# Were Democrats able to politically capitalize on the mid-1980s farm crisis?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/were-democrats-able-to-politically-capitalize-on-the-mid-1980s-farm-crisis/990174>\
**Category:** Politics & Elections\
**Created:** [September 15, 2023, 4:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/were-democrats-able-to-politically-capitalize-on-the-mid-1980s-farm-crisis/990174 "2023-09-15T16:55:48Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 5\
**Page:** 1

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/7cd45c/32.png) [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elendil_s_Heir)\
**Post date:** [September 15, 2023, 4:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/were-democrats-able-to-politically-capitalize-on-the-mid-1980s-farm-crisis/990174/1 "2023-09-15T16:55:48Z")

</div>

The farming mortgage debt and foreclosure crisis got a lot of attention at the time, inspired movies like _Country_ and _The River,_ and led to the Farm Aid concerts, the first of which was held in Sept. 1985.

With a Republican in the White House, were Dems able to make political inroads in what were otherwise pretty solidly Republican states, either for Federal or state offices? I know Dems took back the Senate in Nov. 1986, but I’ve never had the impression that it was due to this.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![flurb](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/51bf81/32.png) [@flurb](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/flurb)\
**Post date:** [September 15, 2023, 5:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/were-democrats-able-to-politically-capitalize-on-the-mid-1980s-farm-crisis/990174/2 "2023-09-15T17:13:28Z")

</div>

The 1986 [Senate](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1986_United_States_Senate_elections) and [Congressional](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1986_United_States_House_of_Representatives_elections) election maps don’t seem to show a particular swing toward Democrats in farm country. They picked up Senate seats in both the Dakotas, but Republicans held seats in Iowa, Kansas and Oklahoma and picked up Missouri. Democrats netted only an additional 5 seats in the House. A couple were rural areas, but they also lost a couple seats in rural districts to Republicans.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/7cd45c/32.png) [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elendil_s_Heir)\
**Post date:** [September 15, 2023, 6:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/were-democrats-able-to-politically-capitalize-on-the-mid-1980s-farm-crisis/990174/3 "2023-09-15T18:19:12Z")

</div>

Any differences in state races or other Federal races in that era?

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Kent\_Clark](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kent_clark/32/105_2.png) [@Kent\_Clark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kent_Clark)\
**Post date:** [September 16, 2023, 12:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/were-democrats-able-to-politically-capitalize-on-the-mid-1980s-farm-crisis/990174/4 "2023-09-16T00:45:59Z")

</div>

In the 1984 elections, the Republicans picked up a net one governorship for a total of 34 Democrats, 16 Republicans. In 1986, Republicans picked up a net eight governorships for a total of 26 Democrats, 24 Republicans.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/7cd45c/32.png) [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elendil_s_Heir)\
**Post date:** [September 17, 2023, 3:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/were-democrats-able-to-politically-capitalize-on-the-mid-1980s-farm-crisis/990174/5 "2023-09-17T03:09:29Z")

</div>

Thanks!