A new political nonprofit group is looking to turn farmers in battleground states against President Donald Trump, the Toledo Blade reports.
The Rural America Fund 2020 is reaching out to farmers in Ohio, Michigan, Wisconsin, Pennsylvania, Iowa and Minnesota.
The group “seeks to raise public awareness about the impacts of President Trump’s policies in rural America,” according to its website. The site highlights an uptick in farm bankruptcies, loan delinquencies and suicides during Trump’s presidency.
In a video on the group’s website, Pennsylvania resident Theron Terry Noble made his case against Trump.
“In 2016, President [Trump] spoke to rural Pennsylvanians about two things that hit home — draining the swamp and infrastructure,” he said. “Four years later, our roads and bridges are still crumbling, we will suffer from lack of connectivity, both broadband, internet and cell phone service. Meanwhile, we learn the swamp has only gotten larger. It's time to get better.”
It is unclear who is heading up the national effort. The Blade reports that each state has its own steering committee made up of farmers and agri-business professionals.
Organizers told The Blade the nonprofit will take a grassroots approach that will focus on education and outreach to get its message to voters.
Leading up Ohio’s committee is Steve Maurer, the former Ohio state director for the USDA Farm Service Agency under President Barack Obama and former director of the Ohio Department of Agriculture.
Maurer said the group’s goal is to reach voters “to dispel the myths that exist about the Trump presidency and try to move people into looking at both sides in rural Ohio, and to say maybe four years ago wasn't such a good choice.”
He said farmers have been facing financial strains due to trade tensions between the U.S. and China and other countries. He said the group will also focus on discussing supply-chain issues and the president’s response during the coronavirus pandemic.
“Sometimes you wonder why people do what they do at the ballot box,” he said. “And my guess is a lot of people, farmers included, may be saying one thing today and end up doing something different when they're casting a ballot.’
Coordinator for the steering committees Leland Swenson said the objective of the group is to talk about what kind of leadership is best for the states it is targeting.
“Our whole goal here is to say there is an opportunity for the voices in rural Ohio, rural Pennsylvania, and rural Michigan to be heard,” Swenson, the former USDA Farm Service Agency director in Colorado under Obama, told The Blade. “One thing we've seen in rural areas is that we've sort of been complacent, sometimes not addressing the critical issues that have resulted in the loss of small businesses in our rural communities or the loss of rural hospitals.”
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