Courtesy of Politico:
Democrats competing for their party’s nomination to challenge President Donald Trump in 2020 are turning their attention to farmers, ranchers and rural communities as they try to gain traction in the primary contest — and potentially cut into the president’s support among a key constituency.
At the Heartland Forum in Storm Lake, Iowa, on Saturday, candidates like Elizabeth Warren and Amy Klobuchar talked up policy proposals like bolstering antitrust enforcement and reversing agribusiness mergers like the Bayer-Monsanto fusion last year. Warren (D-Mass.) last week released an ag agenda aimed at cracking down on consolidation in the industry.
Klobuchar (D-Minn.), a Senate Agriculture Committee member, called for slapping a fee on corporate mergers to help investigate anticompetitive practices, the AP reports.
Former Maryland Rep. John Delaney, another 2020 contender, was also at the forum after unveiling his own rural policy agenda on Friday, which he’s calling the “Heartland Fair Deal.”
— Among Delaney’s proposals: A new student loan forgiveness program for rural areas; boosting rural health care access and infrastructure (with a focus on flood and climate resiliency); and reentering the Trans-Pacific Partnership to expand access to major farm export markets like Japan.
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