WASHINGTON – Former Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack has spent years, if not decades, telling his fellow Democrats they needed to do more to aid rural communities and reach out to them.
But he has often lamented that no one listened. Now, he’s going to try again. President-elect Joe Biden nominated Vilsack, a former Iowa governor and Democratic presidential candidate, to return to his old job at the Agriculture Department, saying his eight years of experience there under former President Barack Obama would ensure quicker help to rural and poor areas that are “reeling” from the pandemic and economic downturn.