Scott Thomsen has voted for Donald Trump three times. Now, the fourth-generation Nebraska farmer says he's done with the Republican Party.
"I'm pretty disenfranchised as a voter right now, and I think I'm not the only one," Thomsen told the Washington Post. "Either I'm going to completely sit these elections out, or I'm going to vote down the line, incumbents out."
Thomsen's frustration reflects a broader shift among farmers, long one of the GOP's most reliable voting blocs, as they head into this year's midterms facing fuel and fertilizer price spikes tied to the war in Iran, market volatility from Trump's trade wars, and a new parasite threat to cattle.
Rural approval of the president dropped to 50 percent this month — a new low, according to a Reuters-Ipsos poll, down from 60 percent shortly after his second inauguration.
The financial toll has been steep. More than 300 farms filed for bankruptcy last year, up 46 percent from the year before, according to the American Farm Bureau Federation, and the USDA forecasts total farm sector debt will hit $624.7 billion this year, the highest on record.
"A lot of farmers today have lost and are losing faith and are feeling betrayed," said Joe Maxwell, president of Farm Action Fund. "They're not seeing an 'America First' agenda."
The discontent has created openings for Democrats in red states like Iowa, Nebraska and Wisconsin, though it hasn't yet produced a wholesale party shift. Candidates including Iowa's Josh Turek and Nebraska independent Dan Osborn are leaning into farmers' economic squeeze on the campaign trail.
Adding to the strain, the New World screwworm, a cattle parasite eradicated from the U.S. in 1966 that resurfaced in Texas last month. Even Sid Miller, the Republican Texas Agriculture Commissioner and a Trump loyalist, has publicly criticized Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins over the administration's response. Rollins has said USDA has tracked the threat for years and denies that budget cuts hampered its handling.
Not all farmers are abandoning the president. Many credit the administration for closing the Mexican border to cattle to slow the parasite's spread and for securing a Chinese commitment to buy 25 million metric tons of soybeans annually.
Still, Thomsen said short-term bailout payments don't fix deeper inflation problems. With his own equipment breaking down and costs climbing, he's bracing for more uncertainty ahead.
"There's just a lot of uncertainty right now," he said. "So you've just got to try to keep yourself protected as well as you can."
