Twelve states elect their agricultural commissioners. (Photo by Jon Cherry, The New York Times) |
The shift to Republican commissioners began as Democrats lost sway with Southern state voters, and candidates in red states gained momentum using the party's familiar "core message about free markets and government overreach to contests that in the past may not have been partisan political battlegrounds," Chen explains. "In Florida, Nikki Fried's background as a lobbyist for an agricultural industry that has become increasingly prominent around the country — cannabis — helped her become the most recent Democrat anywhere to win an agriculture race, by a razor-thin margin, in 2018. She said her party had overemphasized an urban agenda and failed to do enough retail politicking beyond blue areas." Fried lost in 2022 to Republican Wilton Simpson, who gained 59 percent of the vote.
The positions reach far beyond farming. (Photo by Jon Cherry, The New York Times) |
In Kentucky, the "state agriculture department employs roughly 220 people and commands an $80 million annual budget, making it the second biggest office in the state's executive branch, behind only the governor's office," Chen reports. The upcoming agricultural commissioner position is a contest "between Jonathan Shell, a former Republican state legislator, and Sierra Enlow, a Democratic economic development consultant. . . . No Democrat has served as the state's agriculture commissioner since 2003. . . . In interviews with rural voters around the state, many said they had not heard of either candidate."
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