New report from American Journal News documents Hyde-Smith’s campaign donations from Koch Industries and Nutrien, the same companies now under federal investigation for colluding to drive up the cost of fertilizer

Northeast Mississippi Daily Journal columnist Bill Crawford: “Sen. Hyde-Smith could have done more to prevent fertilizer price spike” – MORE HERE

District Attorney Colom: “From pocketing tens of thousands from fertilizer giants now under federal investigation, to backing the Washington policies that drove these costs even higher, Cindy Hyde-Smith has betrayed the Mississippians she swore to represent. That’s not serving us—that’s serving herself

Columbus, MS — New reporting out today from American Journal News highlights how Senator Cindy Hyde-Smith and her affiliated PACs have accepted at least $14,000 from fertilizer industry donors since 2018, including $11,000 from Koch Industries and $3,000 from Nutrien, even as Mississippi farmers face one of the toughest input-cost squeezes in years. One Como corn farmer recently told NPR that surging fertilizer and fuel costs are “going to be the nail in the coffin for a number of farmers.” Both companies are now the subject of a federal Justice Department investigation alleging they colluded with one another to inflate fertilizer prices on American farmers, alongside a parallel antitrust civil suit.

The new reporting follows a column this week by Northeast Mississippi Daily Journal contributing columnist Bill Crawford, a Republican and author of A Republican’s Lament: Mississippi Needs Good Government Conservatives, who concluded that Hyde-Smith “could have done more” to prevent the fertilizer price spike. Crawford documented a 59% surge in urea fertilizer prices and a near-doubling of Mississippi diesel from $3.17 to $5.03 per gallon “last week,” since the start of the Iran war that Hyde-Smith supported.

“It’s hard to claim you fight for Mississippi farmers while you’re cashing checks from the very companies the Justice Department says ripped them off,” said District Attorney Scott Colom. “From pocketing tens of thousands from fertilizer giants now under federal investigation, to backing the Washington policies that drove these costs even higher, Cindy Hyde-Smith has betrayed the Mississippians she swore to represent. That’s not serving us, that’s serving herself. Mississippi farmers deserve a senator who’ll put them first.”

This isn’t the first time Cindy Hyde-Smith has turned her back on farmers: in October she admitted that some farms might fail as a result of the tariffs she supported.

Read highlights from the American Journal News reporting below:

American Journal News: Hyde-Smith took fertilizer money as farmers struggled with soaring costs

Jesse Valentine

May 13, 2026

• Sen. Cindy Hyde-Smith’s ties to the fertilizer industry are undermining her campaign pledge to help struggling Mississippi farmers.
• Campaign finance disclosures indicate that Hyde-Smith and her affiliated PACs have accepted at least $14,000 from the fertilizer industry since 2018. This includes $3,000 from Nutrien and $11,000 from Koch Industries.
• In March, the Justice Department launched an investigation into both companies, alleging that they had colluded with one another to raise prices, increasing costs for U.S. farmers. Around the same time, an antitrust civil suit was filed against Nutrien, Koch Industries, and other fertilizer producers.
• Anthony Bland, a soybean farmer in the Mississippi Delta, told NPR that he spent $10,000 more on fertilizer this spring than he did last year.
• Fertilizer costs have also been driven up by President Donald Trump’s tariff policy and the war in Iran, both of which Hyde-Smith supported. NPR reports that about one-third of the world’s nitrogen supply, a primary component in fertilizers, passes through the Strait of Hormuz, a critical trade waterway that has been intermittently blocked since the war began.

→ Read the full American Journal News report HERE.

Read highlights from Bill Crawford’s column in the Northeast Mississippi Daily Journal below:

Northeast Mississippi Daily Journal: Sen. Hyde-Smith could have done more to prevent fertilizer price spike

Bill Crawford, Contributing Columnist

May 9, 2026

• Sen. Cindy Hyde-Smith is touting a bill she co-sponsored to eliminate tariffs and countervailing duties on phosphate fertilizer imports… Well and good, but the rest of the story tells us Sen. Hyde-Smith could have acted sooner.
• Key Mississippi crops like corn and sorghum (corn is the second most prevalent crop to soybeans) depend heavily on nitrogen-based fertilizer, not just phosphate fertilizer.
• In the six weeks since the war [in Iran] started, the Delta Farm Press reported that urea prices have surged 59%, UAN 38%, and anhydrous ammonia 32%. The war has also driven diesel fuel… from $3.17 a gallon in Mississippi a year ago to $5.03 last week, according to AAA.
• Crawford quotes Como corn farmer Sledge Taylor, who told NPR: ‘We got people that were barely struggling to get by, and now they’ve been hit with two major increases for fertilizer and fuel just exactly at the wrong time when we needed them… It’s going to be the nail in the coffin for a number of farmers.’
• Had Sen. Hyde-Smith and others touting their concern for farmers lived up to their oaths of office, the disruptions caused by the Iran war could have been mitigated and possibly avoided.
• Crawford closes the column with a verse from Numbers 30:2: ‘When a man makes a vow to the Lord or takes an oath to obligate himself by a pledge, he must not break his word but must do everything he said.’

→ Read the full Northeast Mississippi Daily Journal column HERE.

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