Former Minnesota representative Collin Peterson has been without a job for roughly four months now after losing his election. In that time, he’s decided retirement doesn’t suit him, so he is serving in an advisory role for the D.C.-based lobbying firm Combest, Sell and Associates.
“Since December I’ve been getting a lot of advice and calls from people saying I had to stay engage, that they needed me to be at the table and advocating for agriculture like I’ve done when I was on the committee and Chairman,” he said. “I was talking to some different folks a month, month and a half ago, and Tom [Sell] called me and wanted to know if I would consider associating with their firm.”
He says this position is a way to keep being involved in agriculture and advocating for producers. Peterson worked with Combest, Sell and Associates clients multiple times during his time in Washington, representing interests from sugar to cotton, sorghum to dairy. Tom Sell, co-founder and Manager, says having someone of Peterson’s caliber on the team is an asset.
“It’s a diverse group of grassroots-interests from across the nation, largely grower groups but all who stand united for good agricultural policy generally,” said Sell. “It’s why they were so attracted to bring in someone of Collin’s reputation and stature back into that debate—that’s a lot of wisdom and a lot of experiences that they were eager to bring to the table.”
Peterson weighed in on the partisan division in D.C. from both parties in leadership, particularly in the House Ag Committee. He sees that division weighing on farm policy but is optimistic.
“Come this time next year, they’re going to be getting ready for the nest farm bill, which is going to be up in 2023,” he said. “That will give us some indication at that point of where this is heading, but I’m hoping this will roll out in a bipartisan basis that the subcommittees figure out how to work with each other and we [Combest, Sell and Associates] will do everything we can to help facilitate that.”
Peterson will be based in Minnesota and says he looks forward to this new position.
“We’ll do what has to be done to make sure things are successful,” he said. “I’ve always dug into issues and tried to understand everything about that, and I will continue to do that.”
Peterson served in Congress for 30 years representing the 7th district. He served as the Democratic leader of the House Agriculture committee since 2005.
Our thanks to the Red River Farm Network for providing the audio.
