Had a wonderful time joining Gun Freedom Radio to discuss standing up for rural Arizona values and the importance of defending the Second Amendment. Listen to our conversation now!

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I got into this race for Congress because I saw challenges that need to be addressed. While others are mudslinging, I’m working to earn your vote by talking about the issues that affect rural Arizona.

Listen to the full interview:

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By Julie Murphree, Via Arizona Farm Bureau

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It’s an election year! This means we’ll need to take the time to review the numerous candidates asking for our vote. In the days and weeks ahead, we’ll hear their messages, pre-planned sound-bites and debate statements. But, will we really get to know them?

The four candidates we are about to profile here — Tiffany Shedd, Sine Kerr, Tim Dunn and David Cook — have a unique but common story: they are all currently in and from agriculture. Many of you know them; they know us, or at least the Farm Bureau family because every one of them is a Farm Bureau member.

We also asked these four “aggie” candidates the same question: What does your experience in agriculture bring to your candidate profile?

So, let’s get to know our fellow aggie candidates.

Tiffany Shedd, Candidate for Congress in Congressional District 1

Tiffany Shedd has roots in Arizona’s 1st Congressional District dating back over 100 years thanks to her family heritage. A farmer, small business attorney, firearms instructor, and mother of three, she is running for Congress to bring rural Arizona values to Washington, DC.

Shedd has spent decades as a fierce advocate for rural Arizona. She and her husband, Rodney, have farmed cotton and wheat since 1989 on the farm they own in Eloy. Shedd has served as a producer on the boards of various commodity advocacy groups, charitable organizations, and has successfully advocated for the private property rights for agricultural landowners.

Always proud to identify as a rural Arizonan, Shedd is an avid shooter and firearms enthusiast. She and her husband established the Central Arizona Target Shooting range in Pinal County to promote youth shooting sports. She is a 4-H certified youth pistol instructor, as well as an NRA-certified youth shotgun instructor. Shedd is a strong and prominent defender of 2nd Amendment rights.

With deep roots in the 1st congressional district and a lifetime of service to her rural Arizona community, Shedd hopes to shed light on some unique aspects of rural America and seek improved economic development for the district.

Says Shedd: I have been farming with my husband for almost three decades. This experience brings to my candidacy the lessons of family teamwork, not making excuses but figuring out how to get things done, hard work, faith that if you do the next right thing you will have a bountiful harvest, optimism, and that perfection can be the enemy of progress. Being surrounded by people who are stewards of the land has taught me that we must manage our natural resources to survive and prosper. That there is nothing Americans cannot accomplish if the government stays out of the way; that producers should be rewarded not punished.

Being a Congressman doesn’t just mean advocating it also means educating, educating those out East about how we do things here in the West. Thank you Chris and Wake Up Tucson for speaking with me about the needs of rural Arizona!

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By David Sowders, via Eastern Arizona Courier

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Via Sedona Red Rock News

Even though Tiffany Shedd has never held political office, she doesn’t see that as a disadvantage, nor has it stopped her from running for Congress.

“Unlike career politicians, I do not just campaign as a conservative — I live it,” she said.

Shedd, a Republican from Eloy, is running for Congressional District 1, a seat currently held by Sedona Democrat Tom O’Halleran.

Shedd said the decision to run wasn’t an easy one but a necessary one.

“I have been very disappointed with the quality of representation that we’ve received in this district,” said Shedd, an attorney and farmer. “Quite simply, Washington, D.C. has stopped listening, and I didn’t see anyone stepping up to defend the West.

“I was determined to find the right candidate to support for Congress, until my husband told me that if I wasn’t such a coward, I’d do it myself. Well that was all the motivation that I needed. I’m no coward; I’ve been fighting for the people of rural Arizona my whole life, and I sincerely believe that
I am the best candidate to serve the Arizona’s 1st District in Congress.”

After the conversation with her husband, Shedd spent a few weeks studying the race and deciding whether or not she believed she could win. The couple, along with their kids, discussed how a campaign could affect their family and ultimately decided that District 1 is “worth fighting for.”

“For too long, politicians from the East have come to Arizona and run for office for the mere purpose of progressing their own careers rather than the lives of the people that live here,” she said. “This trend needs to stop. I’m running for Congress because I want to bring real representation to rural Arizona.”

While she has never run for federal office before, Shedd said this is not her first encounter with the federal government. As a family farmer, she said she know firsthand the effects of government overreach and overregulation.

“Not only have I fought to protect rural Arizona’s water rights from environmental extremists and special interests, I have also helped protect many farms and businesses in Arizona by fighting a damaging property rights law,” she said.

As a 4-H certified youth pistol instructor and a National Rifle Association-certified youth shotgun instructor, Shedd is also an avid proponent of the Second Amendment. She said she and her husband have devoted time and resources into teaching the next generation how to responsibly exercise their right by opening a youth shooting range on their family’s 1,200-acre farm.

“These are not issues that you can learn overnight. They take years of experience and knowledge, and I have put in the time to master them,” she said. “As a member of Congress, I will continue to work hard protecting the interests of rural Arizona as I have my entire life.”

Shedd said preserving the Constitution, including protecting Second Amendment rights, standing up for the hardworking people of rural Arizona and having the backs of those who “serve our great country” are the top three issues facing residents in Arizona’s Congressional District 1.

Shedd admitted she did not quite know what to expect when deciding to run a campaign, but said the experience has been truly life-changing.

“While I have always been blessed with the opportunity to travel across this amazing district and to get to know the people living in it, running for Congress has given me a different perspective,” she said. “There is no hiding that Arizona’s 1st Congressional District is rich in natural resources; however, I truly believe our best product is our people.

“The people of our district are truly unique and I look forward to representing them in Congress. They are crying out for a representative who understands our way of life and will defend the values that we hold dear.”

Via Arizona Farm Bureau

The farm bill went down in defeat today, 198-213. The vote came after a 48-hour deadlock between GOP leadership and members of what’s known as the Freedom Caucus. Farmers across the country are voicing their disappointment. Here in Arizona, the disappointment is far and wide.

“We are already starting to hear from farmers across the nation, many of whom are perplexed and outraged at this morning’s vote,” said American Farm Bureau Federation (AFBF) President Zippy Duvall. “They are facing very real financial challenges. We call on all members of Congress not to use farmers and ranchers as pawns in a political game. The risk management tools of the farm bill are too important, particularly at a time of depressed farm prices. We urge the House to pass H.R. 2 as soon as possible.”

Arizona Farm Bureau’s president also voiced her concern. “Farm income has dropped more than 50 percent in the last four years, the largest decline seen since the Great Depression,” said Stefanie Smallhouse, also a rancher with her husband in Pima County. “Much to the benefit of all American consumers, there have not been food shortages in this country since the first Farm Bill was passed in the recovery effort to bring the U.S. back from this dark time in our history. And not only does agriculture feed and clothe us, it also employs us: the food and agriculture sector supports more than 21 million U.S. jobs, including 138,000 full and part-time jobs right here in Arizona.”

Tiffany Shedd, candidate for Arizona’s Congressional District 1 and a partner with her husband, Rodney, in a cotton farm in Pinal county believes the farm bill is an investment in America. “The farm bill includes investments in rural broadband infrastructure, expands affordable healthcare coverage, and gives rural communities more tools to combat opioid abuse. It invests in locally-led conservation programs and directs the U.S. Forest Service to tackle forest health and wildfire prevention.”

She added, “The farm bill maintains and strengthens the nation’s nutrition programs to assist those who struggle to put food on the table while providing critical training to help people learn the skills necessary to gain well-paying jobs, financial self-sufficiently, and better futures for themselves and their families. The U.S. Chamber came out supporting the bill due to the meaningful work/job training requirements for able-bodied adults.”

The following is how the Arizona Congressional delegation voted on today’s farm bill.

• Voted in favor: McSally, Lesko, Schweikert
• Voted against: Biggs, Gosar, Gallego, Grijalva, O’Halleran, and Sinema

Democrats were expected to vote against final passage of the bill and it was anticipated that Freedom Caucus members were not completely on board, however, the outcome came as quite a disappointment to many.

Political analysts suggest a number of these caucus members defected from voting in support of H.R. 2, as they are using their vote as leverage to get the Goodlatte immigration bill on the floor for a vote.

“Today, instead of updating and improving our Farm Bill, Washington politicians used it to turn farm and ranch families into bargaining chips in global trade discussions and this country’s immigration reform failures,” added Arizona Farm Bureau’s Smallhouse. “If Congress intends to just extend the current Farm Bill amid this farm economy while they bicker over immigration - an issue which has proven itself to be a political lead balloon - everyone will lose. We need Congress to stop playing politics with the security of our agricultural industry and our nation. This is not a Farm Bill - it’s a National Food Security Bill!”

Via The National Journal

Republicans hope the twice-per-decade farm-bill fight provides an effective cudgel against rural Democrats, and the party took its first step last week to bring the issue to the fore.

The National Republican Congressional Committee released three similar digital ads hitting House Agriculture Committee members Tom O’Halleran of Arizona, Sean Patrick Maloney of New York, and ranking member Collin Peterson of Minnesota for their opposition to the bill, which passed out of the committee on April 18 by a party-line vote.

The ad’s narrator accuses Peterson—who cited cuts to rural development, animal health, and conservation programs among his issues with the agriculture section of the broad bill—of siding with House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi over farmers. While the other two spots are the same, an NRCC official told National Journal that agriculture-based ads will in the future delve more into district-specific issues, rather than simply serve as a mechanism to tie Democrats to Pelosi.

As Republicans seek to hold the House majority despite potentially strong midterm headwinds, the party will need ads to cut through the clutter of focus on President Trump.

One Arizona Republican consultant, who said he was not a fan of the NRCC’s initial “cookie-cutter” farm-bill ads, said he wasn’t sure the issue would be a deciding one in a cycle like this.

“There’s so much noise coming out of Washington that it becomes less and less relevant,” the consultant said, saying that in a more “conventional” cycle it could be effective.

Rep. Cheri Bustos, who chairs Heartland Engagement for the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, and Adam Sheingate, chairman of the political-science department at Johns Hopkins University and an expert on agricultural politics, both said this year’s farm-bill process has been more partisan than in prior iterations.

But Sheingate said the political consequence for voting against the bill in committee, which the ads focus on, is limited since the bill’s trajectory wasn’t altered. And Bustos isn’t concerned that a member’s opposition will be a detriment.

“It is incumbent upon every member on the Agriculture Committee who knows exactly what went down in the negotiations to go out and tell our family farmers the truth,” she said.

O’Halleran’s race in Arizona’s 1st District, which encompasses the rural northeast and central parts of the state as well as tourist destinations Flagstaff and Sedona, could provide the best measurement of the issue’s potency.

The freshman is the most endangered Democrat not just of the three ad targets but arguably in all of the House. O’Halleran is the only incumbent whose seat, which Trump won narrowly in 2016 as O’Halleran faced scandal-ridden opponent Paul Babeu, is rated by The Cook Political Report as “Lean Democrat” or in any more-vulnerable category.

While none of Maloney or Peterson’s Republican challengers had even $40,000 in cash on hand by the end of March, all three of O’Halleran’s challenges—farmer Tiffany Shedd, former candidate Wendy Rogers, and state Sen. Steve Smith—had more than $200,000. O’Halleran reported $885,000 on hand, and has outraised each by some $1 million this cycle.

The congressman cochairs the Blue Dog Coalition’s Rural America Task Force, but he’s not the only one in the race with rural credentials. Shedd and her husband farm 600 acres of cotton and wheat, which are among the state’s biggest cash crops, and she has been involved in state and county-level agricultural organizations.

Shedd told National Journal that the agriculture community “really likes the farm bill.” She cited Pinal County, which is in the 1st District and is among the top cotton-producing counties in the country, as a constituency that would benefit from passage of the bill. The National Cotton Council supports the House bill.

In an interview, O’Halleran defended his record on agriculture and said the bill is “counterproductive” to the farming community, He also cited cuts to the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program funding as harmful for the district; per the Almanac of American Politics, 16 percent of 1st District residents are on SNAP, above the 13.5 percent level for the state.

“The farm community is pretty savvy. …They know when they see a bad bill,” O’Halleran said, unconcerned about his vote.

It’s not just traditional farming that is getting attention in the district. Shedd said the bill’s conservation title will be a “big issue,” pointing to the ongoing Tinder Fire southeast of Flagstaff that has burned more than 11,000 acres.

“The whole mountain area is under smoke,” she said. “Small business owners rely on tourism in the summer.”

The Tinder Fire highlights the intense regionalism of agriculture issues. International Dairy Foods Association CEO Michael Dykes warned that a broad Republican focus on simply opposing the farm bill may not be effective, while a GOP consultant in the state echoed Dykes and said the fire was the kind of farming-adjacent issue that could rise above the noise.

The House bill includes an amendment to expedite certain wildfire relief applications.

The farm bill attacks could be undercut by the cycle’s other major agricultural issue, the threat of Chinese tariffs on crops and livestock. Analysts have already pointed to hogs in Iowa, as well as soybeans in Iowa, Illinois, and the upper Midwest, as tariffed farm goods that could affect competitive races.

Shedd said she wasn’t overly concerned about tariffs from China, saying crop insurance measures in the farm bill could help cover losses. “There’s other markets we can pursue,” she said. “There’s hungry people all over the world.”

Bustos disagreed, saying tariffs won’t “be a winning issue for them.”

“It’s all about the pocketbook,” she said.