Farm Action Fund-Endorsed Republicans and Democrats win in seven of nine races, including Iowa’s open U.S. Senate seat and two Iowa House seats, as farm and food issues reshape the rural vote.
MEXICO, MO – Rural voters sent a clear message on Tuesday: they will back candidates of either party who stand with independent farmers against the corporations that control America’s food system. Candidates endorsed by Farm Action Fund’s Rural Independence Initiative won seven of nine races, including the Iowa Senate seat and Iowa’s 1st and 3rd Districts, several of them on the other party’s turf.
“Rural America didn’t vote red or blue last night. It voted in support of independent farmers,” said Farm Action Fund President and fourth-generation farmer Joe Maxwell. “From Iowa to Florida, voters rewarded candidates who stood up to the meatpackers, the pesticide giants and the corporate lobbyists writing farm policy in Washington.”
In Iowa, Josh Turek defeated Rep. Ashley Hinson to win the state’s open U.S. Senate seat. Hinson wrote the Save Our Bacon Act, which would override state livestock standards such as California’s Proposition 12 and wipe out a market that independent hog farmers have already borrowed money to reach. Turek ran on the right to repair, country-of-origin labeling for beef and breaking up the monopolies squeezing Iowa’s family farms.
“Iowa voters sent a message rejecting the Save Our Bacon Act for Iowa farmers who played by the rules and invested to meet them,” Maxwell said. “Josh Turek will be a senator who fights to break up the ag monopolies who’ve sucked the wealth out of Iowa and not for the China-owned corporations seeking further consolidation that squeezes Iowa farmers.”
In Iowa’s 1st District, Christina Bohannan defeated Rep. Mariannette Miller-Meeks, an original cosponsor of the Save Our Bacon Act. Bohannan, the granddaughter of family farmers who lived through the 1980s farm crisis, campaigned on corporate consolidation in seed, fertilizer and meatpacking, and on Iowa’s water quality.
“Christina Bohannan knows what consolidation did to Iowa’s farm families because her own family lived through it,” Maxwell said. “Southeast Iowa just sent a fighter for independent farmers to Congress.”
In Iowa’s 3rd District, Sarah Trone Garriott defeated Rep. Zach Nunn, a cosponsor of the Save Our Bacon Act, in one of the most competitive House races in the country. Trone Garriott, who began her career as a rural minister, ran on the farm economy, rural health care and water quality.
“Sarah Trone Garriott has spent her life serving rural communities, and now she’ll do it in Congress,” Maxwell said. “Central Iowa voters chose someone who will put working Iowans ahead of corporate interests.”
In Florida’s 13th District, Rep. Anna Paulina Luna won re-election. Luna led the successful House vote to strip the Bayer-Monsanto pesticide liability shield from the farm bill, 280 to 142, and led the bipartisan amendment to protect state food safety and animal welfare laws from being overridden by the Save Our Bacon Act.
“Anna Paulina Luna has never been afraid to take on corporate monopolies, whether it’s Bayer-Monsanto or China-owned Smithfield,” Maxwell said. “Her re-election shows that standing up for farmers and families who want safe food isn’t a partisan issue. It’s an American one.”
In Pennsylvania’s 1st District, Bob Harvie defeated Rep. Brian Fitzpatrick, one of the few House Republicans defending a Democratic-leaning seat this year.
“Brian Fitzpatrick helped strip the Bayer-Monsanto immunity provision from the farm bill, and farmers and families owe him thanks for it,” Maxwell said. “We congratulate Congressman-elect Harvie and hope he’ll pick up that fight and keep it bipartisan.”
In Nebraska, Sen. Pete Ricketts held his seat against independent Dan Osborn, who turned one of the most Republican states in the country into a competitive Senate race by running on breaking up corporate monopolies.
“Dan Osborn made Nebraska a real race by talking about the issues farmers and working families feel every day,” Maxwell said. “That message isn’t going away. We hope Senator Ricketts hears what Nebraska’s rural voters were saying, and puts them ahead of the corporations that control their markets.”
Farm Action Fund-endorsed candidates also won in Wyoming, New Jersey and Maine. Rep. Harriet Hageman won Wyoming’s open Senate seat, where she will carry her fight for country-of-origin labeling on beef. Sen. Cory Booker, an original cosponsor of the Senate’s beef labeling bill, won re-election in New Jersey, and Rep. Chellie Pingree, the only working farmer among the Fund’s endorsees, was re-elected in Maine’s 1st District.
“We endorsed Republicans and Democrats for the same reason: they stand with independent farmers,” Maxwell said. “Voters in both parties rewarded that tonight, and we look forward to seeing these lawmakers keep up that fight in the next Congress.”
The results show that rural voters are no longer sorting themselves strictly by party. In races where candidates took clear positions on corporate control of agriculture, from the Save Our Bacon Act to pesticide liability to country-of-origin labeling for beef, voters rewarded those who sided with independent farmers, including in states and districts that lean toward the other party. That is a warning to both parties: rural America’s votes have to be earned on the issues that decide whether family farms survive. Confronting monopoly power is not a partisan issue. It is an American issue.
The Farm Bill comes first, and it rests with the current Congress. The Senate is expected to take it up in the lame-duck session, with mandatory country-of-origin labeling for beef in the Senate version and the Save Our Bacon language in the House version. Several endorsees who won tonight already serve in Congress, including Sen. Cory Booker and Reps. Harriet Hageman, Anna Paulina Luna and Chellie Pingree, and Farm Action Fund looks forward to seeing them stand up for independent farmers as the Farm Bill takes shape. If the bill isn’t finished before the new Congress is sworn in on Jan. 3, the newly elected members will help write the next one.
“Rural America just told Washington what it wants: fair markets, honest labels and the right of states and farmers to set their own standards,” Maxwell said. “Now we hold the people we helped elect to it, starting with the Farm Bill.”
