Members say Angie Craig is strong contender to be top Democrat on House Agriculture Committee

Christopher Vondracek and Sydney Kashiwagi, The Minnesota Star Tribune on Dec 11, 2024

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WASHINGTON — The push by Minnesota Congresswoman Angie Craig to lead her party on the House Agriculture Committee remains a toss-up, though fellow Democrats say she’s a strong contender.

“I think it’s a lot closer than people think,” said Rep. Jill Tokuda of Hawaii. “Part of me wonders if this might slip down to geographic divides.”

On Tuesday evening at the Capitol, a number of members on House Agriculture exiting the chamber spoke to the Minnesota Star Tribune about the 52-year-old Craig’s campaign to oust 79-year-old Georgia Rep. David Scott, who has missed votes due to health issues.

Democrats are slated to vote next week on the ranking member. Craig’s name is among three circulating, including the current ranking member, Scott, and longtime California Democrat Jim Costa. But days out from the election, members were mixed on their plans.

“I’m definitely weighing all the options,” Tokuda said when asked which candidate she’s leaning toward. “I’ve been very impressed with Angie. Her comments and the kind of leadership and style she wants to bring to the table, and I think the fact that she is doggedly reaching out to folks and not just talking about what she wants to do, but also listening to what people want to see.”

Craig, who wasn’t available for an interview for this story, framed her pitch in a letter to colleagues last month as a return to rural values for a party that lost the presidency and control of the U.S. Senate in November.

“Right now, I worry that too many rural Americans don’t trust that Democrats have their best interests at heart,” Craig wrote. “It’s my mission to work with you to help change their minds.”

Rep. Jasmine Crockett of Texas said the looming farm bill — the twice-a-decade legislation funding a range of things from childhood nutrition to crop insurance — ups the stakes for the committee’s future Democratic leader.

“There’s no strong consensus,” said Crockett, who wants to talk to the contenders about their visions. “Ultimately, will you lead this committee in a way that benefits just your district, or [the country] collectively?”

Some members have already made up their minds.

“I’ll do everything I can to support [David Scott’s] candidacy,” said Rep. Sanford Bishop, also from Georgia. Rep. Don Davis, a North Carolina Democrat, said he too supported retaining ranking member Scott, who in 2021 became the first African American to chair the House Agriculture committee.

Rep. Nikki Budzinski, a Democrat who represents the farm belt in Illinois, said she’s thrown her support behind Craig.

“As a Midwesterner, I know she’s going to understand the priorities of my growers in my district, predominantly corn and soybean,” Budzinski said. She described a “really active campaign going on” to lead Democrats on the committee.

During her years on the agriculture committee, Craig has been a vocal supporter of biofuels and maintaining a safety net for row crop farmers. She’s also hosted regional meetings with sustainable and smallholder farms. In the announcement of her push to become ranking member, she touted her upbringing in Arkansas, where her grandfather was forced out of farming during the economic downturn of the 1980s.

Craig has also shored up support from local farm groups, including the Minnesota chapters of the Farm Bureau and Farmers Union; corn, soybean and pork lobbies; and the Rural Electric Association.

The GOP will retain control of the committee after winning the House in the November elections. Minnesota Republican Rep. Brad Finstad chairs a nutrition subcommittee.

Minnesotans are no strangers to leadership on agriculture committees. For many years, Rep. Collin Peterson, a Democrat who represented the state’s western half, steered the committee. In January, it’s expected that Sen. Amy Klobuchar will assume the ranking-member role for Democrats on the Senate Agriculture committee.

A shake-up in leadership for Democrats has broken out across committees since the presidential loss in November. Younger members have already stepped up to lead the party on the Natural Resources and Judiciary committees.

Any shift in Democratic leadership on farm policy would happen as Congress leans toward another yearlong extension of farm bill programs. The version that cleared the House Ag Committee earlier this year — which Finstad supported and Craig voted against — never came up for a floor vote.

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