“Policies are wonderful things, but the first thing you have to do, to be able to implement them, is win,” said Herbster, a fifth-generation farmer. “I’m a great lover of agriculture and rural America, because that’s my life.”

Herbster may not be well known in national agriculture circles, but he’s been a friend of Trump’s for more than a decade. They met at Mar-a-Lago, Trump’s estate in Palm Beach, Fla., where the two were introduced by a mutual friend, according to a friend of Herbster’s. Trump invited Herbster and his wife back to the estate over Easter weekend in 2013.

Herbster connected with Trump again this year, during one of the New York real estate magnate’s campaign stops in Omaha, and Trump invited him for a meeting at Trump Tower on May 19. In a freewheeling conversation in Trump’s office then, they talked about “all aspects of his campaign,” Herbster said.

By then, planning for the rural council was underway. Herbster had met several times with Sam Clovis, Trump’s senior policy adviser, about the campaign’s plan for addressing agriculture and small business issues.

In July, Herbster took out a two-page ad in Progressive Cattleman magazine with a picture of him and Trump in Trump Tower, flashing wide grins and holding their thumbs up. The official announcement about his involvement with the campaign didn’t come until July 20, when Herbster gave a speech at a special lunch thrown for the agriculture industry on the sidelines of the Republican National Convention in Cleveland.

“We need your help. We need your money. Let’s make sure in January we inaugurate Donald J. Trump,” he said, according to The Hagstrom Report. Herbster relayed to the crowd how he gave Trump “a significant contribution for a Nebraska farmer,” when the two met in New York.

A businessman with a thirst for politics

Trump’s champion in agriculture circles has fashioned a persona not dissimilar to the candidate’s: a big-time businessman who recently developed an insatiable thirst for politics and an interest in becoming a political kingmaker. Also like Trump, Herbster seems to have little taste for subtlety.

He stunned the Nebraska political establishment after a short-lived run for governor in 2013, quitting after six weeks and pouring $860,000 into the coffers of his former competitor and friend, Republican State Sen. Beau McCoy. It may have been the largest single donation in state history, according to the Omaha World-Herald. (McCoy came in third in a six-way way primary, losing by six points to Pete Ricketts, who later beat the Democratic candidate handily.)

Herbster is unlike Trump in one respect. His mission statement on one of his company websites describes “building a business to the glory of God.”

“He considers himself to be a strong evangelical Christian and a very strong conservative,” said McCoy, who is still in the state legislature and operates a division of one of Herbster’s businesses.

Herbster’s donations to McCoy weren’t the first time he had given to a candidate, a review of Federal Election Commission filings shows.

While Herbster contributed just $500 to the National Republican Congressional Committee in 2004 — his first time giving — and $2,300 to an Indiana Republican’s U.S. House reelection campaign in 2008, his political giving picked up in earnest in 2012.

That year he gave $91,600 to a PAC backing Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney, $10,000 to the Nebraska Republican Party and $2,500 to the campaign of Nebraska GOP Sen. Deb Fischer.

Between 2013 and 2015, the Republican National Committee received almost $100,000 in contributions from the Nebraska cattleman, and he gave another $12,500 to Republicans seeking or trying to hold onto Nebraska’s Congressional seats. In the same period, he contributed to GOP congressional candidates in other states, including $10,000 to Alabama Rep. Robert Aderholt, chairman of the House Appropriations Committee’s agriculture subcommittee.

In 2014, he also started giving to the newly formed Republican-leaning Ag America super PAC, which puts money behind candidates that are pro-trade, support biotechnology and pesticide use and limited environmental and land use regulation. Herbster, who is a member of the super PAC’s steering committee, gave it $40,000 in 2014 and another $60,000 in 2015.

All told, Herbster has given more than $336,000 in campaign contributions since 2012. He has yet to make any contributions in 2016, according to the FEC filings.

Priority on eliminating the death tax

Herbster is “very experienced in agriculture issues and influential around agriculture and cares about agriculture politically,” said Ben Cannatti, a spokesman for Ag America. “Having him advise the Trump campaign, that’s great.”

Others said he’s been notably absent from policy discussions. Pete McClymont, executive vice president of Nebraska Cattlemen, said Herbster — despite his reputation as a wealthy businessman — has never helped the group with its policy agenda or engaged in local issues.

Herbster said he’s not ready to reveal details about the rural advisory council, but said the campaign will double down on its plan to eliminate the estate tax. The “death tax,” as opponents call it, applies to estates valued at more than $5.45 million. The issue is especially touchy for farmers, many of whom own land and equipment worth far more.

Herbster said the council is “certainly going to be addressing regulation, we’re going to be addressing trade, all those specific issues.”

He hinted he’d be willing to stay on as an adviser if Trump wins in November.

“It’s certainly going to be an effort, once he wins, to bring sound input to Washington, D.C., and protect the things that affect rural America,” Herbster said.

Jenny Hopkinson contributed to this report.