Wisconsin, otherwise known as America’s dairyland, is known for its cheese, beer, brats, and its potential to swing the 2024 presidential election. In the past, the state’s 10 electoral votes have typically swung Democratic by a small margin. That changed in 2016 when Donald Trump won Wisconsin. The state turned blue again for the Biden-Harris ticket in 2020, raising the key question: which candidate Wisconsin will support in 2024?
The answer to this question relies on one of Wisconsin’s core industries — agriculture, an industry central to Wisconsin’s culture and economy. This is significant as voters in the state consistently rank the economy as the top issue in this year’s election. The state’s agricultural sector is rapidly changing, and with it, potentially Wisconsin’s voters. The decline of family farms in Wisconsin and the shifting agricultural economy will significantly impact voter preferences in the upcoming presidential election due to the isolation of rural communities from urban areas in many ways.
Within rural communities, farming, especially dairy farming, has always been a vital part of Wisconsin’s identity. However, farms across the state are disappearing. The 2022 USDA agricultural census showed that the total number of Wisconsin’s farms shrunk, while the average farm had gotten bigger. The number of dairy farms has decreased even faster. The state’s agriculture is rapidly losing its family farms, which have historically worked to give back to rural communities. On average, small farmers in Wisconsin can no longer support themselves without the help of off-farm income. This shift undermines the economic foundation of Wisconsin’s rural communities.
Historically, these small farms have provided food, jobs, and industry to rural communities, but in the world of globalized agriculture, these small farms are now struggling to stay afloat. Jobs at local farms are disappearing with the loss of small-scale agriculture. Industrialized large-scale farms are less likely to purchase and sell goods within a single community, shifting money elsewhere. As a whole, this process relocates money and jobs out of rural communities for the benefit of urban consumers.
With this shift, rural communities in Wisconsin and across the United States have become more disconnected from urban areas in terms of wealth inequality and political behavior. In the past two decades, voters in rural counties have become increasingly Republican, while urban cities and suburbs have stayed fairly consistent in their party identity. This disconnect between rural and urban America aligns with the changing landscape of American agriculture. Rural areas labor to bring food to communities across the state without receiving the economic benefits that family farms would historically bring back to these regions.
The decrease in family farms not only threatens Wisconsin’s cultural identity but also poses risks to the economic stability of rural communities. This has reinforced a deep partisan divide, which Republicans plan to expand upon by promising to support agriculture. However, Wisconsin held the title for most farm bankruptcies in the nation from 2016 until 2022. Trump was in power for four of these five years. Across the nation, the tariffs that the Trump administration imposed on international imports were incredibly harmful to U.S. agriculture, a policy he plans to reestablish and expand even further. On the other hand, Trump sent 28 billion tax dollars of aid to farmers to counter this deficit — more money than has ever been spent on a federal program. This aid could encourage farmers to continue to support Trump in the 2024 election.
While Trump’s tariffs might deter farmers’ support of his election, the Biden-Harris administration has also impacted family farms. The globalization of farming means that small farms feel increased pressure to improve productivity while lowering overall costs. In order to achieve this, many small farmers have turned to bigger manufacturers for help. The Biden administration has responded to this need by launching an initiative to increase competition within the meatpacking and poultry industries. However, Pure Prarie Poultry, a northern Iowa poultry processing plant funded by this initiative that provided farmers with feed for chickens closed, affecting farmers across Wisconsin, Minnesota, and Iowa. Farms across western Wisconsin, including those in my hometown of Eau Claire, have been struggling, forced to give away hundreds of thousands of their livestock, losing hundreds of thousands in profit. Additionally, over a million of Pure Prairie Poultry’s own chickens have been euthanized due to the closure.
Farmers across the state are experiencing significant economic challenges due to this closure, but it remains up to the voters whether they consider this a fault of the Biden-Harris administration.
GOP senators in the area including Wisconsin senator Derrick Van Orden have signed a letter to the USDA requesting an explanation to the public of what went wrong to ensure that taxpayer dollars are not being wasted. Signed by nine republican senators, this letter supports “building a robust national food supply chain,” but calls into question the USDA’s oversight of the funding granted by the Biden administration. Further, the Republican party has expressed its deep concern about the USDA’s oversight of these taxpayer-funded grants. While the initiative was created to support the agricultural industry, some farmers may question if its failure and lack of oversight imply that a Harris presidency will not be good for Wisconsin agriculture.
In addition to economic woes, farmland is rapidly disappearing within the state, partially because it is being turned into housing. Wisconsin is currently experiencing a significant housing shortage as the state’s population grows. This shortage follows the increase of Wisconsin’s median home sales price by 153.1 percent. Examples of high-density housing being built in what was formerly farmland can be seen in Ashwaubenon and Green Bay Wisconsin. The Harris-Walz campaign’s platform emphasizes the need for new housing developments and plans to establish three million new affordable homes across the US over the next four years. While Wisconsinites feeling the effects of the housing shortage may be inclined to vote for Harris due to these policies, farm country may support Trump to preserve farmland across the state.
Wisconsin agriculture does not only affect Wisconsinites, but the day-to-day lives of people across the United States — ranging from the ability of family farmers to give back to their rural communities to the price of groceries in urban cities. The agricultural industry provides food and resources for Americans across the country — voting in the presidential election this November is voting for the people who will supply your Thanksgiving dinner.
The USDA lists that 53% of the US land base is used for agricultural purposes. Thus, Wisconsin’s vote in this election sets a precedent for other farming states nationwide. Ultimately, Wisconsin’s issues are a microcosm of the country’s: understanding the agricultural issues facing America’s dairyland is crucial to understanding how farmers and rural constituencies across the nation will vote.
