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Mike McNeill’s Diary for Monday, November 9, 2026: An Emerson political star on the rise

Imagine that you’re a young person on the staff of a U.S. senator or representative, who is also a Democrat. Last Tuesday would have been like an election, Christmas, and the Fourth of July bundled together. Your party just regained the Senate and House. The number of job openings and opportunities available to you just exploded. This is true not only of congressional delegations, but also of staffs on the dozens of congressional committees that manage legislation and oversight on everything the government does. Now imagine you’re Emerson High and University of Arkansas graduate Victoria Maloch, daughter of Bruce and Martha Maloch. We’ve been watching her academic and professional career with interest. Former FFA state and national officer. Master’s degrees from Cambridge AND Oxford. She has worked her way through positions in the U.S. Department of Agriculture and the U.S. House Agriculture Committee. Since 2024, she has been senior policy advisor – specializing in agriculture policy -- to U.S. Sen. Michael Bennet (D-Colorado). He was appointed to the Senate in 2009 and has won re-election three times. He’s up for re-election in 2028. The Senate Agriculture Committee is headed by U.S. Sen. John Boozman (R-Arkansas). With the new Democratic Party majority in the Senate, he will lose that post in January. The ranking Democrat on the committee – next in line to become chairman – is Sen. Amy Klobachar (D-Minnesota). But she just got herself elected governor of Minnesota, and she’s leaving the Senate. The No. 2 Democrat on the Senate Agriculture Committee set to move into the chairmanship? Drumroll … Sen. Michael Bennet. There’s politics involved. It’s not a lock that Bennet will become chair of the Senate Ag Committee. But it could happen that the chief advisor to the chair of the Senate Ag Committee will be Victoria Maloch. It gets better. There’s a whole staff of non-elected leaders on the committee, including majority staff director, deputy director, and policy director. These people and other staffers are the folks who do the real work in Congress. Don’t be surprised if Victoria Maloch receives one of these appointments. By default, she would become one of the nation’s most important figures in agriculture.