you be a farmer and vote for Trump??? Just amazing, I tell you. Just amazing!!
Record rainfall made it difficult to plant and harvest his crops. The trade war with China is now a factor keeping prices too low for him to make a profit on what he grew.
Many farmers in the rural Midwest are frustrated with President Trump’s trade policies. Yet in southern Minnesota, many who voted for him in 2016 plan to support him again next year, which would be key for Mr. Trump as he hopes to flip a state he narrowly lost in 2016.
“In my gut, I still think he’s doing the right thing,” said Mr. Wenner, 56 years old, who grows corn and soybeans on 2,500 acres and raises about 14,000 pigs in nearby St. Peter. “It just so happens we’re on the side that’s getting the short end of the stick.”
In Minnesota, trade tensions are testing farmers’ loyalty to the president as many are still reeling from a late, messy harvest. Yields are down, and farmers are storing as much grain as possible, hoping they can sell when prices rise. With snow on the fields, some have yet to bring in all their crops.
Mr. Trump lost Minnesota in 2016 by fewer than 45,000 votes, or 1.5 percentage points, and he is making a big push for the state in 2020. A recent state poll shows him trailing Democrats in hypothetical matchups by roughly the same margins as some national polls, and no GOP presidential candidate has won the state since Richard Nixon in 1972. But Democrats say they expect a tight race.
“There is a real chance he could win this,” said Ken Martin, chairman of the Minnesota Democratic-Farmer-Labor Party, which is affiliated with national Democrats. He said he believes many farmers are standing by the president. “It gives me some concern that while they’re suffering they’re going to grin and bear it,” he said.
Mr. Martin said the Trump campaign is outspending Democrats by 4 to 1 on digital ads in Minnesota and has 20 paid staffers and four offices, a stronger push than he has ever seen by a Republican presidential candidate at this point in the campaign.
The Minneapolis-St. Paul region, where Mr. Trump badly lost to Hillary Clinton in 2016, accounts for more than half of the state’s voters, said David Schultz, a professor of political science at Hamline University in St. Paul. But turnout tends to be higher among rural voters, which generally back Mr. Trump. “Democrats have been in denial for a long time that this is a state that’s on the edge of flipping,” he said.
Some farmers said they oppose the impeachment inquiry into the president and that Democrats in Congress deserve some blame on trade for not yet approving a deal the administration has negotiated with Mexico and Canada to replace the North American Free Trade Agreement—a delay they say is hampering agricultural exports.
there is more --
Record rainfall made it difficult to plant and harvest his crops. The trade war with China is now a factor keeping prices too low for him to make a profit on what he grew.
Many farmers in the rural Midwest are frustrated with President Trump’s trade policies. Yet in southern Minnesota, many who voted for him in 2016 plan to support him again next year, which would be key for Mr. Trump as he hopes to flip a state he narrowly lost in 2016.
“In my gut, I still think he’s doing the right thing,” said Mr. Wenner, 56 years old, who grows corn and soybeans on 2,500 acres and raises about 14,000 pigs in nearby St. Peter. “It just so happens we’re on the side that’s getting the short end of the stick.”
In Minnesota, trade tensions are testing farmers’ loyalty to the president as many are still reeling from a late, messy harvest. Yields are down, and farmers are storing as much grain as possible, hoping they can sell when prices rise. With snow on the fields, some have yet to bring in all their crops.
Mr. Trump lost Minnesota in 2016 by fewer than 45,000 votes, or 1.5 percentage points, and he is making a big push for the state in 2020. A recent state poll shows him trailing Democrats in hypothetical matchups by roughly the same margins as some national polls, and no GOP presidential candidate has won the state since Richard Nixon in 1972. But Democrats say they expect a tight race.
“There is a real chance he could win this,” said Ken Martin, chairman of the Minnesota Democratic-Farmer-Labor Party, which is affiliated with national Democrats. He said he believes many farmers are standing by the president. “It gives me some concern that while they’re suffering they’re going to grin and bear it,” he said.
Mr. Martin said the Trump campaign is outspending Democrats by 4 to 1 on digital ads in Minnesota and has 20 paid staffers and four offices, a stronger push than he has ever seen by a Republican presidential candidate at this point in the campaign.
The Minneapolis-St. Paul region, where Mr. Trump badly lost to Hillary Clinton in 2016, accounts for more than half of the state’s voters, said David Schultz, a professor of political science at Hamline University in St. Paul. But turnout tends to be higher among rural voters, which generally back Mr. Trump. “Democrats have been in denial for a long time that this is a state that’s on the edge of flipping,” he said.
Some farmers said they oppose the impeachment inquiry into the president and that Democrats in Congress deserve some blame on trade for not yet approving a deal the administration has negotiated with Mexico and Canada to replace the North American Free Trade Agreement—a delay they say is hampering agricultural exports.
there is more --
Facebook
Twitter