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.
In a key political race for U.S. agriculture, three candidates are elbowing in Mississippi. Republican incumbent Cindy Hyde-Smith, Democrat Scott Colom, and Independent Ty Pinkins seek the junior senatorial slot, along with a seat on the Agriculture, Forestry, and Nutrition Committee.
Mississippi is a vital agriculture state, with major catfish, poultry, and row crop production centered on cotton, soybeans, rice, corn, and sweet potatoes.
Only 6% of Congress’ 535 members actively farm, despite agriculture supporting $10.4 trillion in total U.S. economic output—roughly 20% of all economic activity. Alarmingly, a mere 30 senators or representatives are directly involved in farming, and that number is steadily shrinking.
Which of Mississippi’s three candidates best understands and speaks for agriculture?
Incumbent since 2018, Hyde-Smith served as Mississippi Commissioner of Agriculture and Commerce from 2012–2018, and presently serves on the Senate Agriculture, Nutrition, and Forestry Committee. She raises beef cattle and partners with her family in a stockyard auction market.
Colom is a seventh-generation Mississippian and has served as a prosecutor, judge, and district attorney.
Son of a tractor driver, Pinkins was raised in a Delta farming family and grew up chopping cotton. During college, he enlisted in the Army and served 21 years, including three combat tours in Iraq. Pinkins was awarded the Bronze Star.
Responding to questions from Farm Journal, Hyde-Smith, Colom, and Pinkins detail their perspectives on farming.
You’re running for a seat that has previously been on the Ag Committee. Do you hope to continue in that seat?
Hyde-Smith: “I’ll serve on the Senate Agriculture Committee for as long as I represent the great State of Mississippi in the U.S. Senate. Why? Agriculture is Mississippi’s primary economic driver, contributing billions of dollars to the state and national economy. Mississippi agriculture supports hundreds of thousands of jobs directly or indirectly. The list goes on.”
Colom: “It is the first committee I will ask for, and I will push hard to be on it. Agriculture is a $9.5 billion industry in Mississippi, and that seat ought to be a job, not a title. On Cindy Hyde-Smith’s watch, the farm bill expired on September 30 and the Senate went home to campaign without passing a new one. She has said herself that too many of our farmers are ‘operating on the brink of bankruptcy.’ Unlike her, I will use that seat to actually get a Farm Bill done on time, and I will bring it home first. I have held more than 50 town halls across Mississippi, and I will keep holding them in farm country so the people living with these decisions get a say before the vote, not after. And I will use every seat I hold to keep rural hospitals open, because a farm community does not survive without one.”
Pinkins: “Yes, I’d seek a seat on the Senate Agriculture, Nutrition, and Forestry Committee. Agriculture is not an abstract policy issue for me. I grew up on cotton farms in the Mississippi Delta. My father worked as a tractor driver, and I spent my teenage summers chopping cotton to help my family make ends meet. I understand how deeply agriculture is connected to the economy and identity of rural Mississippi. A seat on the Agriculture Committee would give me an opportunity to make sure Mississippi producers have a direct voice when Congress writes the Farm Bill and considers crop insurance, disaster assistance, forestry, conservation, agricultural trade, rural development, nutrition programs, and other policies that directly affect our state.”
What is your message for farmers and ranchers? Why should they elect you to speak for them?
Hyde-Smith: “My message to agriculture producers in Mississippi is: I have the deepest appreciation for what you do—putting food on our table, clothes on our back, and serving as a key pillar for our state and national economy. Society as whole would fail without you. I know you are going through tough times. As a producer myself, I feel it too. You know as well as I that the ag economy ebbs and flows. You also know that government policies can’t make a farmer, but they can certainly break a farmer, which leads me to my key point.”
“Mississippi agriculture producers and the businesses that rely on them should elect me because: I am the best person for the job. Bottom line. Ask around Mississippi farmers or major farm organizations like the Mississippi Farm Bureau, Delta Council, or National Cotton Council and others, to see what they say.”
“Here are a few things I am proud to have been directly part of: Securing $10 billion in Emergency Commodity Assistance Program (ECAP) support in the fiscal year 2025 appropriations measure to assist producers due to low prices and high input costs. That conversation started in my Jackson office in August 2024. Promoting President Trump’s additional $12 billion in Farmer Bridge Assistance (FBA) program payments. Helping secure well-north of $60 million through the USDA Livestock Forage Disaster Program (LFP) for Mississippi livestock producers impacted by historic drought in 2023. Advocating successfully to Senate leadership and the White House that President Trump’s Working Families Tax Cut Act (WFTCA) should include adjustments and improvements for the U.S. farm safety net, which means that today Mississippi farmers are now projected to receive $434 million in support through USDA ARC and PLC programs in the coming month. The WFTCA also includes a provision that makes Mississippi farm-raised catfish producers eligible for USDA disaster assistance due to bird depredation, which will undoubtedly help keep our farm-raised catfish industry afloat. Ask the Catfish Farmers of America if you want clarification.”
“Meanwhile, Democrats opposed every bit of the Working Families Tax Cut Act, balked at President Trump’s FBA program, and continue to block a new Farm Bill that Mississippi producers have wanted and needed since 2023. Unfortunately, I don’t see any indication that this Democrat opposition will change after November.”
Colom: “I won’t pretend to be a farmer, but I am a prosecutor, so I listen and I look at the evidence. A banker in the Delta told me most of Mississippi does not understand how close many of our farmers are to going under. The banks look at their balance sheets and cannot keep making the loans. That stayed with me.”
“Cindy Hyde-Smith, on the other hand, voted no when the Senate moved to take back Congress’s authority over tariffs. She voted to keep a war going without a vote of Congress, and diesel has hit a record high during harvest. She takes campaign checks from fertilizer companies under federal investigation for price-fixing while our farmers pay more at the co-op. She voted to take about $11 billion out of Mississippi’s Medicaid to pay for a billionaire tax break, and eight of our rural hospitals are now at risk of closing. And she has not held a single public town hall in more than six years. She takes care of her donors, and Mississippi farmers get the bill. I will show up, I will listen, I will fight to keep the hospitals in our rural counties open, and nobody will own my vote.”
Pinkins: “My message is simple: I understand that farming is both a way of life and a business, and neither survives if producers cannot make a living.”
“I grew up in a farm family, so I know agriculture from a personal perspective. Later, as a public-interest lawyer, I also represented agricultural workers who had been denied wages they earned. Those experiences taught me that a healthy agricultural economy has to work for the farmer, the farmworker, rural communities, and the families whose livelihoods depend on the land.”
“Producers today face pressures they cannot control—weather, input costs, commodity prices, market concentration, trade disruptions, and increasingly expensive equipment and technology. Federal agricultural policy should help producers manage those risks rather than add another layer of uncertainty.”
“I would listen to Mississippi farmers directly, work across political lines, and judge agricultural policy by whether it allows producers to remain profitable, keep their land, pass their operations to the next generation, and compete in a fair marketplace.”
What are your top 3 key agricultural policy positions?
Hyde-Smith: “One, maintain a strong farm safety net to protect American farmers against risks beyond their control. Two, maintain and support USDA conservation programs for “working lands” – conservation measures on land that is in production but still allowing for soil and water quality improvements. Three, ensuring that the United States remains a global leader in agricultural research. You can’t be the best if you don’t do the best.”
Colom: “First, take back Congress’s authority over tariffs and trade. Nearly all of Mississippi’s soybeans are sold overseas. Tariffs cost our farmers their biggest customer, and that business still has not fully come back. A bailout check is not a market. And nobody should be able to wave in 300,000 metric tons of foreign ground beef with the stroke of a pen while our cattlemen are taking calves to market.”
“Second, go after anybody cheating farmers. I have spent ten years prosecuting fraud, and foreign fish sold as Mississippi catfish is fraud. Fertilizer companies under federal investigation for price-fixing should be answering questions before Congress, not writing campaign checks, and my anti-corruption plan bars senators from taking their money.”
“Third, pass a real Farm Bill, on time, with a safety net producers and their lenders can plan around, and protect what works, like Mississippi State’s Extension agents in all 82 counties and Alcorn State’s land-grant programs for small farmers.”
“And none of it holds if the hospital closes. Cindy Hyde-Smith will tell you she is delivering for rural hospitals. She voted to take about $11 billion out of Mississippi’s Medicaid to pay for a billionaire tax break, and what she brags about bringing home is pennies next to what she cut. You do not get credit for handing back a little of what you took. I will work with anybody, in either party, to reverse the Medicaid cuts that have our rural hospitals at risk.”
Pinkins: “First, strengthen the farm safety net and disaster assistance. Crop insurance and federal disaster programs must work for the agriculture Mississippi actually produces—including row crops, poultry, livestock, timber, catfish, and specialty crops. Assistance should reach producers quickly after a disaster, and smaller and mid-sized operations should not be disadvantaged simply because they lack the administrative resources of larger operations.”
“Second, strengthen competition and protect independent producers. Farmers should have fair markets for what they produce and reasonable bargaining power when dealing with large processors, integrators, input suppliers, and other corporations. I support stronger transparency and contract protections for poultry growers, meaningful enforcement against unfair market practices, and agricultural policies that do not allow increasing consolidation to squeeze independent producers out of business.”
“Third, invest in the long-term productivity of American agriculture. That means agricultural research, Extension services, soil health, conservation, precision agriculture, rural broadband and infrastructure, and voluntary programs that help farmers adopt practices that reduce input costs and protect their land. Farmers interested in transitioning toward organic or other sustainable production should have technical and financial support available, but Washington should provide producers with options—not dictate how they farm.”
What are 2 things you’d like to see change for U.S. agriculture?
Hyde-Smith: “Higher commodity prices. Lower input costs. Please note, my desired changes are symptoms of a problem, not the problem. The real problem is our foreign adversaries overcompensating and subsidizing their farmers, flooding the U.S. market with cheaper, less valuable goods, and for some, for one reason or another, doing everything in their power to destroy the United States.”
Colom: “First, certainty. A farmer borrows in the spring against a market he or she hopes is still there in the fall. Right now, that market can change with one signature from Washington, and the Farm Bill that is supposed to be the backstop has expired. The president of the Mississippi Farm Bureau said it plainly last month to RFDTV: you can do a really good job farming and still not have enough money at the end of the year to pay the crop loans back. I want a farmer to be able to walk into the bank in the spring knowing the rules will not change before harvest.”
“Second, who gets heard. Right now, big donors get their calls returned, and Mississippi families squeezed by beef prices have got a senator who told them they have ‘so many proteins to choose from.’ The same goes for health care. Farming is dangerous work, and the people who do it should not have to wonder whether the emergency room will still be there next year. I will keep a standing line open to farmers, their lenders and the Extension agents who work with them every day. When farmers’ costs come down, every Mississippian’s grocery bill comes down too.”
Pinkins: “First, I would like to see agricultural policy become more predictable. Farmers should not have to operate under temporary extensions, delayed disaster assistance, constantly changing trade conditions, or emergency programs created only after producers are already in financial trouble. Farming requires long-term planning, and federal policy should provide more certainty.”
“Second, I would like to restore more economic power to the producer. Too often, farmers are price takers on both ends—they pay what increasingly concentrated suppliers charge for seed, fertilizer, equipment, fuel, and other inputs, and then accept whatever the market offers for what they produce. We need stronger competition, greater transparency, and federal programs designed around keeping independent and family farms economically viable.”
“I want more of the value created by American agriculture to remain with the people actually producing it.”
What is your favorite connection to or story about agriculture and farming?
Hyde-Smith: “I received a lot of heartfelt gratitude from Mississippians and producers around the country after Congress passed the $10 billion in Emergency Commodity Assistance Program (ECAP) support in the fiscal year 2025 appropriations measure. I was talking to Senate leadership and my staff at all hours of the day, week, and weekend, and apparently those efforts trickled the folks back home.”
Colom: “My favorite connection is family. My wife’s grandfather raised fresh produce, goats and chickens, so farming is part of the family I married into. More recently, Neshoba County Supervisor Obbie Riley invited me out to his chicken farm. I gathered eggs, and then he showed me the business side of the operation, which taught me even more than the eggs did. A family farm is one of the hardest small businesses there is, and the people running them do not get nearly enough credit for it.”
Pinkins: “My connection to agriculture goes back to childhood. I was born and raised in the Mississippi Delta. My father worked on farms driving tractors, and as a teenager I spent my summers chopping cotton. I did it because my family needed the income to help put food on the table.
Long before I became a soldier, lawyer, or candidate for the United States Senate, I understood what a long day in a Mississippi field felt like. I understood that when a crop did well, families benefited, and when something went wrong, the consequences went far beyond the farm.
Those experiences never left me. They are a large part of why I have such respect for the people who produce our food, fiber, and timber and why I believe preserving the ability of family farms to survive from one generation to the next matters so much.”
How will you champion ag producers in your constituency when faced with bipartisan hurdles?
Hyde-Smith: “Agriculture should not be partisan. Rural America should not be partisan. I have demonstrated that I will work with anyone and everyone who’s willing to help Mississippi’s rural and agricultural agenda. If you need an example, check out my Buying American Cotton Act (BACA), S.1919. It has Democratic cosponsors, and the companion bill in the House does too. Another example of overcoming hurdles stems from my commitment from day one on Yazoo Backwater Area Pumps. Have those flood-impacted South Delta counties voted more for a Democrat over me? Yes, but do those Mississippi constituents need and deserve proper flood protection the government promised them long ago? Yes, and I’ve worked my hardest to get that for them.”
Colom: “I will work with anyone, Republican, Democrat or the president, who wants to lower costs for Mississippi farmers and save our rural hospitals, and I will put my name on a good idea no matter whose it is. Party has never guided me. As district attorney, I prosecuted a sheriff from my own party. And standing up for farmers should not be partisan. Four Republican senators crossed over to take tariff authority back. Republican senators from Montana and Wyoming spoke out loud for their ranchers when the foreign ground beef plan came down. Cindy Hyde-Smith, a cattle farmer herself, voted no on the first and only put out a statement on the second. Nobody in Washington will be able to count on my vote. The only people who can are Mississippians.”
Pinkins: “Agricultural policy should not become another partisan team sport. A farmer’s input costs, weather losses, crop prices, or livestock expenses do not change based on whether that farmer is a Republican, Democrat, or Independent.”
“Throughout my career, I have worked with people across political lines. I served in the Army for 21 years and later served as a communications aide to Presidents from both political parties. Those experiences taught me that difficult problems get solved when people focus on the mission rather than who gets the political credit.”
“I would take the same approach in the Senate. I would work with agricultural-state Senators from both parties on issues where our producers have common interests, build coalitions around specific legislation, and work directly with Mississippi farmers, commodity organizations, researchers, Extension professionals, rural communities, and agricultural businesses to understand what they need from Washington.”
“As an Independent, I would evaluate agricultural legislation on its merits and on what it means for Mississippi producers—not on which party introduced it.”
“My job would be to make sure Mississippi agriculture has an effective voice in Washington and that partisan disagreements do not prevent us from addressing the practical problems farmers face every day.”
