Pro-trade groups enlist another ex-Dem lawmaker to push for Trump’s NAFTA replacement

Former Democratic Sen. Blanche Lincoln (Ark.) has joined Farmers for Free Trade, a group aiming to secure passage of President Trump’s new trade agreement with Mexico and Canada.

Farmers for Free Trade is the next on the list of groups supporting the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA) who have solicited a former Democratic lawmaker in an attempt to win over congressional Democrats opposed to the deal.

{mosads}The USMCA is the renegotiated North American Free Trade Agreement. Trump signed the deal in November, setting off a six-month deadline for Congress to approve it.

The Farmers for Free Trade campaign is focused on farmers, ranchers and agriculture business owners for free trade. It will kick off with an RV tour across the Midwest, starting in Lancaster County, Pa., on Friday.

Lincoln was named a senior adviser and spokeswoman on Wednesday.

“Congressional approval of the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement is a top priority for our nation’s agriculture industry and I’m pleased to have the opportunity to join the voice of America’s farmers on the importance of North American trade,” she said in a press release.

While in Congress, Lincoln, who retired in 2011, was chairwoman of the Senate Agriculture Committee.

Former Sen. Heidi Heitkamp (D-N.D.), who lost her reelection campaign in November, is a co-chairwoman of Trade Works for America alongside GOP operative Phil Cox.

Additionally, Pass USMCA, founded by Trump’s former deputy chief of staff Rick Dearborn, has former Rep. Joseph Crowley (D-N.Y.) and Gary Locke, the former Democratic governor of Washington and a onetime ambassador to China, as honorary co-chairmen.