At a grocer in Hoke County, the tariff break for a foreign exporter doesn’t produce a better price, says the Democratic nominee in North Carolina’s 9th Congressional District.

It does, says retired Army Maj. Richard Ojeda, deliver a smaller check for American farmers and a bigger profit for corporations.

Ojeda is bidding to upset seven-term Republican Rep. Richard Hudson, chairman of the National Republican Congressional Committee – No. 5 in rank of leadership, and with great responsibility for the electing and reelecting of Republicans in the U.S. House of Representatives.

"You don't put America first by putting American farmers second," said Ojeda. “This president got caught with grocery prices he can't explain, so he went looking for someone to throw under the bus, and he picked the American cattle farmer."

Second-term Republican President Donald Trump on Friday said he would allow more beef to be temporarily imported into America without higher tariffs. In published reports, multiple cattle farmers in North Carolina opposed the decision.

The White House says Trump is supportive of “America’s ranchers and farmers.”

“Four meatpackers control d--- near the entire American beef supply, and the biggest grocery chains in this country set the price on that shelf,” Ojeda said. “Nobody in this administration has explained how a tariff break for a foreign exporter turns into a lower number at a Food Lion in Hoke County. And that’s because it doesn’t. It turns into a bigger profit for a corporation and a smaller check for a farmer. This isn’t a relief plan. It's a slap in the face to the American cattle farmers who keep us fed every day.”

JBS, Cargill, Tyson and National Beef are the leaders in beef processing for the country, the U.S. Department of Agriculture says.

Hudson is a member of the Committee on Energy and Commerce, and its subcommittee on communications and technology. His voting record is 12th most conservative in the chamber.

Ojeda’s bid for what would be one of the nation’s biggest upsets includes an endorsement from the Progressive Caucus of the North Carolina Democratic Party, a wing of Democrats aligning with the left on Medicare for All, the Green New Deal, and reform liberalism on a platform mirroring Franklin D. Roosevelt. The consistency is in aggressive economic and social reforms.

Republicans' 220-215 edge won in November 2024 is today 218-212 with one independent formerly Republican caucusing with his former party, and four vacancies. A victory by Hudson is predicted; a win by Ojeda would be pivotal to the possibility of Democrats regaining majority.

The 9th Congressional District includes all or portions of Alamance, Chatham, Guilford, Cumberland, Hoke, Moore, and Randolph counties.