Latest Collin Peterson Quotes from Interviews

Quotes about:

• [Rural people] have a different lifestyle, and they don't want to change it. They're happy with the way things are. It's causing the party political problems.

  Collin Peterson

  Party, People, Political

  Source: www.washingtonpost.com

• [Rural voters] have a different view of the world than people do in these urban centers.

  Collin Peterson

  Views, People, Different

  Source: www.washingtonpost.com

• If everybody in our caucus had a 50/50 [Democrat/Republican] district, we'd have a lot different discussion. But if they have a 90 percent Democratic district, they don't ever talk to a Republican, they don't have to and they don't want to.

  Collin Peterson

  Different, Want, Republican

  Source: www.washingtonpost.com

• There's no question about it. If you look at the map, there's hardly any [Democrats representing rural districts]. There's me, [Rick] Nolan, [Tim] Walz, [Dave] Loebsack and Cheri Bustos. So that's five. And all the rest of them are in urban cities. That's a problem.

  Collin Peterson

  Cities, Looks, Maps

  Source: www.washingtonpost.com

• Try to un-gerrymander these districts so that you're not packing all the Democrats into one district, so you've got districts that are competitive, so that you've got a shot at electing Democrats. But that's more a long-term proposition, if it can even be done.

  Collin Peterson

  Long, Trying, Done

  Source: www.washingtonpost.com

• The only thing I can think to do is if the Democratic Party can do what the Republicans have done, which is go in there and take control of these legislatures and governors' areas.

  Collin Peterson

  Party, Thinking, Done

  Source: www.washingtonpost.com

• You can't have a majority party in Minnesota or throughout the country without [support from] the people in these [rural] districts. Given the position [the Democratic Party] has taken, it's very hard to see how you can do that.

  Collin Peterson

  Country, Taken, Party

  Source: www.washingtonpost.com

• Some of the people in my caucus, some of the people in the state party in Minnesota have basically said, "We don't want to deal with these guys because they're too conservative," or "We don't agree with them on social issues."

  Collin Peterson

  Party, Issues, People

  Source: www.washingtonpost.com

• The [Democratic] party's become an urban party, and they don't get rural America. They don't get agriculture.

  Collin Peterson

  Party, Agriculture, America

  Source: www.washingtonpost.com

• We [Democrats] have become a party of assembling all these different groups, the women's caucus and the black caucus and the Hispanic caucus and the lesbian-gay-transgender caucus and so forth, and that doesn't relate to people out in rural America.

  Collin Peterson

  Party, Gay, America

  Source: www.washingtonpost.com

• When it [NAFTA] was sold, we were supposed to get two or three times more exports to Canada or Mexico than they exported to us. It's been the exact opposite.

  Collin Peterson

  Opposites, Two, Three

  Source: www.washingtonpost.com

• NAFTA's been a big problem for sugar.

  Collin Peterson

  Sugar, Problem, Bigs

  Source: www.washingtonpost.com

• Well, the sugar guys have been dealing with NAFTA ever since it passed. Now we've got Mexico dumping sugar that's subsidized by the Mexican government into our market in violation of the World Trade Organization, because NAFTA gave them open access to our sugar market. They claim they're not subsidized, but the government owns half the industry in Mexico.

  Collin Peterson

  Organization, Government, Guy

  Source: www.washingtonpost.com

• I fought NAFTA when it passed; it has been a big disaster for us, in my opinion. If we can renegotiate that, it would be wonderful.

  Collin Peterson

  Would Be, Opinion, Wonderful

  Source: www.washingtonpost.com

• I agree with [Donald] Trump: These trade agreements have not been good deals for America, and they need to be fixed.

  Collin Peterson

  Agreement, America, Needs

  Source: www.washingtonpost.com

• [Bernie] Sanders tapped into that [trade issues]; that was part of his support. And then when he didn't make it, some of those Sanders people went to [Donald] Trump.

  Collin Peterson

  Issues, People, Support

  Source: www.washingtonpost.com

• [Trade] was clearly a factor.That was a complete reversal of where things are normally at. Usually Republicans are all for free trade.

  Collin Peterson

  Republican, Trade, Reversal

  Source: www.washingtonpost.com

• Pushing gun control drives people [in my district] crazy, gay marriage, abortion, deficit spending.All of that stuff adds up to be a problem for Democrats.

  Collin Peterson

  Crazy, Gay, Gun

  Source: www.washingtonpost.com

• I don't know how you change that. There's hardly anybody left like me in the Democratic Party in Congress. These districts have been so gerrymandered that, in most of them, a Democrat can't win. Somebody like me trying to start off today, he'd never get endorsed. Because I'm too conservative.

  Collin Peterson

  Party, Winning, Trying

  Source: www.washingtonpost.com

• So [Republicans] packed all the Democrats into districts, very Democratic districts. What that's done is made our party urban, more liberal, and so those people are doing what their constituents want. But that's not what my constituents want.

  Collin Peterson

  Party, People, Done

  Source: www.washingtonpost.com

• What's happened is the Republicans have been smart.

  Collin Peterson

  Smart, Republican, Happened

  "Why rural voters don’t vote Democratic anymore". Interview with Christopher Ingraham, www.washingtonpost.com. November 23, 2016.

• Republicans have spent a lot of money redistricting and everything, getting control of these governorships and statehouses.

  Collin Peterson

  Republican, Redistricting, Lots Of Money

  Source: www.washingtonpost.com

• There's no question that [Donald] Trump got elected because of rural America. And our party still is in denial. They don't get it.

  Collin Peterson

  Party, America, Denial

  Source: www.washingtonpost.com

• I always run ahead of the ticket [compared to Democratic presidential candidates]. But this time there were a lot of people that just voted party line, a lot more than usual.

  Collin Peterson

  Running, Party, People

  Source: www.washingtonpost.com

• You know what the economics are like in Red Lake County. There's no way a family can pay $15,000, $20,000 a year for health insurance and make it work. You just can't do it. It's got to change.

  Collin Peterson

  Lakes, Years, Pay

  Source: www.washingtonpost.com