Democrat Chris Jones, who is running for Iowa secretary of agriculture, was rebuked by Iowa Republicans after saying farmers are “wealthy,” grain farming is “not that hard,” and farmers are “only working a few weeks out of the year.”
The remarks were highlighted Tuesday by Iowa Field Report, which posted video from a 2021 interview Jones gave at the Iowa Ideas Conference, hosted by the Cedar Rapids Gazette.
“And a lot of this grain farming now, it’s not that hard. They’re only working a few weeks out of the year,” Jones said.
“These farmers might be industrious and they might be ingenious and you know all these other adjectives you want to say about it, but the truth is, you know, a lot of them are millionaires,” Jones continued. “They’re really wealthy guys. They’re making three times as much as the average Iowan, and a lot of this grain farming now-it’s not that hard. They’re only working a few weeks out of the year.”
Iowa Field Report said that earlier in the same interview, Jones claimed Iowa farmers are all “wealthy, older white guys.”
Incumbent Iowa Secretary of Agriculture Mike Naig, whom Jones is seeking to unseat, denounced the remarks.
“If you think farming ‘isn’t that hard’ and farmers only work a few weeks a year, you have no business being Iowa’s Secretary of Agriculture,” Naig wrote on X. “Iowa farmers deserve respect, not insults.”
Iowa Attorney General Brenna Bird responded, “What a horrible message from a radical liberal heading into the greatest celebration of Iowa agriculture, the @IowaStateFair. I grew up on our family farm. Chris is just plain wrong! Vote @MikeNaigIA.”
Iowa Republican Party Chairman Jeff Kaufmann remarked, “My family has farmed in Iowa since 1836, so I know what hard work looks like. Iowa farmers work sunup to sundown to feed and fuel the world. Yet radical environmentalist Chris Jones says it ‘isn’t that hard.’ Insulting Iowa farmers while asking for their votes. Brilliant campaign strategy. Vote @MikeNaigIA.”
Iowa GOP spokeswoman Jade Cichy told Breitbart News, “Liberal Chris Jones’ comments are insulting, but hardly surprising coming from a radical environmentalist who has never farmed a day in his life. Iowa farmers work hard to feed and fuel the world, yet he has the gall to insult their work and then ask for their votes. Jones isn’t running to stand up for Iowa farmers — he’s running to tax and regulate them and push his far-left Green New Deal agenda.”
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