U.S. midterms: Lifelong Republican farmer votes for Democratic candidates for first time

As promised, we are going to take a closer look at the state of Iowa, and for that, we are joined now by Jerry Moore. He's an Iowan farmer who previously voted Republican but has decided to vote Democrat this time around. Thank you so much for joining us, sir. Good afternoon. Well, let's begin by this change of heart and change of vote on your part. What's driving you towards the Democrats? So, starting in 2016, there was some reluctance then when both candidates at the time, Clinton on one side and Trump on the other, decided to throw out all trade agreements. It's gotten worse now as we get into the second term of Trump, Trump 2.0, where we have hardly any trade agreements. And the dialogue that comes out of the leadership of our country is not positive. And whenever you have that type of dialogue, You know, agreements that we've nurtured for years, they get damaged and they're hard to get back. We have competition, so it makes it harder. This isn't just about the dialogue for you, I imagine. It has much to do with the economics of being a farmer in this day and age. The bottom line. Absolutely. So walk me through that. So let's talk about the tariffs that they put on Canada. That's where we get a lot of our parts for John Deere, for our fertilizer, all those things above. Those things are not supportive. Those tariffs are not supportive of Iowa agriculture. They drive our prices up and it makes it difficult to make a living. What do you farm? What do you harvest? So on our farm, we grow soybeans, corn, and those are the two primary products. I'm at age 74, so I'm out of the livestock business, but we were in the livestock business. I'm the fourth generation, been on the farm for 100. I haven't. Our family's been here 143 years. Oh, okay. I did not realize that, Jerry. That's an unbelievable legacy, not only for your family, but... You guys have cultivated, you fed this country of yours, right? So... We we've we've done it with cooperation. North American free trade agreement. When Bill Clinton, a Democrat, got that established, it was the best thing for Canada, the United States and Mexico. You know, all those criteria were meant that trade agreement went on. Trump 2016 wanted to tweak it. He did. And now they want to throw it out again and that those agreements need to be put back in place. You know, I've been reading a little bit, Jerry, about the cost of fuel and the ripple effect it has on farming and the cost of food. Walk me through that. So let's just say last week when we were here combining corn, it's 400 gallons of diesel fuel every day times six. Let's just use that number. That's $2,400 a day. Just for fuel. There was no way we could project that in our budget when we planted crops this spring. We're used to $3. If it's $2,400 now, what was it before? Probably around $1,200 to $1,300. We're double. Wow. Is that sustainable? Every day that... No, it's not. That's the problem. It's not sustainable. It just isn't. And the parts have gone up. We in this country are suffering from inflation on the parts supply side and on the fertilizer side. And what does our fearless leader do? He turns around, puts tariffs on Canadian potash so we can't get it into this country, and steel and aluminum. Those things all hurt us. And we haven't had a congressional group before in Iowa stand up to him. We have one senator who is retiring, Joni Ernst, who did push back. But Chuck Grassley and Chuck Grassley has done a lot of nice things for Iowa, but he needed to push back farther on Donald Trump. You think the public understands this? They do. Yeah, they do. They do. So, you know, I've got a tire manufacturer north of me that used to send seven loads of tires every week, mounted tires to Canada. He's having a hard time doing that right now. He was a staunch Republican. I went there last week to get a tire fix and they go, who do we vote for? So we're going to have a change in governor and it's going to be a Democratic governor and it'll be great. It might be great. So, Jerry, let me pose this to you, because there have been instances where the president has behaved erratically, emotionally, because he doesn't like the outcome of a judge's decision, of a jury's ruling, of the results of an election. All of these are part of the democratic system, and this current president gets angry because he doesn't like the results. Is there a possibility that he will punish Iowans for going democratic? How can he punish us any more than he's already doing with six and a half dollar diesel fuel? I mean, and the tariffs and everything else. I don't think he could do much more. You know, the eight billion dollars that they want to throw out to, you know, buy our love on the fuel side. That's not that's a drop in the bucket on what it's cost Iowa this past year. So hopefully we can get some checks and balances and some and get rid of some of the partisanship and have some dialogue. That's what we need. Multiple generations of your family have been farming. Correct. And my dad was a company commander in World War II, and he was wounded. My mother was a nurse, and they were both staunch Republicans. All they wanted were lower taxes, ability for a business to operate, and move on. Those are the things we grew up with. Well, let's talk about growing up, because I understand your kids are not continuing in this family tradition. Is that right? That's true. I've got two that are deeply involved in public education and the other one works for as an accounting up in Minneapolis. So I've got two of my neighbors, twin sons who are in partnership with me to farm. And my children chose to go in a different direction. And that's fine. They grew up during the 80s when farming was could be difficult then. But we got through that. Is there any part of it that they didn't see a future in it? No, I think they they didn't look at it as a future. They were drawn somewhere else where they didn't have. They knew what we did seven days a week. And maybe that wasn't for them. Although if you're in public education right now, you've got a hard line to pull through. It's a tough business. Jerry, when people talk to you about how expensive food has become, the stuff that you grow, that you sell, that you allow us to live because of the work that you're doing, it's becoming increasingly difficult for Canadians and Americans to afford this. What do you say to them? So I would like to say to Canadians first, you know, the dialogue that comes out of our president's mouth is not what the rest of us think. You know, Lake Ontario. Should be Lake Ontario, not Lake America. You know, there's long established relationships between Canada and the United States. And we nourish those. Canada is the largest importer of ethanol from our country into there. So, you know, Canadians have my respect and I hope they have our respect. Don't go by one leader. He'll be gone in two years. Jerry Moore, very good to speak with you, sir. Thank you for making some time for us. Thank you. Have a great afternoon. Thank you again. You bet.