Farm industry leader explains why ‘deep red’ Pa. farmers voted for Democrats

Since 2003, Chris Herr has headed the PennAg Industries Association of 400-plus farmers and food companies in Lancaster, Chester, Berks, Lebanon and other Pennsylvania counties.

A past Republican legislative aide, Herr says Democrats’ sweeping victories Tuesday in Pennsylvania and wins in long-Republican farm states reflect frustration with Trump administration policies: tariff wars that doubled equipment costs; inflated diesel, gasoline and fuel oil prices; and especially the administration’s costly campaign to revoke work permits and deport immigrant farm, factory and construction workers.

Herr addressed questions from The Inquirer after the election. The conversation has been edited for clarity and brevity:

Farms here and all the way to Erie County that are our members have a tremendous system of businesses they support and work with. Many of them use first-generation immigrant help to get the job done. So immigration has become a very significant issue to the people I represent in a very red-leaning area.

These folks want a secure border. They want people who are dangerous and have broken the law removed. Most of them believe local law enforcement should work with immigration officers.

They are just looking for a workable program to get solid hard-working people here to do jobs Americans won’t do.

We are not radical, thinking on this. We’re pragmatic.

This winter we had the avian flu. Farmers had to destroy millions of chickens. To save another 15 [million] to 20 million, they had to deploy crews of migrant workers to go in there and get the birds out.

These are people who were averaging $80,000 a year, working long hours. There was a crew of Americans the agriculture department brought in. They worked at a fraction of the pace.

Well, in April and May, immigration stopped three vans belonging to one of the farms [Paragon Poultry Management Group’s Melhorn Sales Service & Trucking Co. in Mount Joy] and removed 17 of those workers.

I had worked side by side with those people. I developed respect for them. I saw how hard they worked. That’s part of the reason I feel so strongly.

And now the geese are flying over the poultry farms [spreading bird flu] again, and we are less prepared than last year for losing those workers. And being forced to skimp on equipment because it costs more this year.

Stacy Garrity has been a good, good friend of mine for many years. I was on stage when she was sworn in as state treasurer.

That made it awkward this fall. She ran into the frustration with the tone-deafness of the Trump administration on numerous issues: $6 [per gallon] diesel fuel, this [trade] war with Canada over tariffs. We see Canada as a trading partner. That’s not how President Trump sees the situation.

Fertilizer doubled in price, but he’s repeating this chorus of ‘the farmers love me.’ Well, I had to hear a lot of comments to the contrary.

Numerous members suggested they really liked Josh Shapiro. He’s been very attentive to agriculture. He kept Russell Redding as his agriculture secretary, who has been outstanding in that job under three different governors.

That’s had a lot to do with the governor’s ability to grasp problems like avian influenza and to work with our Senate to put together the only state recovery package in America. My members saw the governor and the secretary working on this firsthand.

We went to some of our members of Congress to talk about these issues. They were combative with us on immigration and on the high cost of living.

People are just fed up with the combination of those issues. That’s why on Tuesday Lancaster County went Democratic.

A lot of farm equipment components are made in Canada or Mexico, just like in the automobile industry. So the new tariffs have jacked up the price of equipment significantly.

When we had the avian influenza last year, farmers found this disinfecting gate made in Germany. Then tariffs came in, it went from being a $100,000 piece of equipment to $180,000.

They don’t make it here in the U.S.

After Tuesday, if you aren’t on board to consider some of the immigration changes and tariff changes, you are deaf.

I’m optimistic. The president had a conciliatory tone for the most part right after the election.

I hope the Democrats don’t see this as a mandate for all their ideas. By and large Americans just want Congress to get stuff done.

It’s time to work on affordability issues, figure out this Iran war, work on energy prices.

And [it’s time to] continue the work on things the Trump administration did that were on right lines. Making us energy-independent.

The shale gas play has been good for agriculture and good for the northern tier of Pennsylvania counties. Gas royalty checks allowed a lot more farmers to stay on their land.

So we partner very closely with gas companies in the region.

We were fortunate to have Republican U.S. Rep. Glenn Thompson from Pennsylvania as chairman of the U.S. House Agriculture Committee. [He will have to step down when the Democrats take over.]

In June he was lead sponsor of SAWA [the Save Agriculture’s Workforce Act] which expands seasonal harvester visas to year-round jobs in poultry, mushrooms, [and other food industries]. We think that’s a great idea. That’s what we’re asking for. The Dignity immigration bill also.

Thompson really got beat up for it, because it was contrary to the president’s immigration policy.

Republican Rep. Lloyd Smucker signed the SAWA bill, but he kept quiet about it. So there was an event, I called him out a little, I said we happen to be sitting in a room with a lot of the ag community, a lot of the construction community, which is his business, a lot of healthcare, and he still was digging in a little bit in terms of toeing the line on it.

Trump at times has said he understands the value of immigrants. He was in the construction industry and the hospitality industry.

Then someone in the White House walks him back. It’s hurt the president. It’s hurt the Republicans. I hope he uses his good judgment now.