Swing-state ag groups offer rival endorsements for key Senate race

WATERTOWN, Wis. — The Wisconsin Farm Bureau Federation’s endorsement of Sen. Tammy Baldwin — its first statewide Democratic nod in more than 20 years — has raised eyebrows in the Dairy State.

Farmers told The Post they want to send someone with business experience to Congress instead — namely Baldwin’s Republican opponent, Eric Hovde.

After the announcement, two Wisconsin dairy organizations endorsed Hovde as the deep-purple state’s agricultural industry faces off in a race that could determine the Senate majority in 2025.

The Farm Bureau’s backing came a day before Axios reported Democratic hand-wringing over the Senate fight as insiders say it’s tighter than public polling indicates.

Cook Political Report even changed the race’s rating from Lean Democrat to Toss Up last week after a significant increase in GOP dollars and fresh analysis of internal polling.

A political-action committee with ties to Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell plans to invest $17 million in the race before Nov. 5, bringing Republican planned spending closer to — but not yet even with — Democratic spending in the race. 

The path to a Republican Senate majority runs, at least in part, through Wisconsin’s dairy farms. The state is a critical piece of the GOP’s map to flip the upper chamber back into its control.

But Baldwin is known in the Dairy State for hoofing it to red-leaning districts during election years — and pulling in more votes in rural counties than other statewide Democrats.

The Farm Bureau lauded the senator for her work on industry projects like the Dairy Pride Act, the Dairy Business Innovation Initiative and efforts to “enforce FDA labeling standards” that prohibit non-dairy products from being sold as “milk.” 

Baldwin, who’s voted with Biden 96% of the time and was reportedly in contention to be his running mate four years ago, claims her Dairy Pride Innovation Initiative has brought home the bacon to Wisconsin’s dairy industry — to the tune of almost $40 million.

But her Senate record has some farmers blasting the bureau. 

Rick Carr is retired and calls himself a gentleman farmer with a small cattle-feeding operation he’s run for 20 years in Waukesha County. He resigned from his local farm bureau due to the Wisconsin Farm Bureau’s Baldwin endorsement.

“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,” Carr told The Post. “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 polices into the farm bill that Congress never passes is worth endorsing her.”

“An endorsement of Baldwin amounts to a tacit approval of the liberal agenda that has put the country in the worst position that it has been in for many years,” Carr added. “I resigned because I can’t be a part of that.”

Wisconsin’s dairy land is backing Hovde instead.

Kim Bremmer, executive director of Venture Dairy Cooperative, a major state advocacy group, told The Post her group endorsed the Republican because its members don’t feel a career politician can understand the issues of the working class. She referred to Hovde, a venture capitalist, as a “self-made man” when explaining her support.

Bremmer said members are dealing with inflation rates that have more than doubled and other related problems. Even though production costs are higher than ever for farmers, the price they’re getting for milk has remained low for most of the year. 

“When inflation increased due [to] people like Sen. Baldwin voting with Biden-Harris on bills increasing our country’s debt, dairies, like everyone else, had to deal with higher costs,” Wisconsin Dairy Alliance President Cindy Leitner told The Post.

“They had to withstand rising fuel costs, increases to transport their milk, higher cost of crops, increased employees’ wages and insurance. Yet unlike other businesses, dairies do not get to set the price at which they sell the milk they produce,” she said.

“We like Eric Hovde’s position on getting whole milk back in schools for the health of our children, making sure our farm bill focuses on farmers and reducing debt.”

David Trimner, co-owner of Miltrim Farms in Athens, told The Post his 3,000-cow family dairy farm just passed to the next generation.

“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,” said the 32-year-old farmer.

Asked why he’s supporting Hovde, Trimner indicated it’s less about Baldwin specifically and more about wanting to shift the balance of power in Washington to benefit farmers — and everyone else.

“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 Senate will bring more spending, free handouts, more taxpayer money used. And that’s not what helps us. Ultimately, it makes everything more expensive for farmers and the nation.”

“Farmers are already heavily regulated,” Trimner added. “I certainly do not have confidence in the Democratic side to make that any better.”

Dan Siemers, a Manitowoc dairy farmer, agrees.

“I run a good-sized business, and I’m looking for a candidate that’s pro-business and understands business,” he told The Post.

Siemers thinks Hovde would bring “really good business sense and common sense to DC, where it just doesn’t seem like there is much anymore.”

Certainly not from Baldwin. “Generally she votes almost always with Biden and the liberal agenda. That’s just not an agenda that I support,” he said.

“She does just enough for farmers so that there are some farmers out there who think she would be pro-farm, but any time something gets difficult — whole milk in schools was too difficult to support. She’ll take up the softballs but not anything that is difficult.”

Insiders say Baldwin’s dairy initiatives and mixed record on agriculture votes are typical of the political triangulation the savvy politician is known for. This strategy has worked well for Baldwin, who’s never lost a race since being elected to Congress in 1998. 

The Dairy State senator voted in 2023 against efforts to repeal the Biden administration’s expanded definition of Waters of the United States — efforts then-Wisconsin Farm Bureau President Kevin Krentz lauded: “The uncertainty created by the rule impacts the day-to-day operations of Wisconsin farmers by increasing paperwork and delays from unnecessary permitting.”  

WOTUS, or “navigable waters,” fall under the Army Corps of Engineers and Environmental Protection Agency regulatory jurisdiction. The bureau’s opposition is based largely on the expanded definition’s inclusion of “ephemeral” areas, or pieces of land that only become wet due to precipitation — leaving farmers at risk of federal prosecution for farming their own land unless they first go through a time-consuming permitting process.

Wisconsin fields flood all the time, especially in the spring and late summer. 

While Baldwin’s pro-milk initiatives focused on federal labeling rules for non-dairy products, a bipartisan group of her Wisconsin colleagues cosponsored or voted for 2023’s Whole Milk for Healthy Kids Act, which would repeal Obama-era prohibitions on whole milk in school cafeterias. Baldwin was not a cosponsor in the Senate. 

Asked about the discrepancies between the bureau’s position and Baldwin’s record, Wisconsin Farm Bureau Director of National Affairs Tyler Wenzlaff deflected.

“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.”  

Responding to a request for clarification on the difference between Baldwin’s positions on WOTUS and whole milk in school cafeterias and the bureau’s positions, Baldwin spokesman Andrew Mamo told The Post, “The fact that Eric Hovde and his allies would pitch a story to a New York newspaper attacking the Farm Bureau shows how out of touch with Wisconsin they really are. Eric Hovde probably thinks happy cows come from California, not Wisconsin.”

Speaking of California, Hovde — who hails from Baldwin’s hometown of Madison — has been hit repeatedly and effectively by the senator for his property in Orange County. 

Despite Hovde’s Cali ties, however, Baldwin has done a far better job milking Golden State donors, per the latest FEC filings. From 2023 to July 2024, Baldwin raked in $2.3 million in individual itemized donations from California donors — rather more than Hovde’s just over $260,000. Third-quarter filings are not yet available.

The self-funding Madison businessman says he will curb inflation and government regulation, with a side of whole milk in schools. 

“Eric Hovde understands the importance of Wisconsin’s agriculture industry and will work every day in Washington to promote pro-farmer policies. Eric will curb inflation to lower loan interest rates and the cost of energy, while stopping environmental regulations that make farmers’ jobs even harder and advocating to get whole milk back in schools,” Hovde spokesman, Zach Bannon told The Post.