How did Democrats lose control of state farm policy?
Democrats once dominated statewide elections for the influential post of agriculture commissioner. Now they just hope to win one.
David W. Chen and Jon Cherry drove more than 800 miles through Kentucky, stopping at farms, diners, a fish fry and a livestock auction to understand agricultural politics in states like Kentucky.
Jonathan Robertson was preparing to start the workday on his family’s cattle ranch when a campaign ad in the race for Kentucky agriculture commissioner flashed on his television.
He couldn’t hear the narrator, but he noticed that the candidate – the name was Shell, he believed – was on the screen baling hay and driving farm equipment.
“I haven’t heard anything about who’s participating,” Mr. Robertson, 47, recalled a few hours later, as he stopped with his brother for the $5.99 lunch special at the Wigwam General Store in Horse Cave, Kentucky. “Who is his opponent? ”
Neither Mr. Robertson nor his brother, Josh, 44, knew who was in the race, but they had no doubts about how they would vote: “I’m a straight-up Republican,” Josh said.
Democrats face enormous odds in races for the under-the-radar but vital position of state agriculture commissioner — and not just in Kentucky, where the two people competing on Nov. 7 are Jonathan Shell, a former Republican state lawmaker, and Sierra Enlow, a Democratic economic development advisor.
A total of 12 states in the South and Midwest elect their agricultural commissioners, who have enormous influence over everything from regulating pesticides to containing animal disease outbreaks. Twenty years ago, Democrats held most of those seats; now Republicans hold all twelve, even in states where Democrats have prevailed in other statewide contests for governor, attorney general and the United States Senate, such as North Carolina, West Virginia and Georgia.
The reversal of fortunes is part of the overall decline of the Democratic Party in the South in recent decades. But it also reflects a concerted focus among Republicans on “down-ballot races,” applying the party’s core message of free markets and government dominance to conflicts that may not have been partisan political battlegrounds in the past. The role of agriculture commissioner is a given, said West Virginia Agriculture Commissioner Kent Leonhardt, who serves as chairman Ag Americaan attempt by the Republican State Leadership Committee to maintain the party’s control of the posts.
“Most people who come from a farm or rural community are quite conservative,” said Leonhardt, whose 2017 victory ended a Democratic streak in the state dating back to 1988.
In Florida, Nikki Fried’s background as a lobbyist for an agricultural sector that has become increasingly prominent across the country — cannabis — helped her become the most recent Democrat to win a farm race in 2018, by a razor-thin margin. her party had placed too much emphasis on an urban agenda and had failed to undertake sufficient retail politics outside the blue areas.
“You have to show up,” said Ms. Fried, who was defeated in the 2022 primary for governor and is now chair of the Democratic Party of Florida. “These are healthy, good Americans who want to look you in the eye and feel the sincerity that you really understand their lifestyle.”
A Republican, Wilton Simpson, was easily elected to succeed her as state agriculture commissioner in 2022, with 59 percent of the vote.
Although the duties of an agricultural commissioner vary by state, the position has evolved beyond agriculture in all states.
In Florida, the agriculture commissioner is one of four elected cabinet members, implements the state’s concealed weapons program, manages forest lands, fights forest fires and handles consumer complaints. In Texasthe Agriculture Department runs school nutrition programs and licenses the hemp industry. In North Dakota, the commissioner, along with the governor and attorney general, serves on the state’s powerful Industrial Commission, which oversees oil permitsthe Bank of North Dakota, and home financing.
The post could be a springboard to national fame. Rick Perry, a former governor of Texas; Sen. Cindy Hyde-Smith of Mississippi and Rep. James R. Comer of Kentucky are all former agriculture commissioners — and all Republicans.
Three states are electing governors and other state officials this year, but Kentucky is the only one with an open seat for agriculture commissioner.
Although the state leans Republican, a moderate Democrat, Gov. Andy Beshear, has one Approval rate of 66 percent in the state and is slightly favored to win re-election. Yet coat racks are not expected.
“For Democrats, Andy Beshear’s best chance is re-election,” said Al Cross, director emeritus of the Institute for Rural Journalism and Community Issues at the University of Kentucky. “They have to get that done first before they can be strong enough to help candidates down vote.”
The state Agriculture Department employs about 220 people and has an annual budget of $80 million, making it the second-largest office in the state executive branch behind only the governor’s office, Ryan F. Quarles said, the current commissioner, a Republican who is not running. for re-election due to term limits.
“A big part of my job is defending the intended or unintended consequences of bills passed in Frankfort and Washington, D.C.,” said Mr. Quarles, who ran for governor this year and lost in the Republican primaries.
Mr Shell and Ms Enlow, both 35, have not had much contact – recently anyway — other than through participation in a forum moderated by Mark Haney, President of the Kentucky Farm Bureau.
A fifth-generation farmer, Mr. Shell was elected to the State House of Representatives in his mid-20s and helped lead Republicans winning control of the House in 2016 for the first time in almost a century. Senator Mitch McConnell once called him “one of the most important Republicans in Kentucky.”.”
Mr. Shell has tried to nationalize the fight for agriculture and promised to take up the fight.”against radical liberal ideas that threaten our way of life” and to defeat President Biden, whose voter approval in Kentucky has fallen to 22 percent.
In an interview at a seafood restaurant for Attorney General Daniel Cameron, the Republican candidate for governor, Mr. Shell touted his friendships with Republican leaders in Frankfort and Washington, at a time when Republicans are proposing deep cuts in federal government funds. .5 trillion dollars. farm invoice, despite Democrats’ objections. He opposed as elitism and over-regulation the federal government’s efforts to regulate pollution in millions of acres of wetlands, which were struck down by the U.S. Supreme Court in May.
“We have people who want to influence the way we farm who have never stepped foot on a farm and don’t have any understanding of it,” he said.
No Democrat has served as the state’s agriculture commissioner since 2003, when Richie Farmer, a Republican, won the post in an open race despite having no background in agriculture. What he did have was enormous name recognition: he was a star at the University of Kentucky 1992 basketball team that nearly upset Duke in one of the greatest games in NCAA tournament history.
Mr. Farmer’s two terms as commissioner were marred by allegations of campaign finance violations, and later Served 27 months in federal prison for embezzling public funds for the benefit of his family and friends. Still, voters disagreed with Mr. Farmer’s transgressions against his party, and have since delivered landslide victories for Republican farm candidates — often by the largest margins of the seven races for statewide office.
A political neophyte, Mrs. Enlow grew up cutting tobacco on her family’s farm in LaRue County. If chosenshe would become Kentucky’s first female agriculture commissioner.
She has logged some 25,000 miles on the campaign trail in her white Chevy Blazer, and recently declared her candidacy for the Kentucky Women in Agriculture. Calling herself a pro-business Democrat, she said in an interview that her party needs more candidates who, like her, can “code switch” and “represent both rural and urban audiences.”
While Mr. Shell talks about the desire to expand international tradefight against federal regulations and “preserve our way of life for generations to come,” Ms. Enlow speaks of wanting to increase wages for agricultural workers, expand rural broadband and ensure a robust supply chain for medical marijuana, which was just legalized in the state.
“You need two things to be a successful agricultural commissioner: You need production agriculture experience, but then you also need business experience,” she said during a tour of the Log Still Distillery in New Haven, Kentucky. The distillery is part of the Kentucky Bourbon Trailwith bourbon being another part of the State Agriculture Commissioner’s broad portfolio.
“There’s certainly nothing about Jonathan that says he’s going to be the person who can go into a company boardroom and negotiate for a farmer,” she said of her opponent.
In interviews with rural voters across the state, many, like the Robertson brothers, said they had never heard of either candidate. Some voters said they wanted a candidate who would ease regulations and advocate for farmers.
In Pulaski County, near Daniel Boone National Forest, Adam Ping, whose farm, Ping Dairy, won prizes because of his milk, said he would automatically vote Republican. He had a long list of grievances, mostly related to federal policies such as environmental regulations and the rising costs for milk transport.
He said he supported a “push to get.” whole milk back in schools.
“When the Democrats and Michelle Obama took it out of the schools, it hurt sales tremendously,” he said as he watched his daughter and her boyfriend clean the farm’s milking parlor. “It’s just control, control, control.”
In Logan County, near the Tennessee border, John Halcomb, whose family grows corn, soybeans and wheat, praised Mr. Quarles’ actions in the post. He praised Ms. Enlow as a similar problem solver, unlike Mr. Shell, who he said was too partisan.
Mr. Halcomb, who has immersed himself in local Democratic politics, lamented what he said was Democrats’ tendency to ignore low-profile races.
“I find it extremely frustrating,” he said, as the sunset began gilding acres of soybean stalks. “At what point do you stand up and say, OK, maybe I should do it?”