How would you sum it up . Caller guest the Democratic Party has lost Rural America and time we get it back. This is our attempt to say there is plenty democratic policies good for Rural America and listening the Democratic Party needs to do. Host was that clear cut the last election or before . Guest the trend has been continuing since 2008, president obama did well in 2008 and less well in 2012 and 2016 was a disaster and you can see the trend. It is important that people understand you cannot win National Elections and you cannot win back the senate if youre not speaking to Rural Americans. Host what is the message to Rural America you think has to be delivered . Guest getting out there and having the right message and part of it is all about health care. Almost every gas station where i am from has a donation box for someone who is sick or got into an accident. Candidates, we are the party of health care. That is the message, one of the many messages. You see what donald trump is doing secondmost agriculture, i would, you see you see what the immigration is doing to our farmers. Administration is doing to our farmers. Host how do you go about this message . Guest we have been doing a lot of research and that is important because it is critically important the question i get in new york, what do rural voters want . They want what the new york cabdriver wants, good health care, good, quality education and the way you deliver services in Rural America is different than how you deliver them in downtown manhattan. When you look at the budget of the president which is to me a value document you see there is no support for Rural America and when you look at trendlines with the Rural Economy versus the urban economy you see a decline in the Rural Economy you do not see in the urban economy. Before making the argument that people may say this economy is the best in the history of the world, which i could dispute, it has not been true for Rural America driven by agriculture , bothning and extraction have been a declining position in gdp and will continue declining with this president s fails and reckless trade policy. Host campaign 2020 is the topic with our guests. If you want to call and ask them questions, in a rural area, tell us where you live and call 2027488000. All others call 2027488001. You can tweet us at cspanwj. Owa,ident trump was in i talking about his efforts, reaching out to rural areas. Listen to what he has to say. [video clip] President Trump unemployment is at the lowest rate in over 51 years. We will still be breaking the record, and africanamerican, hispanic american, Asian American unemployment have reached the lowest rates ever recorded in the history of our country. That is pretty good. [applause] areident trump wages growing fastest which makes me very happy. Fast disproportionately for forcollar fastest bluecollar workers. Doing the best. Over the next three months, companies are expected to hire workers and the fastest pace in more than a decade with the greatest gains for workers right here in the midwest. Did you know that . You have the greatest gains in the country, the midwest. [applause] trump the last administration delivered low wages and economic stagnation and wrap it off shoring, countries did not respect what we were all about, they took advantage of our country and took our jobs and businesses, they took everything but they are all coming back very, very fast here. Should digpresident deeper into his economic numbers, unemployment is on the rise in many of the states he wo n. That farm income is half of what it was in 2013 and the fact that the average american over 50 of america could not afford a 500 hit to their budget. He is not living in new real world and giving us macro numbers. Migrant my great friend said you can live in the macro numbers but the cheese numbers the macaroni and cheese numbers, and those numbers for role america are devastating. Guest unemployment is so low because people are working multiple jobs. When i decided to run i moved back to my hometown before i decided to run, the best job i could find was 15 per hour with no benefits and his economic message is about yesterdays economic message and what we see owa, agriculture technology, but he does not ,nvest that he does not see it, only happening in 50 counties and maybe on the coast. That is getting missed. The drivers in Rural America is renewable energy. He told us windmills give us cancer. Winston ours and windmills in the United States are what is sustaining a lot of our own communities. Rural communities. Given low Commodity Prices and failed trade policy. Lets get down to the specifics of what is happening. Host trade is something you discuss, particularly with this administration in rural areas. Guest you have to see the trade policy overall and who is benefiting and we have not seen, has the farmer benefited . In my neck of the woods they have not and they are handcuffed right now. With aing to make a dime half decade of low Commodity Prices and we do not know what is next. Guest important to point out that manufacturing jobs are not increasing the way the president says they are with the latest job numbers, 80 of the economy a servicebased economy and to suggest that somehow revitalization of Rural America will be done strictly on the back of manufacturing, i agree with the president but disagree on his strategy on revitalizing the manufacturing sector. We also in Rural America understand the need to engage in the Service Sector and we have to have infrastructure to do so. The president s budget dramatically cuts Rural Development where our infrastructure dollars are. It is one thing to say, i will give you e15, im ethanol blend we have been fighting for for a lot of years and the president has agreed to do it year round. Guess what he takes off on the other hand, given waivers to the Largest Oil Companies in this country, the largest refiners, negating the value of any of his policies on ethanol. Host Heidi Heitkamp and j. D. Scholten who represents the one country project. Talking about issues, particularly voters in rural areas. Linda in tennessee is first. Good morning. Go ahead. Caller the democrats do not have a clue what the american wants. All they care about is the illegals. Was once a democrat but change to independent. To change to republican. I talk with people everyday and they do not want they do not want medicare for all, but the democrats think that is what they want. Thank you. Guest i would disagree that the democrats want medicare for all. I am not a medicare for all advocate and neither is joe biden or Michael Bennet and a lot of people on that stage do not believe in medicare for all and that is the right strategy. Democratic policies regarding immigration, take a look at what was passed in 2013, Strong Border control, 40 billion would have been huge had we done it along with taking a look at what we need to do to fix our immigration problem in this country. We have 13 Million People by some estimates living here undocumented. What are we going to do . We should be serious about cracking down on employers who hire them but that is not the strategy of the Republican Party to get to the heart of people who are encouraging migration by hiring people undocumented. We have a lot of work to do and none will get solved without looking at bipartisanship. I have to argue a little bit about democrats do not know what rural want, i grew up in a town of 90 people at my dad was a seasonable construction worker, i know a lot about farming and Rural America and they want good schools, good Higher Education affordable for them and their kids, they want the opportunity to make a living where they live and better housing. These are ignored by the current administration. We created one country to address the disconnect you feel as a former democrat to this party. Why dont you support this party . We need to have a conversation about that and get real. Thank you for the comments. Host elizabeth in bridgeport, connecticut. Caller i wanted to ask the senator about family farms. It seems as in all states people want locally sourced food and they want preservation of open space. I would like to know what policies you think could promote the preservation of smaller farms instead of the Large Industrial farms . Havingld the highspeed broadband in rural areas and better transportation help people in rural areas . Guest first lets talk about broadband. That is true. We need the Tech Companies to understand there are resources as north dakota is one of the best rural connected broadband states. You can get better broadband at my husbands family farm in rural jamestown then you can in fargo, north dakota. Saying to be careful broadband is the solution to all problems, we have to encourage amazon to understand there is workforce there and understand getting other tech copies to understand we have a resource undervalued their. We have to change the way we educate kids in Rural America, we have to bring the best education and growing a workforce that can live and work in rural communities. Agricultureility of and the issues of small stakeholder farmers, we are basically a commodity producing state. But we have a lot of small state farmers. Many of the programs we find it in the farm bill have actually allowed smaller farmers to survive on smaller pieces of land. And do it in a more responsible way. We will produce to the market. ,hat is one thing i will preach you can raise your fist and say all those people who want farm to table products, they are just greedy but lets produced to the market and that is what we need to do. We need to understand there is a role for both kinds of our culture in america and encourage smaller farms and sustainability in agriculture. Host do you want to pick up anything else . Guest technology and broadband, in my district, we have Iowa State University and a 2017 we graduated 1400 students who can go into the Technology Field and a year later in 2018 only 258 a. Ved in worked in iow that is what we see in our communities. We are losing folks. There is so much potential because we have the workforce but we need to get the investment going into all 50 states and all districts. That is a big message we have. Centerss large tech like San Francisco and seattle deal with homelessness, deal with the challenges that they have, trying to support that level of a labor force, they have seen escalation in housing prices and food prices. We have workforce in Rural America, the ability to deliver and with technology with the backbone we can make a real contribution to the servicebased economy which is a focus of what we should be looking at, not just improving agriculture or how we will sustain the manufacturing we do in Rural America, which is also a big part of our economy but looking to be part of the service economy. Host don in mount victory, ohio. Caller how are you doing . In thisittle confused conversation because i live in the rural part of ohio. There is no more small farmer. Farmers whogtime operate on Profit Margins that are low because theyre so big. I am curious, is there a difference inu here and in rural here and there . Everybody in the government, you try to make one policy to cover rural and the suburbs which does not get it, and if you try to go into states rights we get into the Bigger Picture of the federal government. Aboutheitkamp, you spoke the micro and macro. The federal government, all they do is macro policy. Your Agriculture Community i heard a few weeks ago donald trump was terrible because of what he did with the china trade deal and soybeans. That is a macro policy. How are you going to take a micro policy and apply it to china when they deal with nothing like a freemarket enterprise does . Guest first off, when you say that we see unprecedented consolidation in agriculture, that is true. It is because we have high inputs and low Commodity Prices which really narrows the margin and makes it impossible to do this on a smaller scale. As the woman from connecticut said, you can rise the margins by producing higherquality products. You see more and more of that in agriculture and you will see the trend. 10 years ago, the fastestgrowing sale john deere hat was small tractors for small stakeholder farmers but that is not true with increasing Commodity Prices and now higher Commodity Prices. Agriculture will adjust for the market that is there. Take the other part of the question. In my we have 39 counties district but to farm to table restaurants. It is an economic myth for our areas, especially rural areas. Highway 20 east from where i live in sioux city, two of the next three towns have lost their Grocery Store in the last five years and we are the secondmost i closer producing district in america agricultural district in america and you have to grow your own tomatoes or drive a half hour into sioux city to get one. We are missing out on localized markets. Guest about the macro versus the micro issue, he is correct that there are many issues that are addressed, we are talking about the fed rate, we have to do both write and he pc Democratic Party does the best is the micro please, why when Rural America is so dependent in our state for medicaids expansion what this demonstration and thousands of people are on Medicaid Expansion , many in rural, many with opioid addictions are dependent on Medicaid Expansion but this administration argues to eliminate that program in court. I could go program by program and get down to loans we could be making to Small Business and down to tailoring a lot if our farm programs so we can bring back the small stakeholder farmers. Looking at Rural Development which gets down to a micro Economic Analysis when youre looking at a Grocery Store. We would not have thought about funding Grocery Stores in the past but today in Rural America we have food deserts. We talk about those in urban americas and we have those in Rural America. That needs to change but it will not change if all we do is focus on the issues, the fed interest rate, overall trade policy, whether it is fiscal policy of debt and deficit, if we do not say, what do American Workers need and americas farmers need to survive . They need Affordable Health care. Withyou look at the party the policies for Affordable Health care, not perfect, we need to improve obamacare, but totally eliminating it would have a devastating impact to rural hospitals, one of the major employers in my state and in every rural community. It would have a devastating effect on people suffering from addiction and a devastating effect on so many in rural but this administration is pursuing this policy because somewhere along the line that was what they promised and it was a promise made tenuous ago 10 years ago. Aca the case about the are youy, how concerned it will be ruled by constitutional . Unconstitutional . Best police we should concerned, Chuck Grassley said it would never happen, i am a former attorney general and whenever you are in court you do not know the outcome. You can try to predict it but you do not know and it was reckless and not responsible for this administration to take the position they took on health care. Guest i agree. The differences of the two parties, the democrats are trying to have health care and improve health care. In my district, the costs are going up and accessibility is going down both in the wrong direction so lets improve. The other party just wants to take away health care. Not even keeping me status quo. We need to come together as a party. Guest one of the biggest concerns we have with health care is workforce. We cannot find Mental Health workers and if a child goes to a teacher and says, i am close to i am thinking about suicide, that teacher may be could get a Mental Health professional to look at the child in 30 days which is not responsible and not what should happen in america. We have to develop workforce and develop access. Representatives of the one country project, Heidi Heitkamp who served as a senator 20132019 dakota from and a board member, j. D. Wa. Olten, working hero io your research, 2016, what is the potential there will be a change of the map in 2020 given messaging to rural areas . Guest we saw some change in 2018, we saw a little bit better map in 2018. , if theell you this percentage ratios continue on the trend line, a democrat could not win michigan or pennsylvania , pennsylvania is more dicey. I believe we can win iowa, three of the four congressional districts in 2018 went to the democrats and almost carry the last one. , and get the message right you cannot just talk to people, you have to talk with people and respond. Our messages, you may think sitting in new york does not matter what people think in Rural America but it does for a policy that will move this country forward, one country, together, moving forward. Host talk about your race . Guest we move the needle 24 points from the trumpclinton election to our election and through that we had success. Seeking sentative steve king . Guest right, who tends to be controversial. I went to all 39 counties at least three times and most of them five or six times. The way democrats have traditionally ran in the last 10 years have not enabled to get out there as much. We have to change the narrative. That is what we did in the fourth district. Intook an abandoned district a flyover state and we made a competitive. It is amazing to see all of the 2020 candidates come into western iowa and get the crowds whereas before we used to just come by one time to say they came by but now theyre coming back and it is cool to see what we have built on, or what they are doing with what we built on. Host robert in michigan. You are on, go ahead. Caller i have a question for you. Why dothe republicans democrats in washington allow prayer to go out of the school . Guest this country is founded on separating church and state and with public schooling, there is plenty of prayers in Catholic School where i attended my first couple of years of school. Host when the messaging you talk about happens, is there a separation between the economic messaging you have to do or what about social policy messages . Guest it is just as important and just as important for us to understand that people in Rural America are more socially secured socially conservative. We need to be more respectful in the Democratic Party to those positions. An example, i would never say i would eliminate behind amendment. The hyde amendment. There should not be a constitutional right for taxpayers to pay for abortion if they feel morally opposed. There are many issues that will come up that are in that cultural lane, the social lane. Wethe end of the day, if continue to divide this country by using this and using that and well all get to our corners, we will never be successful. We are looking at a bipartisan way to unite the country because when we unite the country, the country becomes much more governable. People say why cant people get along . Because people at the bottom are not getting along. When i ran in 2012 and got elected in a very red state of north dakota, we anticipated 15 of of people people who are republican crossing over, there were 12 more republicans in north dakota of also about 4 , 5 republicans in this country were willing to cross over. You could say that is a product of losing some people to the Republican Party because of the behaviors of this president but the bottom line is they people have hardened on the bottom and that will take a long time to unite. This is a president who promised to unite us and has done anything but unite us. I have been critical in the past of president obama not uniting the country. If we do not have a unified country willing to listen and compromise on policies, we have andongovernable country that is why we have named this project one country because we project butrural the issue is what unites us in terms of what we want for our families and friends and communities . Unites us better than what divides us. Host do you have access to those running for democrats and message or Just Research . Guest we posed research and data on our website. We hosted a watch party for the democratic event which gives us a chance to listen to what democrats are saying because they come with stories about what their neighbors said. A woman from tennessee who says my neighbor, it is important we listen to that and important we do not make people feel bad about saying it, that we actually listen. A tough issue more than some of the issues you would typically think has been the issue of immigration. I think it is an issue the president has definitely divided the country on instead of uniting the country. There are ways forward for Immigration Reform that can satisfy both sides. Bert. Columbus, georgia, caller how are you doing . Democratic party wants to get them great, makes talking to the people who vote for him and that is probably the rural areas. My mother and father were sharecroppers and they came into being that way because they could not afford their own farm but they could not afford to be sharecroppers so they moved to the city and when they did that they got a job as a textile worker and when they did that they raised a family. Aen i got grown, i heard politician they said they wanted to transfer to textile industry into this industry of computers and credit cards and stuff like that. Thats what they did in this town, twice 7 million of taxpayer money to turn a cotton mill into what they call whole systems, a pretty big industry. What happened was like ross perot said, you heard the big sucking sound and it went down ormexico or china or japan wherever the textile industry went to and a lot of people lost their jobs. You haveis this nafta now which is what caused this, to my belief, what do you think about nafta versus the usmca . Guest in america, our number one problem is that we have not addressed mobilization as it affects the working class. Our number one problem for the economy. We were speaking before about in order totry, compete against china, we cannot just have the coast compete against china, it matters to every district and that is why i think there is this bipartisan huge issue we are missing the usl on, focusing on getting getting the economy together and focus so we can compete against china because they have not been in the war since ive been and are investing in themselves. If we are not investing in district like mine, we are missing out and we need to compete in every area. Guest important to understand the new usmca is a modernization of nafta with additional labor support. I support the new nafta. I believe we need to understand that the United States of america is less than 5 of global population appeared when children being born today are my age, it will be less than 3 . We have to understand the globalization peace and make these transitions that will enable us to be successful. About china, everybody talking about the manufacturing jobs which have been moved to china. Guess what . Labor costs in vietnam are almost half of what they are in china. If you shut down in china and the Labor Movement vietnam, a tougher Competitive Position and i am not saying we do not need to be tough on china, we need to , but we need to understand the law of unintended consequences and figure out how we will win and a much more sophisticated way. The president s trade policies have misunderstood the supply chain evaluations that need to be made to understand how manufacturing happens in this allocations basic of resources happen in this country. Says, yes,lan that we have to be global because we will not be successful if we are not global but it has to work for American Workers. Usmca is a step in the right direction. Host john, wisconsin, you are the last call for our guests. Good morning. , ther i was wondering problem with farmers have been around since 1985 with Willie Nelson starting far made concerts. Aid concerts. Arm why does it take too long to do anything . 1987 we havend horrible droughts in the midwest and low Commodity Prices and a failed Foreign Policy called freedom to farm. We fixed that with Foreign Policy but now finding more and competition with brazil and argentina and the trade policies in terms of our market that the president is pursuing means that all of those competitors now are getting a toehold in our markets that we spent millions of dollars creating. This is a fluctuation. We had some of the best years in the farm in 2013 and 2014 and now we have devastating net farm loss numbers coming forward. We need to figure out how to diversify the Rural Economy to insulate us from commodity price swings and need to figure out a better path forward for trade policy. Farmers do not want help. Somebody saying the president is paying them off, that is true, i do not know one farmer who would not rather have a market than that money because they understand that market when sustainable will sustain american agriculture. Host our guests are members of the one country project. Go to website for the research and what they say to rural voters. Heidi heitkamp the former, u. S. Senator from 20132019 and j. D. Scholten of working hero cspans washington journal, live every day with news and policy issues that impact you. Coming up saturday morning, and roman, from the National Alliance to end homelessness, discusses living on the streets in the u. S. Adam harris talks about his piece on the College Graduation gap between People Living in rural and urban areas in the u. S. Centennial Institute Director talk aboutoins us to the conservatism in the u. S. And western conservatives summit. Watch washington journal live at 7 00 eastern saturday morning. Join the discussion. Robert mueller originally scheduled to testify before Congress Next week, has been delayed. The former special counsel is now scheduled to appear before the house judiciary and intelligence committees on wednesday, july 24. He was issued a subpoena to testify in open session about his report into russian interference in the 2016 election. Wednesday,coverage july 24, on cspan3, online at cspan. Org, or listen on the free cspan radio app. Now, democratic president ial candidate mayor Pete Buttigieg from south bend indiana campaigns in new hampshire. This is about one hour. [applause] thank you for your support