What’s with farmers and Trump?

How is it that Arkansas farmers continue to put their faith and hope in Team Republican? 

Farming, and all that goes with it, is the state’s largest industry, contributing somewhere between $20 billion and $25 billion to Arkansas’ economy each year. And yet, if the plight of actual farmers is any indication, that industry, made up of almost 50,000 farms, 95% of which are family owned, has been left to rot. 

Arkansas led the nation in farm bankruptcies in 2025, racking up 33 last year. This year, things are going to be worse. Through just three quarters of 2026, there have been almost as many as in 2025, according to the University of Arkansas Division of Agriculture.

“So far this year, 32 agricultural operations in Arkansas have filed for Chapter 12 bankruptcy protection, highlighting the financial challenges facing the state’s agriculture sector,” said Harrison Pittman, director of the National Agricultural Law Center, according to the Division of Agriculture. The data was released by the federal courts.  

Those bankruptcy numbers got a huge assist, in a bad way, from the war in Iran that clogged or closed the Strait of Hormuz and the Red Sea, driving up fuel and fertilizer costs to Arkansas farmers by $343 million, according to the Division of Agriculture, which said the figure is a conservative estimate. The price of agricultural diesel, for instance, is up 72% over what farmers had budgeted for that expense.

Instead of making money, even a little bit of money, on huge row crops, farmers in the state are now losing big money per acre, according to multiple online sources. For corn, the loss is between $131 to $170 an acre. It’s between $80 and $85 per acre for soybeans; between $258 and $442 for rice; and about $345 per acre for cotton. 

And not to be left out of the pain were cattle ranchers. Demand and prices have been high for beef, but those high prices were hurting Republican vote margins, so Trump threw the door open to accept 300,000 tons of imported beef into the country. That roiled the U.S. cattle markets at a time when ranchers were just starting to bank some long-overdue profits. So you can put a frowny face on them, too.

Who needlessly started the war – and is still stuck in it? And who invited the foreign beef into the country? And who is now snuggling up to Russia’s Putin in a last-ditch effort to save some votes by getting diesel prices down?

Right on all three! President Trump. (We wonder how that Russia thing plays out at the coffee shop.)

And yet, the love for Trump has kept expanding.

In 2016, 73.1% of farmers in Arkansas voted for Trump. Four years later, 76.1% voted for him. And two years ago, in 2024, almost 78% voted for him. Those percentages were well ahead of the between 60% and 64% that Trump got from Arkansas voters in general.

Perhaps farmers are waking up.

A story in The Hill said Republicans have counted on the farmer vote, but farmers may be getting tired of being taken for granted.

“Yes, I think they’re nervous. Yes, I think they should be, and yes, I think that farmers are pretty ticked off,” said Amy Frederiksen, a former Minnesota Republican Senate majority leader, according to the story.

Will Arkansas farmers follow suit or just keep pulling the lever for Rs?

Never a discouraging word is heard from Republican Congressman French Hill – or any of the other congressional Republicans from the state – about Trump or his neverending war he created despite saying he wouldn’t involve the country in one. 

And Republican Senator Tom Cotton – you know, the one who likes to point to his two tours of military duty in his TV ads but who was too chicken to debate his Democratic opponent, Hallie Shoffner – just loves LOVES the Iran war because he’s been itching for it for years. So don’t count on him as a friend of farmers.

That leaves Hill’s opponent, Democratic congressional candidate Chris Jones, who has been quick to point out Trump’s absurdities, and Shoffner, who, as a former farmer, frequently makes the commonsense suggestion that Arkansas farmers should grow food that people eat and can make money from instead of growing crops that cost more than they’re worth. Imagine that.

And while it’s not a national issue, we would be remiss in not pointing a finger at the Arkansas law known as GAJA, or the Generating Arkansas Jobs Act. That’s the Entergy-authored state law that allows the utility to start charging customers for construction costs before new electricity-producing plants come online. While the law costs the average homeowner around $6 a month, four farmers spoke at a legislative committee meeting recently to say that it was costing them thousands and might just run them out of business. So even the state is sticking it to farmers.

So, go ahead, Farmer Brown, if you even have a farm anymore. Go to the polls, as Trump has suggested, with the thinking that he is on the ballot. And while you’re at it, recall how much your fate has changed in the past few years and how no Republican on the ballot is coming to help you. Then cast your vote.