Corn supporters win most election races

WASHINGTON — Any change in political party leadership from the top down draws questions of how it will impact agriculture.

One indication is that over 90% of the candidates backed by the National Corn Growers Association’s lobbying arm were elected in the Nov. 5 general election.

CornPAC is a nonpartisan, voluntary political action committee that provides the opportunity for individuals to support pro-industry congressional candidates. CornPac is funded through voluntary contributions.

NCGA’s Brooke Appleton, vice president of public policy, and Sadie Knight, director of grassroots and political strategy, spoke of the Republican sweep in the congressional and presidential election and what that could mean for farmers in a recent “Cobcast,” hosted by Dusty Weis.

Are there any new candidates and incumbents who were elected that you’re excited to see that will be seated in Washington?

Appleton: There were definitely some races of some really key allies of ours that we were watching closely that we were very happy to see prevailed. At the top of my mind, I think about Rep. Angie Craig in Minnesota. She’s a huge champion for us.

She sits on the Energy and Commerce Committee and she’s really, I would say, the only agriculture-friendly Democrat on that committee for us.

Zach Nunn (R-Iowa) had his first term in Congress and ran for reelection. We were a little worried that he was going to lose, but he prevailed.

Knight: Marcy Kaptur (D-Ohio) has been really helpful on our priorities this past Congress and has been a huge supporter. Mary Miller-Meeks (R-Iowa) championed the Next Generation Fuels Act.

John Duarte (R-Calif.) and Jim Costa (D-Calif.) are key players in the ag space in committee and also in their respective committees outside of the ag committee. (Duarte’s election was too close to call as of press time.)

We were really happy to see Don Bacon (R-Neb.) pull it out. Outside of the Corn Belt, we were really happy to see Dan Newhouse (R-Wash.) win. He’s the head of the Western caucus and has been a great ally and friend to the corn industry and to ag in general, and also Don Davis (D-N.C.).

Davis is the vice ranking member on the House Ag Committee, and he’s just been a super great member to work with. He’s been very open to production ag issues along with food issues and all that kind of get swept into the ag committee.

As we move from the election cycle to now determining the leadership roles of the various chambers and the committee assignments that go with them, what are we watching here?

Appleton: Sen. John Thune from South Dakota has been named the new Republican leader of the Senate. South Dakota is obviously a big agriculture state.

We grow a lot of corn in South Dakota. Poet, who is the largest ethanol producer in the world, is headquartered in South Dakota.

We feel pretty good about John Thune being the head of the Republican conference in the Senate. We expect Mike Johnson (R-La.) to still be the nominee to be the speaker.

Keep in mind, the leader of the Senate and the leader of the House have to be voted on a floor vote once the new Congress starts on Jan. 3, but we anticipate Mike Johnson to be the nominee and Steve Scalise (R-La.) to continue to be the majority leader.

The farm bill, free trade, Next Generation Fuels Act, growing new markets for corn, are just a few of the issues NCGA is monitoring. What is the new political landscape look like for some of these issues, and how are you approaching them headed into 2025?

Appleton: The issue probably most top of mind for folks is trade. It’s one of our biggest demand drivers that we have.

I think there will be both opportunities and challenges with the incoming Trump administration on trade policy. We’ve heard him talk in the press about tariffs and using tariffs as leverage or as a way to boost domestic industries, but we also know that that can have a negative effect on agriculture and most likely the economy.

We’ve really tried to focus on designing a proactive approach on trade and really all the issues that we care about that will hopefully resonate with the new administration and kind of give them some positive things to work on as we move into next year.

I think we’ll approach all of the issue sets, but I know trade is really top of mind. I know that just with the talk of tariffs throughout the campaign and kind of what happened when Trump was president previously and what we saw with the 2018 trade war.

As he put tariffs on steel and aluminum, as well as a wide range of imported products from China, in response, China and other nations imposed retaliatory tariffs on the U.S. products and that obviously targeted agriculture commodities.

So, we’ve seen that before. And so we’re just trying to think how we can focus on some more positive, proactive market access items that we can also work on.

We have a bit of a different economic landscape right now that we really are going to need to press upon this new administration. Corn prices are low and inputs are high, and tariffs would only compound this issue.

The second point is Brazil and Argentina are ready to swoop in and claim market share. They were not as big of a competitor back in 2018, but they definitely are now.

Lastly, we really don’t have a place to put corn or beans for that matter, should markets like Mexico or China be shut off. There’s no market equivalent to the volume of those two, and there are not prospective trade agreements that would unlock the size of new markets.

Is there anything that we anticipate getting done or any action that we’re hoping to see on some of our priorities there during the upcoming lame duck session?

Appleton: I feel pretty strongly that the president-elect is going to have a lot of influence here at the end of the year. And if he says yes, then it happens, and if he says no, then it probably doesn’t.

We have been working on a nationwide year-round E15 fix for the better part of a decade, if not more, and that is something we would just love to see happen here at the end of the year. There is a compromise bill that has been introduced in the Senate and House, and we’ve got sponsors on both sides.

The other piece of it, of course, Congress is working on getting a farm bill done, a full five-year farm bill. We’re not there yet. We’ve only really seen one version of that bill come out of the House Ag Committee.

The Senate has yet to produce any text to kind of counter what the House did. So, we’re not really sure how that’s going to shake out. But there’s going to be a lot of discussion in the coming weeks or so.