November 5, 2025 • 50 mins
Governor Tim Walz joins co-hosts Heidi and Joel Heitkamp to discuss the mounting economic and social challenges facing rural America. The conversation covers the farm economy, rural health care, trade policy, and how political messaging affects rural communities. You'll hear firsthand stories about the impact of national policy decisions on small-town life and agriculture.
Heidi Heitkamp and Joel Heitkamp lead a candid discussion about trust, messaging, and what rural voters really want from their leaders. Gov. Tim Walz offers lessons from Minnesota and challenges both parties to listen better, prioritize common sense, and rebuild partnerships across political divides.
Join us on The Hot Dish every week, where we serve up hearty conversations that resonate with every corner of the country.
The Hot Dish is brought to you by the One Country Project, making sure the voices of the rest of us are heard in Washington. To learn more, visit https://onecountryproject.org or find us at https://onecountryproject.substack.com/.
- (04:59) - Hosts Heidi and Joel Heitkamp welcome Gov. Tim Walz to discuss rural America's growing farm crisis
- (09:42) - Hosts and Gov. Walz discuss the importance of Midwest agriculture to America's economy
- (19:58) - Gov. Tim Walz critiques Trump's blatant Market manipulation
- (34:03) - Gov. Walz discusses how the tariffs raise consumer costs nationally
- (41:53) - Hosts and Gov. Walz how Democrats are ignoring Rural America to their great detriment
- (49:39) - Heidi emphasizes the importance of winning trust over votes
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:05):
Welcome back to the Hot dish. We are blessed
today to have a governor who is not
only our neighboring governor, but one of our dear friends.
Thanks so much, governor for joining us on the hot dish. Thanks,
Heidi. And a hot dish champion, I might add, in Congress. So,
yeah, you know, three time champion. You know, I think Amy might
(00:27):
not agree with that. I, I know she's I believe a
one time champion. I believe I had a 3 Pete in there at one point
with my, with my spam hot dish. So
that was a winner. Yeah. Obviously
neither one of you have ever eaten my deer sausage. I can put that in
a hot dish too, just for the record. Well, I would eat that. You know,
(00:49):
the year both of us got beat, there was a lot of controversy because Colin
Peterson won it with a bear hot dish. The
bear was not the controversy. He got it in Wisconsin. That was the
controversy.
Colin is a cook too, so. Well, it's good to see you both.
It's good to see you. Just for a little background, folks, you
(01:11):
know, Governor Walz, born in rural country, which is why we
love him so much on the Hot Dish. He was in the House of Representatives
from 2007 to 2019. I don't even need
to tell you about this man. Served on the ticket was a
huge part of really what made us so proud here in the
Midwest. And not to mention the fact that this guy drives an international
(01:34):
Scout. So that's enough for me right there.
Governor, you decided to run again. Tell people why.
Yeah, I did. And again, it's great to be with both of you. Look,
I, I think I keep saying this where everybody says these are unprecedented times.
I want to live in precedent at times. But I still think that
time in Congress especially, and I would argue here in Minnesota, I had the most
(01:56):
closely divided legislature in the country last year and we passed a budget,
cut spending, we're able to cut some taxes, still
invested in education, health care, balance the budget.
I believe that government is a force of good, but I also believe
that compromise is somewhat at the key of this. Now, I'm not going to compromise
on people's human rights, but I'll certainly compromise on policies that make a difference.
(02:19):
And I think right now with what we're seeing out of dc,
what we're seeing out of decisions being made, going over the Congress, you know,
things that were appropriated, you know, both of you are experienced in this.
Heidi, you worked on it. When we craft a Farm Bill and have the nutrition
title in there, we're not pretending when we put money into SNAP and the President
doesn't get to just hold that up. I think here in Minnesota,
(02:41):
we're seeing progress on a lot of fronts and I think
I've got the experience to get us through one more term. So I've asked the
people to give me another opportunity. Well,
I mean, you're running at a time when
the farm economy's looking a little bleaker than it did four years
ago, Tim. And I'm sure you're watching that. I'm sure you're
(03:03):
thinking about all the soybean farmers and the corn farmers and the,
you know, the folks who raise livestock in Minnesota.
How when you talk to your colleagues, other Governors,
how do you kind of talk about what's happening, happening with the economy
in rural America? Yeah, and, and again, talking to both of
(03:24):
you, it's why I really enjoy this. I, I had the privilege, Heidi, of being
on a conference committee for a Farm Bill. I think the last one we
enacted because they can't get one done, where you were a leader on that.
And it was so encouraging to bring these voices and you know, that sitting on
those conference committees for a farm bill until this, you know, until what we're
dealing with right now, that was super bipartisan, really,
(03:46):
really good to work on and always trying to make sure that we were strengthening
the world economy. It's a mess right now
and it's an unnecessary, it's a man made mess. Farming's hard
enough, it's very unpredictable weather, everything else. But creating
the situation we had right now, I can't express to people who aren't
out here to realize how precarious this situation is. I know people
(04:07):
compare it back to the 80s, I think it's probably
a pretty fair comparison. Land values haven't bottomed out like they did in the 80s.
But that feels to me to be a bit of a bubble where people are
at, people are over leveraged. And this,
this trade war that shifted markets. And I think it's really important to understand
farmers work really hard with their checkoffs, with their organizations
(04:30):
to open these markets, to make sure we have these stable markets. And in
Minnesota, North Dakota, America in general was viewed as a,
as a good trading partner. That's not true anymore. If people think they're going
to take the tariffs off, even if we get a deal with China, they've
recalibrated their purchasing to, to South America and that is
not coming back. And so you have loss of markets,
(04:52):
you have increased production costs because now Brazil
went from 80 million acres to 110 million acres. They need more inputs,
they need more tractors, they need more parts. So our folks are dealing with
supply chain issues around parts, supply chain issues around
inputs, costs increasing on inputs, commodity prices going
down, markets being decimated. And then add
(05:15):
on top of that, their local hospitals under threat because
that's going to close. They're not seeing the funding for their local schools.
So rural America right now is as
precarious as I've seen it and almost
entirely by choice of this administration,
not by the work that's been done there, not by the
(05:37):
opportunities that still lie in rural America, whether it's sustainable
aviation, fuel up in your part of the woods where we're working on, or just
new opportunities. So I think it's tough. And when I talk to other governors,
I'll just tell both of you, I've told folks in rural that I'm
really worried about this because this is an attitude that I think is increasing and
I think it's dangerous in our polarization of people saying,
(06:00):
well, North Dakota voted Republican. Let them, let them live on that.
That's fine. Let them, let them figure out what happened here. That's a terrible thing.
It's terrible to our neighbors. It's terrible for our overall economy.
It's terrible if you eat or need power. But this idea of
being, you know, well, there's not much we can do about rural America. They
voted Republican. Yeah. It's not particularly good
(06:22):
politics either. It's terrible. It's terrible. And look,
do I think that you should shame people for the. No, but I think it's
okay to understand is you were lied to. You can tell people that you were
lied to. This guy did a bait and switch on you. He got his tax
cuts for his wealthy and he left farm economies, know, stuck. I
tell them too, is, is that, look, we're going to need some of this help
(06:43):
they're promising as a bridge loan. Farmers don't want to bail out. They
don't want this. They, that is absolutely. You guys know this better than anybody.
But they need this money now. They need it because it's the foundational. Because I'll
tell you what we're going to end up doing here. We're going to end up
forcing these folks out of business and they're going to be bought up by those
predators that swoop in and buy it up. And then we get the consolidation that
all of us complain about. So it's a tough one.
(07:07):
The one thing that I would add in all of this is there's, there's a
situation you made reference to the 80s. Okay, so let me just say this.
The biggest thing that's happening now to farmers versus the
80s, where there's foreclosure and everything that went with it,
is they're just not getting their operating loans. You know, the banks are sitting there
saying the numbers don't work out. We're not giving you the operating loans. Now there's
(07:29):
ranchers in Minnesota, just like there's ranchers all over the areas
in the rural areas that are listening to us. So, you know, when a
president is on Air Force One and he walks back and he
leans into a microphone and says, we're going to buy Argentinian
beef. Right after we gave him $40
billion. And the next day, our boys are trying to sell their feeders at
(07:51):
market. And they lost 300 bucks ahead, Governor.
300 bucks ahead. I mean, and that was the one. I
get it. Cattle was the one bright spot there for a while. Everything else
is, you know, sugar beets are down. Every, everything's down.
But cattle was okay. And then this comes. You're exactly right. And,
and, and when we talked to him, I said, my responsibility as governor
(08:13):
is. Is making sure that we're supporting those rural communities. We're doing the
things necessary. We keep folks on the land. Because I'll tell you, it may be
1% of the population that's directly involved with agriculture, but every one
of our communities is seeing the. The ripple effect through the economy.
And, and look, pile on. Losing the markets on snap,
which we know is a market for our products. It's a mess.
(08:36):
I do worry about that, Joel, and I don't. I don't know if, because the
land values are still high, if that helps get us out of this, but
you're right. With no operating loans, people are already thinking, next year's planting season. We
just finished up harvest this year. There is so much uncertainty right now,
and especially when you get an average age of 56, 57, some of these
folks are saying, is it worth it anymore? Is it worth to keep doing this?
(08:58):
And they don't have a son or daughter who wants to farm. And
so they're like, you know, why am I struggling? Why am I risking
the legacy of my assets
to keep doing this when they don't see any light at the end of the
tunnel? The one thing I want to impress upon people, we talk a lot
about food deserts or grocery deserts and rural
(09:20):
America. When I, when you and I were debating that farm
bill and it was a lot of discussion about SNAP, some of the
best proponents of keeping the SNAP benefits were
those rural grocery stores, because they knew how much
of their income, how much of those purchases came
from people who were on food assistance. 100%.
(09:43):
I remember this, and I actually expanded it. We were talking about some of these,
you know, kind of the modern version of the, the convenience store or whatever. Many
of these things, like quick trips in my neck of the woods, those are the
local grocery store, too, of being accessed to get food, to get, you know,
fresh milk, fresh foods, things like that. But it is a,
it is a precarious situation in, in states like Minnesota, North
(10:04):
Dakota, in the Midwest. Agriculture is still a really big part of our
economy. It, it is going to have
immense consequences for this country. And so I'm,
I'm deeply concerned that people think that there's a quick fix here. I think that,
you know, if Donald Trump thinks he's going to pressure somebody, he's going to win
a trade war. This truce we have with China is just
(10:26):
simply a truce. The, the, the tariffs are still on, and
China's not coming back to our soybean producers. I'm really worried. That's why we're
looking at domestic markets. It's why I'm pushing, you know, sustainable aviation, fuel,
other markets, because we're going to have to, we're going to think about that. They
did that during the first Administration. We never got back the share of the
market that we had before Donald Trump was President. We lost a big part of
(10:49):
that share. I think farmers are starting to understand that. But I want to tell
you about a guy that called into my show, you two from
Manitoba, okay? He calls into my show. He listens to the show
along with a bunch of people in Canada. And he said, joel, the
problem we have is we're being treated poorly. The is problem that we
don't feel welcome. And then we ended up talking, guys,
(11:10):
about Jack Daniels. That's what we talked about. And he said,
I can't find it on my shelf. It'd be like gold to me. I like
a good bottle of a Jack Daniels, a good glass of it. And he
said, we don't have it up here. They're not going to put it on the
shelf. In fact, the people up here don't stock
a lot of American products anymore. And I said to him,
(11:31):
I said, well, you come on down to my place. You know, I'll get you
one. And he goes, I don't feel welcome there. I'm not coming until
I feel welcome there. You know, I, I put out ads out of our Explore
Minnesota and, and said, you know, be welcome. You're always welcome here. And, you know,
Thunder Bay is right across the border up there from Grand Portage. We get a
lot of people come over. They're our closest friends. You know,
(11:51):
we're, we're mostly Canadian, if you will, in how,
how Minnesotans act. And, and I did that same thing, and I put that out,
and I got, I got pushed back from people and said, look, we trust you
guys. We trust you, Governor. We trust Minnesota. But you don't run the border.
You don't do the border. You're not these agents that are up here. And, and
I think you hit on something, Joel. These trade deals are not as impersonal as
(12:12):
you think they are. A lot of this is about relationships on a broader scale,
you know, cultural relationship and the sense of Canada being so
dependable and being there. Everything's a shakedown operation. Everything's,
at NATO, everything's a shakedown operation. You know, you got to pay more. You got
to do. Should the allies maybe have been putting more of their GDP
towards defense? Sure. But there's ways to go about that rather than siding
(12:34):
with Putin or, or making the
case that, you know, Ukraine should give up land to
an aggression against them when we're all, all of our
allies are right in that same boat. So I got to tell you,
in the midst of all this politics aside, and I get it, what people are
saying, you know, the Democrats are doing this. The Democrats are focused on making life
(12:56):
more affordable. And Mike Johnson saying, you know, we're going to keep the government
shut down and not pay food stamps because you're asking us to help with
health care. Yes, because Medicaid is critically important
because the subsidies in the ACA have brought down health care
costs and asking Congress
to follow through with what they appropriated rather than letting this president
step over. I don't. Heidi, I would say this (13:18):
I, people keep asking
me, what are the Democrats going to do about this? You know, I think the
real question here is what are true conservatives and members of the
Senate going to do? You've got two senators and South Dakota's got two senators
that I have to, in my heart believe. They, they do not agree with
this. They do not agree with the direction, especially on this issue, around
(13:39):
tariffs, trade, and farm opportunities. When are they going
to speak up? When are they going to say something? Well, they had a chance,
Tim, to, to vote against the kind of emergency
designation and didn't vote against
it. Didn't vote with four other Republicans who Took a
stand on trade and then turned around and said, but
(14:01):
we really want to make amends and we need to do better
with our neighbors. In the meantime, North Dakota, I
think tourism, we think is about
our third largest industry. It's down
18%. We've been hit almost as hard as Florida
with Canadian tourism. Yeah, our states are really popular
(14:23):
with them. We're experiencing the same thing. And folks coming in to shop, spend
money and this stuff is going to be, this can be generational.
Joel, you said that I had the opportunity. I was up for a couple days
for the first time I'd ever been there, up in New Brunswick, crossed over from
Maine and went into a grocery store to buy some know, burgers and stuff. We're
going to grill out Canadian flags everywhere, which
(14:45):
is fine. They had one aisle where they had shifted all the
American products to the last aisle in the grocery store and everything else in
that grocery store was Canadian and was highlighted on that. And so if you wanted
hines ketchup or whatever that was on the very last
aisle. And, and there would nobody shop in that aisle. And, and this is just
ridiculous. They're our closest trading partner. Then you can go south of the
(15:07):
border to Mexico, the same thing. And then say what you will about this, the
Chinese are a major market for us. You got a billion people there that would
like to buy well made American goods manufactured by our people.
Can't do it. And now you got a massive trade deficit. You got a massive
deficit in agriculture. You've lost trust in the
markets. And you tell me what the plan is because I'll tell you
(15:28):
what the plan is. Not that other countries will pay the tariffs and
America will get rich. That is, that is fairy dust talk.
That is, that is no one in the world other than Donald Trump believe
that's true. No one. Yeah. Governor, I want to hit
upon this because you hunt. I hunt. You know, hunties in. Hunting is in.
Heidi's husband hunts a lot. You see my pheasant shot? Here's something
(15:51):
I want to hit upon and get your take on, it's, well, I'm not going
to say Heidi because I've seen her shoot, you know. You know,
there's nothing safer than a pheasant in front of Heidi high camp. But
that, that being said, you know, my point is
pretty birds. Why would you want to kill them? Yeah. To eat them. So
here's, here's the other part that I'm going to put out there.
(16:14):
We as Democrats, you know, I think have
terrible messaging when it comes to guns and gun
safety. I think there's things we can do. We can talk about clip size, we
can talk about, about binary triggers. We can talk about, you know,
knowledge of who buys what, all of those things. You know, we can have many
day waiting period. I'm okay with all of that. But as Democrats, we
(16:35):
don't dig into really just the
structure of guns and I think that hurts us in the rural area. Governor?
Yeah, I think so. I think the one thing, Joel, I would say is that
I've found that, you know, responsible gun owners are more than
willing to make things necessary changes. And look, this is very personal
over here. I had my best friend shot and killed our speaker of the House.
(16:58):
I had two little fourth graders shot as they sat in the first day of
school in their church. That there are responsible things
we can do. And you're right, I mean locking these things up, who does not
put a trigger lock or put their guns in a safe is beyond me. You're
asking for. We had a little one shot here this week, same thing, 18 guns
or something in the House unlocked. You know that's going to happen. But I do
(17:19):
think you talk to people, talk with them with respect. But I think we also
are afraid to talk about some of these common sense things. I will tell you
one thing. In 2023 we passed the extreme risk protection, the red flag laws.
We got the first data on that. We saved lives. Like we're able to show
the number of times you go in, you step in. Most people if you're going
to die by a gun, it's going to be by suicide. You're going to be
(17:39):
in rural Minnesota. That's just factual. Because of the data that we see,
we're saving lives in that. I think most responsible gunners are saying, look, you can
protect my second amendment rights. You know something about firearms.
We know that there's ways to keep them safe and don't allow them to
pigeonhole us into this thing. I'm not interested in taking your guns. I am
interested of people who should not have them not getting them. I am interested
(18:02):
in making sure you can't shoot 116 rounds in 62 seconds into
little body setting in church. I will say that. But I think most
people are like, yeah, I'm with you on that. So I agree, Joel. And, and,
and not get sucked into the whole thing about this, this cancel culture and
the social issues or whatever of, of accusing Democrats or being there.
That's the only place Republicans go right now because they don't want to Talk about
(18:23):
the price of eggs. They don't want to talk about what's happening with soybeans. They
don't want to talk about what's happening with rural Medicaid and rural hospitals. They want
to talk about transgender swimmers or something.
And I think for us, we're not going to throw anybody under the bus. But
if there's a lesson here, focus on making life more affordable,
focusing on allowing people the freedom to live the lives they. We want to. If
(18:44):
that's in real western North Dakota, then help them live that lifestyle that
way. Give control locally. The thing I'll go to my grave not
understanding is, is the party that prided itself on states rights and local
control has totally thrown every bit of that out window. They want
to step on us. The president threatened to cut all funding to New York City
because New Yorkers elect someone. Can you imagine?
(19:07):
Can you imagine us saying, if you don't vote for Kamala Harris, North
Dakota is not going to get any money? That is just outrageous that. That none
of this makes any sense. That's what this guy's doing. You know, Tim,
the, the one message point that I think we. We've missed
out on is, you remember it was Bill Clinton.
The era of Big Government is over. Guess what? The era of Big
(19:30):
Government's back. Government's taking over corporate America,
government's taking over universities, government's taking
over media. I mean,
what what, what isn't he trying to control right now from the White
House? The U.S. Government owns stake in many companies now, like U.S. steel.
You know what you call that when the government owns businesses? That's communism.
(19:53):
It's. You know, and the idea of this. I'm out there arguing. And look,
Joel, you. I got hit from some of my supporters on the left because, look,
I'm a supporter of capitalism, moral capitalism and free
markets. The president is not. He is manipulating markets. He is
threatening individual businesses. He's buying individual businesses,
and he's putting his supporters in a place. If you build a
(20:15):
ballroom, is it just a coincidence that the people who funded that
also have $276 billion of, of contracts? Can
you imagine me saying in Minnesota, hey, if you build me a bowling
alley in my house, I'll give you the contract on this building?
My God. I mean, people should lose their minds, and you'd go to
prison. That is happening in front of us. So here's what I want to say.
(20:37):
Could Democrats do better at messaging? God, yes. We're terrible at it anytime.
But our focus on improving life, of allowing everybody
the opportunity to succeed, of making those Investments in things
like lead to that is seems to me to be a hell of a lot
better than if you're connected to the president. You'll do well into hell with
the rest of you. We're going to hold a party while snap benefits
(20:59):
expire. That I got to tell you old
school conservatives, I need them to rise up that that's
what I'm saying. The Democrats can do better, but there has got to be frustrated
conservatives that are saying, look, we can do better. Yeah, I, I would
add this right down to X's and O's is small. You
know, it, it goes back to this. I will guarantee you that
(21:22):
whoever was running that excavator that tore down the east wing of the White House
did not go to the bar and brag about it afterwards. He didn't.
But his boss said you got to do it because Donald Trump wants you to
do it. And he lied about doing it. And you know what? America
doesn't like it. You saw the poll numbers over the weekend, both of you. And
Heidi, you and I were talking about them. And to some
(21:43):
degree there's some hope out there that America is starting
to say enough of this bullshit. Heidi. Yeah, well, you
know when you look at it and you say where
is the line? And back to your point, Tim,
where is the line with conservatives? And people say,
oh well, Donald Trump. I said quit focusing on Donald Trump. He is who he
(22:06):
is. We know who he is. But how come people are enabling
it? How come people you and I know, people that you knew in the
House, people I knew in the Senate who would never have tolerated
this, even from George W. Bush, they just sit and cower in
the corner. Yes. People who are in this Administration that I considered friends
who, who talk more libertarian. Because there's nothing
(22:29):
libertarian about this group right now. Like I Joel, this gun thing
again, this is an argument that's made. Look, guys, like
I've heard this. To me, guys like walls think guns are about hunting
and personal safety alone. It's about
tyranny of the federal government. Where are those dudes? Where are the
don't tread on me guys when the federal government is overstepping state control? And
(22:50):
I'll tell you both this. When the Biden and Heidi, you were there too. The
Biden Administration stepped in and without
consulting the states against law in the
NDAA Council of Governors, which I was a co chair of for,
for many years, Donald Trump appointed me when the Biden
administration overstepped that and took the space force was going to take the Space Force
(23:11):
out of the National Guard. I organized a letter and
all 50 Governors signed it and sent it to Joe Biden and say,
you must consult with us. National Guard is under the control of the
Governors in Title 32. It's under your control in Title 10. You need to
consult with us and everything there. And the Biden administration backed
off. Well, when Trump did this in California and in Chicago,
(23:34):
it's the same argument. I sent the exact same letter and
just changed the name basically from Joe Biden to Donald Trump.
Not a single Republican would sign on to it. Not a single one. When it
was a states rights issue, every Democrat stood onto it and stood up to Joe
Biden in that. We love Joe Biden, thought his policies were good, but not all
of them. And when they weren't good, we were there. This group is
(23:56):
so fearful. They know, and behind closed doors,
they will say, well, this isn't right. The Governors are in charge of the National
Guard and they won't stand up. So somehow Democrats have to
figure out our message. Joel, I think you're right. I think the
symbolism, like, they got all riled up when they changed the, the
Cracker Barrel logo. But apparently it's okay to tear down the East Wing. You
(24:17):
know, I think that contradiction is coming home to
roost. The other thing, and this goes directly to a Governor that
wasn't good at her job down in South Dakota, but Kristi
Noem, you know, America is getting it when you
see individuals drugged by their hair out of vehicles that
were smashed by individuals that are masked, in many cases
(24:40):
without any identification on them. United States citizens held
while Noem runs around saying that they weren't held. But
here's the thing. They have been held. And these people are beaten.
They're beaten in the streets. And Americans are running up with their cell phones, they're
taking videos of this. They're pointing out what's happening. And
that is going viral. Yes. And I love it.
(25:03):
I love the fact that America is seeing how vicious these people
are. I love the fact that America is finding out
exactly what ICE is doing. And I'll tell you what, you
do that stuff in my hometown. I don't care whether you're a Democrat or Republican,
there's going to be a fight. That's that. That's that overreach, Joel. And look,
all of us said, heidi, you were there. We did need immigration reform.
(25:25):
Shouldn't take seven years to have an adjudication hearing over
asylum. Make that 90 days. That's what Biden proposed. You know,
put the agents there that you need it, make sure there's a pathway to citizenship,
all of those things. But, but that's not what they're doing. I see advertisements, "$50,000
signing bonus, pay off your student loans, come join ICE." Do
that for our teachers! Do that for police officers in Minneapolis, do that
(25:47):
for nurses. But now we've got a budget where Kristi Noem
has a private jet where she can come visit a friend and then hold
some weird press conference on the side to justify why she's in Minneapolis
when we're not having any issues, that this is a grift at the
highest level. And I think if you're a hardcore old
school conservative, the critiques against Democrats of, you know,
(26:09):
you're not paying attention to spending, you're overreaching into
our personal lives, you are not allowing local control. We
are now much closer to their political ideology than what
this White House is. And so I think people just need to come true
on this. And, you know, I don't know. I, I don't get
in people's grill about their religion. You, you don't need me as a
(26:32):
governor to give you a sermon, but I should live one. And I think
these folks are certainly not living a sermon and they didn't spend a lot of
time trying to give us one. But there's nothing I saw in Matthew 25
that told us, you know, well, I'm going to keep these fishes because it'll make
you lazy if I give these loaves and fishes to you. No, nothing up like
that. So, look, I think you're right. We need to figure out how to
(26:54):
govern. I'm deeply concerned with long term implications of what it's doing
to our society. But I'll have to tell you, I'm super encouraged. A lot of
young people getting engaged. Again, not disengaged,
which I think would be understandable. And I think, you know, the
No Kings rally, people are busy, but you could still put
millions of people on the streets just asking for the president
(27:17):
to follow the Constitution, to work with us on things
that we need to get done. I've got two more questions. I'll let Heidi close
this out. Governor, the first one you're gonna. You won't answer.
In the second one you will. Are you ready? All right,
the first one is, and I'm not doing my job if I don't ask you
this. Are you going to or thinking about
(27:38):
running for president? I am not. I am all committed to whoever we
have out there to win that. I am committed to being Governor of
Minnesota. And I'm going to do that to best of my ability. Okay. The
second one. Did the Vikings find their quarterback with J.J.
McCarthy? Yes. Yes, I am. I've been out there, Joel. It, JJ's
it. I just, just want to tell you one more thing before I hand the
(28:00):
ball off to Heidi. She's a Packers fan. You take it from there, Governor.
Thanks, Joel. Just. Thanks. You know
we did not have a good weekend as Packers fans.
I tell you, son of a gun. Well, you
know, Kraft from South Dakota. In fact,
(28:20):
my cousin who's a family physician, went through residency
with his cousin. I hope he goes. That's who
Darwin fishes with up in Alaska. And so they're
great family and that's tragedy and hopefully you'll be able to
come back next year. But it sounds like he tore his ACL. That's what they
said anyway. What I would say, Governor, is that
(28:43):
we need to keep talking and we need to keep talking common sense in
rural America. We need to keep educating people in
our party. You know, David Axelrod says it
best when Democrats or when liberals approach rural
America, they approach as missionaries and not neighbors and friends.
That's perfect, isn't it? I mean, it's like, look what I've
(29:05):
done for you. And you're like, really? Really? That's the
persuasion argument? I totally agree. This one's hard for me, Heidi. I think both of
you, it is, too, because I consider myself of that. I watch everybody try
and be from rural or try and be that everyday guy.
I know in my heart who I am and I watched him spend a billion
dollars, you know, to try and tell people that's not who I am or to
(29:27):
tell them to vote for the billionaire, not the guy who brags about not
buying stock. I not bragging about that. We just
middle America, we have a pension and that's a, you know, that's a good thing.
So I, I agree with you and I don't think we can give up on
this. And I don't think you can belittle your neighbors. I, I never think it's
a good idea to tell somebody they're stupid and then you want them to vote
(29:47):
for you. I think it is. I've had this happen to me. People lied to
you and you're misled or you might have got this wrong or the situation
changed. Give folks, you know, the way out. Because again, I
keep telling people this. This is not some theoretical group of people.
These are literally my relatives and my friends. These
are the people that we know and grew up with. And I still
(30:09):
have great hope that they believe in this democracy. They believe in decency, they believe
in kindness. They do expect you to work hard. They do expect you to be
honest about things. That's what really gets me. This guy
does none of those things. And, and his family does none of
those things. And, and I think that's maybe the way we get folks back. Yeah,
well, and then he begs for awards. You know,
(30:36):
the cream rises to the top. You don't need to brag. Eventually
you're going to get recognition. He's out
bragging about all these countries who know that all they have to do is
nominate him for a Nobel and then he's going to give
him some great trade deal. You are so right. Funny enough, many months ago
I said this about Canada. I said look, this guy's easy to read. Canada
(30:58):
should make up an award and say Donald Trump won the world's
greatest trade war. Here's a trophy. And then just go back to the way it
was. No no, a crown! Well, Japan did that, you guys, I mean Japan
was smart. They did that. That's what Apple did. They just can't find anybody to
dance as bad as he does. You know, that's the key.
Well, look, you guys are doing the work. I'm glad you're out
(31:20):
there. You're getting voices on hopefully that are there. I, I'm grateful to
it. I think about how different it would be
because I said I see you two as kind of the, the archetype of
what I see in rural America. Hardworking folks who care about their neighbors,
raise a little hell when it's necessary and, and be pretty
independent. But understand your neighbors might be down on their luck. That's who we
(31:43):
were. I mean that's, that might be a little towards center
on some people's radar, but I also think it's a pretty good spot where we
end up helping folks. So I'm glad you're out here making the case. Well,
continue to pay attention. And Governor, thank
you so much for joining us on the Hot Dish. You're a breath of fresh
air, good luck on your re-election bid and you
(32:05):
know, go Packers! Thank you, Governor. Thank
you guys. Good to see you both. Fantastic. We'll talk
soon.
Well, Joel, I guess all the problems of rural America are
solved since he met with, with the
(32:26):
Premier, the President of China, Xi
Jinping. So are people happy now? People
calling you people happy out there? You know, I, I think in
farm country people are in that wait and see mode, you know, they just got
done with harvest. There's still a little bit of corn out there for them
to get after. But, you know, they're still in a wait and see
(32:48):
mode part because, you know, while some
of them are not ranchers, the ranchers are their friends
and some of them are ranchers and they're ticked off. And so
while they might see some improvement in soybeans, they know
it's less than what they would have sold and they know
that cattle prices are down because of what he
(33:10):
said, Heidi. And so I don't think they're doing the Kumbaya yet here.
So I think a lot of people are thinking, well, I guess now you know,
that they're everybody's happy or they' declared
victory against China, that we don't need any kind of
trade support for agriculture and for rural
America. Well, that's the big question, isn't it? If they're
(33:33):
going to celebrate, then the big question comes along
saying, do they need some level of emergency payment? And if you
look at the price for soybeans, it's not good.
It's not good. The costs have gone up because of these tariffs. Fertilizer has
gone up, equipment has gone up. I know guys that ordered equipment that had to
back off on buying that equipment. And so if soybeans
(33:56):
are at or lower than what the prices were last year,
it's not good. Hyde, you know that you grew up here. Well,
and it's interesting because you can say, well, because the inputs have gone
up because of tariffs, then farmers are entitled. But, you know,
bank of America came out with a study today, Joel, that basically
says 50 to 70% of the cost of tariffs are
(34:18):
being borne by consumers. No surprise there.
I thought if I were going to run, I would run on, I'll reduce the
cost of a cup of your coffee because it'd be pretty easy to do. All
you'd have to do is quit tariffing coffee. But people
know that their grocery prices have gone up. They know that their cost of living
has gone up. And they're getting hit with outrageous,
(34:41):
especially if they're small business people, if they're small farmers, or if
they're farmers that rely on the exchange. They, they're getting hit with
huge healthcare premium increases. You know, and
that big slap in the face is here. They're already seeing that. I talked
to one individual who spoke to his accountant. The accountant said,
get ready, you got a lot of bad news coming. And a lot of,
(35:04):
even the smaller farmers have employees. You know, they have farm
help. And those farm helpers, they have to provide
insurance, too. If they don't, they're off building bobcats
where I live. You know, they're in desperate need of workers as well. And
so if they don't get health insurance, they're gone. And so they
don't have any choice but to pay for these increases. What they're
(35:26):
quietly doing is they're quietly sitting there
hoping that the Democrats win while they go to the VFW club and
don't admit that they're actually cheering for
Democrats. And so I don't know, Heid, this stuff is
serious here in farm country. Well, it's serious all
across the country. Prices are up, the
(35:48):
working folks are hurting. And Trump keeps saying it's the best
economy since the history in the history of the world, which
is what I think he said to CBS over the weekend.
BS is probably the operative initials in all of
that. But, you know, so, so when you look at
kind of where, where these farmers are right now or where
(36:11):
middle America, you know, where working people are, they aren't seeing things
any better. And guess what? They're saying that
when, when people poll them. But when they say, well, what
about the Democrats, they are not happy with Democrats either.
Yeah. You know, everybody's saying that. And I get it. You know, it. Polls are
polls, and if we're going to believe the ones that we like, then we got
(36:32):
to believe the ones we don't like. And so, yeah, Democrats nationally
aren't that popular. But that isn't the case of how you poll.
In my opinion, you poll the individual races.
And so you can use a brand because everybody's got that other idea of
the brand. But I remember when you ran for the United States
Senate and won, Democrats weren't all that popular then, and
(36:55):
yet you were. And so let's just take a step back,
look at some of those races. I mean, we've got some evidence of that
from yesterday. But the truth of the matter is this,
the individual Democrat that makes their case that goes
about and says, look, I'm a Democrat, but here's what I believe.
If they're talking to their audience, their audience is connecting with them right
(37:19):
now. And that's what got, that's what got these guys a little bit nervous.
Yeah. Well, Jaime Harrison, I think recently said
something that really resonated with me. He said, you know, we want to win
their votes, but it's more important to win their trust. And so the
question is, are we winning the trust of the voters? Do the voters trust
the Democratic Party to advance their interest. And you
(37:41):
know, hardcore people always say, oh, you aren't going to change some people's minds. I
get that about a third of the people, they're going to be with this
president, they're going to be with the Republican Party no matter what. But I think
that the other, you know, half of those voters are
gettable with the right kinds of policies and
message. And I'm not sure that we're there yet as Democrats. Okay. I'm going to
(38:03):
add one other thing. Right. While I disagree with what John
Thune is doing and I think he's forgetting where he's
from, these farmers do know where he's from and
they do know where Chuck Schumer is from. And they
like the fact that a rural individual is a leader
and in one of the most powerful positions out there. So that
(38:25):
matters too. And when you look at the leadership issues, when it comes to
all of this, they don't see a lot of rural leaders, Heidi.
No, not a lot of rural leaders that have a D behind their name.
Right. That was my point. Right. But the other thing is
they also are seeing that these so called rural leaders
are pledging fealty to Donald Trump and not to
(38:48):
rural America. And so when does that set in? Well, and
John Thune should know that all these people's health insurance premiums is
about to go through the rough. And lost in all of that is, I hope
you don't do this because you're my sister and I want you to be with
me playing pinochle again soon. Don't hold your
breath until Donald Trump rolls out his plan because they
(39:11):
still don't have a plan when it comes to health care. They still don't
have a concept. Joel, come on. They're working on a
concept. Well, trust me, I said that when I was
refereeing college football. We just have a concept of the rules. We
just have a concept. We don't, an interpretation. We don't really
know all the rules. And yeah, I know how that sells.
(39:32):
You know, it's, it's selling now, but when those premiums hit,
which they're hitting, the Democrats are on the right side of
this issue. Well, they are. But, but the question is
if this, if this gets fixed for a couple years,
do they say, see, it got fixed, everything's fine, I can go
back to vote the voting pattern that I was voting and you
(39:55):
know, just expect that I'm going to get, you know,
that, that my hurt is going to be heard. Yeah, well, if they don't gain
any political, you know, if they don't get any political
benefit out of the fight they just picked, that's on the Democrats, that's
on their messaging. That's on them to go out and make the case
of what they did. You spoke at a recent function in
(40:17):
a rural state and that room packed, in fact, it was standing room
only and it wasn't a small room. And so there are
individuals out there who have had it and they've had it to the
brim. And so maybe, I mean, and I stress the word
maybe, maybe there's some folks out there that are willing to get off
the couch and work and make the case Heid. Well, my message was
(40:38):
simple, though. You can't just be against Trump. I mean,
you got to convince people in North Dakota who voted for Trump that
they should try something different. And they don't like being told that they
were duped. I know that. You know, a good
friend of mine says, well, you should use the word you were betrayed. I
don't think that sells. I think what you gotta say is, look, we
(41:01):
understand why you voted the way you did, but it
hasn't worked out the way you had hoped. So don't keep doing the
same thing over and over again. Try something different. And this is a different
set of ideas and a different set of leaders. And, you know,
it can't be about identity politics because even the people that
(41:21):
they think they're appealing to in identity politics are
sick of it. They want to know how their family
and how their lives are going to be better under
a different model of leadership. And that's up to the Democratic Party to
talk about. Yeah. Well, I'm going to add one more thing about messaging when it
comes to the Democratic Party. And that's why the hot dish is so important.
(41:43):
Because of this. I do a talk show. That's what
I do now and I have done for a long time. It's heard in Manitoba,
it's heard in Saskatchewan. Huge listening base. Montana, North
Dakota, Minnesota, South Dakota and parts of Iowa. Yeah, I'm
bragging, but we're number one. Here's the thing, we have a much
easier time getting that higher level Republican on
(42:06):
than we do a Democrat on. And that's just the truth.
Democrats don't get the way that you utilize the
tools that you utilize to speak to rural America. Those guys out there
getting after the soybeans are listening to either the hot dish
or they're listening to talk radio, or it's coming to
them through their dash. It's not coming to Them through their
(42:28):
tv. And while they might like TV and
they might like putting on that suit and tie, if they don't get what
farmers, ranchers and rural people are listening to, that's on the
Democrats, Heidi. Well, I agree. I mean, one of the
things that I told the Biden administration when they came in,
you know, the new Ag Secretary, the new old Ag
(42:51):
Secretary, I guess they should say, is if I were, if I were the
Ag Secretary, I'd get up every morning and I'd make five phone
calls to rural radio. You know that when
people get up in the morning and they put on the coffee pot, they put
on their radio station and listen to the weather. That's or, you
know, you think, right, the markets, the weather,
(43:12):
you know, and I know, Joel, that there are tons
of people out there that rely on radio, but yet none of that
happened. It was too busy, too busy kind of putting your
finger on the scale for identity groups and not enough
time actually saying what's the plan to make your life a little
easier in agriculture? Well, and not to blow
(43:35):
smoke up you. Anybody who's a frequent listener of the Hot Dish knows that I'm
not a suck up. But the truth is this, that's what One Country
does. One Country makes sure that people on
the east and west coast, this whole flyover country,
know about what's going on in the rural area. And
so we'll keep plugging away. I'll, I'll keep giving it time,
(43:57):
but I'm going back to the messaging. If Democrats can't
explain to the nation, to people in the rural
areas exactly, exactly who stuck up for them
with insurance, then they deserve to lose. Yeah. Well,
you know, I'm really curious to see if we've made any strides
in rural Virginia, in rural
(44:19):
New Jersey, take a look at the Pennsylvania Supreme Court
vote, what was the rural vote there, and see if there is some
erosion. We aren't going to know that until we dig a little deeper in these
election results. But you know,
you can't overstate the importance of these
elections. But they can be, they can be
(44:40):
informative in terms of people's mood. Well, and you see me
do it. If I was in a national room where I got a chance to
talk to high level, high profile Democrats like I do
Republicans, the first thing I do is ask them questions about guns
because Democrats don't understand the people that are
speaking to it, don't understand how they operate, how they work, what
(45:03):
they are, how they look, how they load all of those things because
there are things that can be done about guns, guns,
about making sure that we have good common sense gun laws.
But they don't want to hear it. You know, they don't want to hear it.
And, and until Democrats understand that for Democrats here
in red states, it's going to be harder and harder to get a
(45:25):
message across. Well, you know, but the other message is you
keep saying Democrats are going to take away your guns. Guess what? There's been
Democrats in power. Did they take away your guns? They didn't take away your
guns. They have no intention of taking away your guns. I agree.
I know that. But my point in this is
not whether or not they're going to take away their guns or they're going to
(45:47):
pass an amendment, they're going to pass a law. All of this, there are
things they can pass that can make guns safer
and that gun owners will agree with. And I don't mean to take all this
time up to talk about guns as much as what I'm saying, that that's a
huge separation, rural to urban, is my point. Yeah,
well, I mean, I will tell you, probably the best
(46:09):
hunter in the United States Senate's a Democrat,
knows guns better than anyone. Martin Heinrich. You know, they should
follow his lead. He understands. Or when Joe Manchin was there.
Joe Manchin is great shot. I don't know if you ever saw him, you know,
but he's, he, he knew how to hunt. And, and so
you can't just draw with broad brush strokes. There are people within the
(46:32):
Democratic Party who understand, you know, what a gun does
and what it, what it could be, you know, what would
make sense in terms of gun legislation. Well, sure,
I can, I can absolutely paint with a broad stroke because the
messaging at the highest level is wrong. You
know, it's wrong. And we can talk about New Mexico, we can
(46:54):
talk about West Virginia, we can talk about all of that. The minute that
they use common sense to inject common sense into the
argument, they lose the room. And so, yes,
yes, those guys could shoot. You and I both know a
lot of guys can shoot. And you're, you're listening to one right now.
The point I'm trying to make is, as Democrats,
(47:17):
we need to use our messaging the right way in the
rural areas or at least put the right people in front of them talking.
And they're not doing that. That's my point. Yeah. Yeah. Well, I mean,
we've got another year before the Midterms.
I think that the conventional wisdom would tell you that the
(47:37):
party in power, which is The Republican Party
is going to lose seats in the House
of Representatives. At some point, this
speaker is going to have to seat the new congresswoman from
Arizona. And that's going to open up a whole can of worms
on, on the Jeffrey Epstein
(48:00):
file, as long as all the ones who have signed the
discharge petition as Republicans
still keep their signature on the discharge position. I had a
great conversation with David Graham from the Atlantic. He writes for it and he
talked about Project 2025. He's got a book out on it.
You know, the Project. The point is this. As he
(48:22):
spoke to it, he was looking at ways that the Trump
Administration who know that if you're just at the
ballot box, that you're going to basically try
to eliminate the chance for Democrats to win during the
Midterm. You know, it begins with making sure that you can argue
that, oh, man, these elections are all rigged and fake news is helping
(48:44):
rig it. You and I both know who Marge Goetke is. You and I
both know who Jaretta Lingan is. They volunteered their time
and made about 20 bucks the whole day to sit in those polling
places and be election judges. They can't be
more honest than those people I just described are. And so,
you know, that argument has to be made. But Graham
(49:07):
made a great point in the Atlantic, and it shows exactly what you
said. Trump knows he's in trouble, but he's already thinking of a
way to get around it. Well, I mean,
after what happened last night in California,
level the playing field, but it's kind of a race to the bottom on
gerrymandering now. Yeah. Well, you know, what if
(49:28):
somebody punches you in the nose? What are you going to do? You going to
sit there and cry or punch back? Yeah. Well, we know what Gavin
Newsom's going to do. My hero right now. My hero right now,
Heid. It's always good to talk to you, man. Yeah. Hang in there, Joel.
You know, more to come, and there'll be a whole year of
analyzing what the Democrats should be saying, because
(49:50):
I think Jaime Harrison has it
right. Not enough to win the vote. You got to win the trust. I agree.
And you know, all of this stuff just makes it brutal. Absolutely terrible
to do talk radio. Yeah, I bet. No,
controversy is not good for talk radio, is it? Never really works. It never gets
those phone lines going.
(50:15):
Thank you for joining us today on the Hot Dish, brought to you by the
One Country Project, which is trying to make sure that the
voices of all of us are heard in Washington D.C. You
know, learn more at onecountryproject.org. That's
onecountryproject.org. We'll be back next week with
more comfort food for rural America.
Welcome back to the Hot dish. We are blessed
today to have a governor who is not
only our neighboring governor, but one of our dear friends.
Thanks so much, governor for joining us on the hot dish. Thanks,
Heidi. And a hot dish champion, I might add, in Congress. So,
yeah, you know, three time champion. You know, I think Amy might
(00:27):
not agree with that. I, I know she's I believe a
one time champion. I believe I had a 3 Pete in there at one point
with my, with my spam hot dish. So
that was a winner. Yeah. Obviously
neither one of you have ever eaten my deer sausage. I can put that in
a hot dish too, just for the record. Well, I would eat that. You know,
(00:49):
the year both of us got beat, there was a lot of controversy because Colin
Peterson won it with a bear hot dish. The
bear was not the controversy. He got it in Wisconsin. That was the
controversy.
Colin is a cook too, so. Well, it's good to see you both.
It's good to see you. Just for a little background, folks, you
(01:11):
know, Governor Walz, born in rural country, which is why we
love him so much on the Hot Dish. He was in the House of Representatives
from 2007 to 2019. I don't even need
to tell you about this man. Served on the ticket was a
huge part of really what made us so proud here in the
Midwest. And not to mention the fact that this guy drives an international
(01:34):
Scout. So that's enough for me right there.
Governor, you decided to run again. Tell people why.
Yeah, I did. And again, it's great to be with both of you. Look,
I, I think I keep saying this where everybody says these are unprecedented times.
I want to live in precedent at times. But I still think that
time in Congress especially, and I would argue here in Minnesota, I had the most
(01:56):
closely divided legislature in the country last year and we passed a budget,
cut spending, we're able to cut some taxes, still
invested in education, health care, balance the budget.
I believe that government is a force of good, but I also believe
that compromise is somewhat at the key of this. Now, I'm not going to compromise
on people's human rights, but I'll certainly compromise on policies that make a difference.
(02:19):
And I think right now with what we're seeing out of dc,
what we're seeing out of decisions being made, going over the Congress, you know,
things that were appropriated, you know, both of you are experienced in this.
Heidi, you worked on it. When we craft a Farm Bill and have the nutrition
title in there, we're not pretending when we put money into SNAP and the President
doesn't get to just hold that up. I think here in Minnesota,
(02:41):
we're seeing progress on a lot of fronts and I think
I've got the experience to get us through one more term. So I've asked the
people to give me another opportunity. Well,
I mean, you're running at a time when
the farm economy's looking a little bleaker than it did four years
ago, Tim. And I'm sure you're watching that. I'm sure you're
(03:03):
thinking about all the soybean farmers and the corn farmers and the,
you know, the folks who raise livestock in Minnesota.
How when you talk to your colleagues, other Governors,
how do you kind of talk about what's happening, happening with the economy
in rural America? Yeah, and, and again, talking to both of
(03:24):
you, it's why I really enjoy this. I, I had the privilege, Heidi, of being
on a conference committee for a Farm Bill. I think the last one we
enacted because they can't get one done, where you were a leader on that.
And it was so encouraging to bring these voices and you know, that sitting on
those conference committees for a farm bill until this, you know, until what we're
dealing with right now, that was super bipartisan, really,
(03:46):
really good to work on and always trying to make sure that we were strengthening
the world economy. It's a mess right now
and it's an unnecessary, it's a man made mess. Farming's hard
enough, it's very unpredictable weather, everything else. But creating
the situation we had right now, I can't express to people who aren't
out here to realize how precarious this situation is. I know people
(04:07):
compare it back to the 80s, I think it's probably
a pretty fair comparison. Land values haven't bottomed out like they did in the 80s.
But that feels to me to be a bit of a bubble where people are
at, people are over leveraged. And this,
this trade war that shifted markets. And I think it's really important to understand
farmers work really hard with their checkoffs, with their organizations
(04:30):
to open these markets, to make sure we have these stable markets. And in
Minnesota, North Dakota, America in general was viewed as a,
as a good trading partner. That's not true anymore. If people think they're going
to take the tariffs off, even if we get a deal with China, they've
recalibrated their purchasing to, to South America and that is
not coming back. And so you have loss of markets,
(04:52):
you have increased production costs because now Brazil
went from 80 million acres to 110 million acres. They need more inputs,
they need more tractors, they need more parts. So our folks are dealing with
supply chain issues around parts, supply chain issues around
inputs, costs increasing on inputs, commodity prices going
down, markets being decimated. And then add
(05:15):
on top of that, their local hospitals under threat because
that's going to close. They're not seeing the funding for their local schools.
So rural America right now is as
precarious as I've seen it and almost
entirely by choice of this administration,
not by the work that's been done there, not by the
(05:37):
opportunities that still lie in rural America, whether it's sustainable
aviation, fuel up in your part of the woods where we're working on, or just
new opportunities. So I think it's tough. And when I talk to other governors,
I'll just tell both of you, I've told folks in rural that I'm
really worried about this because this is an attitude that I think is increasing and
I think it's dangerous in our polarization of people saying,
(06:00):
well, North Dakota voted Republican. Let them, let them live on that.
That's fine. Let them, let them figure out what happened here. That's a terrible thing.
It's terrible to our neighbors. It's terrible for our overall economy.
It's terrible if you eat or need power. But this idea of
being, you know, well, there's not much we can do about rural America. They
voted Republican. Yeah. It's not particularly good
(06:22):
politics either. It's terrible. It's terrible. And look,
do I think that you should shame people for the. No, but I think it's
okay to understand is you were lied to. You can tell people that you were
lied to. This guy did a bait and switch on you. He got his tax
cuts for his wealthy and he left farm economies, know, stuck. I
tell them too, is, is that, look, we're going to need some of this help
(06:43):
they're promising as a bridge loan. Farmers don't want to bail out. They
don't want this. They, that is absolutely. You guys know this better than anybody.
But they need this money now. They need it because it's the foundational. Because I'll
tell you what we're going to end up doing here. We're going to end up
forcing these folks out of business and they're going to be bought up by those
predators that swoop in and buy it up. And then we get the consolidation that
all of us complain about. So it's a tough one.
(07:07):
The one thing that I would add in all of this is there's, there's a
situation you made reference to the 80s. Okay, so let me just say this.
The biggest thing that's happening now to farmers versus the
80s, where there's foreclosure and everything that went with it,
is they're just not getting their operating loans. You know, the banks are sitting there
saying the numbers don't work out. We're not giving you the operating loans. Now there's
(07:29):
ranchers in Minnesota, just like there's ranchers all over the areas
in the rural areas that are listening to us. So, you know, when a
president is on Air Force One and he walks back and he
leans into a microphone and says, we're going to buy Argentinian
beef. Right after we gave him $40
billion. And the next day, our boys are trying to sell their feeders at
(07:51):
market. And they lost 300 bucks ahead, Governor.
300 bucks ahead. I mean, and that was the one. I
get it. Cattle was the one bright spot there for a while. Everything else
is, you know, sugar beets are down. Every, everything's down.
But cattle was okay. And then this comes. You're exactly right. And,
and, and when we talked to him, I said, my responsibility as governor
(08:13):
is. Is making sure that we're supporting those rural communities. We're doing the
things necessary. We keep folks on the land. Because I'll tell you, it may be
1% of the population that's directly involved with agriculture, but every one
of our communities is seeing the. The ripple effect through the economy.
And, and look, pile on. Losing the markets on snap,
which we know is a market for our products. It's a mess.
(08:36):
I do worry about that, Joel, and I don't. I don't know if, because the
land values are still high, if that helps get us out of this, but
you're right. With no operating loans, people are already thinking, next year's planting season. We
just finished up harvest this year. There is so much uncertainty right now,
and especially when you get an average age of 56, 57, some of these
folks are saying, is it worth it anymore? Is it worth to keep doing this?
(08:58):
And they don't have a son or daughter who wants to farm. And
so they're like, you know, why am I struggling? Why am I risking
the legacy of my assets
to keep doing this when they don't see any light at the end of the
tunnel? The one thing I want to impress upon people, we talk a lot
about food deserts or grocery deserts and rural
(09:20):
America. When I, when you and I were debating that farm
bill and it was a lot of discussion about SNAP, some of the
best proponents of keeping the SNAP benefits were
those rural grocery stores, because they knew how much
of their income, how much of those purchases came
from people who were on food assistance. 100%.
(09:43):
I remember this, and I actually expanded it. We were talking about some of these,
you know, kind of the modern version of the, the convenience store or whatever. Many
of these things, like quick trips in my neck of the woods, those are the
local grocery store, too, of being accessed to get food, to get, you know,
fresh milk, fresh foods, things like that. But it is a,
it is a precarious situation in, in states like Minnesota, North
(10:04):
Dakota, in the Midwest. Agriculture is still a really big part of our
economy. It, it is going to have
immense consequences for this country. And so I'm,
I'm deeply concerned that people think that there's a quick fix here. I think that,
you know, if Donald Trump thinks he's going to pressure somebody, he's going to win
a trade war. This truce we have with China is just
(10:26):
simply a truce. The, the, the tariffs are still on, and
China's not coming back to our soybean producers. I'm really worried. That's why we're
looking at domestic markets. It's why I'm pushing, you know, sustainable aviation, fuel,
other markets, because we're going to have to, we're going to think about that. They
did that during the first Administration. We never got back the share of the
market that we had before Donald Trump was President. We lost a big part of
(10:49):
that share. I think farmers are starting to understand that. But I want to tell
you about a guy that called into my show, you two from
Manitoba, okay? He calls into my show. He listens to the show
along with a bunch of people in Canada. And he said, joel, the
problem we have is we're being treated poorly. The is problem that we
don't feel welcome. And then we ended up talking, guys,
(11:10):
about Jack Daniels. That's what we talked about. And he said,
I can't find it on my shelf. It'd be like gold to me. I like
a good bottle of a Jack Daniels, a good glass of it. And he
said, we don't have it up here. They're not going to put it on the
shelf. In fact, the people up here don't stock
a lot of American products anymore. And I said to him,
(11:31):
I said, well, you come on down to my place. You know, I'll get you
one. And he goes, I don't feel welcome there. I'm not coming until
I feel welcome there. You know, I, I put out ads out of our Explore
Minnesota and, and said, you know, be welcome. You're always welcome here. And, you know,
Thunder Bay is right across the border up there from Grand Portage. We get a
lot of people come over. They're our closest friends. You know,
(11:51):
we're, we're mostly Canadian, if you will, in how,
how Minnesotans act. And, and I did that same thing, and I put that out,
and I got, I got pushed back from people and said, look, we trust you
guys. We trust you, Governor. We trust Minnesota. But you don't run the border.
You don't do the border. You're not these agents that are up here. And, and
I think you hit on something, Joel. These trade deals are not as impersonal as
(12:12):
you think they are. A lot of this is about relationships on a broader scale,
you know, cultural relationship and the sense of Canada being so
dependable and being there. Everything's a shakedown operation. Everything's,
at NATO, everything's a shakedown operation. You know, you got to pay more. You got
to do. Should the allies maybe have been putting more of their GDP
towards defense? Sure. But there's ways to go about that rather than siding
(12:34):
with Putin or, or making the
case that, you know, Ukraine should give up land to
an aggression against them when we're all, all of our
allies are right in that same boat. So I got to tell you,
in the midst of all this politics aside, and I get it, what people are
saying, you know, the Democrats are doing this. The Democrats are focused on making life
(12:56):
more affordable. And Mike Johnson saying, you know, we're going to keep the government
shut down and not pay food stamps because you're asking us to help with
health care. Yes, because Medicaid is critically important
because the subsidies in the ACA have brought down health care
costs and asking Congress
to follow through with what they appropriated rather than letting this president
step over. I don't. Heidi, I would say this (13:18):
I, people keep asking
me, what are the Democrats going to do about this? You know, I think the
real question here is what are true conservatives and members of the
Senate going to do? You've got two senators and South Dakota's got two senators
that I have to, in my heart believe. They, they do not agree with
this. They do not agree with the direction, especially on this issue, around
(13:39):
tariffs, trade, and farm opportunities. When are they going
to speak up? When are they going to say something? Well, they had a chance,
Tim, to, to vote against the kind of emergency
designation and didn't vote against
it. Didn't vote with four other Republicans who Took a
stand on trade and then turned around and said, but
(14:01):
we really want to make amends and we need to do better
with our neighbors. In the meantime, North Dakota, I
think tourism, we think is about
our third largest industry. It's down
18%. We've been hit almost as hard as Florida
with Canadian tourism. Yeah, our states are really popular
(14:23):
with them. We're experiencing the same thing. And folks coming in to shop, spend
money and this stuff is going to be, this can be generational.
Joel, you said that I had the opportunity. I was up for a couple days
for the first time I'd ever been there, up in New Brunswick, crossed over from
Maine and went into a grocery store to buy some know, burgers and stuff. We're
going to grill out Canadian flags everywhere, which
(14:45):
is fine. They had one aisle where they had shifted all the
American products to the last aisle in the grocery store and everything else in
that grocery store was Canadian and was highlighted on that. And so if you wanted
hines ketchup or whatever that was on the very last
aisle. And, and there would nobody shop in that aisle. And, and this is just
ridiculous. They're our closest trading partner. Then you can go south of the
(15:07):
border to Mexico, the same thing. And then say what you will about this, the
Chinese are a major market for us. You got a billion people there that would
like to buy well made American goods manufactured by our people.
Can't do it. And now you got a massive trade deficit. You got a massive
deficit in agriculture. You've lost trust in the
markets. And you tell me what the plan is because I'll tell you
(15:28):
what the plan is. Not that other countries will pay the tariffs and
America will get rich. That is, that is fairy dust talk.
That is, that is no one in the world other than Donald Trump believe
that's true. No one. Yeah. Governor, I want to hit
upon this because you hunt. I hunt. You know, hunties in. Hunting is in.
Heidi's husband hunts a lot. You see my pheasant shot? Here's something
(15:51):
I want to hit upon and get your take on, it's, well, I'm not going
to say Heidi because I've seen her shoot, you know. You know,
there's nothing safer than a pheasant in front of Heidi high camp. But
that, that being said, you know, my point is
pretty birds. Why would you want to kill them? Yeah. To eat them. So
here's, here's the other part that I'm going to put out there.
(16:14):
We as Democrats, you know, I think have
terrible messaging when it comes to guns and gun
safety. I think there's things we can do. We can talk about clip size, we
can talk about, about binary triggers. We can talk about, you know,
knowledge of who buys what, all of those things. You know, we can have many
day waiting period. I'm okay with all of that. But as Democrats, we
(16:35):
don't dig into really just the
structure of guns and I think that hurts us in the rural area. Governor?
Yeah, I think so. I think the one thing, Joel, I would say is that
I've found that, you know, responsible gun owners are more than
willing to make things necessary changes. And look, this is very personal
over here. I had my best friend shot and killed our speaker of the House.
(16:58):
I had two little fourth graders shot as they sat in the first day of
school in their church. That there are responsible things
we can do. And you're right, I mean locking these things up, who does not
put a trigger lock or put their guns in a safe is beyond me. You're
asking for. We had a little one shot here this week, same thing, 18 guns
or something in the House unlocked. You know that's going to happen. But I do
(17:19):
think you talk to people, talk with them with respect. But I think we also
are afraid to talk about some of these common sense things. I will tell you
one thing. In 2023 we passed the extreme risk protection, the red flag laws.
We got the first data on that. We saved lives. Like we're able to show
the number of times you go in, you step in. Most people if you're going
to die by a gun, it's going to be by suicide. You're going to be
(17:39):
in rural Minnesota. That's just factual. Because of the data that we see,
we're saving lives in that. I think most responsible gunners are saying, look, you can
protect my second amendment rights. You know something about firearms.
We know that there's ways to keep them safe and don't allow them to
pigeonhole us into this thing. I'm not interested in taking your guns. I am
interested of people who should not have them not getting them. I am interested
(18:02):
in making sure you can't shoot 116 rounds in 62 seconds into
little body setting in church. I will say that. But I think most
people are like, yeah, I'm with you on that. So I agree, Joel. And, and,
and not get sucked into the whole thing about this, this cancel culture and
the social issues or whatever of, of accusing Democrats or being there.
That's the only place Republicans go right now because they don't want to Talk about
(18:23):
the price of eggs. They don't want to talk about what's happening with soybeans. They
don't want to talk about what's happening with rural Medicaid and rural hospitals. They want
to talk about transgender swimmers or something.
And I think for us, we're not going to throw anybody under the bus. But
if there's a lesson here, focus on making life more affordable,
focusing on allowing people the freedom to live the lives they. We want to. If
(18:44):
that's in real western North Dakota, then help them live that lifestyle that
way. Give control locally. The thing I'll go to my grave not
understanding is, is the party that prided itself on states rights and local
control has totally thrown every bit of that out window. They want
to step on us. The president threatened to cut all funding to New York City
because New Yorkers elect someone. Can you imagine?
(19:07):
Can you imagine us saying, if you don't vote for Kamala Harris, North
Dakota is not going to get any money? That is just outrageous that. That none
of this makes any sense. That's what this guy's doing. You know, Tim,
the, the one message point that I think we. We've missed
out on is, you remember it was Bill Clinton.
The era of Big Government is over. Guess what? The era of Big
(19:30):
Government's back. Government's taking over corporate America,
government's taking over universities, government's taking
over media. I mean,
what what, what isn't he trying to control right now from the White
House? The U.S. Government owns stake in many companies now, like U.S. steel.
You know what you call that when the government owns businesses? That's communism.
(19:53):
It's. You know, and the idea of this. I'm out there arguing. And look,
Joel, you. I got hit from some of my supporters on the left because, look,
I'm a supporter of capitalism, moral capitalism and free
markets. The president is not. He is manipulating markets. He is
threatening individual businesses. He's buying individual businesses,
and he's putting his supporters in a place. If you build a
(20:15):
ballroom, is it just a coincidence that the people who funded that
also have $276 billion of, of contracts? Can
you imagine me saying in Minnesota, hey, if you build me a bowling
alley in my house, I'll give you the contract on this building?
My God. I mean, people should lose their minds, and you'd go to
prison. That is happening in front of us. So here's what I want to say.
(20:37):
Could Democrats do better at messaging? God, yes. We're terrible at it anytime.
But our focus on improving life, of allowing everybody
the opportunity to succeed, of making those Investments in things
like lead to that is seems to me to be a hell of a lot
better than if you're connected to the president. You'll do well into hell with
the rest of you. We're going to hold a party while snap benefits
(20:59):
expire. That I got to tell you old
school conservatives, I need them to rise up that that's
what I'm saying. The Democrats can do better, but there has got to be frustrated
conservatives that are saying, look, we can do better. Yeah, I, I would
add this right down to X's and O's is small. You
know, it, it goes back to this. I will guarantee you that
(21:22):
whoever was running that excavator that tore down the east wing of the White House
did not go to the bar and brag about it afterwards. He didn't.
But his boss said you got to do it because Donald Trump wants you to
do it. And he lied about doing it. And you know what? America
doesn't like it. You saw the poll numbers over the weekend, both of you. And
Heidi, you and I were talking about them. And to some
(21:43):
degree there's some hope out there that America is starting
to say enough of this bullshit. Heidi. Yeah, well, you
know when you look at it and you say where
is the line? And back to your point, Tim,
where is the line with conservatives? And people say,
oh well, Donald Trump. I said quit focusing on Donald Trump. He is who he
(22:06):
is. We know who he is. But how come people are enabling
it? How come people you and I know, people that you knew in the
House, people I knew in the Senate who would never have tolerated
this, even from George W. Bush, they just sit and cower in
the corner. Yes. People who are in this Administration that I considered friends
who, who talk more libertarian. Because there's nothing
(22:29):
libertarian about this group right now. Like I Joel, this gun thing
again, this is an argument that's made. Look, guys, like
I've heard this. To me, guys like walls think guns are about hunting
and personal safety alone. It's about
tyranny of the federal government. Where are those dudes? Where are the
don't tread on me guys when the federal government is overstepping state control? And
(22:50):
I'll tell you both this. When the Biden and Heidi, you were there too. The
Biden Administration stepped in and without
consulting the states against law in the
NDAA Council of Governors, which I was a co chair of for,
for many years, Donald Trump appointed me when the Biden
administration overstepped that and took the space force was going to take the Space Force
(23:11):
out of the National Guard. I organized a letter and
all 50 Governors signed it and sent it to Joe Biden and say,
you must consult with us. National Guard is under the control of the
Governors in Title 32. It's under your control in Title 10. You need to
consult with us and everything there. And the Biden administration backed
off. Well, when Trump did this in California and in Chicago,
(23:34):
it's the same argument. I sent the exact same letter and
just changed the name basically from Joe Biden to Donald Trump.
Not a single Republican would sign on to it. Not a single one. When it
was a states rights issue, every Democrat stood onto it and stood up to Joe
Biden in that. We love Joe Biden, thought his policies were good, but not all
of them. And when they weren't good, we were there. This group is
(23:56):
so fearful. They know, and behind closed doors,
they will say, well, this isn't right. The Governors are in charge of the National
Guard and they won't stand up. So somehow Democrats have to
figure out our message. Joel, I think you're right. I think the
symbolism, like, they got all riled up when they changed the, the
Cracker Barrel logo. But apparently it's okay to tear down the East Wing. You
(24:17):
know, I think that contradiction is coming home to
roost. The other thing, and this goes directly to a Governor that
wasn't good at her job down in South Dakota, but Kristi
Noem, you know, America is getting it when you
see individuals drugged by their hair out of vehicles that
were smashed by individuals that are masked, in many cases
(24:40):
without any identification on them. United States citizens held
while Noem runs around saying that they weren't held. But
here's the thing. They have been held. And these people are beaten.
They're beaten in the streets. And Americans are running up with their cell phones, they're
taking videos of this. They're pointing out what's happening. And
that is going viral. Yes. And I love it.
(25:03):
I love the fact that America is seeing how vicious these people
are. I love the fact that America is finding out
exactly what ICE is doing. And I'll tell you what, you
do that stuff in my hometown. I don't care whether you're a Democrat or Republican,
there's going to be a fight. That's that. That's that overreach, Joel. And look,
all of us said, heidi, you were there. We did need immigration reform.
(25:25):
Shouldn't take seven years to have an adjudication hearing over
asylum. Make that 90 days. That's what Biden proposed. You know,
put the agents there that you need it, make sure there's a pathway to citizenship,
all of those things. But, but that's not what they're doing. I see advertisements, "$50,000
signing bonus, pay off your student loans, come join ICE." Do
that for our teachers! Do that for police officers in Minneapolis, do that
(25:47):
for nurses. But now we've got a budget where Kristi Noem
has a private jet where she can come visit a friend and then hold
some weird press conference on the side to justify why she's in Minneapolis
when we're not having any issues, that this is a grift at the
highest level. And I think if you're a hardcore old
school conservative, the critiques against Democrats of, you know,
(26:09):
you're not paying attention to spending, you're overreaching into
our personal lives, you are not allowing local control. We
are now much closer to their political ideology than what
this White House is. And so I think people just need to come true
on this. And, you know, I don't know. I, I don't get
in people's grill about their religion. You, you don't need me as a
(26:32):
governor to give you a sermon, but I should live one. And I think
these folks are certainly not living a sermon and they didn't spend a lot of
time trying to give us one. But there's nothing I saw in Matthew 25
that told us, you know, well, I'm going to keep these fishes because it'll make
you lazy if I give these loaves and fishes to you. No, nothing up like
that. So, look, I think you're right. We need to figure out how to
(26:54):
govern. I'm deeply concerned with long term implications of what it's doing
to our society. But I'll have to tell you, I'm super encouraged. A lot of
young people getting engaged. Again, not disengaged,
which I think would be understandable. And I think, you know, the
No Kings rally, people are busy, but you could still put
millions of people on the streets just asking for the president
(27:17):
to follow the Constitution, to work with us on things
that we need to get done. I've got two more questions. I'll let Heidi close
this out. Governor, the first one you're gonna. You won't answer.
In the second one you will. Are you ready? All right,
the first one is, and I'm not doing my job if I don't ask you
this. Are you going to or thinking about
(27:38):
running for president? I am not. I am all committed to whoever we
have out there to win that. I am committed to being Governor of
Minnesota. And I'm going to do that to best of my ability. Okay. The
second one. Did the Vikings find their quarterback with J.J.
McCarthy? Yes. Yes, I am. I've been out there, Joel. It, JJ's
it. I just, just want to tell you one more thing before I hand the
(28:00):
ball off to Heidi. She's a Packers fan. You take it from there, Governor.
Thanks, Joel. Just. Thanks. You know
we did not have a good weekend as Packers fans.
I tell you, son of a gun. Well, you
know, Kraft from South Dakota. In fact,
(28:20):
my cousin who's a family physician, went through residency
with his cousin. I hope he goes. That's who
Darwin fishes with up in Alaska. And so they're
great family and that's tragedy and hopefully you'll be able to
come back next year. But it sounds like he tore his ACL. That's what they
said anyway. What I would say, Governor, is that
(28:43):
we need to keep talking and we need to keep talking common sense in
rural America. We need to keep educating people in
our party. You know, David Axelrod says it
best when Democrats or when liberals approach rural
America, they approach as missionaries and not neighbors and friends.
That's perfect, isn't it? I mean, it's like, look what I've
(29:05):
done for you. And you're like, really? Really? That's the
persuasion argument? I totally agree. This one's hard for me, Heidi. I think both of
you, it is, too, because I consider myself of that. I watch everybody try
and be from rural or try and be that everyday guy.
I know in my heart who I am and I watched him spend a billion
dollars, you know, to try and tell people that's not who I am or to
(29:27):
tell them to vote for the billionaire, not the guy who brags about not
buying stock. I not bragging about that. We just
middle America, we have a pension and that's a, you know, that's a good thing.
So I, I agree with you and I don't think we can give up on
this. And I don't think you can belittle your neighbors. I, I never think it's
a good idea to tell somebody they're stupid and then you want them to vote
(29:47):
for you. I think it is. I've had this happen to me. People lied to
you and you're misled or you might have got this wrong or the situation
changed. Give folks, you know, the way out. Because again, I
keep telling people this. This is not some theoretical group of people.
These are literally my relatives and my friends. These
are the people that we know and grew up with. And I still
(30:09):
have great hope that they believe in this democracy. They believe in decency, they believe
in kindness. They do expect you to work hard. They do expect you to be
honest about things. That's what really gets me. This guy
does none of those things. And, and his family does none of
those things. And, and I think that's maybe the way we get folks back. Yeah,
well, and then he begs for awards. You know,
(30:36):
the cream rises to the top. You don't need to brag. Eventually
you're going to get recognition. He's out
bragging about all these countries who know that all they have to do is
nominate him for a Nobel and then he's going to give
him some great trade deal. You are so right. Funny enough, many months ago
I said this about Canada. I said look, this guy's easy to read. Canada
(30:58):
should make up an award and say Donald Trump won the world's
greatest trade war. Here's a trophy. And then just go back to the way it
was. No no, a crown! Well, Japan did that, you guys, I mean Japan
was smart. They did that. That's what Apple did. They just can't find anybody to
dance as bad as he does. You know, that's the key.
Well, look, you guys are doing the work. I'm glad you're out
(31:20):
there. You're getting voices on hopefully that are there. I, I'm grateful to
it. I think about how different it would be
because I said I see you two as kind of the, the archetype of
what I see in rural America. Hardworking folks who care about their neighbors,
raise a little hell when it's necessary and, and be pretty
independent. But understand your neighbors might be down on their luck. That's who we
(31:43):
were. I mean that's, that might be a little towards center
on some people's radar, but I also think it's a pretty good spot where we
end up helping folks. So I'm glad you're out here making the case. Well,
continue to pay attention. And Governor, thank
you so much for joining us on the Hot Dish. You're a breath of fresh
air, good luck on your re-election bid and you
(32:05):
know, go Packers! Thank you, Governor. Thank
you guys. Good to see you both. Fantastic. We'll talk
soon.
Well, Joel, I guess all the problems of rural America are
solved since he met with, with the
(32:26):
Premier, the President of China, Xi
Jinping. So are people happy now? People
calling you people happy out there? You know, I, I think in
farm country people are in that wait and see mode, you know, they just got
done with harvest. There's still a little bit of corn out there for them
to get after. But, you know, they're still in a wait and see
(32:48):
mode part because, you know, while some
of them are not ranchers, the ranchers are their friends
and some of them are ranchers and they're ticked off. And so
while they might see some improvement in soybeans, they know
it's less than what they would have sold and they know
that cattle prices are down because of what he
(33:10):
said, Heidi. And so I don't think they're doing the Kumbaya yet here.
So I think a lot of people are thinking, well, I guess now you know,
that they're everybody's happy or they' declared
victory against China, that we don't need any kind of
trade support for agriculture and for rural
America. Well, that's the big question, isn't it? If they're
(33:33):
going to celebrate, then the big question comes along
saying, do they need some level of emergency payment? And if you
look at the price for soybeans, it's not good.
It's not good. The costs have gone up because of these tariffs. Fertilizer has
gone up, equipment has gone up. I know guys that ordered equipment that had to
back off on buying that equipment. And so if soybeans
(33:56):
are at or lower than what the prices were last year,
it's not good. Hyde, you know that you grew up here. Well,
and it's interesting because you can say, well, because the inputs have gone
up because of tariffs, then farmers are entitled. But, you know,
bank of America came out with a study today, Joel, that basically
says 50 to 70% of the cost of tariffs are
(34:18):
being borne by consumers. No surprise there.
I thought if I were going to run, I would run on, I'll reduce the
cost of a cup of your coffee because it'd be pretty easy to do. All
you'd have to do is quit tariffing coffee. But people
know that their grocery prices have gone up. They know that their cost of living
has gone up. And they're getting hit with outrageous,
(34:41):
especially if they're small business people, if they're small farmers, or if
they're farmers that rely on the exchange. They, they're getting hit with
huge healthcare premium increases. You know, and
that big slap in the face is here. They're already seeing that. I talked
to one individual who spoke to his accountant. The accountant said,
get ready, you got a lot of bad news coming. And a lot of,
(35:04):
even the smaller farmers have employees. You know, they have farm
help. And those farm helpers, they have to provide
insurance, too. If they don't, they're off building bobcats
where I live. You know, they're in desperate need of workers as well. And
so if they don't get health insurance, they're gone. And so they
don't have any choice but to pay for these increases. What they're
(35:26):
quietly doing is they're quietly sitting there
hoping that the Democrats win while they go to the VFW club and
don't admit that they're actually cheering for
Democrats. And so I don't know, Heid, this stuff is
serious here in farm country. Well, it's serious all
across the country. Prices are up, the
(35:48):
working folks are hurting. And Trump keeps saying it's the best
economy since the history in the history of the world, which
is what I think he said to CBS over the weekend.
BS is probably the operative initials in all of
that. But, you know, so, so when you look at
kind of where, where these farmers are right now or where
(36:11):
middle America, you know, where working people are, they aren't seeing things
any better. And guess what? They're saying that
when, when people poll them. But when they say, well, what
about the Democrats, they are not happy with Democrats either.
Yeah. You know, everybody's saying that. And I get it. You know, it. Polls are
polls, and if we're going to believe the ones that we like, then we got
(36:32):
to believe the ones we don't like. And so, yeah, Democrats nationally
aren't that popular. But that isn't the case of how you poll.
In my opinion, you poll the individual races.
And so you can use a brand because everybody's got that other idea of
the brand. But I remember when you ran for the United States
Senate and won, Democrats weren't all that popular then, and
(36:55):
yet you were. And so let's just take a step back,
look at some of those races. I mean, we've got some evidence of that
from yesterday. But the truth of the matter is this,
the individual Democrat that makes their case that goes
about and says, look, I'm a Democrat, but here's what I believe.
If they're talking to their audience, their audience is connecting with them right
(37:19):
now. And that's what got, that's what got these guys a little bit nervous.
Yeah. Well, Jaime Harrison, I think recently said
something that really resonated with me. He said, you know, we want to win
their votes, but it's more important to win their trust. And so the
question is, are we winning the trust of the voters? Do the voters trust
the Democratic Party to advance their interest. And you
(37:41):
know, hardcore people always say, oh, you aren't going to change some people's minds. I
get that about a third of the people, they're going to be with this
president, they're going to be with the Republican Party no matter what. But I think
that the other, you know, half of those voters are
gettable with the right kinds of policies and
message. And I'm not sure that we're there yet as Democrats. Okay. I'm going to
(38:03):
add one other thing. Right. While I disagree with what John
Thune is doing and I think he's forgetting where he's
from, these farmers do know where he's from and
they do know where Chuck Schumer is from. And they
like the fact that a rural individual is a leader
and in one of the most powerful positions out there. So that
(38:25):
matters too. And when you look at the leadership issues, when it comes to
all of this, they don't see a lot of rural leaders, Heidi.
No, not a lot of rural leaders that have a D behind their name.
Right. That was my point. Right. But the other thing is
they also are seeing that these so called rural leaders
are pledging fealty to Donald Trump and not to
(38:48):
rural America. And so when does that set in? Well, and
John Thune should know that all these people's health insurance premiums is
about to go through the rough. And lost in all of that is, I hope
you don't do this because you're my sister and I want you to be with
me playing pinochle again soon. Don't hold your
breath until Donald Trump rolls out his plan because they
(39:11):
still don't have a plan when it comes to health care. They still don't
have a concept. Joel, come on. They're working on a
concept. Well, trust me, I said that when I was
refereeing college football. We just have a concept of the rules. We
just have a concept. We don't, an interpretation. We don't really
know all the rules. And yeah, I know how that sells.
(39:32):
You know, it's, it's selling now, but when those premiums hit,
which they're hitting, the Democrats are on the right side of
this issue. Well, they are. But, but the question is
if this, if this gets fixed for a couple years,
do they say, see, it got fixed, everything's fine, I can go
back to vote the voting pattern that I was voting and you
(39:55):
know, just expect that I'm going to get, you know,
that, that my hurt is going to be heard. Yeah, well, if they don't gain
any political, you know, if they don't get any political
benefit out of the fight they just picked, that's on the Democrats, that's
on their messaging. That's on them to go out and make the case
of what they did. You spoke at a recent function in
(40:17):
a rural state and that room packed, in fact, it was standing room
only and it wasn't a small room. And so there are
individuals out there who have had it and they've had it to the
brim. And so maybe, I mean, and I stress the word
maybe, maybe there's some folks out there that are willing to get off
the couch and work and make the case Heid. Well, my message was
(40:38):
simple, though. You can't just be against Trump. I mean,
you got to convince people in North Dakota who voted for Trump that
they should try something different. And they don't like being told that they
were duped. I know that. You know, a good
friend of mine says, well, you should use the word you were betrayed. I
don't think that sells. I think what you gotta say is, look, we
(41:01):
understand why you voted the way you did, but it
hasn't worked out the way you had hoped. So don't keep doing the
same thing over and over again. Try something different. And this is a different
set of ideas and a different set of leaders. And, you know,
it can't be about identity politics because even the people that
(41:21):
they think they're appealing to in identity politics are
sick of it. They want to know how their family
and how their lives are going to be better under
a different model of leadership. And that's up to the Democratic Party to
talk about. Yeah. Well, I'm going to add one more thing about messaging when it
comes to the Democratic Party. And that's why the hot dish is so important.
(41:43):
Because of this. I do a talk show. That's what
I do now and I have done for a long time. It's heard in Manitoba,
it's heard in Saskatchewan. Huge listening base. Montana, North
Dakota, Minnesota, South Dakota and parts of Iowa. Yeah, I'm
bragging, but we're number one. Here's the thing, we have a much
easier time getting that higher level Republican on
(42:06):
than we do a Democrat on. And that's just the truth.
Democrats don't get the way that you utilize the
tools that you utilize to speak to rural America. Those guys out there
getting after the soybeans are listening to either the hot dish
or they're listening to talk radio, or it's coming to
them through their dash. It's not coming to Them through their
(42:28):
tv. And while they might like TV and
they might like putting on that suit and tie, if they don't get what
farmers, ranchers and rural people are listening to, that's on the
Democrats, Heidi. Well, I agree. I mean, one of the
things that I told the Biden administration when they came in,
you know, the new Ag Secretary, the new old Ag
(42:51):
Secretary, I guess they should say, is if I were, if I were the
Ag Secretary, I'd get up every morning and I'd make five phone
calls to rural radio. You know that when
people get up in the morning and they put on the coffee pot, they put
on their radio station and listen to the weather. That's or, you
know, you think, right, the markets, the weather,
(43:12):
you know, and I know, Joel, that there are tons
of people out there that rely on radio, but yet none of that
happened. It was too busy, too busy kind of putting your
finger on the scale for identity groups and not enough
time actually saying what's the plan to make your life a little
easier in agriculture? Well, and not to blow
(43:35):
smoke up you. Anybody who's a frequent listener of the Hot Dish knows that I'm
not a suck up. But the truth is this, that's what One Country
does. One Country makes sure that people on
the east and west coast, this whole flyover country,
know about what's going on in the rural area. And
so we'll keep plugging away. I'll, I'll keep giving it time,
(43:57):
but I'm going back to the messaging. If Democrats can't
explain to the nation, to people in the rural
areas exactly, exactly who stuck up for them
with insurance, then they deserve to lose. Yeah. Well,
you know, I'm really curious to see if we've made any strides
in rural Virginia, in rural
(44:19):
New Jersey, take a look at the Pennsylvania Supreme Court
vote, what was the rural vote there, and see if there is some
erosion. We aren't going to know that until we dig a little deeper in these
election results. But you know,
you can't overstate the importance of these
elections. But they can be, they can be
(44:40):
informative in terms of people's mood. Well, and you see me
do it. If I was in a national room where I got a chance to
talk to high level, high profile Democrats like I do
Republicans, the first thing I do is ask them questions about guns
because Democrats don't understand the people that are
speaking to it, don't understand how they operate, how they work, what
(45:03):
they are, how they look, how they load all of those things because
there are things that can be done about guns, guns,
about making sure that we have good common sense gun laws.
But they don't want to hear it. You know, they don't want to hear it.
And, and until Democrats understand that for Democrats here
in red states, it's going to be harder and harder to get a
(45:25):
message across. Well, you know, but the other message is you
keep saying Democrats are going to take away your guns. Guess what? There's been
Democrats in power. Did they take away your guns? They didn't take away your
guns. They have no intention of taking away your guns. I agree.
I know that. But my point in this is
not whether or not they're going to take away their guns or they're going to
(45:47):
pass an amendment, they're going to pass a law. All of this, there are
things they can pass that can make guns safer
and that gun owners will agree with. And I don't mean to take all this
time up to talk about guns as much as what I'm saying, that that's a
huge separation, rural to urban, is my point. Yeah,
well, I mean, I will tell you, probably the best
(46:09):
hunter in the United States Senate's a Democrat,
knows guns better than anyone. Martin Heinrich. You know, they should
follow his lead. He understands. Or when Joe Manchin was there.
Joe Manchin is great shot. I don't know if you ever saw him, you know,
but he's, he, he knew how to hunt. And, and so
you can't just draw with broad brush strokes. There are people within the
(46:32):
Democratic Party who understand, you know, what a gun does
and what it, what it could be, you know, what would
make sense in terms of gun legislation. Well, sure,
I can, I can absolutely paint with a broad stroke because the
messaging at the highest level is wrong. You
know, it's wrong. And we can talk about New Mexico, we can
(46:54):
talk about West Virginia, we can talk about all of that. The minute that
they use common sense to inject common sense into the
argument, they lose the room. And so, yes,
yes, those guys could shoot. You and I both know a
lot of guys can shoot. And you're, you're listening to one right now.
The point I'm trying to make is, as Democrats,
(47:17):
we need to use our messaging the right way in the
rural areas or at least put the right people in front of them talking.
And they're not doing that. That's my point. Yeah. Yeah. Well, I mean,
we've got another year before the Midterms.
I think that the conventional wisdom would tell you that the
(47:37):
party in power, which is The Republican Party
is going to lose seats in the House
of Representatives. At some point, this
speaker is going to have to seat the new congresswoman from
Arizona. And that's going to open up a whole can of worms
on, on the Jeffrey Epstein
(48:00):
file, as long as all the ones who have signed the
discharge petition as Republicans
still keep their signature on the discharge position. I had a
great conversation with David Graham from the Atlantic. He writes for it and he
talked about Project 2025. He's got a book out on it.
You know, the Project. The point is this. As he
(48:22):
spoke to it, he was looking at ways that the Trump
Administration who know that if you're just at the
ballot box, that you're going to basically try
to eliminate the chance for Democrats to win during the
Midterm. You know, it begins with making sure that you can argue
that, oh, man, these elections are all rigged and fake news is helping
(48:44):
rig it. You and I both know who Marge Goetke is. You and I
both know who Jaretta Lingan is. They volunteered their time
and made about 20 bucks the whole day to sit in those polling
places and be election judges. They can't be
more honest than those people I just described are. And so,
you know, that argument has to be made. But Graham
(49:07):
made a great point in the Atlantic, and it shows exactly what you
said. Trump knows he's in trouble, but he's already thinking of a
way to get around it. Well, I mean,
after what happened last night in California,
level the playing field, but it's kind of a race to the bottom on
gerrymandering now. Yeah. Well, you know, what if
(49:28):
somebody punches you in the nose? What are you going to do? You going to
sit there and cry or punch back? Yeah. Well, we know what Gavin
Newsom's going to do. My hero right now. My hero right now,
Heid. It's always good to talk to you, man. Yeah. Hang in there, Joel.
You know, more to come, and there'll be a whole year of
analyzing what the Democrats should be saying, because
(49:50):
I think Jaime Harrison has it
right. Not enough to win the vote. You got to win the trust. I agree.
And you know, all of this stuff just makes it brutal. Absolutely terrible
to do talk radio. Yeah, I bet. No,
controversy is not good for talk radio, is it? Never really works. It never gets
those phone lines going.
(50:15):
Thank you for joining us today on the Hot Dish, brought to you by the
One Country Project, which is trying to make sure that the
voices of all of us are heard in Washington D.C. You
know, learn more at onecountryproject.org. That's
onecountryproject.org. We'll be back next week with
more comfort food for rural America.
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