I’ve been driving around the 7th Congressional District a lot these past couple weeks — not just where I live, but out into the country. The soybeans are ready for harvest. In many fields, it looks like they’ve been ready for a few weeks. I haven’t seen a single combine out. It’s very unsettling.
Intellectually, I get it. Why waste gas and time harvesting a crop with no market? But instinctually, it’s like seeing black smoke on the horizon. Even if you don’t hear sirens yet, you know something out there is very wrong.
The race to replace U.S. Rep. Mark Green is crowded — and early voting in the primary begins Sept. 17
According to the University of Tennessee's Institute of Agriculture, soybeans are regularly among Tennessee’s largest agricultural products, bringing in hundreds of millions of dollars annually. Or that has been the case. This year, due to Trump’s tariffs, international demand for American soybeans — including from Tennessee — has dried up.
Last week, state Rep. G.A. Hardaway spoke to Memphis’ WREG about the situation:
Hardaway says state lawmakers have been getting an earful from local farmers.
“They’re saying that the markets are drying up and their costs are going up. Those countries which were buying from Tennessee, they’ve gone somewhere else because the one thing you’ve got to have when you do business is reliability,” explained Hardaway. “And we’re not reliable trading partners anymore, because of this haphazard way that the Trump tariff tax has been executed.”
He says farmers are asking local lawmakers to reach out to D.C. and ask for some stability and also some assistance.
It’s hard for me to convey how horrific and devastating it would be for so many farmers to endure financial devastation at the same time. Think the Dust Bowl, but at any second the disaster could be prevented by the people in charge.Â
So it’s interesting that it’s Hardaway speaking out about this — a Memphis Democrat whose district doesn’t have much rural space. A person might wonder if farmers are turning to Democrats in the cities for help because they’re not getting satisfactory responses from rural Republicans. Hardaway’s a pretty astute politician, so there’s something interesting about him speaking out in support of the state’s farmers while the state is busy running down Memphis for being a crime-ridden hellhole that deserves the National Guard in its streets. A pretty strong and simple message to understand: They’re in your business when you don’t want them, and they’re ignoring you when you need them.
I’m not a political strategist, but it seems like it might be a mistake for Republicans to let Memphis develop a reputation for being where scrappy underdogs facing hard battles can come for help.
Keeping in mind that rural Tennessee is facing what the farm industry is terming “Farmageddon,” I think the Republican ads for the 7th District primary are laughable. The Nashville Banner ran transcripts of some of them.Â
Matt Van Epps says, “I approve this message, because I know what to do with terrorists, so these woke wannabes in Washington better take cover.” I’m not sure that veiled death threats against the "woke" are really what our country needs at the moment, but if I were a soybean farmer in the 7th, I’d be especially pissed. You already don’t have an international market, and this doofus is talking about treating woke wannabes like terrorists? You know who makes up a significant portion of the domestic soybean market? The soy-latte-drinking, tofu-eating woke crowd. They might annoy the shit out of conservative Tennessee farmers, but do farmers really want to elect someone threatening what’s left of their market?
The other ads are less directly threatening to the domestic soy market, but they’re also filled with violence. Gino Bulso says: “President Trump’s warrior approach is saving America. I’m Gino Bulso, and I approve this message, because I’m ready to fight, fight, fight.” Do our farmers feel saved? I doubt it.
The field to replace U.S. Rep. Mark Green is flooded with candidates. How well do they know the 7th?
Lee Reeves says it’s time to send a “conservative fighter” to D.C. I personally choose to believe this is a dig at recently resigned U.S. Rep. Mark Green, whose seat Reeves is trying to fill, since it turns out Green is a conservative lover — or is a conservative and (allegedly) had a lover. But seeing as how Reeves is claiming that his “very first bill will end birthright citizenship for illegals” — which a bill cannot do — I’m not sure he’s clever enough to be taking digs at Green.
The immediate crisis in the 7th District is keeping our farms from failing. Our farms are in danger of failing because of Trump’s policies and decisions. He is the president, and Republicans hold the U.S. House and the Senate. Farmers in the 7th Congressional District don’t need a representative whose first actions are going to be anything other than fixing this mess. They don’t need representatives who are wholly on board with the Trump agenda, because the Trump agenda is going to cost 7th District farmers their farms.
But are any of these Republicans astute enough to pivot their messages toward something that reassures farmers they will fight for them? Or are they inadvertently going to feed the narrative that Democrats might fail, but they’re the only ones who will even try to help?
