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WAUSAU, WI (WSAU) – Member’s Wisconsin’s U.S. Senate candidates are on the road this week meeting with voters and business owners in hopes of landing some key endorsements before election day.
According to the Wisconsin Farm Bureau Federation, the group has endorsed Democrat incumbent Senator Tammy Baldwin in the race that may decide the balance of power in the U.S. Senate while endorsing Republican Congressmen Tom Tiffany and Derrick Van Orden.
In an interview with the New York Post, Bureau Director of National Affairs Tyler Wenzlaff said farming should be a bipartisan issue, saying, “Agriculture is a bipartisan issue that needs continued support by both parties. Individuals like Representative Derrick Van Orden and Senator Tammy Baldwin are key allies on agricultural issues at the federal level. Our organization’s endorsements reflect the bipartisan nature of Wisconsin agriculture and the need for strong support of our state’s farmers.”
Some members of the Bureau told the Post that the endorsement doesn’t reflect the majority of their members values, including Waukesha County farmer Rick Carr, who said he’s resigning from the organization over the decision, saying, “As a conservative and a board member of my county farm bureau, I simply could not continue to be associated with an organization that would endorse one of the most liberal members of the Senate. With Baldwin voting 95% of the time with the Biden administration for policies that boost spending, which has caused the extreme inflation that we have, and doing nothing to stop our border crisis, no amount of help getting policies into the farm bill that Congress never passes is worth endorsing her.”
David Trimner, co-owner of Miltrim Farms in Athens, told The Post that he also disagrees with the endorsement, saying, “With everything going on when it comes to the cost of everything—inflation, building barns, the cost to buy anything you need to have for your business — a big part of those costs are due to the Democratic administration.”
“Although Tammy Baldwin has done good things for dairy farmers—I have to give her that—I feel that as a whole, having another Democrat in the Senate will bring more spending, free handouts, and more taxpayer money used. And that’s not what helps us. Ultimately, it makes everything more expensive for farmers and the nation,” Trimmer continued.
Baldwin’s Republican challenger Eric Hovde has received support from other farming Wisconsin organizations such as the Venture Dairy Cooperative and Wisconsin Dairy Alliance, which credited Hovde’s background in business and stated that they felt his commitment to focus on bringing down inflation that’s impacting gas prices and causing production costs to rise as the reason he has their support.
Hovde’s campaign announced endorsements of their own on Wednesday, with both the Wisconsin Professional Police Association and the Milwaukee Police Association having endorsed Hovde as crime in Wisconsin continues to be a concern among voters and police departments struggle to secure proper funding and recruit new officers.
The latest polling shows the Senate race remains close, with Rasmussen now showing Baldwin ahead of Hovde by one percentage point, while it also shows former president Trump holds a two percentage point lead in the Badger State. RMG Research found a similar result in their most recent Wisconsin poll, with Baldwin ahead of Hovde by three percentage points while Trump leads Harris by one point.
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