As the number of lawmakers with direct ties to production agriculture continues to shrink, who will step up to speak for rural America? Farm Journal is proud to present Ag Vote 2026: Who Speaks for America’s Farmers?, delivering in-depth reporting from now through Election Day. Tune in for LIVE election night coverage Tuesday, Nov. 3 at 7 p.m. Central on Farm Journal TV, Farm Journal Now, AgWeb.com and YouTube.
Laurie Buckhout and Donald Davis are entering the North Carolina 1st District contest with agriculture at the center of their personal stories.
From Cattle Farms to Tobacco Fields
Buckhout, from the ranching side, and Davis, from tobacco, are setting up a campaign where farm economics could become the key political battleground.
Agriculture voters are paying attention because North Carolina’s 1st District sits at the intersection of rural economies and federal decision-making, where changes in funding, regulation, and trade can move prices and risk up or down.
Buckhout grew up on a cattle farm and is a retired Army colonel. Part of her campaign has been about looking out for multigenerational farmers. In race coverage, she’s been tied to arguments about high energy costs as a way to help farmers and reduce food costs.
Davis serves on the House Agriculture Committee. He says he learned the value of hard work creating opportunities from his time working in tobacco fields. He ties his candidacy to affordability for District 1, using his tobacco-field background as part of that narrative.
Top Positions and Priorities
We reached out to both candidates with questions about their campaign. At publication, we have only received a response from Buckhout.
You’re running for a seat currently held by a member of the House Agriculture Committee. Do you hope to continue in that seat? Why or why not?
Buckhout: Yes. I grew up on a cattle farm, where you wake up early, get to work, and don’t waste time complaining. I built a business, so I know what it takes to keep an operation running. Farmers are the lifeblood of eastern North Carolina, and the Ag Committee seat belongs to someone who will actually fight for them. I will.
What is your message for farmers/growers and ranchers? Why should they elect you to speak for them?
Buckhout: I grew up on a cattle farm and served 26 years in the U.S. Army. Both taught me the same things: show up, keep your word, and never leave your people behind.
When Congress passed the largest investment in American farms in generations, our current representative voted no. Our farmers needed a champion and didn’t get one.
I’ll fight for a strong safety net, less red tape, and a real future for the next generation on the land. A nation that can’t feed itself can’t defend itself. I’m not a career politician. I’m a farm kid who served her country, and I won’t just speak about you in Washington. I’ll speak for you.
What are your top three key agricultural policy positions?
Buckhout: First, a real farm bill. Eastern North Carolina can’t plan a season on ad hoc tariff relief and a bill last written in 2018. It has to open markets, update crop insurance to match today’s costs and weather, and keep Washington out of decisions that belong on the farm, and it has to work for tobacco, sweet potatoes, peanuts, cotton, livestock, and seafood, not just Midwest row crops. Commissioner Troxler has kept these fights in front of North Carolina, and I’ll treat them as one fight in Congress.
Second, save our farmland. North Carolina loses roughly 100,000 acres of farm and forest a year, more than a million by 2040 if nothing changes. I’ll back federal matching for permanent easements and fight the foreign buyers snapping up American land. The family farm is a way of life and a national security issue: a country that paves over its farmland can’t feed itself.
Third, disaster aid that arrives before a farm has to sell. We’ve lived through Floyd, Matthew, and Florence. Recovery can’t depend on a one-time check after the fact. I’ll work to lock in reliable disaster funding and pair it with research through our land-grant universities so smaller farms can keep up.
What are two things you would like to see change for American Agriculture?
Buckhout: Cut the red tape. America leads the world in agricultural trade, and every unnecessary regulation adds cost that hands our competitors the advantage. Our farmers win any fair fight.
Fix the H-2A program. Tobacco and sweet potatoes and farmers deserve a predictable program that doesn’t cost a fortune. Nobody can forecast a season around a broken labor pipeline.
What is your favorite connection to or story about agriculture and farming?
Buckhout: I dreamed of being a veterinarian, right up until I had to help our large animal vet pull calves from our Angus cattle, with the rope tied to my saddle, backing up my horse. Believe it or not, the Army was the easier career choice. Growing up on a farm gave me a lifelong love of the land, and it’s probably why I avoided office jobs my whole career.
How do you/will you champion the ag producers in your constituency when faced with bi-partisan hurdles?
Buckhout: Red, blue, or yellow, I don’t care what party someone belongs to. If a vote helps the farmers feeding this nation, I’m working with whoever will take it.
Is there anything else you’d like farmers/growers and ranchers to know about you?
Buckhout: I grew up on a cattle farm, the daughter of two veterans, stacking hay bales every summer, so I know what it means when the weather, the price, and the labor all go wrong in the same season. I served 26 years in the Army, raised a family, built a business, and live in Edenton. Our multigenerational farms and fishing families have been pushed around by bureaucrats for too long. In Congress I’ll cut the red tape, fight the foreign buyers taking our farmland, and deliver a real farm bill. And you’ll have a representative who answers the phone and shows up in the counties, because to me the family farm is a way of life worth defending, not a photo op.
Contrast Between Candidates
The contrast between Buckhout’s cattle ranching roots and Davis’s tobacco-field experience reflects the agricultural diversity of North Carolina’s 1st District. With both candidates anchoring their campaigns in farm backgrounds, the race will test whether voters prioritize committee seniority or a new voice on agricultural policy. As the district continues to lose farmland and farmers navigate uncertain markets, the outcome will determine who carries eastern North Carolina’s agricultural concerns to Washington for the next two years.
