T-R PHOTO BY MIKE DONAHEY Democratic Secretary of Agriculture candidate Tim Gannon of Des Moines, center, listens to a Democratic Party volunteer, left, as Marshall County Board of Supervisor candidate Sue Blaisdell, right, looks on. Gannon stopped at Marshall County Democratic Headquarters on West Main Street Tuesday afternoon to rally supporters.

Iowans have not elected a Democrat to the Iowa Secretary of Agriculture post since Patty Judge won in 2002.

Tim Gannon wants to pick up where Judge left off.

Gannon was in Marshalltown Tuesday afternoon to meet fellow Democrats while giving a pep talk about supporting Democratic candidates from the courthouse to the statehouse come Nov. 6. He hopes his background as a fifth-generation farmer who works with his father on the family’s Century Farm in Mingo melded with experience serving under former Iowa Gov. Tim Vilsack in the United States Department of Agriculture will convince independents and perhaps some Republicans to cast their vote for him.

Gannon said there is a great deal of anxiety and uncertainty in agriculture now. A wet fall preventing farmers getting into fields melded with low commodity prices and the ongoing tariff issues with China are challenging.

“I lived through the Farm Crisis of the 1980s and I saw what a depressed farm economy does to small-town banks, automotive dealers and implement dealers,” he said.

His top priority would be to raise farm income from the uncertainty of the Trump Administration’s trade policies. Gannon said he would hit the ground running if elected.

Beginning Nov. 7, Gannon said he would reach out to other secretaries or commissioners of agriculture who are seeing their farmers deal with low prices now, so that decision-makers in Washington, D.C. get an understanding of what low prices are doing to locals.

“I am not sure they (Washington) are listening to local elected officials now,” he said. “We need to get the message that low prices are devastating to not only farmers, but to Main Street too. When the agriculture economy is strong, so are other areas of the economy.”

Additionally he would be working with the governor’s office and with key legislative leaders to make sure funding would be in place to insure two of the state’s top resource — soil and water will be taken care of.

If elected, Gannon said he will work to:

• Strengthen the Renewable Fuel Standard and maintaining Iowa’s role as a renewable fuels leader.

• Create new value-added products that can be tested, grown and manufactured through research at Iowa State University.

• Protect Iowa’s soil and water for future generations of Iowans and Iowa farmers.

Gannon is a University of Iowa graduate. He and wife Liz have a 10-month-old daughter Lucy. For more information visit GannonforIowa.com.

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Contact Mike Donahey at 641-753-6611 or mdonahey@timesrepublican.com