WASHINGTON – As Sonny Perdue moves toward becoming President Donald Trump's secretary of agriculture, Minnesota's congressional delegation and business leaders are hoping the former Georgia governor's advocacy reaches beyond Southern farm interests to more Midwestern concerns like poultry and renewable fuels.
Minnesota's Democratic U.S. senators, who will vote on Perdue's nomination, voiced particular concern with how the Trump administration would address the avian flu threat, as poultry producers nervously eye new outbreaks in Wisconsin and Tennessee. Minnesota lost 9 million turkeys and chickens during a 2015 outbreak, devastating rural economies and costing an estimated $650 million.
"We cannot afford an injury to our poultry industry," Perdue said at a Senate Agriculture Committee hearing last week, in response to a question from Sen. Amy Klobuchar.
The Agriculture Committee voted Thursday to approve Perdue's nomination, with Klobuchar joining Republicans and all but one of the panel's Democrats in backing him. He is expected to easily win confirmation.
Perdue once practiced as a veterinarian, served two terms as governor of Georgia and started a global trading company. He was the last of Trump's Cabinet nominations, and farming constituencies have anxiously awaited his approval. The last three agriculture secretaries were all Midwestern governors — Tom Vilsack of Iowa, Ed Schafer of North Dakota and Mike Johanns of Nebraska — and Midwestern leaders are pushing Perdue to take account of their region.
"I think it's a really big concern to [Sen. Al Franken] to make sure that the Trump administration is putting a big focus on agriculture and a big focus on rural America, and he's going to raise a lot of Minnesota issues with the nominee," said Franken's spokesman. Perdue met with Franken this week, and a spokesman said Franken found it productive.
U.S. Rep. Collin Peterson of western Minnesota, the ranking Democrat on the agriculture committee, said he anticipated different regional interests working together.
"There's not enough of us [in agriculture] to be fighting with each other, the Midwest and the South," Peterson said.