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Key departures signal agriculture shakeup for Capitol Hill
MINNEAPOLIS – The reelection defeat of U.S. House Agriculture Committee Chairman Collin Peterson in Minnesota and some key retirements mean a shakeup is coming for the industry on Capitol Hill, with power likely to shift from the Midwest to the South and the coasts. Both the House and Senate agriculture committees will get new chairs, and there will be a new top Republican on the House panel. Fischbach plans to seek a seat on the Agriculture Committee, but she'll have to draw heavily on her legislative skills to have much of an influence as a freshman in the minority party. Democratic Sen. Debbie Stabenow of Michigan is the only one of the top four agriculture committee leaders returning in 2021. Neither Roberts nor Rep. Michael Conaway of Texas, the ranking Republican in the House committee, sought reelection.
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Tom Cotton is campaigning hard, just not for re-election
– Six years after being elected in an expensive and heated race, Republican Sen. Tom Cotton is on the ballot again and he's campaigning hard — just not in Arkansas. Cotton insists his focus has been on helping fellow Republicans and the president, not on any future plans. “The campaigning I've been doing this year across the country is laying the groundwork for a Republican majority in the Senate and hopefully the president's re-election," Cotton said. Cotton has also lent his support to a proposal going before Arkansas voters that would impose new restrictions on ballot initiatives. While he's a Trump loyalist, Cotton and Trump have split on some issues, including saying he would have urged the public to wear masks earlier in the coronavirus pandemic.