Midterms ended in a blue wave. Minnesota farmers have mixed feelings about it.
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Democrats are poised to take control of the U.S. House and Senate, as well as the Minnesota Legislature in January.
That’s a fact that Steele County farmer Jason Keck isn't too happy about. He thinks the Minnesota DFL, despite being the Democratic-Farmer-Labor party, is out of touch with rural areas.
“Democrats are back in power,” said Keck. “It feels like the state's controlled by the Twin Cities, and there's kind of nothing we can do about it.”
Keck said he feels disappointed because, in his eyes, the DFL isn’t doing enough to address pocketbook issues like property taxes, though the state did offer some relief on that front earlier this year.
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But he also feels the DFL spends too much. Republicans have been crying foul ever since DFLers spent most of a 2023 budget surplus on things like education and social programs.
“It just seems like they keep wanting more instead of working within their budget,” said Keck. “So that's my biggest fear. It's the fiscal responsibility. At some point, bills got to be paid.”
In Garden City, farmer Robert Roelofs foresaw that the Democrats would win some seats in the midterms. But he was still surprised to see the party's overwhelming victories
“I think there were just enough people in the rural areas upset about the fuel situation, input costs, and the war we've gotten into here,” said Roelofs.
He’s referring to diesel prices and inputs like fertilizer that have gotten costlier in part because of the war in Iran.
Farmer frustration with that situation likely drove big Democratic wins in farm states such as Iowa, Wisconsin and Kansas.
Roelofs hopes one result of the blue wave will be a bipartisan push to end the war in Iran.
At the state level, he has some hope for DFL Gov.-elect Amy Klobuchar. He felt she was a strong advocate for farmers in her role on the Senate Agriculture Committee.
“I hope that translates over to her being governor–that we have a Democratic governor that's a little more farmer-friendly than what we've seen in the past in the state of Minnesota,” said Roelofs. “But we'll see. She's going to have to prove that to us.”
Lauren Biegler, a farmer from Lake Wilson, feels happier about the midterm results.
“I felt like this was a little bit of a check on our morals and decency and what we expect in behavior and from our leadership,” said Biegler.
Biegler said she found some of the Republican Party rhetoric to be hateful towards minorities and political opponents. And she was upset by the GOP’s support for immigration enforcement operations in the state and country.
“I mean, personally, with ICE and stuff, that's hard to watch,” said Biegler. “I hope there'll be a little bit of pushback or pull back or something on those types of issues too.”
But Biegler’s optimism about the blue wave has limits. As she sees it, neither party has done enough to help farmers get what they really need: more trade deals and new export markets. Not bailout checks when times are tough.
“In the short term, yeah, a check feels good because it's tight out here,” said Biegler. “But that's not a long-term fix, and it just feels like that's all that ever happens.”
Still, Biegler saidshe’s cautiously optimistic about Klobuchar, who, she said, has done a lot of good for agriculture in a bipartisan way.
She just hopes that Klobuchar doesn’t change once she assumes office.
