'Nightmare': Trump-voting farmers now plead for help

person in yellow jacket holding black soil

Many years after Democratic strategist James Carville famously described Pennsylvania as Philadelphia in the east, Pittsburgh in the west and Alabama in between," it continues to be a very complex swing state.

President Donald Trump narrowly won Pennsylvania in 2024 after losing it in 2020, and he still enjoys a great deal of support in the rural areas of the state that are jokingly described as "Pennsyltucky" (while Philly remains overwhelmingly Democratic). But according to Politico reporter Samuel Benson, farmers in rural Pennsylvania counties are begging Trump for help. Their problem: not enough workers.

"In Tioga County, where President Donald Trump won 75 percent of the vote in 2024, farmers are losing patience with the White House's promise of a quick solution for farm workers," Benson explains in an article published on September 15. "Their urgent need is highlighted by stories like those of a multigenerational dairy farm that sold off all its dairy cows because the owner could not find workers and another where a farmer’s job listings have received no responses. Farmers in the rural region near the New York border say those stories are not unique."

One of those farmers is John Painter, who operates an organic dairy farm in Westfield, Pennsylvania and voted for Trump in three presidential elections in a row.

Painter told Politico, "The whole thing is screwed up. We need people to do the jobs Americans are too spoiled to do."

Tim Wood, a dairy farmer who serves on the Pennsylvania Farm Bureau's board of directors, is sounding the alarm as well.

Wood told Politico, "People don't understand that if we don't get more labor, our cows don't get milked and our crops don't get picked."

According to Benson, Pennsylvania farmers who rely on the H2A program for labor find it very difficult to navigate.

Gardners, Pennsylvania-based orchard grower Sarah Zost told Politico, "We moved to H-2A out of necessity. No one wants to use the program. It’s a paperwork nightmare."

Read Samuel Benson's full article for Politico at this link.

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