by Brendan Lalor
As the wires report today that “Democrat Stephanie Herseth was sworn in Thursday as South Dakota’s lone representative in the House,” many wonder just who this farm-stater is. According to John Nichols’ brief on her from August, 2002, she’s a 31-year-old Georgetown Law grad,
scoring points as a modern-day prairie populist willing to take on corporate agribusiness and the lobbyists who push free trade schemes like NAFTA. Where some farm-state Democrats remain unquestioning backers of free trade schemes, Herseth bluntly calls for a new direction. ?Undeniably, NAFTA has had devastating effects on our state?s manufacturing and agriculture industries,? she says. ?I believe that free trade must also be fair trade, and I will work hard to ensure that our federal trade negotiators effectively represent the interests of individual South Dakota workers, farmers and ranchers, not just large corporate interests.?
