What’s a screwworm? Bad news.
The invasive species of parasitic fly larvae was reported in Texas this week 60 years after it was largely eradicated in the U.S. Screwworms can burrow in the skin, causing serious illness in humans and cows.
They’re not just gross. They can have catastrophic impacts on the food supply.
Farmers are already experiencing one of the worst agricultural crises in generations, fueled by minuscule margins, high fuel costs, fertilizer shortages, wildfires and climate change. The closure of the Strait of Hormuz has exacerbated matters, keeping essential agricultural supplies from reaching farmers. Family-owned farms have been going bankrupt at record paces for the past two years.
The emergence of the screwworm is just another straw on the camel’s back (worm on the cow’s side?), and it has the agriculture sector freaking out.
The screwworm can jeopardize the beef industry, leading to higher prices when affordability is already a top issue going into November. The price of beef has already drastically increased in the past six years, with the country’s cattle herd at its lowest point in 75 years. And cattle ranchers hurting with low profitability were already furious at the administration for allowing Argentine beef to flood the market last year.
Mind you, farmers make up an enormously important pillar of the Republican coalition and are experiencing some of the most acute impacts of the Trump administration’s policies. Tariffs and the war in Iran have been brutal on exporting crops and importing fertilizer. Congress has also failed to pass a new farm bill for years, meaning vital programs to help farmers haven’t been able to keep up with the changing agricultural landscape.
“A lot of farmers today have lost and are losing faith and are feeling betrayed,” said Joe Maxwell, president of Farm Action Fund.
Farmers haven’t always been loyal to Republicans. They used to be a major part of the Democratic voting bloc, helping win blue seats in rural states during the 1980s farm crisis. Democratic Sens. Thomas Daschle (South Dakota), Harry M. Reid (Nevada), Tom Harkin (Iowa) and Paul Simon (Illinois) all flipped red seats during the crisis.
“There is clearly an opportunity for Democrats,” Maxwell, whose group supports candidates from both parties, said. “The question is, ‘Will the Democrats seize that opportunity to make a difference at the ballot box?’”
Several critics of the Trump administration have pointed to the federal government slashing initiatives under the Department of Government Efficiency. One of the cuts at the Agriculture Department: a program dedicated to monitoring and stopping the spread of the screwworm.
Texas Agriculture Commissioner Sid Miller criticized the administration’s response as “slow, bureaucratic, and incomplete.” Maxwell said most farmers feel the administration has been on a campaign to “dismantle” USDA, from the DOGE cuts to a 20 percent funding reduction in the president’s budget request for the department.
Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins told the House Agriculture Committee yesterday that cutting the program wasn’t the culprit that led to the worm’s resurgence. She said the department had been anticipating its revival for years and that illegal immigration during the Biden administration helped the worm’s spread.
“Under the last administration and having the Darien Gap, which is the biological barrier between South America and Central America, which held the screwworm at bay since the 1960s, that Darien Gap crumbled under the last administration,” Rollins told the committee.
Maxwell, whose group supports candidates from both parties, acknowledged that the administration has put money toward building a facility in Texas to combat the spread of screwworms and closed the border with Mexico to prevent the spread of further parasites. But he said linking the current resurgence with Biden-era migration made no sense given the short lifespan of a screwworm.
“That’s unfortunate they would do that,” he said. “It politicizes this issue and this is just wrong leadership.”
Reposting from https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2026/06/05/democrats-are-worried-this-upstart-candidate-could-cost-them-november
