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GOP Stronghold Cracks: Rural Republican Farmer Votes Democrat in U.S. Midterms · INSIGHT TODAY

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: OK, as promised, we are going to take a closer
• 0:02
  Speaker 1: look at the state of Iowa. And for that, we
• 0:04
  Speaker 1: are joined now by Jerry Moore. He's an Iowan farmer
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  Speaker 1: who previously voted Republican, but has decided to vote Democrat
• 0:10
  Speaker 1: this time around. Thank you so much for joining us, sir.
• 0:14
  Speaker 2: Good afternoon.
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  Speaker 1: Well, let's begin by this change of heart and change
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  Speaker 1: of vote on your part. What's what's driving you towards
• 0:20
  Speaker 1: the Democrats?
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  Speaker 2: So it started in 2016. There was some reluctance then
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  Speaker 2: when both candidates at the time, Clinton on one side
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  Speaker 2: and Trump on the other, decided to throw out all
• 0:32
  Speaker 2: trade agreements. It's gotten worse now as we get into
• 0:35
  Speaker 2: the second term of Trump, Trump 2.0, where we have
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  Speaker 2: hardly any trade agreements. And the dialogue that comes out
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  Speaker 2: of the leadership of our country is not positive. And
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  Speaker 2: whenever you have that type of dialogue, You know, agreements
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  Speaker 2: that we've nurtured for years, they get damaged and they're
• 0:56
  Speaker 2: hard to get back. We have competition, so it makes
• 0:59
  Speaker 2: it harder.
• 1:01
  Speaker 1: This isn't just about the dialogue for you, I imagine.
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  Speaker 1: It has much to do with the economics of being
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  Speaker 1: a farmer in this day and age.
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  Speaker 2: The bottom line. Absolutely.
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  Speaker 1: So walk me through that.
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  Speaker 2: So let's talk about the tariffs that they put on Canada.
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  Speaker 2: That's where we get a lot of our parts for
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  Speaker 2: John Deere, for our fertilizer, all those things above. Those
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  Speaker 2: things are not supportive. Those tariffs are not supportive of
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  Speaker 2: Iowa agriculture. They drive our prices up and it makes
• 1:31
  Speaker 2: it difficult to make a living.
• 1:34
  Speaker 1: What do you farm? What do you harvest?
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  Speaker 2: So on our farm, we grow soybeans, corn, And those
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  Speaker 2: are the two primary products. I'm at age 74. So
• 1:43
  Speaker 2: I'm out of the livestock business, but we were in
• 1:47
  Speaker 2: the livestock business. I'm the fourth generation been on the
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  Speaker 2: farm for a hundred. I haven't, but our family's been
• 1:53
  Speaker 2: here 143 years.
• 1:55
  Speaker 1: Wow.
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  Speaker 2: Okay.
• 1:57
  Speaker 1: I did not realize that Jerry, that's an unbelievable legacy,
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  Speaker 1: not only for your family, but you guys have cultivated,
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  Speaker 1: you fed this country of yours, right? So go ahead.
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  Speaker 2: We've, We've done it with cooperation. North American Free Trade Agreement,
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  Speaker 2: when Bill Clinton, a Democrat, got that established, it was
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  Speaker 2: the best thing for Canada, the United States, and Mexico.
• 2:21
  Speaker 2: You know, all those criteria were meant that trade agreement
• 2:25
  Speaker 2: went on. Trump, 2016, wanted to tweak it. He did.
• 2:29
  Speaker 2: And now they want to throw it out again. And
• 2:31
  Speaker 2: those agreements need to be put back in place.
• 2:35
  Speaker 1: You know, I've been reading a little bit, Jerry, about...
• 2:39
  Speaker 1: The cost of fuel and the ripple effect it has
• 2:42
  Speaker 1: on farming and the cost of food. Walk me through that.
• 2:46
  Speaker 2: So let's just say last week when we were here
• 2:48
  Speaker 2: combining corn, it's 400 gallons of diesel fuel every day
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  Speaker 2: times six. Let's just use that number. That's $ 2, 400 a
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  Speaker 2: day just for fuel. There was no way we could
• 3:00
  Speaker 2: project that in our budget when we planted crops this spring.
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  Speaker 2: What was it before? If it's $ 2, 400 now, what was
• 3:05
  Speaker 2: it before? Probably around $ 1, 200 to $ 1, 300. We're double.
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  Speaker 1: Wow. Is that sustainable?
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  Speaker 2: No, it's not. That's the problem. It's not sustainable. It
• 3:18
  Speaker 2: just isn't. And the parts have gone up. We in
• 3:22
  Speaker 2: this country are suffering from inflation on the parts supply
• 3:27
  Speaker 2: side and on the fertilizer side. And what does our
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  Speaker 2: fearless leader do? He turns around and puts tariffs on
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  Speaker 2: Canadian potash so we can't get it into this country
• 3:36
  Speaker 2: and steel and aluminum. Those things all hurt us. And
• 3:41
  Speaker 2: we haven't had a congressional group, the four in Iowa,
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  Speaker 2: stand up to him. We have one senator who is retiring,
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  Speaker 2: Joni Ernst, who did push back. But Chuck Grassley and
• 3:54
  Speaker 2: Chuck Grassley's done a lot of nice things for Iowa,
• 3:56
  Speaker 2: but he needed to push back farther on Donald Trump.
• 4:01
  Speaker 1: You think the public understands this?
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  Speaker 2: They do. Yeah, they do. They do. So, you know,
• 4:08
  Speaker 2: I've got a tire manufacturer north of me that used
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  Speaker 2: to send seven loads of tires every week, mounted tires
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  Speaker 2: to Canada. He's having a hard time doing that right now.
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  Speaker 2: He was a staunch Republican. I went there last week
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  Speaker 2: to get a tire fixed and they go, who do
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  Speaker 2: we vote for? So we're going to have a change
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  Speaker 2: in governor and it's going to be a Democratic governor
• 4:27
  Speaker 2: and it'll be great.
• 4:30
  Speaker 1: It might be great. So, Jerry, let me pose this
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  Speaker 1: to you, because there have been instances where The president
• 4:36
  Speaker 1: has behaved erratically, emotionally, because he doesn't like the outcome
• 4:41
  Speaker 1: of a judge's decision, of a jury's ruling, of the
• 4:46
  Speaker 1: results of an election. All of these are part of
• 4:49
  Speaker 1: the democratic system, and this current president gets angry because
• 4:52
  Speaker 1: he doesn't like the results. Is there a possibility that
• 4:56
  Speaker 1: he will punish Iowans for going democratic?
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  Speaker 2: How can he punish us any more than he's already
• 5:01
  Speaker 2: doing with $ 6. 50 diesel fuel? Right. I mean, and the
• 5:05
  Speaker 2: tariffs and everything else. I don't think he could do
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  Speaker 2: much more. You know, the $ 8 billion that they want
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  Speaker 2: to throw out to, you know, buy our love on
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  Speaker 2: the fuel side, that's a drop in the bucket on
• 5:17
  Speaker 2: what it's cost Iowa this past year. So hopefully we
• 5:22
  Speaker 2: can get some checks and balances and get rid of
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  Speaker 2: some of the partisanship and have some dialogue in this country.
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  Speaker 2: That's what we need.
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  Speaker 1: Multiple generations of your family have been farming.
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  Speaker 2: Correct. And my dad was a company commander in World
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  Speaker 2: War II, and he was wounded. My mother was a nurse,
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  Speaker 2: and they were both staunch Republicans. All they wanted were
• 5:47
  Speaker 2: lower taxes, ability for a business to operate, and move on.
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  Speaker 2: Those are the things we grew up with.
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  Speaker 1: Well, let's talk about growing up, because I understand your
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  Speaker 1: kids are not continuing in this family tradition.
• 6:00
  Speaker 2: Is that right? Yes. That's true. I've got two that
• 6:03
  Speaker 2: are deeply involved in public education, and the other one
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  Speaker 2: works as an accounting up in Minneapolis. So I've got
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  Speaker 2: two of my neighbor's twin sons who are in partnership
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  Speaker 2: with me to farm. And my children chose to go
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  Speaker 2: in a different direction, and that's fine. They grew up
• 6:21
  Speaker 2: during the 80s when farming could be difficult then, but
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  Speaker 2: we got through that.
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  Speaker 1: Is there any part of it that they didn't see
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  Speaker 1: a future in it?
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  Speaker 2: No, I think they... They didn't look at it as
• 6:33
  Speaker 2: a future. They were drawn somewhere else where they didn't have.
• 6:37
  Speaker 2: They knew what we did seven days a week. And
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  Speaker 2: maybe that wasn't for them. Although if you're in public
• 6:42
  Speaker 2: education right now, you've got a hard line to pull to.
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  Speaker 2: It's a tough business.
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  Speaker 1: Jerry, when people talk to you about how expensive food
• 6:50
  Speaker 1: has become. The stuff that you grow, that you sell,
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  Speaker 1: that you allow us to live because of the work
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  Speaker 1: that you're doing, it's becoming increasingly difficult for Canadians and
• 7:00
  Speaker 1: Americans to afford this. What do you say to them?
• 7:04
  Speaker 2: So I would like to say to Canadians first, you know,
• 7:07
  Speaker 2: the dialogue that comes out of our president's mouth is
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  Speaker 2: not what the rest of us think. You know, Lake
• 7:12
  Speaker 2: Ontario should be Lake Ontario, not Lake America. You know,
• 7:16
  Speaker 2: there's long established relationships between Canada and the United States
• 7:21
  Speaker 2: between And we nourish those. Canada is the largest importer
• 7:25
  Speaker 2: of ethanol from our country into there. So, you know,
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  Speaker 2: Canadians have my respect, and I hope they have our respect.
• 7:34
  Speaker 2: Don't go by one leader. He'll be gone in two years.
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  Speaker 1: Jerry Moore, very good to speak with you, sir. Thank
• 7:40
  Speaker 1: you for making some time for us.
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  Speaker 2: Thank you. Have a great afternoon, and thank you again.
• 7:44
  Speaker 2: You bet.