Iowa farmers form the backbone of our economy, and they take their role of feeding and fueling the world seriously. In talking with folks involved in the agriculture industry across the state, you will quickly find that many of them are multi-generation Iowans – who till the soil, work the land, and carefully watch their crops grow from seedlings to harvest, just as their ancestors did hundreds of years ago.

As their ancestors before, they watched storms, floods, tornados, and drought negatively impact their crops, but across the state, Iowans are fearing the devastating impacts a Joe Biden and Kamala Harris candidacy will bring to their communities.

The Democrats’ presidential ticket consists of two coastal liberals. Joe Biden from Delaware, and Kamala Harris from California, pretend they know all about our struggles in the heartland, but ignore us as we try to explain how their policies will destroy our way of life.

Just take a look at Harris’ anti-agriculture positions as a member of the United States Senate. After Democrats played politics with the future of our communities by stalling USMCA for more than a year, Kamala Harris voted against President Trump’s renegotiated trade deal, the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA). NAFTA – negotiated and championed by her running mate, Joe Biden – put Iowa’s agriculture community at a disadvantage for decades. As a result, these lopsided trade policies shipped jobs overseas and put our farmers at the mercy of other nations at the negotiating table.

Even more devastating is the impact the Green New Deal would have on Iowa. Long before Kamala Harris and Joe Biden signed their unity pledge with Joe Biden and members of the Socialist Squad, and long before Biden brought Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez onto his campaign to co-chair his climate committee, the Democrat made it clear that a Green New Deal would be passed by his administration and its burdensome regulations would be forced onto Iowa families. This radical cow-eliminating environmental policy would be detrimental to Iowa’s agriculture industry, placing outrageous taxes on farmers to cover its $93 trillion price tag and putting massive restrictions on farmers. For example, cattle ranchers and dairy farmers across the state could see a tax of $2,000 per cow under a Biden-Harris administration. What’s worse, Harris is on-the-record with her intentions to change dietary guidelines that discourage Americans from eating beef because of the “negative impact” of cows on the world’s climate.

Finally, let’s not forget that an increase in government overreach would be restored under a Harris-Biden administration.  After taking office in 2017, President Trump did away with the Obama-Biden Administration’s Waters of the United States (WOTUS) ruling, restoring to farmers across the state the autonomy to decide what happens on their land – without the overbearing regulations of the EPA and federal government breathing down their necks.

Over the last four years, Iowans have had a fighter in President Trump. Whether it was getting tough on China when Joe Biden wouldn’t, fighting and succeeding in ensuring our farmers, ranchers, and manufacturers were on a level playing field when it came to global trade, or reducing taxes and regulations for family farms, a Biden-Harris ticket would prove catastrophic. The economic destruction of Iowa’s agriculture community at the hands of Joe Biden and Kamala Harris is something our state could never recover from.

With less than 50 days to go until Election Day, the stakes couldn’t be higher. It is imperative that we all do our part to ensure President Trump is re-elected for four more years.

CODY HOEFERT
CO-CHAIRMAN, REPUBLICAN PARTY OF IOWA

Dr. Cody Hoefert is a Chiropractor. He resides in Lyon Co. Iowa. He and his wife Jennifer have four young children.