The White House report on rural jobs and economic security released today sends a strong signal that President Barack Obama will fight hard for the rural vote in 2012. The report was released in advance of Obama’s three-day bus trip to the Midwest next week. Read More...

Christie Vilsack, the wife of Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack, formally announced today that she will challenge Rep. Steve King, R-Iowa, in the newly mapped fourth district of Iowa. Read More...

First Lady Michelle Obama will appear at an Oakland, Calif., breakfast fundraiser for President Obama’s 2012 re-election campaign hosted by Alice Waters, the legendary Berkeley, Calif., chef, who pioneered the concept of school gardens, Obama Foodorama reported today. Read More...

Senate Agriculture Commitee Chairman Debbie Stabenow, D-Mich., says the Senate will proceed on its own schedule on the farm bill and should finish the bill as quickly as possible, but she will not promise to finish the bill in 2012. Read More...

SAN ANTONIO — Washington attorney Marshall Matz has begun setting up a private sector agriculture committee to support President Obama's re-election campaign. Read More...

Senate Budget Committee Chairman Kent Conrad, D-N.D., said in an exclusive interview with The Hagstrom Report that he believes a Democrat can win the North Dakota Senate race in 2012 and listed five possible candidates. Conrad, who announced his retirement earlier today, also pledged to make two agricultural issues — reduction in dependence on foreign oil and the 2012 farm bill — priorities during his last two years in office. Read More...