David Crowley and Raphael Warnock Make Their Case to Rural Voters

On a stop in Janesville, Wisconsin, Will Westmoreland of Back Forty Action ran into Milwaukee County Executive David Crowley and U.S. Sen. Raphael Warnock of Georgia. “Old farmer from southwest Missouri made a wrong turn in Iowa and ended up in Wisconsin,” he joked.

Westmoreland is a Missouri farmer and the executive director of Back Forty Action, a nonprofit that advocates for rural communities. The group pushes for policies on farming, rural schools, local clinics and high-speed internet, and organizes town halls and listening tours. Nearly 300,000 people follow his TikTok, where he covers agriculture, rural health care, education and the rural economy.

He put one question to both of them: What would a Democratic win actually change for rural America? He described hearing frustration over healthcare, education and economic opportunity during his travels through rural communities.

Crowley’s answer focused on giving farmers a voice in government. Warnock’s focused on the economic pressures facing farmers.

Crowley: Give farmers a seat at the table

Crowley began with Wisconsin’s dairy farmers and a contrast between feeding the country and being treated as expendable.

“When you think about this federal administration, they’ve put rural communities and farmers on the menu,” he said. His own approach, he told Westmoreland, would let farmers “pull up a chair” and help shape the solutions.

He argued that rural communities need responses suited to their own circumstances, with the support of the people who live there.

“There isn’t a one-size-fits-all solution, especially in rural communities,” Crowley said. “You have to right-size these solutions to fit each community’s needs.”

He closed his answer with a Randy Newman reference: “You have a friend in me.”

Warnock: Farmers need business, not just relief

Warnock began by referring to the Lord’s Prayer and its request for daily bread. Farmers, he said, are “quite literally the answer to a prayer.”

“The least we can do is center them, their concerns, because food security is national security,” he said.

He criticized Donald Trump’s tariffs, recalling subsidies during Trump’s first term and saying farmers would rather have business than government assistance. He also attributed higher diesel costs to what he called a “lawless war of choice.” Those were Warnock’s arguments in the interview; the exchange did not supply figures measuring either effect.

Warnock came back to the wrong-turn joke. “You made a wrong turn?” he said. “It’s time for farmers to take a right turn—or left turn.” The exchange included the correction: “Left turn.” Warnock made the electoral appeal explicit: “Vote for a Democrat.”

What rural voters can ask next

Before the interview ended, Warnock spoke about asking to serve on the Senate Agriculture Committee despite growing up in Savannah rather than a rural community. He said agriculture mattered to Georgia and the country, and endorsed Crowley as Wisconsin’s next governor.

The interview offered two priorities: farmers having a voice in government, and farmers earning a living from their work. It did not lay out detailed proposals for the healthcare, education and economic concerns Westmoreland raised at the start.

For voters weighing that pitch, the next step is to ask candidates which specific measures they would pursue, how those measures would work in their community, and how voters could judge the results.

Interview conducted by Will Westmoreland.