A handful of leading 2016 presidential candidates participated in a tradition as old as time this week as they stopped by a booth at the Iowa State Fair run by the state's pork producers. Photos from the fair show Hillary Clinton posing with a pork stick, Former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush eating pork chops and Gov. Scott Walker taking a big bite out of a slab of freshly-fried pork.
Said Bush at the fair: "I never thought there'd be a day where people would be staring at me eating a pork chop." Said us: Same.
While goofy, the photos illustrate the underlying importance that the pork industry plays in electoral politics. Nearly one-third of the country's pigs are raised in Iowa, according to the Iowa Pork Producers' Association, making it the number one pork-producing state in the U.S. An estimated 40,000 workers are employed on the farms. The group makes nearly 10% of its annual revenue at the fair's pork tent and spends nearly 15% of its annual budget on lobbying, it says.