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Wisconsin Senator Tammy Baldwin has ‘declared war’ on almond milk – as part of her bid for re-election next year.
The success of plant-based milk is an issue for dairy farmers in Wisconsin, a largely Republican area (which voted 71 per cent in favour of Donald Trump last year).
Democrat Tammy Baldwin is trying to tap into this and had taken several measures to do just that – including introducing a bill to ban plant-milks from being sold as ‘milk’ – along with other Democrats. This is a hot topic for trying to appease rural voters.
Trying to re-connect
Strategies like this come hot on the heels of complaints from rural voters that the Democrats forgot them in 2016 – the party is trying to re-connect with these lost voters.
Scott Spector, Baldwin’s campaign manager in Wisconsin, said: ““It’s a matter of earning those [rural supporters’] votes again in 2018.
“We are definitely mindful of the fact that the Democrats, in general, underperformed with those voters in 2016.
“It’s not changing who Tammy is or repositioning Tammy, but reminding them why they voted for her in 2012.”
Criticism
Not everyone has responded positively to the pro-hunting Senator’s rural outreach though, with some social media users chastising Baldwin for her support of the dairy industry.
Facebook user Ana Leon posted: “I don’t understand why you don’t want vegans to use the word milk for our plant-based alternatives just because we don’t want to participate in exploiting an innocent species that has NEVER harmed us.
“The human body has absolutely NO need for baby calf growth fluid, which is designed to turn a 65-pound calf into a 700 pound cow as rapidly as possible.”
Watch protesters disrupt Senator Tammy Baldwin earlier this year below.
