From the Farm to the Hill: 48 Candidates Look to Bring New ‘Ag Blood’ to D.C.

There are 22 agriculture voices exiting Congress and more than 100 vying to keep their seats, but Farm Journal has identified at least 48 potential new candidates with ties to agriculture running to take their place.

Forty-three candidates with ties to agriculture are running for the U.S. House and five for the Senate. For some of them, the move from the countryside to Capitol Hill could soon be their new reality.

Here are some of the races where new ag perspective could enter the conversation, if voters choose to put them in the win column on election day.

North Carolina’s 11th District: Farmers on both sides

In North Carolina’s 11th District, Republican candidate Jennifer Balkcom faces Democrat Jamie Ager. Balkcom is a state representative who grew up on her family’s apple farm. She spent more than 25 years in banking and finance. During her time in the state legislature, Balkcom has focused on agricultural policy, farmland preservation and disaster relief. Her top agricultural priorities include passing a full five-year farm bill, reforming the H-2A guest worker visa program and restricting foreign entities from purchasing American farmland.

Ager is a fourth-generation farmer from Fairview, N.C. He expanded his family’s homestead into Hickory Nut Gap Farm, a sustainable meat company. Political office runs in Ager’s family. His grandfather, Jamie Clarke, represented the district in Washington, D.C.; his father, John Ager, served four terms in the N.C. House; and his brother, Eric Ager, serves on the N.C. House Agriculture Committee. Ager’s platform centers on rural economic development, agricultural policy, affordability and long-term Hurricane Helene recovery.

The seat is currently held by Rep. Chuck Edwards, who withdrew from his re-election bid following an Ethics Committee censure.

“From an ag perspective, it’s exciting that either way you’re going to get an ag voice,” says Chelsea Good, founder and CEO of Good Associates. She adds that the race has been narrowing. Both Cook Political Report and Sabato’s Crystal Ball have moved it from toss-up to lean Democrat.

Arkansas Senate: A farmer takes on an incumbent

Arkansas hasn’t sent a Democrat to the Senate since 2008, and Good says the race is still polling as a solid Republican seat. However, she noted it is “getting more spending and more attention than you would have thought.”

Democratic nominee Hallie Shoffner was a sixth-generation farmer in Newport, Ark. In 2025, Shoffner closed the 2,000-acre seed and row-crop operation because of rising costs. “Farmers don’t want bailouts every single year,” Shoffner says. “We want markets. We want new ones. We want domestic ones. We want local processing.”

She faces Republican incumbent Sen. Tom Cotton, an Army veteran who grew up on his family’s cattle farm in Yell County, Ark. Cotton graduated from Harvard and Harvard Law. In writing, Cotton says, “The last few years have been very difficult; I hear that across the state. We need more favorable trade deals to improve export markets, more energy to bring down diesel prices, and an improved safety net.”

Georgia’s 14th District: A rematch

Democrat and cattleman Shawn Harris is running against Republican incumbent Rep. Clayton Fuller. The two already faced off in April, in the special election to replace former Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene.

Harris is a retired U.S. Army brigadier general. He owns a cow-calf business on family land in Cedartown, raising Red Angus, Angus and Charolais cattle. His campaign includes social media videos straight from the pasture.

“When I get to DC, you will have a strong voice that will focus on the real community, and specifically focus on the agriculture community,” Harris says in an interview with Farm Journal.

Fuller is a former district attorney for the Lookout Mountain Judicial Circuit and a lieutenant colonel in the Georgia Air National Guard. He serves on the House Transportation & Infrastructure (T&I) Committee. Good says the race is still rated safe Republican, “but I think that anything is possible.” Based on Cook and Sabato, she says, it is still expected to go in the Republicans’ favor.

Wisconsin’s 3rd District: Dairy roots versus a House Ag member

In Wisconsin’s 3rd District, Republican incumbent Rep. Derrick Van Orden, a member of the House Agriculture Committee, is running against Democrat Rebecca Cooke. Cooke grew up on a dairy farm, and her parents raise Angus cattle today. Van Orden is a retired Navy SEAL senior chief who owns a hobby farm in Hager City and grew up visiting his uncles’ farm in Minnesota. He serves as vice chair of the Livestock, Dairy and Poultry subcommittee on the House Agriculture Committee.

Iowa Senate: An open seat with ag stakes

The race for Iowa’s Senate seat to fill Joni Ernst’s role is a face-off between Republican Ashley Hinson and Democrat Josh Turek.

Hinson currently serves as a representative for Iowa’s 2nd District. She doesn’t have an ag background, but as a member of Congress, she has supported agriculture and is the lead sponsor of the Save Our Bacon Act. “We need to make sure farmers can feed and fuel the world, and we need to make sure that we have long-term access to markets,” she says. “I want to make sure we have a robust farm economy.”

Turek is a state legislator and a Paralympic gold medalist. He does not have an agriculture background. Both candidates support year-round E15 and the farm bill. “Turek is a little more focused on stronger enforcement on agricultural monopolies,” Good says.

Here is the table of the 48 potential new agricultural voices, as identified by Farm Journal research, sorted by their race outlook:

How We Determine an “Ag Voice”

Our “Ag Voice” designation is categorized by whether a candidate or current incumbent brings a strong, dedicated perspective for farming and rural interests to Congress. An individual earns this status if they possess direct agricultural ties—such as growing up on a family farm, actively operating an agricultural enterprise, or holding profound agricultural policy experience—or if they currently serve on the House or Senate Committees on Agriculture.