Matt Russell is a farmer, political writer, and progressive ag and rural leader. He has published work in the New York Times, TIME, AgInsider, Civil Eats, and many state and local publications. He co-owns Coyote Run Farm with his husband Patrick Standley in rural Lacona, Iowa. A version of this essay first appeared on his Substack newsletter, Growing New Leaders: Perspectives from Coyote Run Farm.
Iowans will have some outstanding Democratic candidates to vote for in 2026. A Democratic candidate for secretary of agriculture is not yet among them, but could be soon.
Chris Jones has announced an exploratory committee and plans to decide whether to run in January. You can read Laura Belin’s interview with him here. Jones, who has a PhD in analytical chemistry, is a longtime advocate for cleaner water. He’s a sharp critic of how the agriculture industry has contributed to the pollution but avoided taking enough (if any) responsibility for dirty water.
Until election day 2024, I had planned to run for Iowa secretary of agriculture in 2026. My plan was to stay in my appointment at USDA with the Biden-Harris Administration until this fall. I’d hoped Christina Bohannan would win in Iowa’s first Congressional district, and as only one or two Democratic members of the Iowa delegation, I’d work with her to identify a great candidate to offer to the Harris-Walz Administration to be the next State Executive Director of the Iowa Farm Service Agency.
With Donald Trump’s election, those plans didn’t materialize. When I became unemployed on Inauguration Day, I began a very serious discernment about whether I should still run for Secretary of Agriculture. I gave myself until August to decide. Over those months, I found myself at varying degrees of commitment to making a run. I drew a number of key people into a trusted circle of dialogue partners and strategists.
I was also speaking to county Democratic parties and other groups around the state. I’d developed a short stump speech about the rising opportunities for Democrats in 2026. I talked about the fact that the only county in Iowa where Harris did better against Trump in 2024 than Biden did against Trump in 2020 was deep red and rural. In Page County, voters went 0.06 percent more Democratic in 2024 than in 2020. Every other county went more Republican. But the two counties that went more red by the least amount were next door to Page: Montgomery and Adams.
I’d end my comments stating confidently that I believed a farmer would be on the Democratic ticket running for secretary of agriculture. People would ask if that was me, and I’d honestly say I didn’t know, but I wasn’t ruling it out.
By the end of July, I’d chosen not to run. I had another opportunity in agricultural leadership. Many of the reasons that made me want to run for secretary of agriculture were also reasons to pursue a leadership position at the Iowa Farmers Union.
I wanted to advocate for family farmers, rural communities, cleaner water, sustainable agriculture, and more diversity on the land. I couldn’t both run for secretary of agriculture and serve as the executive director of Iowa Farmers Union. I made my choice and have no regrets.
I do have concerns, that so far, Democrats have not seized on the opportunities that I see in having a farmer run for this statewide office.
As the clock ticks towards March 13, the last day a candidate can file to run as a Democrat for secretary of agriculture, there is some urgency starting to take shape around the race. With Chris Jones considering a run, I’m glad at least one Democrat is publicly looking at entering the race.
Having spent much time and energy considering my own run, here are my three key suggestions for anyone thinking about putting their name on the ballot in the Democratic primary.
First, the way for a Democrat to win this race is to run as a member of a team of great Democrats. This candidate needs to be the voice of the Democratic party for farmers and rural Iowans. There is growing potential for rural voters to move to the left. It’s not that Democrats are likely to win many rural counties, but there is opportunity for movement.
If this candidate can help the Democratic team up and down the ticket do better in rural parts of Iowa, Democrats have a shot at winning other statewide races for and U.S. Senate. Conventional wisdom is that the first and third Congressional districts are competitive and that the second district could be. If it’s a historic midterm blue wave, the fourth could also be tighter than expected. While winning that race is a huge long shot for Democrats, but forcing Republicans to spend resources to defend that district is an important possibility.
As one of the most rural Congressional districts in the country, Iowa’s fourth is the second highest in overall agricultural sales at $22.1 billion. It’s also number three in the total number of farms, about 30,000. Having a loud and proud voice for farmers and rural communities that can amplify the message in places like Iowa’s fourth Congressional District will be important not just for the Secretary of Agriculture candidate but for the other five statewide and U.S. Senate candidates.
If it’s a wave election, the economy continues to sour, and Trump’s approval continues to tank, a proud Democrat running as a team member of the opposition party has a real shot at beating Republican Secretary of Agriculture Mike Naig.
If that person is a farmer, from a farming family, or a rural community leader, they will be in a strong place to both amplify the wave as well as leverage the advantage of that wave.
If they are an Iowan from other backgrounds, they can still win, but they will have to be very creative in being a credible voice for rural Iowa in order to help grow statewide, Democratic power.
Second, water quality is a winning issue for Democrats, especially because it is such a losing issue for Republicans. They have had trifecta control of Iowa’s statewide political leadership with both chambers at the statehouse and the governor’s office for a decade now. They’ve dominated rural political leadership in local government for longer than that. The policies that are preventing us from cleaning up our water are theirs.
Robert Leonard and I wrote about much of this in July on our Substack platforms. Democrats Need to Go on the Offensive on Water Quality: Hold Republicans accountable for failure to clean up our water.
Democrats need to be swinging the bat at the Republicans who refuse to invest in farmer-led conservation. Make Republicans defend the cuts to conservation programs meant to support farmers and ranchers who want to clean up the water, save our soil, and provide additional environmental benefits. Make Republicans defend the cuts to the staff at USDA who provide support to farmers and rural communities. Hold Republicans responsible for millions upon millions of dollars of federal funding cuts at Iowa’s public universities, much of which was meant to support Iowa farmers and rural communities and the American way of life.
The candidate for secretary of agriculture needs to be loud and proud about how much Democrats believe in investing in farmers. They need to be confident in claiming that Republicans don’t. Republicans cut somewhere between $50 million and $100 million in conservation funding this year alone for Iowa farmers.
As farmers face economic headwinds and criticism about water quality, the Trump administration canceled the checks. And every Iowa Republican who should have been standing up for farmers either made excuses for these cuts or remained silent.
Every Iowan has a right to be angry that we’ve failed to make progress on improving our water quality. Iowans are increasingly aware that we have an outsized cancer problem. We’re also connecting the obvious dots that agricultural pollution plays a role in the public health challenges associated with our dirty water. Democrats need to lean into this reality, rather than run from it.
There’s no benefit to running against farmers on water quality. Run against Republican leadership. Point out that when a choice needs to be made between farmers and agribusiness, a Democratic secretary of agriculture will always choose farmers and rural communities. That doesn’t mean we have to tear down agribusiness. But when a choice has to be made, Republicans have consistently chosen agribusiness.
Democrats don’t have a perfect record of choosing farmers either. But going forward, the commitment needs to be choosing farmers, especially those willing to make conservation investments on their farms.
Third, Democrats have to win if Iowa is going to clean up our water, grow our rural communities, empower small and midsize farmers, and provide farmer led solutions to what the world needs. We don’t need purity tests. We don’t need 15 point policy proposals for how to fix what Republicans have broken.
We need Democrats in power so we can get back to doing good public policy where there is a battle amongst different points of view to hammer out compromises that lead to smart government.
Republicans have shown they are not willing—and maybe not even capable now—of governing in this way. The costs of their leadership are mounting. The Democrat running for secretary of agriculture must be ready to make the case that unless we have new leadership, we’re going to get more of the same.
More of the same means the interests of agribusiness will overwhelm the interests of farmers. Republicans will continue to deepen the narrative around the urban-rural divide instead of building political bridges across all groups of Iowans. These bridges are what’s needed in order to govern and solve big problems like cleaning up our water.
For a farmer or rural leader, it’s a big ask to be the one running to become Iowa’s secretary of agriculture. As there may be some considering it, Iowans who want a better future for our farms, rural communities, environment, and overall state economy need to encourage them to accept the challenge. We need to be ready to help them change the political landscape of Iowa.
Because if Democrats don’t win up and down the ticket, Republicans will continue to make sure Iowans keep failing to solve our big problems. We won’t leverage our big opportunities. Figuring out how Iowans can stop being forced to drink shitty water is a great start.