TOPEKA — U.S. Sen. Roger Marshall said he is “frustrated” President Donald Trump is importing beef from foreign countries, sparking fear among domestic cattle producers that the action could undercut their markets.
He rationalized the president’s move, arguing imported beef is necessary to replace the Mexican cattle exports lost to screwworm infections that plagued herds earlier this year.
A Perry resident expressed nervousness during a telephone town hall Friday about selling her 25 head of cattle. She said she and her husband are self-employed, their fertilizer bill had tripled this year and their diesel prices doubled. He assured her that the cattle market is solid nonetheless.
“My point to the White House is when he does this, this sends the wrong signal to the rancher to keep his heifers rather than selling them into the market,” Marshall said.
He said he was as “frustrated as anybody” by the beef imports.
At a separate event Thursday, in one of the first public meetings between Kansas’ U.S. Senate candidates, the Republican incumbent highlighted his involvement in international trade accomplishments in the past six years and their effects on agriculture.
He said at a candidate forum in Olathe hosted by the Kansas Chamber of Commerce that in his second year in the U.S. Senate, he traveled to Mexico to help negotiate the U.S.-Mexico-Canada trade agreement on behalf of agriculture. Mexico is Kansas’ largest exporter, according to the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative. He visited Mexico City again in June.
“I think it’s those extra efforts where we can go forward and develop these long-term relationships,” he said Thursday. “But at the same time, you have to be tough.”
Marshall left the event that hosted all candidates for statewide office early, lingering after he finished speaking for only a few moments to hear his opponent.
In November, Marshall will face the Rev. Adam Hamilton, a United Methodist pastor in the Kansas City area whose fundraising and campaigning abilities match Marshall’s deep well of national Republican support.
The candidates received a set of questions in advance and were given the same amount of time to respond. They discussed regulation, trade, agriculture and their vision for Kansas.
Hamilton attributed some of the pains in Kansas’ agricultural sector to Trump’s tariffs and the war in Iran. Marshall, too, expressed eagerness to end the war in Iran, in alignment with Trump, but not at the expense of Iran possessing nuclear weapons. There is a place for tariffs, Hamilton said, but consistent ones.
Hamilton also pointed to immigration as a way to help increase Kansas’ population and help businesses, particularly in agriculture and the restaurant industry.
“So right now, when you travel to southeast, southwest Kansas, you’re talking to people in the meatpacking industry, the cattle industry, and they’re saying, ’40% of our workforce are immigrants, and we need them, and we care about them. These are our people,’ ” Hamilton said.
He said Kansas needs legal and safe immigration.
“Stop demonizing them,” Hamilton said. “Figure out a plan to bring immigrants in where it’s legal for them to be here, and where we can welcome them instead of having to live in fear in our businesses or our communities.”
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