It’s harvest season in Dooly County, Georgia, and Lee Davis is having a tough year. His farm is burning through 3,000 gallons of diesel a week, and diesel prices in Georgia hit a record high last month, according to AAA. Even excluding gas, Davis estimated his costs are up 37% from last year.

Davis, a proud independent, blames President Donald Trump for much of that — especially the war with Iran, the primary driver of high fuel prices. He thinks Trump is “held by the balls by Netanyahu” and isn’t acting in the interest of the American people.

But that frustration may not be enough to put him behind a Democrat in November.

“I feel if someone level headed would run, that’s what everyone wants,” Davis told MS NOW. “Both parties seem to be fronting only clowns, and it’s a giant circus.”

He’s leaning toward Republican Rick Jackson in the governor’s race and is still undecided in the Senate race. There, Sen. Jon Ossoff has joined a wave of Democrats reaching out to rural farm voters — a traditionally conservative bloc that polls show is unhappy with Trump’s handling of the economy.

As swing races enter their final stretch of the election cycle, the question is whether that outreach will work. Nearly every farmer MS NOW interviewed nationwide said they are increasingly frustrated by high production costs, which they blame on Trump administration policies. But few were confident that frustration would translate into widespread defections to Democrats — many of whom, these farmers said, are still behind on the farm issues rural voters care about most or simply ineffective on them.

John Bartman, an Illinois Democrat whose family farm dates to 1846, said times are tough for farmers everywhere, but Democrats face an uphill battle because they’ve said little about anything beyond affordability. He pointed in particular to the inheritance tax and to the Waters of the United States rule, which determines which streams, wetlands and other waters fall under federal regulation. Some farmers fear Democrats would use a Biden-era revision of the rule to saddle them with massive permitting and cleanup costs.

Those issues “very seldom get brought up by Democratic candidates,” according to Bartman, while Trump and administration officials like EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin have addressed issues public speeches in the past year. The Department of Agriculture also launched a new “Farmers First” initiative on its website Tuesday, part of Agriculture Sec. Brooke Rollins’ push to solidify farmers’ support for the GOP ahead of the midterm elections.

Willis Nelson, 38, and his brother Courtney, 36, are third-generation farmers in Sondheimer, Louisiana. They said that despite widespread frustration over rising production costs, Democrats still have to overcome apathy among their peers, some of whom doubt the party has answers for their financial strain.

”It’s enough people in this state that don’t feel that their vote count or don’t care about politics,” Willis said. “I just don’t think it’s gonna be enough people to turn out to vote [for Democrats].”

Beyond skepticism, the family farmers also outlined distrust toward both political parties that one election cycle alone might not be enough to repair.

“I think they use us as a photo opp,” Willis said. “I don’t like that.”

Courtney was blunter. He said most farmers feel that neither party is willing to set aside partisanship to deliver the relief they need.

“They want to have a match, see who can win, Democrat or Republican. So it just defeating the purpose,” he said. “Ain’t not one of them, Democrat or Republicans, there to help us middle class.”

Still, even farmers critical of both parties said Democrats may be in a stronger position to win over new voters, even if it’s not as many as the party is likely hoping for. A recent KFF/Associated Press survey showed that 57% of rural voters — including 27% of rural Republicans — disapprove of Trump’s handling of the economy.

“Most people I know, of all walks, leaned more towards Trump,” Davis said of his colleagues in southern Georgia. “But I’d say a strong 10-20% are leaning back towards Dems.”

In Iowa, high diesel costs have pushed some Republican candidates to break with Trump, including Senate nominee Ashley Hinson. So has cattle farmers’ anger over eased tariffs on imported beef. Steve Kuiper, a fourth-generation farmer who chairs the Iowa Corn Growers Association, said the opportunity for Democrats to make gains there remains significant.

“There was a period where Iowa was really democratic, and so it swung Republican because the Democrats weren’t doing for Iowa, and so right now, if people feel like the Republicans aren’t doing for Iowa, Iowans are not going to vote Republican,” he said.

Even so, the Iowa Corn Growers PAC endorsed Republicans in the state’s Senate and congressional races earlier this year, and those endorsements are unlikely to change. Kuiper also noted that while farmers’ frustration is palpable, some don’t blame Republicans for high fuel costs, which blunts Democrats’ attacks.

“Oil companies are making huge money right now, so it tends to make you believe that some of this inflated fuel cost is just a way to make more profit for some of these companies,” he said.

Back in Dooly County, Fate Sparrow, a fourth-generation cotton farmer, said he doesn’t see either party helping farmers right now. He told MS NOW in May that he didn’t plan to pass his farm down to his children when he retires. He’s even more certain of that decision today.

“I love what I do and all, but it’s just — it’s not worth it anymore,” Sparrow said. “I can let these corporations and all around me buy my land and make piles of money and live the rest of my life great, or I can go out there and risk it, risk it all by keeping on farming.”

Sparrow said the best case scenario for this year’s harvest is that he breaks even. With diesel prices up nearly 65% from last fall in Georgia, turning a profit is out of the question for his operation and other farms like his, Sparrow said. It’s all leading Sparrow, who once described himself as a “hardcore Republican,” to reconsider his political allegiances.

“I’ve talked to farmers that are 65 years old and said they have never voted for a Democrat. and they’re either going to vote for Democrat or they’re just not going to vote at all,” he said.

Those are the voters Democrats are trying to reach. In May, Ossoff introduced the Farm Disaster Tax Cut Act, which would give farmers a tax cut after natural disasters or major revenue losses. Other Democratic Senate candidates have made similar appeals to rural Americans in recent months, including Josh Turek in Iowa, Abdul El-Sayed in Michigan and Peggy Flanagan in Minnesota.

But the bill is one of a long list of agriculture measures stalled in the Senate, which is out of session until after the election. And as Sparrow’s case suggests, legislative proposals alone may not be enough to overcome voters’ long-standing concerns about the Democratic Party, even as they bleed money at the pump.

Sparrow told MS NOW he remains undecided about which party he’ll support on Nov. 3.

“I’m planning on [voting],” he said. “But with the Democrats … when they go in there and they start talking about, you know, it’s okay for women to play men’s sports and men to play women’s sports, that kills them when they do that.”

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From MS Now.