marianne.goodland@coloradopolitics.com
Former state Sen. Jerry Sonnenberg has been named executive director of the Farm Service Agency for Colorado by the Trump administration.
Sonnenberg served as a Logan County commissioner beginning in 2023. He resigned that seat on April 16.
He starts as executive director on May 5.
The Farm Services Agency, part of the U.S. Department of Agriculture, administers farm commodity, disaster, and conservation programs for farmers and ranchers; and it makes and guarantees farm emergency, ownership, and operating loans through a network of state and county offices.
ontinued farming with crops suitable for dryland farming, such as corn, wheat or sorghum. An agreement between Colorado and the FSA was inked in 2023, an effort started in the first Trump administration under then-Colorado Commissioner of Agriculture Don Brown.
Sonnenberg is also interested in preventative planning for the Lower Arkansas River basin, where drought has been an issue and has hindered farmers from planting crops.
“I think I can be helpful and to be the face of agriculture and advocate for farmers and ranchers. That’s always been my passion,” he said.
Leaving the Logan County commission will be tough, Sonnenberg said, calling it the best job he’s ever had, in part because it kept him close to home. But he believes he can advocate for Logan County and for all of agriculture in his new post.
He will be based out of the Denver Federal Center in Lakewood but he anticipates he won’t be spending much time in the office, as he plans to be on the road, visiting the individual county FSA offices. One issue he noted is the question over why largest and most productive agriculture county in Colorado — Weld County — doesn’t have an FSA office. He will be looking into that, he said.
A native of Sterling, Sonnenberg served eight years in the House and eight years in the Senate, representing northeastern Colorado, until he was term-limited in 2022. He championed water and agricultural issues during his time in the legislature, carrying landmark legislation such as 2017’s omnibus “Sustainability of Rural Colorado” that directed $556 million to rural schools and roads, and created the Colorado Healthcare Affordability and Sustainability Enterprise, which collects fees from hospitals and remits it back to health care facilities that serve indigent populations.
Sonnenberg also sponsored the bill granting the University of Northern Colorado its authority for a college of osteopathic medicine. He was the original sponsor for Missing Person’s Day in Colorado, based on the case of Kelsie Schelling, a Holyoke resident who was eight weeks pregnant when she went missing in Pueblo in 2013. After eight years of delays, her boyfriend was convicted of her murder and sentenced to life in prison without parole.
Sonnenberg served as president pro tempore of the Senate in the 2017-18 sessions.
He owns a cattle transport company and a farm in Logan County, where his family has farmed for six generations. He was inducted into the Colorado Agriculture Hall of Fame in February 2023 and the Sonnenberg farm was added to the state’s Centennial Farms in 2022. The program recognizes farms that have belonged to the same family for at least 100 years and is currently a working farm or ranch.
“Logan County has been my family’s home for six generations and I have been honored to serve the people of Logan County,” Sonnenberg said in his resignation letter to Logan County. “The best government is the government closest to the people. Helping my neighbors, as well as the county employees solve problems has been humbling over the last two years and I will miss that.”
“With this appointment I will be able to utilize my leadership skills and experience to lead the Colorado ag industry and be their liaison to both President Trump and Secretary of Agriculture Rollins,” he said.
Sonnenberg isn’t the first Sonnenberg to serve in the legislature or to run the Farm Service Agency.
His uncle, Lowell Sonnenberg, served two years in the Senate and six years in the House, from 1965 to 1974, representing the same district as his nephew. He later on went to serve as state executive director of the Agricultural Stabilization and Conservation Service, which later became the Farm Service Agency, in the Ford administration. He returned to Colorado in 1985, while still working for the USDA, and ran the Colorado FSA office until he retired in 1994.
Jerry Sonnenberg ran for the 4th Congressional District primary last year, one of six candidates. He finished a distant second to U.S. Rep. Lauren Boebert, R-Windsor.
Boebert wrote a letter of support to Secretary of Agriculture Brooke Rollins for Sonnenberg’s appointment to FSA. She said Sonnenberg “has the knowledge, expertise, and respect of the agriculture community in every corner of our state and will serve as a fantastic leader within your department” and that “he has been at the policy forefront of standing up for farmers, ranchers, and the future of the ag community.”
Agriculture is not just a business for Sonnenberg, Boebert wrote.
“It is a vital community, a voice for rural Americans, and it is a vocation he’s proudly served out every day of his life,” she said.
Sonnenberg said Boebert was key to making the appointment happen.
“She pushed hard for me and I’m honored she would do that,” Sonnenberg said.