Jon Husted on Agriculture and Rural Communities: Votes Against Protecting Rural Hospitals, Tariff Votes That Cost Ohio Farmers Their China Market, and the Rollins Agriculture Department

On June 30, 2025, Ohio Senator Jon Husted voted against a motion to strike every provision of the One Big Beautiful Bill Act that would make it more likely that rural hospitals being forced to close, convert, or reduce services, and the next day he voted for the law, which passed 50-50 with the Vice President's tie-breaking vote. KFF estimates the law cuts federal Medicaid spending in rural Ohio by $5.62 billion over 10 years, against a first-year rural health fund award of $202 million.

Husted also voted repeatedly against ending the tariff emergencies whose tariffs set off China's retaliation against U.S. farm goods; Ohio farmers lost nearly three-quarters, or $76 million, of their exports to China in 2025. He voted to confirm Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins, whose department cancelled about $1 billion in local food purchases from farms, including Ohio's $26.5 million program.

Jon Husted's Votes on Farms, Rural Hospitals and Tariffs in Ohio

• Husted Voted Against Protecting Rural Hospitals From the Medicaid Cuts in June 2025. On June 30, 2025, Jon Husted voted no on Senator Ed Markey's motion to strike any provision of the One Big Beautiful Bill Act that would raise the likelihood of rural hospitals being forced to close, convert, or reduce services, including emergency care and labor and delivery. It failed 49-51. The same day he voted against motions to protect hospital labor and delivery care (roll call 340) and nursing homes (roll call 338). KFF estimates the law cuts federal Medicaid spending in rural areas by $137 billion over 10 years, against a $50 billion rural health fund.
• Husted Cast a Deciding Vote for the Law That Cuts Rural Medicaid and Tilts Farm Subsidies Toward Southern Crops and Large Farms. On July 1, 2025, Husted voted yes on H.R. 1, which passed 50-50 with the Vice President's tie-breaking vote, so it would have failed without his vote. The law raised crop reference prices at a cost the Congressional Budget Office put at $50.5 billion over the next ten fiscal years, money that goes only to farms in programs covering just 27% of US farm acres. The new reference prices for peanuts, rice and seed cotton are disproportionately higher than for the other major crops, and farmdoc daily found Corn and soybeans continue to lag these Southern crops significantly. The law also lets large farm businesses multiply their payment limits, a change farmdoc daily says will harm most the younger farmers by pushing up land prices and rents.
• Husted Cast a Deciding Vote Against a Budget Measure to Prevent Medicaid Cuts That Could Close Rural Hospitals in April 2025. On April 5, 2025, Husted voted no on Senator Tammy Baldwin's amendment to the budget resolution creating a reserve fund relating to preventing a reduction in Medicaid funding that could lead to rural hospital closures. It failed 49-50, so his vote was one it could not lose. Husted then voted to adopt the budget resolution, whose instructions produced the 2025 law's Medicaid and SNAP cuts. In Ohio, half of Ohio hospitals and 72% of rural hospitals have reported operating losses, the Ohio Capital Journal reported in September 2025, before the cuts begin.
• Husted Cast a Deciding Vote Against Ending the Tariff Emergency in April 2025 as China Retaliated Against U.S. Farm Goods. On April 30, 2025, Husted voted no on S.J.Res. 49, the resolution to end the national emergency used to impose the global tariffs; it was defeated 49-49, so one more yes vote would have passed it, and Husted then voted to table a motion to reconsider. He also voted against ending the Canada tariff emergency on April 2, 2025 (roll call 160) and against three more resolutions in October 2025 to end the Brazil, Canada and global emergencies (roll call 594, 598, 600). In March 2025 China said it will impose additional tariffs of up to 15% on imports of U.S. farm products; North Dakota State University estimated U.S. farm shipments to China from March 2025 to February 2026 were almost $15 billion less than they would have been in the absence of the tariffs. The Supreme Court struck down the emergency tariffs on February 20, 2026, after a year of lost sales.
• Husted Voted Against Removing Cuts to Rural Programs and Food Aid From the 2025 Budget Plan. On February 21, 2025, Husted voted no on an amendment to strike reconciliation instructions requiring damaging cuts to programs critical to rural Americans and food assistance; it failed 47-53. On April 4, 2025 he voted against striking the Agriculture Committee's cut instructions from the second budget plan (roll call 173). Those instructions led to the One Big Beautiful Bill Act's SNAP changes, under which an estimated 98,000 Ohioans will lose food benefits under the new law, the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities projected, money that rural grocers and the farmers who supply them depend on.
• Husted Voted Against a Budget Measure to Keep Tariffs From Raising Grocery Prices in April 2025. On April 4, 2025, Husted voted no on an amendment creating a reserve fund relating to preventing Trump's tariffs from increasing the cost of groceries and everyday goods for families. It failed 46-53. The Farm Bureau says the federal aid paid since then does not fully cover farmers’ losses over the last few years.
• Husted Voted to Confirm Brooke Rollins, Whose Agriculture Department Cancelled $1 Billion in Local Food Purchases From Farms. On February 13, 2025, Husted voted to confirm Brooke Rollins as Secretary of Agriculture, and on June 10, 2025 he voted to confirm Stephen Vaden as her deputy. In March 2025 her department cancelled about $1 billion of funding to the LFPA program and the Local Food for Schools program, which bought food from local farms for food banks and schools, and abruptly cut $500 million in deliveries from a program that supplies food banks. By early 2026, 42 offices starting 2026 with no staff were among the Farm Service Agency's county offices, so farmers waited longer for loans and conservation contracts.
• Husted Voted to Confirm the Officials Who Ran the Tariffs, Including the 50 Percent Steel Tariffs. Husted voted to confirm Howard Lutnick as Secretary of Commerce on February 18, 2025 (roll call 57) and Jamieson Greer as U.S. Trade Representative on February 26, 2025 (roll call 94). In June 2025 the President doubled steel and aluminum tariffs to 50 percent "After considering current information newly provided by the Secretary" of Commerce. In March 2025 China imposed levies on $21 billion worth of U.S. agricultural and food products in response to U.S. tariffs.

What the Farm and Rural Cuts Jon Husted Voted For Mean for Ohio

• Exports to China. Ohio farmers lost nearly three-quarters, or $76 million, of their exports to China in 2025, and Ohio soybean farmers bore the brunt, losing 85% of their exports to China, after China stopped purchases of American soybeans in May before resuming them last month (Ohio Capital Journal).
• Local food. Ohio's local food purchase program, Ohio CAN, was backed by $26.5 million in funding over three years to buy from Ohio farms for food banks before USDA ended the next round (Farm and Dairy). In Columbus, a farm that grows produce for food pantries said they were set to get $25,000 from the canceled funding.
• Rural hospitals. KFF puts Ohio's 10-year cut in rural federal Medicaid spending at $5.62 billion, against a first-year rural health fund award of $202 million, $69 per rural resident.

Frequently Asked Questions About Jon Husted on Agriculture and rural communities

Last updated: 2026-10-25

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