Democratic Food and Ag Candidates Enter the Political Fray
Some of the candidates are leveraging their direct experiences of Trump administration policies and are hoping to shake up the traditional Democratic platform. “The party hasn’t needed to twist arms that hard to get people with non-traditional backgrounds to run,” David Wasserman, senior editor and elections analyst for The Cook Political Report, told Civil Eats. […]
The post Democratic Food and Ag Candidates Enter the Political Fray appeared first on Civil Eats.
Even though general elections are over a year away, non-traditional, first-time candidates are throwing their hat in the ring for U.S. House and Senate races. Several of them come from food, farming, or federal government backgrounds and were moved to run for public office because of federal funding freezes at the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), tariffs, or cuts to food assistance in the One Big Beautiful Bill (OBBB). As Democrats look to reassert control in Congress, analysts say these voices could be vital in reaching the rural voters that have previously steered clear of the party.
Some of the candidates are leveraging their direct experiences of Trump administration policies and are hoping to shake up the traditional Democratic platform.
“The party hasn’t needed to twist arms that hard to get people with non-traditional backgrounds to run,” David Wasserman, senior editor and elections analyst for The Cook Political Report, told Civil Eats. “Democrats know they need to reconnect with rural voters.”
Former Vice President Kamala Harris attempted to do this in her 2024 bid by pulling in Minnesota Governor Tim Walz and by making a bigger push in rural communities. But in the end she failed to pull in those voters. In the 2024 election, 69 percent of rural voters backed Trump while 29 percent voted for Harris, according to the Pew Research Center. This widened the rural voter divide from 2020, when Trump won 65 percent of the rural vote while former President Joe Biden earned 34 percent.
Despite their standing as Republican strongholds, rural areas may now represent new opportunity for Democratic candidates as Trump administration policies continue to hit the heartland. Here are some of the new rural Democrats whose campaigns highlight how food and agriculture could play a part in the November 2026 midterms.
Although Midwest farmers were expecting strong yields from this year’s soybean crops after a favorable growing season, tariffs have shifted global markets, toward cheaper crops in Brazil. (Photo by Scott Olson/Getty Images)
Jamie Ager, House (North Carolina)
Jamie Ager is a fourth-generation farmer in Western North Carolina, where over the last 25 years he’s raised grass-fed beef and pasture-raised pork. Now that his children are grown, he’s stepping into the political arena.
“I think that food and agriculture and rural America has been left behind in a lot of ways,” Ager said during a recent New York City Climate Week event.
Ager’s campaign for the 11th Congressional District focuses on breaking traditional partisan lines. While he’s running as a Democrat, he argues the party needs to get back to its roots and represent working people. His campaign also highlights the cost of health care, housing affordability, and the recovery from Hurricane Helene, which last year devastated farm country in the state.
Western North Carolina suffered major losses from the storm, and many small towns there are still waiting for hundreds of thousands of dollars of relief promised by the federal government.
“We’ve got enough stacked against us right now with all the economic challenges of the region, to then not get any support from the federal government that was promised,” Ager said. “That money has been spent knowing that promise was coming.”
While agriculture in his region is less steeped in commodity row crops, Ager said he’s empathetic toward corn and soybean farmers dealing with the impact of tariffs. Tariffs make it hard for them to make a living, he said, and are pushing rural voters to seek better leadership.
“We’ve got enough stacked against us right now with all the economic challenges of the region.”
In addition to tackling these issues in Congress, Ager said he sees space for bipartisan work on regenerative agriculture and conservation.
“Our quest over the last 80 years towards cheap food has resulted in the efficient system we have now,” Ager said. “But the efficient system we have now doesn’t mean it actually nourishes the people.”
Republicans like Sen. Roger Marshall (Kansas) and Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. have also started to embrace this idea, highlighting soil health and regenerative agriculture. This is an encouraging sign, Ager said, and a space where he could contribute in Congress as a regenerative farmer himself.
“Having worked with my hands and having to solve problems with my hands is almost the best experience you can bring to Congress,” Ager said. “Because you know what it’s like to do that and to make a living doing that, and there’s some familiarity with what everyday people go through.”
Megan O’Rourke, House (New Jersey)
Megan O’Rourke began working at the USDA in 2010 and became the first climate-change advisor for the Foreign Agricultural Service. Over the course of her tenure in the federal government, she also worked with the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) as a climate-change advisor. She eventually returned to the USDA in 2020 to work with the National Institute of Food and Agriculture.
In July, she left her agency role as the national science liaison for climate change because of executive orders and funding freezes by the Trump administration. As someone who worked under the first Trump administration and the Biden administration, she said this term felt different.
O’Rourke said she saw red flags in Trump’s first wave of executive orders, making it clear from the beginning that climate change and science would not be taken seriously.
But the final straw was the day that all of her work, along with several other references to climate change, was scrubbed from federal government websites, she said. This included the congressionally mandated National Climate Assessment, which she contributed to.
Under then-President Joe Biden, climate researchers worked on the Fifth National Climate Assessment, which was scrubbed from government websites under the second Trump administration. (Photo by Win McNamee/Getty Images)
O’Rourke is running in a crowded Democratic field in one of the state’s most competitive midterm districts, the 7th Congressional.
Overall affordability (and especially high housing and electricity costs), political division, and the government’s unpredictability are key themes in O’Rourke’s campaign. O’Rourke grew up in a food-insecure home, and she said the recent cuts to food assistance and health programs in the OBBB feel personal.
“I want to be somebody in Congress who actually knows and understands these programs, instead of silver-spoon politicians,” O’Rourke told Civil Eats.
In conversations with farmers and others in her community, O’Rourke said she’s also heard a lot of concern about the uncertainty surrounding the farm bill and USDA support systems.
In the agricultural research space, she said nearly every person she’s connected with during her campaign has had grants rescinded. This means labs or research offices are having to lay off staff or can’t afford to hire students, she said.
“The farm community, just like a lot of people, are sick of the uncertainty and divisiveness and want people in Congress to get to work.”
With the USDA’s upcoming reorganization, farmers are unsure whether they’ll have adequate access to experts to help them navigate programs and grant applications.
“The farm community, just like a lot of people, are sick of the uncertainty and divisiveness and want people in Congress to get to work and especially pass a farm bill,” O’Rourke said.
Her campaign also focuses on environmental safety issues, including water contamination and Superfund sites in her district. O’Rourke said the administration has cut back on science that is fundamental to addressing these problems, which has a direct impact on her community.
“That touches on . . . . what people care about in their day-to-day life: your house, your food, your family, and your health.”
Graham Platner, Senate (Maine)
Graham Platner, an oyster farmer and military veteran, is one of several candidates vying for the Democratic nomination to face off against Republican Sen. Susan Collins. Platner has raised $3.2 million in the first quarter since announcing his campaign, according to Axios. He also has the backing of progressives like Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vermont) and is appealing to working-class Mainers, since he is one himself.
“I’m a working person in Maine who [was] living, until recently, a very very normal life that is impacted by the outcomes of policy,” Platner said recently on MSNBC. “I can see that in my community, I can see it in my own life.”
While Platner is running as a Democrat, he’s pushed back against the “liberal” label. Even while advocating for progressive policies like universal health care, instead of focusing on party affiliation, he’s emphasized representing everyday people.
“I’m a working person in Maine who [was] living, until recently, a very very normal life that is impacted by the outcomes of policy.”
“I find it highly amusing that having a problem with hospitals closing in Maine and trying to figure out how to use the vast wealth of this nation to keep that from happening, the fact that somebody thinks that’s some kind of lefty, progressive ideal seems absurd to me,” Platner said. “That mostly seems like I’m just trying to give a damn about my community.”
Platner faces a sea of other Democratic primary challengers, including Dan Kleban, founder of the Maine Beer Company. Both face an uphill battle if Maine Gov. Janet Mills also announces her bid.
Salaam Bhatti, House (Virginia)
Salaam Bhatti’s background in food policy dates to his childhood, when his family benefitted from the Special Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program for Women, Infants and Children (WIC). The experience pushed him to become a public-interest lawyer, which he later did at the Virginia Poverty Law Center. He also worked as Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) director for the Food Research and Action Center.
The passage of the OBBB, combined with rising healthcare, housing, and grocery costs were key drivers behind Bhatti’s decision to run. He’s one of several Democrats attempting to unseat GOP Rep. Rob Wittman. The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee has listed his 1st Congressional District as one of the more viable to flip in 2026.
“People will die as a result of these cuts to their health care.”
Bhatti said Wittman caused harm in his community by backing the OBBB, which is expected to cut millions of eligible individuals from SNAP and Medicaid. Wittman has argued the bill will have a positive impact on Virginians by extending Trump administration tax cuts and through no tax on tips and no tax on overtime. Virginians could lose healthcare access or could see increases to their care costs, Bhatti said. Additionally, the bill could raise already high energy, housing, and grocery costs.
“People will die as a result of these cuts to their health care,” he said. “We really need to be mindful of how we can act quickly to make sure we can save as many folks as possible because of what these Republicans have done.”
Throughout his campaign, Bhatti said he’s been educating voters about the long-term effects of the OBBB. This includes explaining how SNAP cuts impact the entire local economy, rather than just SNAP recipients. Without revenue from SNAP, grocery stores could increase costs or consider shutting down, which Bhatti said will increase food insecurity overall.
Nikki Gronli, House (South Dakota)
Nikki Gronli served as the state director for USDA’s Rural Development under the Biden administration from March 2022 to the end of the term. There she oversaw the renovation of a rural behavioral health facility, grants for tribes to develop a regional food hub, and more. Over that time, she also grew closer with the farming community in the state.
In recent conversations with farmers, Gronli said, she’s heard concerns about a lack of staff at local rural development and USDA Farm Service Agency offices. Nearly 150,000 federal employees have left the government since Trump was inaugurated. At the USDA alone, 15,000 have departed due to deferred resignation offers.
Those cuts have slowed down application reviews and approvals for farmers in her state, Gronli said. This is one of the main reasons she decided to launch her campaign to fill North Dakota’s lone House seat, currently occupied by Republican Rep. Dusty Johnson. Johnson, who chairs the House Agriculture subcommittee on Commodity Markets, Digital Assets, and Rural Development, announced his bid for governor earlier this year.
Nikki Gronli announced her candidacy for South Dakota’s lone U.S. House seat in September, after touring the state earlier this year. (Getty Images)
Before announcing, Gronli held town halls across the state, where she listened to farmers about their experiences and concerns. She also heard about the impacts of funding freezes across different USDA initiatives, like the Regional Food Business Center Program, she said. One local egg producer, for example, had planned to use a grant from that program to expand her operation with additional staff and packaging equipment, but the grant was eliminated.
Farmers also raised alarm about the impact of tariffs, which Gronli said could have more wide-reaching impacts on the state.
“Every time we lose a farmer, that impacts the local small towns, that hurts other businesses,” she said. “That may mean school consolidations, that may mean a clinic or a senior care center shuts down. It’s not good. It’s not sustainable.”
South Dakota’s House seat has been held by a Republican since 2011, with the current secretary for Homeland Security, Kristi Noem, holding the role before Johnson.
“Every time we lose a farmer, that impacts the local small towns, that hurts other businesses.”
But Gronli said she’s received positive responses from traditionally Independent and Republican voters who want a representative to break the status quo and vote in favor of the state’s best interests.
“I think that’s the big frustration,” she said. “We see our members of Congress out there voting because they were told by the administration to vote a certain way, and those policies are hurting South Dakota right now.”
Christy Davis, Senate (Kansas)
Christy Davis is a former Biden administration USDA state rural development director. If she advances from the primary, she likely faces Republican incumbent Sen. Roger Marshall.
Davis said in an interview with the Kansas Reflector that Marshall has focused more on highlighting actions by the White House instead of issues all Kansans are facing, like trouble affording basic needs.
She added that Marshall stood behind Trump during the OBBB signing and has supported what she calls the administration’s “broken ag policies,” like reorganizing the USDA and immigration actions that have hurt the agriculture workforce.
The post Democratic Food and Ag Candidates Enter the Political Fray appeared first on Civil Eats.
