Rep. Angie Craig, D-Minn., the ranking member on the House Agriculture Committee, made a vigorous case today for the importance of the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program in rural areas. 

In an early morning speech to the Food Research & Action Center’s National Anti-Hunger Policy Conference, Craig said the Republican House budget proposal to cut $230 billion from programs under the jurisdiction of the House Agriculture Committee would have devastating effects on rural communities.

Craig said that every SNAP dollar has a $1.50 economic impact nationwide, but that in rural areas the impact of every SNAP dollar is $1.80, and that it “travels through the entire supply chain,”  employing farmers, truckers and retailers.

If the Republicans cut the SNAP budget by $230 billion, they “are going to cost family farmers $30 billion in farm income,” Craig said. 

The Republican attempt to cut SNAP spending and increase spending for the reference prices that trigger farm subsidy payments and for crop insurance in reconciliation could destroy the farm and anti-hunger coalition that has convinced Congress to pass farm bills for decades, she said. 

“It is insane what they are thinking about doing,” she said. 

Craig added, however, that farmers do need help because commodity prices are low and input prices are higher than in the past. 

“We could be on the verge of another ’80s farm crisis,” Craig said, adding “that is before the president introduced the dumbest across the board trade war in American history.”

Craig did not mention her candidacy for the Democratic nomination to run for the seat of retiring Sen. Tina Smith, D-Minn., but told The Hagstrom Report that she will continue to serve as ranking member on the House Agriculture Committee while mounting her Senate campaign.

Last week House Agriculture Committee Chairman Glenn “GT” Thompson, R-Pa., told the North American Agricultural Journalists that he wondered if she would continue as ranking member because if he were running for another office, due to Republican rules he would have to submit his resignation as chairman. 

In a brief interview, Craig said she intends to “lead” the Democratic caucus in its efforts to fight Republican plans to cut Medicaid and SNAP. 

In her speech, Craig noted that records show she is one of the most bipartisan members of Congress, but said she has recently toured the state of Minnesota, including districts where Republican House members have declined to hold town hall meetings. She said her tour showed her that the Republicans are “running scared from their constituents.”

Republican members privately express concerns about the president’s budget instruction and the administration’s cuts, but publicly defend Trump, she said.

Craig said she has seen a “whole lot” of her Republican colleagues “draw the red lines” but then fall into “the red pool” after they are threatened. She said she hopes that those who are now drawing red lines “are willing to hold the line” in the budget talks.

She noted that the Trump administration has already canceled grants to food banks,  and that Trump’s budget proposal would eliminate the Commodity Supplemental Food Program, which benefits low-income elderly people.

She also pointed out that the Trump budget would eliminate the Food for Peace program, which has provided food aid in troubled places overseas for decades. 

Craig said she had run for ranking member on the House Agriculture Committee because she came back from the 2024 election “pretty pissed off” that Democrats have such a hard time winning in rural areas. She said she had “eked out a 14% win” and believes that as the ranking member she can have an impact. 

Craig, who defeated Rep. David Scott, D-Ga., 79, the former ranking member on the committee, and Rep. Jim Costa, D-Calif., 74, for the post, joked that where else but in Congress “could a 53-year-old grandmother of three represent change?”

(She did not mention that she is LGBTQ, a fact that is often mentioned in descriptions of her.) 

Craig also said she grew up in a mobile home park in Arkansas with a single mother who sometimes depended on food assistance, but went to college for nine years at night to get a teaching degree.

“I wouldn’t be standing here today if my mom had been denied those benefits,” she said. 

Craig also told the anti-hunger advocates that the minimum wage should be raised and that housing should be made more affordable and child care be made available. 

During a question-and-answer session that followed her speech, Craig urged the anti-hunger advocates to talk about the broader supply chain when they are lobbying in opposition to SNAP cuts this week on Capitol Hill. 

Noting that her district is composed of 30% Democrats, 30% Republicans and “30% who don’t like Democrats or Republicans,” Craig told the advocates, “Don’t be afraid to get outside of what I call a Democratic bubble.”

Some Republican members have pointed out that the Senate budget calls for only a $1 billion cut to ag and food programs and that the House and Senate will eventually have to compromise.

But Craig said “Don’t let folks get away with saying it will be that low — don’t let anybody bullshit you into thinking this cut is not real.”

Thompson would like to reduce the cut, she said, but “what he wants to do and what his leadership allows are two different things.” She also noted that the White House has stayed out of the SNAP cut debate.