WASHINGTON – A rift over the best candidate to run for retiring Sen. Tina Smith’s seat involving the national Republican Party and far-right political activist Laura Loomer was on display this week at Farmfest.
Adam Schwarze, a former Navy Seal, and Navy vet Tom Weiler, who are both running to replace Smith, were both advised by Farmfest organizers that they did not have sufficient support in recent public opinion polls to attend Wednesday’s U.S. Senate candidate forum.
So, on the GOP side only former sportscaster Michele Tafoya and former NBA player Royce White were on the dais, facing off against each other and the two Democrats in the race, Rep. Angie Craig, D-2nd District, and Lt. Gov. Peggy Flanagan.
The candidates will run in Tuesday’s party primary elections.
Schwarze, the Republican Party’s endorsed candidate, has always been a thorn in the national GOP’s side. The Republican National Senatorial Committee (NRSC) has been heavily promoting Tafoya and helping her campaign.
Related: GOP primary awaits after Schwarze tops Tafoya for party’s U.S. Senate endorsement
Just hours before Wednesday’s forum, the NRSC issued a release that bashed Craig and Flanagan, without evidence, for wanting “to raise farmers’ taxes to give health care to immigrants” while praising Tafoya, who it said “will fight to lower input costs and strengthen Minnesota’s rural communities.”
But the release really pummeled Schwarze.
“And don’t forget that transgender porn enthusiast Adam Schwarze was not invited to Farmfest, so he put out fake news claiming the event was canceled,” it said, with a link to a May post by Loomer that said Schwarze’s account on X followed a transgender porn account.
Schwarze denied the allegation.
“National Republicans have had their thumb on the scale in this race from the very beginning,” said Schwarze, who is no fan of transgender rights, in an emailed statement. “That’s why they are pushing this completely debunked story. Voters deserve a debate and an opportunity to see the candidates talk about the issues, but the Washington-picked candidate has been hiding … .”
While they were not invited to attend the Senate candidate forum, Schwarze and Weiler went to Farmfest anyway. Schwarze told a reporter at the event that he was “the actual Republican candidate supported by the grassroots.”
Some senators not high on hemp ban delay
A U.S. Senate short-term spending bill aimed at preventing a government shutdown that would also delay a federal ban on drinks and other products made with hemp-derived THC is in limbo, even as President Donald Trump lobbied GOP senators this week to try to help the hemp industry.
The bill, called a continuing resolution, or CR, would delay an outlawing of drinks, gummies and even some CBD products containing more than 0.4 milligrams of THC, the psychoactive ingredient in cannabis.
But that reprieve has been met with resistance from a growing group of senators led by Sen. Ted Budd, R-N.C., who want it stripped out of the bill.
The new restrictions on hemp were set to go into effect Nov. 12. But the short-term spending bill would give the industry another month, until Dec. 11, to try to persuade lawmakers to adopt strict regulations on intoxicating products made from hemp instead of banning them.
The hemp provision in the spending bill was also likely to be renewed, perhaps several times, as Congress has not been able to finish work on all 12 appropriations bills that would fund the federal government and is likely to have to continue to resort to stopgap measures.
The production of intoxicating products made of hemp was made possible by the decriminalization of hemp in the 2018 farm bill.
In 2022, Minnesota took advantage of what detractors call an unforeseen “loophole” in the legislation that allows the sale of low-dosage drinks and other edibles that contain THC derived from hemp.
That has created a booming industry in the state, with many Minnesota manufacturers selling their hemp-based products across the nation.
But the looming hemp ban threatens that market.
Trump, meanwhile, called Budd and some of his allies this week to lobby for the delay in the federal restrictions on hemp.
Trump has voiced concern over how the restrictions would impact a Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services pilot program that would allow the use of CBD to fight certain illnesses.
But lobbyists for the marijuana industry who want intoxicating hemp products to be regulated like pot say there’s another reason Trump has stepped into the dispute roiling the Senate.
They say he is influenced by his trusted chief of staff, Susie Wiles, whose son-in-law is chief executive of a company that sells intoxicating hemp-derived gummies and vapes.
In any case, Budd is adamant he will not give up on his efforts to strip out the hemp language from the short-term spending bill, even as he told reporters: “I’ve been asked by a lot of people to stand down this amendment.”
“Let me be clear: I will not back down,” Budd said on X. “I will not waver. I will not stop until this life-threatening hemp loophole is closed permanently. We must strip this amendment from the CR & regulate these harmful substances for what they are — not what the industry wants to call them.
The impasse over the hemp provision in the short-term spending bill has blocked consideration of other items on the GOP agenda that Republican Senate leaders wanted to resolve before adjourning this week for its August recess. Those included confirming Trump’s nominee for attorney general, Todd Blanche, and efforts to consider a bill aimed at regulating college sports.
Vice President JD Vance was dispatched to the U.S. Capitol on Thursday to try to meet with GOP senators, clear the logjam and brief the lawmakers on the war in Iran and the need to provide the Pentagon with more money. But it’s not clear any progress was made.
Farm bill founders, again
As Minnesota’s farmers networked and their votes were solicited by the state’s politicians this week at Farmfest, attempts to pass a long overdue farm bill failed in Congress.
While the House approved its version of the farm bill, the Senate farm bill floundered on Thursday when it was defeated on a party line vote in the Senate Agricultural Committee.
The reason? Democrats insisted on a two-year delay in a shift to the states for more of the cost to administer the food stamp program, officially known as the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP). The cost shift was established by Trump’s “big, beautiful bill.”
The last five-year farm bill was approved in 2018. The new one is now three years overdue, although a budget reconciliation bill approved last year provided funding for many farm programs.
Other farm programs and new policy proposals, including one that would outlaw bans imposed by California and other states on pork raised under inhumane conditions and another that would allow year-round sales of E15, remain unresolved.
Senate Agriculture Committee Chairman John Boozman, R-Ark., however, said he is not defeated and will try to reconvene the committee in September.
In other news:
▪️ Matt Blake and Brian Arola took a look at legislative races in northeastern Minnesota’s sprawling 3rd District, where Democrats hope to make gains in the House and the Republican mayor of Babbit hopes to unseat Sen. Grant Hauschild.
▪️ Brian Arola and freelancer Forrest Peterson covered political forums at Farmfest, with a huge assist from photojournalist Bridget Bennett. See what the congressional candidates had to say here and the U.S. Senate candidates here.
▪️ Meanwhile, our new water reporter, Claire Carlson, joined in the fun and filed this piece from Farmfest on free nitrate contamination testing being done on drinking water by the state Agriculture Department. The contamination is caused by fertilizer and manure runoff.
▪️ We also reported on the federal government finalizing its contract with the shuttered Prairie Correctional Facility in Appleton, which will be used starting this fall to detain undocumented immigrants.
Please keep your comments, and any questions, coming. I’ll try my best to respond. I can be reached at aradelat@minnpost.com.
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