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The Hot Dish delves into the most pressing issues facing rural America. Hosts Heidi and Joel Heitkamp speak with policymakers, advocates and everyday Americans living across rural America about what's happening across the heartland and what should be done to make life better for rural America.ct's The Hot Dish, former U.S. Senator Heidi Heitkamp serves up insight into issues affecting rural Americans.
Heidi Heitkamp (00:05):
Welcome to the Hot Dish. I'm Heidi Heitkamp. Just reminding everyone if they haven't heard, it's a big election year and there's going to be a lot of discussing 2024 over the next year. And today I'm going to kick that off with J.D. Scholten. He's an Iowa State Rep and a One Country Project board member. And we'll be hearing from a young man who chose to leave the city and become a farmer, something we don't hear very often these days. But before we get to all that, I want you to get to know my brother Joel a little bit better. He really, for all the teasing that I give him, he really is an accomplished guy. He is a Democrat who has a very, very successful talk show in the middle of what is some of the deepest red parts of our country. And I think he's got a lot to offer when he talks about how we can maybe bring some middle back to politics. And even though we don't always agree, I have to confess he's pretty smart. Tell us a little bit about yourself, Joel.
Joel Heitkamp (01:05):
I grew up seventh in a seven-person family and we're all born in nine years, so the reality is we're all pretty close. The one thing I think that informs you is when you grow up it a 1200 square foot [inaudible 00:01:21]. You absolutely, if you're going to be closer, you're going to be mortal enemies. And my family chose to be close and it's worked for us and we still get together quite a bit, more than most families ever would. In high school, I think athletics were far more important to me than academics, and I think it showed by the time I got to college. But the truth of the matter is my father got sick while I was in college because I think he knew that I was part of what I was studying, he came to me and, "Maybe you should take a semester off while I go through chemo."
(01:55):
And my father at that time was running a utility that we call Redwater or Real Water District. He oversaw 500 miles of waterline in a whole bunch of cities that had joined the water system and a number of farms and ranches. And so my father passed away quickly and the next thing you knew, I was married, had a [inaudible 00:02:17] and I stayed with the water system. And we started out, as I said, with 500 miles of pipe and by the time I was done 23 years later, we had 2,800 miles of pipe. So that's a lot of construction and a lot of construction and a lot of overseeing millions upon millions of dollars of growth. So I'm pretty proud of that. During that time, I served in the North Dakota State Senate representing the South Quadrant of North Dakota. I did that for 14 years. As I try to remind Heidi, I'm the one Heitkamp that never lost an election.
(02:52):
I basically pulled the pin once I got into my profession now, which is talk radio. So I started in talk radio after Ed Schultz retired, but went on to work for MSNBC. So he came to me and he was doing a national radio show and a national TV show, and he asked me to take his regional show, which was on a number of radio stations. It's a good life. Every day I get to get up and I get to talk about issues and still be active in politics and yet still tell the good story of individuals out there in the upper Midwest that are trying to make it better. So I got two girls raised. I've got six grandkids. I've got the same wife for 40 years. My interests have always been riding Harley. I refereed a lot of football, both high school and college. I also hunt and that's one of the things I still do a lot of to this day.
(03:46):
So I'm the happiest in my life when I'm outdoors. I grew up duck and goose hunting, which was fun, but I'm past that phase of my life to where you get up at 4:00 in the morning, go out in the slough and get your waders on and set up a bunch of decoys. Duck hunting is a lot of work. It's a lot of work. And maybe I've gotten too lazy, but I pheasant hunt a lot. You get out there and you get to watch the dogs work, and I've gone pheasant hunting a lot again this fall. I go on pheasant hunting trips. My biggest success was getting the state to put grant dollars together for local infrastructure. And when I was in the state senate, the Democrats, they were in the majority of the session before. When I got in, we were down one seat and that was coming off of the Reagan era and the George HW Bush era.
(04:39):
And so we went in with the Clinton era, but it was pretty more conservative Congress. And so because of that, the tide started changing and we found ourself, I think down to 15 out of the 47 senators. And then I got into leadership. And when I left, I'm proud of the fact that we were only four away again from the majority. And so we were able to do something because it's more popular to be a Republican in North Dakota than a Democrat, which means that Democrats run as Republicans, if that makes any sense to folks. And so in the state Senate, there was about 10 votes there that I could always count on when we pushed for something, when we wanted to get something done on the floor, and that was my strength, was strategize on the floor, be able to negotiate.
(05:34):
For a lot of years, out of all the people in the minority, I passed more laws than anybody else. And the reason was I knew how to horse trade and I was pretty good at it. The rule of any legislator is to be accessible. You really shouldn't take the job if you're not willing to give out your cell phone. The truth is people should be able to call you. You need to be, every other weekend we did this during the legislative session. You go to some small town cafe and you stand there and you take any and all and you take the numbers down and you do what you can do. But if you are not accessible, don't take the job. If you're not going to like that call at 11:00 at night from some guy that is half hammered where his wife got the kids and he's expecting you to change that court ruling, then don't take the job.
(06:24):
It doesn't mean you got to help the guy, but you're going to take the call or else you shouldn't have run for the job. Being a legislator means being accessible to people's problems. Just sticking up for people is what the legislature is all about, which is why I like the legislative branch far more than the executive branch, far more. I'm going to get in trouble for saying this, but as you can tell, I don't care. The truth is this, Donald Trump made it okay if you're on wife number three and you're cheating on her. I mean, he made it okay if in a business deal you steal. I mean, he made it okay if you don't pay your bills and file bankruptcy. He made it okay to do the things that every day they do in their life, but they were raised probably by good parents or certainly by clergy to not live the life that they're living.
(07:22):
I'll give you a perfect example, folks. There was a home in Sisseton, South Dakota, beautiful farm, absolutely beautiful farm. Lawn is manicured, home is kept up. The home was probably built in the late 80's. Excellent grain [inaudible 00:07:39] site, leg system that goes with it. In case you're wondering what that is, it's the augers that cost a lot of money to move grain from bend to bend. That is right on the highway going into Sisseton, South Dakota. And there was a flagpole in the middle of the yard that had "F. Biden." Now school bus went by that every day. Now, these people, obviously, financially were successful in life. The image that they wanted to portray by keeping their place up and doing the things they did is normally the image of decency and respect. They're flying that flag and little kids are going by in a school bus every day and Donald Trump made it okay for them to do that.
(08:22):
And that's the beauty of the job I have now. I called them out. I didn't know their name, I just pointed out their location on air. I got a call from the state representative down there and he said, "Well, they took down their flag." So win one for me. The difference between Biden and Trump presidency is it proves that all these individuals that hate the words career politician are wrong. I mean, Joe Biden got elected to the United States Senate when he wasn't eligible to be in the United States Senate. He was 29 years old. Now, fully got sworn in, he was going to have his birthday. But think about the years of service that that man put in. And I think if you look at it, the record of going across the aisle is stronger than any member of the United States Senate to the point where Democrats at times hated the guy, which to me is a sign of how good he was at what he did.
(09:17):
Joe Biden is politics at a mature level. It's governing at a mature level. He didn't farm country. For example, Trump blew up through tariffs our deal on soybeans with China. And so what was the answer? Wilbur Ross, one of his cabinet members, looked at Trump and said, "Just pay them off." And every farmer during that era got $1.61 paid from the government per bushel of soybeans. Now, the general public out there doesn't know that, and thank God they're going to hear it through this podcast. But imagine a farmer receiving $1.61 for every bushel of soybeans on a field that gets 60 bushel an acre. Start doing the math. A quarter of land, 160 acres, the average farmer now 5,000 acres. So the government wrote that big of a check. That was their policy. Well, that isn't governing. I mean, that isn't governing.
(10:22):
Don't tell me you're all about deficit if you're willing to just pay people off on a market that they used to have. It's good to have an opportunity to tell you about myself. As you can tell, if you listen to this podcast, completely different than Heidi in so many ways and completely like her in so many ways. The difference is she's refined. She'll say it to you in a polite, educated, nice way. I'm a little more blue collar. I'm a little more, let's just get to it. And I think that I've gone to more of the school of hard knocks. I mean, I have. I've done the kind of jobs where you get threatened with a shotgun. And so to have the opportunity to tell you about what I've done, it sounds really know-it-all. I get it. But you know what? I've done a lot of it. And so I'm not going to apologize for preaching.
Heidi Heitkamp (11:20):
Joel and I'll have some great conversations this year and I hope you keep listening because we're going to be talking about issues that not a lot of people talk about, and those are the issues that are shaping rural and small town life during this critical election year and beyond. Speaking of elections, I want to introduce you to J.D. Scholten. I always want to put a K in that. I don't know why that is, J.D. J.D. is a member of the Iowa House of Representatives, and he serves on the board of the One Country Project. He's one of our original board members. Thanks so much for joining me today, J.D.
J.D. Scholten (11:55):
Yeah, well, I'll tell you why you want to tell because we mispronounced my last name. We pronounce it the German way when it's actually Dutch, and so it should be Scholten. And so when I campaign in the Dutch regions, that's when they definitely let me know about that.
Heidi Heitkamp (12:10):
So you just announced your reelection bid. I think you're an anomaly. You're one of the few elected Democrats in your region of the state, and that makes you in some ways a unicorn in Iowa, but maybe on the vanguard of some changes. And so we want to talk a little bit about how you got elected, what kind of campaign you ran, what did you talk about, and how do you see the opportunities for other Democrats, especially in your area of Iowa, outside of the metro Iowa and surrounding areas where we can see some Democratic representation. How do we build that in Iowa?
J.D. Scholten (12:49):
And so right now in the state of Iowa, I am one of two Democrats at the Capitol in the western half. And the Interstate 35 cuts us in half. There's Ames and Des Moines are a part of that. If you go outside of that metropolitan area, the entire western half, there's just two of us and the other gentleman won by six votes. And then in Northwest Iowa, it's just me. And so we've been having so many pre-legislative meetings and it's pretty much me and 16 Republicans. And so I think that's one area where Democrats really need to think about is how do we get the Democratic message in some of these areas where there's just no Democratic elected official? And so this is a little bit new for us in Iowa. We used to have more, even here in Sioux City, we used to have more, and then we just, the past couple elections have not gone our way since 2018, I would say.
(13:42):
And it's very frustrating because when you go out and talk to folks, there's more folks who are, I feel Democrats. But the problem here, especially in Sioux City, is we have low voter turnout. We're a city of 85,000 people, only 26,000 are registered to vote. To me just, I mean, that's the problem is we're an arm's length away from Des Moines, which is an arm's length away from DC. And people just feel like, why bother? We're sick of politics, we're frustrated with both parties, why go out there? And so that's a huge part of my 2024 effort is really focused on voter turnout and broadening our Democratic party and who we bring in. Because you go to a Democratic Central Committee meeting here, and it's all old white people, to be honest, not for a lack of effort. We've been trying to diversify, but that's the folks who tend to show up.
(14:37):
And so I've been starting this group and it started with two of us, or I guess three of us, two other people and myself. And then last month we broadened it out to, I think there was about 12 to 15 people there. And it's all people my age or younger. Most people haven't been that active, but been Democratic curious. And we're really trying to broaden that out and just create meetings where people don't feel so overwhelmed because when you go to a Democratic meeting, it's pretty structured and not as welcoming as you'd want it to be. And in the caucuses, for the most part, they're long and tedious. It's commitment. It's a couple hours that night.
Heidi Heitkamp (15:16):
Yeah. And if it's snowing and if it's below zero, you aren't going to be all that excited to come, I guess, huh?
J.D. Scholten (15:24):
Exactly.
Heidi Heitkamp (15:24):
One thing that I've seen as a trend is the Democratic party not fielding candidates, not being able to find candidates. Do you have that same problem in Northwest Iowa?
J.D. Scholten (15:34):
Oh, absolutely. And I think that's one thing that I feel, if I'm looking at ways that we can improve the Democratic Party nationally, it's investing in people that will want to do this because those are your best door knockers. Those people, even in a race that you don't think is winnable, I think that was a huge part of my 2018 campaign success. We had great candidates all throughout the district, even in tough races, and I helped fund a couple of those campaigns and work with fundraising to get them some money because they were putting forth the effort. Because otherwise, if you're going to lose by 60 to 40, or at best, some of these races are 75-25, and running for office is difficult, putting your name on the ballot and all that. We've got to give them a reward and figure out a way that it benefits people to do this.
Heidi Heitkamp (16:25):
Yeah, I mean, everybody forgets that it was Iowa that launched Barack Obama. His success in Iowa was really what propelled him forward.
J.D. Scholten (16:37):
I mean, I get why Iowa, Obama to Iowans was that's something different, and that's what we continue to strive for. And unfortunately, they went the other way with Trump, and he was just something different and people have gotten behind him. And so I think there is this desire for something else. And I was talking with a New York Times reporter, she's doing the caucus there and everything, and she's like, "What do you think about Iowans feeling about the Trump Biden rematch?" And I was like, "Well, Iowans want something different always," it seems like when it comes to national level stuff, and it's just a little frustration.
Heidi Heitkamp (17:12):
Well, I think Iowa is a case study for the Democratic Party because I mean, Barack Obama won Iowa twice. Tom Harkin, one of the most progressive members of Congress, served in the Senate for decades, really. And you used to elect Democratic governors, Vilsack, our current Secretary of Agriculture was in fact a governor of Iowa. And so you're like North Dakota in some ways where all of a sudden we're on the outs and it didn't take that long to get there. And I know you feel the way I do that a lot of this is driven by people not seeing themselves in the Democratic Party nationally. And so talk a little bit about how state parties like ours can differentiate from some of the more contentious issues that drive our rural voters, our swing voters away from the Democratic brand.
J.D. Scholten (18:07):
What I tend to tell folks is Iowa is geographically between Wisconsin and Nebraska and South Dakota. And politically, we're there as well. And I think 2024 is going to be a really big year on determining are we more a purple state like Wisconsin, or are we more ruby red like South Dakota and Nebraska? I am convinced, absolutely convinced that we can bring back Iowa to be at a purple state. I don't think I would still be in politics if I didn't think that was the case.
Heidi Heitkamp (18:37):
So tell me, J.D., why are the Iowans, I mean, these are good people, would never tell a lie, always help your neighbor, not say a mean word to people, be polite. What is the charm do you think of Donald Trump other than he's something different? Do they like the something different after the past eight years?
J.D. Scholten (19:01):
I'll say just what I've seen is they like winners. And so the fact that Trump lost, I think the Republican primary right now is so fascinating because everyone's like, "Oh, Trump is getting over 50% and all this." But if he's running as an incumbent, 50% is nothing to brag about. He should be 80%.
Heidi Heitkamp (19:26):
He shouldn't have any meaningful opposition, really.
J.D. Scholten (19:29):
Exactly. And so that's the part to me that I don't think is really talked about enough, but you don't see the huge Trump shrines like you used to. And just to hear Republicans openly, like the DeSantis folks, for the most part what I hear is the fact they don't care about DeSantis. They just are like, "We just want somebody other than Trump who's Trump light because Trump's too far and we don't like him." And so I don't know. It's weird to me because I go back to Steve King, in the age of Trumpism... I mean, Steve King I think was a little bit of ahead of his time. I'm not trying to give him credit for anything.
Heidi Heitkamp (20:11):
You almost beat him.
J.D. Scholten (20:12):
I know. But there was a reason why the Republican Party here in Iowa decided to split with him during the age of Trumpism. And I don't see, to me, I guess to Democrats, we don't see a big difference between King and Trump. But for whatever reason, Trump was so up here and King's down here. I see something, that split happening right now a little bit here in Iowa as well.
Heidi Heitkamp (20:35):
Let's talk a little bit about the highlight that is Iowa for the Republican caucus and some of the activities that you've seen. I heard you have a fascinating story to talk about as it relates to Nikki Haley's canvassers.
J.D. Scholten (20:51):
Yeah, so we had the last snowstorm, I would say, I was out shoveling, and it was right after Christmas and I saw these three guys door knocking, and I saw they were about to skip my door, and I was just like, "What are these guys selling?" And then I saw they-
Heidi Heitkamp (21:08):
They had good lists.
J.D. Scholten (21:09):
Well, yeah, they were smart. But they ended up, I mean, it was three, they were probably 22 years old, three guys, and they were for America for Prosperity, which was the PAC that endorsed Nikki Haley. And so they were out door knocking for her. So just being into politics and everything, I just started talking with them. And none of them were really for Nikki. One was for Trump, and two were for Ramaswamy, I believe, initially. And I mean, one kid, I don't think he was even a Republican, he said he was an independent. And so we started talking about stuff and what matters to them. And then I let them in finally after, I don't know about five minutes, I go, "Well, I'm a state representative. I'm a Democrat." And then they were really interested. And it was really good conversation and two of them, one for sure, but I think two of them, I would say by the time we were done talking were Biden curious.
(22:10):
And then the guy who I think orchestrated everything, he was just Republican through and through, but I think he was raised that way. I don't think he was very passionate about any particular thing, but just how he was raised. And the thing that really stuck out to me is I go, "Well, how much are they paying you?" And the whole reason they're doing it is because they were getting $20 an hour. I go, "If I offered $22 an hour, would you come back here tomorrow and would you door knock with me?" They're like, "Yeah." So that's the reality. And you never know. They say DeSantis has had this, they've knocked so many doors and all this stuff, but if you don't have people who are passionate behind the door knocking and all that, it shows. And you're not convincing people-
Heidi Heitkamp (22:58):
Were these young men, were they from Iowa?
J.D. Scholten (23:01):
I will give them credit. They are from Iowa, but they're from outside of Council Bluffs. So to me, that shows they couldn't get anybody in Sioux City. They had to import them from somewhere else. And I would not think that America for Prosperity is lacking for money. So I think it's a lacking-
Heidi Heitkamp (23:20):
For those uninitiated, that's the Koch brother, super PAC. The Koch brother group has endorsed Nikki Haley. When you look at the caucuses and the structure of a caucus, I think a lot of people are curious. They haven't done it before, and Iowa is famous for their caucus nominating process. Can you just give a little rundown on what that looks like on the ground?
J.D. Scholten (23:42):
Yeah. So the Democrats and the Republicans do it differently. So in order to participate, you have to be a registered member of that party. So I couldn't go to the Republican. I guess you could attend, but you can't participate. During the Democrat, the 2020 Democrat, there was a lot of people who just watched, whether it was press, whether it's... At my precinct, I had a father son, the guy was an independent and he just wanted to show his son how it worked. So on Monday, well, it's different this year, and Republicans do it different than Democrats, so I don't really know how Republicans do it. But the way they do it, I think they just write it down on a card their top preference and their second and third choices. And I don't know how they tally it up, but it seems like that's what Democrats should be doing.
(24:28):
I'm not going to lie, that could have solved a lot of things. Basically, you come to a room with your neighbors, usually it's in a high school gym or something like that. And the way the Democrats did it in 2020 was every campaign gave a speech, and once the speeches were done, you split to your first place. And so everyone went to their corner. So once you went to your corner and there was a threshold and you had to do some math and if the person was viable or not. If they weren't viable, those people are all up for grabs. They could either go home or they could go to another campaign. And so that's when things get really interesting because it's neighbors talking to neighbors saying, "Hey, this is why I think you should, if you like this candidate, you'd like our candidate." Things like that.
Heidi Heitkamp (25:12):
It's a rank choice voting, right? In some ways.
J.D. Scholten (25:18):
Yeah. But after two, then you're done. There's no, yeah, rank choice would be better.
Heidi Heitkamp (25:25):
But it is a format that I think benefits someone like Donald Trump where it really is the true believers who show up.
J.D. Scholten (25:34):
Yes. And the intent of it, and one of Harkin's right hand people, Richard Bender was the creator of the, he gets a lot of credit for helping create the caucus, and the intent is for party organizing. And I understand the national narrative where they don't want Iowa, there's this and that. The beauty about Iowa is that for the most part, you need retail politics in order to win here. And you can't just go up on TV and run ads. We needed to engage. You needed to get out there, and your campaign needed to get out there and engage with the voters. And that is something I do not want lost. It doesn't have to be in Iowa, but that was such a key part.
(26:20):
And then you had eight days until New Hampshire. So that allowed for time to build momentum into that. And then you had bigger states after that. And I like that model because the way that it is set up this year, it's very fast. It's only a few days till the next one, and it's not really meant for retail organizing and retail politics. And there's two big states within the first couple of weeks. And so if you win that, that's where it goes. And so to me, I don't want the Democratic Party to lose that aspect of retail politics.
Heidi Heitkamp (26:55):
Yeah, amen. So explain where Sioux City is and how that's different from Des Moines, how it's different from maybe Ames, Iowa and what you hope the Democratic party will be talking about in this election cycle?
J.D. Scholten (27:13):
Yeah, so I mean, Sioux City is in my heart. No, it's where Iowa, South Dakota, and Nebraska all meet. So it's a tri-state area. We're in northwest Iowa. We're a three hours drive from Des Moines. We're an hour south of Sioux Falls, hour and a half north of Omaha. And we're an immigrant meatpacking town. And we've been that way since the 1880s. We're very blue collar, river town. And I would say economically, we haven't bounced back since the 2008 economic crisis for a lot of these parts. That to me is, I feel like being from here is really what allowed me to be a good politician and running for the fourth district because as far as you can go in every direction, it's agriculture. And in the agriculture economy, the people who are on the ground doing the work, the farmers, the workers at the plants and the communities, we feel that there is an extraction, whether it's as much as we create corn, they get shipped out.
(28:21):
Our soybeans, same thing. Hogs, same thing, cattle, same thing. Even wind energy, it gets extracted. And even our children, they leave. And so we just feel like we're not getting back what we're producing out there. And at the same time, and I think COVID really put a spotlight on this, where you have all these companies making record profits, especially meatpackers. You have consumers paying the most they ever have for meat prices. You have farmers getting squeezed both on the input side and the market side, and you have the workers working in dangerous situations for low wages and then being deemed essential, yet they're not getting paid to be essential. And so I think all of that has really been, COVID put a spotlight on it. And that's why I feel like we're seeing these strikes, the UAW strikes and different things like that throughout the nation, but specifically here in the Midwest.
(29:21):
And that's why I think there is a movement for the Democratic Party in this, what I would like to say, the post-Trump world. So I'm optimistic that there's something to happen, and I'm trying to see a few years ahead because I think there's so much potential in the Midwest to win back some of these states. And when you think about the Senate, I just think that Democrats seem to be narrowing our paths right now when we should be expanding. And that's where as an Iowan, as a Democrat, I get very frustrated with our party.
Heidi Heitkamp (29:58):
Yeah. Well, I want everybody to know one fun fact about you, and you know what the fun fact is?
J.D. Scholten (30:06):
Oh, dear Lord. You mean I'm a baseball player?
Heidi Heitkamp (30:09):
Yes. I think it's, a pitcher. You're a pitcher.
J.D. Scholten (30:14):
Yeah. Well, here's the interesting thing is that if it wasn't for COVID, I wouldn't be playing. During my 2020 campaign, I mean, everything shut down. And so I'm just a competitive person and I need a physical release. I need to do something physically to just get stress out. And I had probably had a few too many whiskies one night going down a YouTube rabbit hole of pitching mechanics. And I immediately the next day ordered a couple dozen baseballs and a net, and I hadn't thrown in six, seven years, and I just started throwing again. And then after my campaign the next year, my campaign for Congress in 2020, after I lost, that next summer, I wanted spend more time with my family because you know how much campaigns just suck everything out of you and you don't get to spend as much time with the folks you want to.
(31:02):
And so as my folks age a little bit, I want to hang out with them more. And so I was like, well, I'll spend some of the summers with them up in Minnesota. And my old town team baseball, Minnesota has amazing town team baseball. And my old team, I reached out to them and I said, "Hey, I don't know what I have, but what I have, I'll give my all." And I hadn't played in six, seven years, and I ended up going 10 and one with a one something ERA and did really well. And I did again the next year. And then when I decided to run for State House, I asked what were my obligations after my first session that summer of the first session? And they said, "Oh, it's an off year. You can take some time for yourself." I'm like, "So could I potentially play baseball in Europe?" And they go, "Yeah."
(31:46):
And so I reached out to a team in December, it didn't work out, but then they called me in June and then ended up getting an offer to play baseball in the Netherlands, which is the top level in Europe, and played against a bunch of former big leaguers and a bunch of former minor leaguers and just had a great experience.
Heidi Heitkamp (32:04):
Did you have an ERA of one?
J.D. Scholten (32:09):
No, but I still had more strikeouts than innings pitched. I had less hits allowed than innings pitched and stuff like that. So things that I care more about than ERA.
Heidi Heitkamp (32:20):
Well, but it's great. I mean, it's great that... People think politicians, you're just one dimensional, that's all you care about. You're just out there every day in this political competition. And most really good politicians are very well-rounded, available people who really care about their communities. And so I think when all they see is the rancor and the discord that is Washington D.C., they don't realize that in every city in America, they figured out how to take care of their towns. They figured out how to work together. And so when that poison from above seeps into our communities, then we have problems. But for the most part, people get along pretty well.
J.D. Scholten (33:06):
Yeah. And I'll say after my 2018 campaign, the woman I was dating, we went on her parents' farm and the neighboring farm had some, farmer had some cattle on their farm. And so he came over to check on them and he looked at me and you could tell the wheels were connecting to something. And he goes, "You're the baseball player, aren't you?" And I thought all the millions of dollars of ads I put into that campaign and the fact that he thought I was a baseball player rather than a politician, I'm like, that's success for me.
Heidi Heitkamp (33:38):
That's exactly right. Well, J.D., I'm going to wish you well and keep up your hard work. And obviously, we watch Iowa pretty closely at One Country Project because it is one of those places, like you said, that probably doesn't vote their heritage, but you just never know. And obviously, the Democratic Party reducing the, I wouldn't say value, but basically relegating Iowa to a second tier in their selection processes is something that I'm not convinced it was the right thing, but I understand it given the voting patterns in the last two cycles.
J.D. Scholten (34:21):
I'll say the optimistic thing for us Iowa Democrats is that this will now allow us to focus on ourselves rather than national things coming in every four years-
Heidi Heitkamp (34:32):
And defining you.
J.D. Scholten (34:34):
Exactly.
Heidi Heitkamp (34:35):
That's really interesting. I hadn't thought of that. That this where before, when you have dozens of candidates going around and they're all trying to out-progressive each other to get that nomination, that's probably not the version of the Democratic Party that you want to be on display every four years.
J.D. Scholten (34:54):
Exactly.
Heidi Heitkamp (34:56):
We just so enjoy having you on the board, the insights that you bring to the board. We wish you nothing but the best of luck in your re-elect and stick with us. You're a voice that needs to be heard nationally because if we are going to be successful going forward in bringing not just Democrats but moderates back to state houses, moderates back to the fold, we need to field candidates who reflect those values and you certainly fit in that mold.
J.D. Scholten (35:27):
Well, thank you very much, Heidi. I really appreciate that.
Heidi Heitkamp (35:29):
Well, take care, J.D. Stay warm.
(35:38):
We talk a lot about what's happening in family farms in recent decades. In fact, there was a recent New York Times article about how many college graduates leave Iowa and other farming states after graduation. These will be important topics this year, this election year. And honestly, it's not all doom and gloom. In fact, some young people are leaving big cities and desk jobs to get back to the land. They're choosing to become rural farmers instead of city office workers. And we caught up with one young farmer in Virginia who did just that.
Jesse Straight (36:08):
My name is Jesse Straight. I'm the owner and farmer of Whiffletree Farm. We're in Warrenton, Virginia, and my wife and I started this farm in 2009. We raise and sell chicken, eggs, turkey, pork and beef, and everything's raised on fresh pasture, no antibiotics, no chemicals, no GMO grains, and our beef is 100% grass-fed. The other thing that's distinctive about us is we sell directly to customers. So we do all the work that's involved in terms of processing, marketing, delivering, customer service, and we sell out of our farm store. We do what we call neighborhood deliveries and then sell to wholesale customers. I grew up here in Warrenton, my family, my parents weren't farmers and I was a normal suburban kid. Went to UVA, studied religious studies and did the pre-med sciences and was thinking about trying to figure out what I was going to do and was really not quite sure.
(37:05):
And then I read a book by Wendell Berry after college that really caught my imagination and he presents this life that's a vision of the good life that's a bit of a critique of our modern life, where modern life is so characterized by the disintegration of your life. Your kids go here, your work's here, your friends are here, your extended family's over here. You move everywhere for a job. It's just like your life is pulled in 100 different directions. And Berry's critique is like, while this has made us very wealthy, it's not maybe made us so happy. And that really made a lot of sense for me. And so we moved back to my hometown and had this idea of having our own business raising really good food. And I guess the other part of it is just the state of food and farming in the United States is more characterized by an emphasis on the consideration of cheap and convenient, whereas considering the health of the food, which you think about as the whole fundamental point of food, sustaining human life was more of an after consideration.
(38:14):
And also not to mention the health of the land, the water, the air, which of course facilitates the future production of healthy food and human flourishing. So those were, I saw, okay, here's an area where there's a need. Good food is not prevalent and good farming is not prevalent. And here's something where I could do a little good. It's something where I can try and put together this integrated life that I wish for. So we moved to Warrenton in 2009 and got 50 baby chicks and tried to figure it out and made lots of mistakes and just developed our skills, our customer base until the farming is our only source of income. We don't have any other off-farm jobs and we have a great crew of people. We have great customers, we raise incredible food. Our land is benefited every year by what we're doing. It's a really good life for my family and me.
(39:11):
Production is not the hardest part. We can teach someone how to raise a really good say chicken or laying hen more quickly than probably we can teach someone how to market and run a business and manage employees. That's the harder part. And that's the thing that's more rare among farmers is it's one thing for a farmer to be able to raise good food, and that definitely takes a lot of skill and knowledge and experience and attention. But I feel like it's harder to then get a business going. And the whole thing about selling directly to a customer and everything that's entailed in that is probably more intimidating to more people than raising food.
(39:53):
So in one sense, you might say a business like ours is an uphill battle. We're not cheap and we're not convenient. So it's like, well, that's a bad recipe. But the other thing is in another sense, it's not an uphill battle because if you actually learn about, if you went and saw the poultry houses and you actually learned about the nutritional value of that food versus ours, and you saw what was being exploited in that system and what is being benefited in our system, it'd be a no-brainer. We should be charging twice what we're charging for what we're providing. What we're doing is so obviously better. We just have to connect with customers who are open to seeing that and who value that.
(40:36):
This world could be full of farms like us just creating inches of topsoil and creating good clean water and air and great food and communities that aren't being exploited and people, and workers that aren't being exploited and animals that aren't being exploited. And I know there's a sacrifice involved. People work hard for what they have. So I'm not trying to be flippant about that. But I think, like I said, I think what we're providing here, I think we're giving people a good deal if you really think about how much better what we're providing is than the conventional side.
Heidi Heitkamp (41:14):
What a wonderful story. Thank you, Jesse, for sharing it with all of us. And again, thank you to J.D. Scholten for fighting the good fight in Iowa and joining me today on today's podcast. Joel will be back in two weeks. So join us then. To learn more about the work of One Country Project, visit OneCountryProject.com. And if you like the Hot Dish, and I hope you do, write a review for us on Apple Podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts. And to support the important work that the One Country Project is doing to elevate the needs of rural America and Washington, please visit onecountryproject.com/give. We will see you all the next time we're together on the next Hot Dish podcast.