California Republican Representative Devin Nunes is an eight-term incumbent, the chair of one of the powerful committees in the house, and on the receiving end of more dollars than any other House candidate. All of those things are usually indicators of a pretty easy time at the polls, especially for Donald Trump’s biggest supporter in a district that went heavily for Trump. But recent polls have put Democratic newcomer Andrew Janz within five points of Trump’s favorite congressman.
The dairy farmers of California’s 22nd District have always regarded former farmer Nunes as one of their own. But lately, many of them have felt that Nunes was spending a bit too much time finding new ways to wreck the FBI, the DOJ, and the special counsel’s office than doing anything like paying attention to the concerns of his district. Still Nunes had that family farm …
But as Esquire reports, any happy cows on the Nunes farm aren’t cropping California grass. Nunes, along with his family, cashed out of the California farm in 2006 at the peak of land values in the region. Then they bought another farm—in Sibley, Iowa.
There’s nothing particularly strange about a congressman’s family moving. But what is strange is that the family has apparently tried to conceal the move from the public—for more than a decade. As far as I could tell, as of late August, neither Nunes nor the local California press that covers him had ever publicly mentioned that his family dairy is no longer in Tulare.
Then how is it that Nunes is frequently interviewed on “his dairy farm” right there in his district? It’s not his farm.
And there’s another secret Nunes has been keeping about his actual farm. Nunes, who once upon a time was a moderate on immigration, has in his Trump today version morphed into a big supporter of the wall, limiting immigration, and cheerleading for every creative cruelty invented by ICE. Nunes has also come to Iowa to not just visit his real farm, but also to campaign for frothing anti-immigration congressman Steve King.
The Nunes farm, like every other Iowa dairy farm, depends on undocumented labor.
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