(C) Daily Kos
This story was originally published by Daily Kos and is unaltered.
 . . . . . . . . . .



Iowa? Is It the Farmers? [1]

['This Content Is Not Subject To Review Daily Kos Staff Prior To Publication.']

Date: 2024-11-03  

All of us are absolutely abuzz this morning about Kamala being up by 3-4 points in Iowa. And somewhat puzzled. Then I remembered something I posted about a couple of weeks ago: the Wisconsin Farm Bureau endorsed Tammy Baldwin for Senator, the first Dem they’ve endorsed in 20 years. The reason I gave was that Tammy has a great reputation in rural communities for helping farmers and actually understands the Farm Bill, which her opponent said he’d read... if he got elected...

But Iowa? Hmmmm...Oh yeah, one of the biggest EXPORTERS of grain and livestock in the country! (www.iowaeda.com/...) And if you follow that link, you’ll end up at a page at the Iowa Economic Development Association. And you’ll see how much ag stuff Iowa exports and how significant it is to the entire Iowa economy. And Trump’s tariffs, which instigated a trade war, damaged the Iowa economy. And another round of Trump tariffs would do the same thing: hurt the Iowa economy.

Oh — and you’ll see that two of their major buyers are China and Mexico.

If you go to states like Iowa, Minnesota, South Dakota, etc., you not only see huge farms, huge fields of crops, and huge grain and meat processing operations, but you see all of the small towns that dot the horizon, with small businesses that exist only because of the agricultural sector.

In short, the economy of Iowa — and other states — depends on agricultural exports. And during the Trump administration, it suffered, not only because of tariffs but because of his ag program that funneled most of the money into corporate ag. (www.forbes.com/...)

Trump was bad for farmers, and nobody knows that better than they do. Biden/Harris were the ones who helped them recover from Trump’s failed policies. And nobody knows THAT better than farmers — and the small communities whose economies depend on them.

So, after thinking about this, what would REALLY be surprising is if Iowa farmers supported Trump, the guy whose policies damaged their bottom lines. I would guess that Trump might still get a significant number of votes from rural Iowans. But if he gets several percentage points lower, and the blue votes in the cities go up several points because of Dobbs, there’s your 3-4 points.

Yes, it could very well be the farmers in Iowa, who’ve had quite enough of Trump’s ag policies, who help put Harris over the top there.

I guess they saved the best poll for last!

[END]
---
[1] Url: https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2024/11/3/2282099/-Iowa-Is-It-the-Farmers?pm_campaign=front_page&pm_source=more_community&pm_medium=web

Published and (C) by Daily Kos
Content appears here under this condition or license: Site content may be used for any purpose without permission unless otherwise specified.

via Magical.Fish Gopher News Feeds:
gopher://magical.fish/1/feeds/news/dailykos/