Statement on Randy Feenstra Officially Launching Campaign for Governor 

DES MOINES, IA – Today, weeks into a government shutdown that is leaving 700 Iowa National Guardsmen furloughed or working without pay, Congressman Randy Feenstra has officially announced his campaign to be Iowa’s next governor, joining an already-crowded field of insiders hoping to continue Iowa down Governor Kim Reynolds’ path of failure. 

IDP Chair Rita Hart issued this statement following the announcement:

“Randy Feenstra is the definition of an insider politician, and there’s no better proof point than launching his campaign amid the government shutdown. After failing Iowa families in office for nearly 20 years – first for 12 years in the Iowa state Senate, and for the last five years in Congress, Randy wants to bring the D.C. swamp to Des Moines. Iowans are ready for change – not more of the same status quo that Randy Feenstra and this slate of Republican candidates would maintain, which has landed Iowa 49th in the country for economic growth, 48th for personal income growth, plummeting in public education, and number one for cancer growth. Iowans want a leader who will put them first, not special interests, political parties, or the millionaires and billionaires that any of the Republican candidates for governor would prioritize.” 

See below to see why Randy Feenstra’s record is disqualifying to be Iowa’s next governor: 

Randy Feenstra is an insider: 

• Randy Feenstra is just another insider who would maintain the status quo that has failed Iowans throughout the last decade of one-party rule, and helped get Iowa to where it is today: 49th in the country for economic growth, 48th for personal income growth, plummeting in public education, and number 1 for cancer growth rates.
  
• For the last five years, Feenstra has served in U.S. Congress where he has put politics and his allegiance to his party over every day Iowans, as demonstrated in his record. Before that, Feenstra spent 12 years in the Iowa state legislature helping to lay the groundwork that left Iowa in the disastrous financial position it is in today.
  
• Throughout his career, Randy Feenstra has voted to increase the national deficit by over $4 trillion, leaving our kids and Iowa’s future generation with a mountain of debt to pay off.
  
• Feenstra worked for years to put in place the disastrous private school voucher scheme that takes money from public schools to Iowa’s richest families, then in Congress he voted to further shift tens of billions of taxpayer dollars away from public schools to private schools, while voting for an extreme budget bill that would have fired up to 60,000 teachers and staff nationwide. 
  

Randy Feenstra has made everything more expensive:

• Randy Feenstra has spent years voting in the interest of his billionaire donors – not Iowans – voting to raise costs and taxes on hardworking Iowa families.
  
• Feenstra voted for the disastrous OBBB, which will cause health care, housing, and utility bills to skyrocket.
  
  • The law is expected to increase utility bills by an average of $550 per year per household across Iowa; raise housing costs by increasing the average mortgage by up to $1,060 per year per household, and puts Social Security for our seniors at risk, moving up its bankruptcy date.
    
• Feenstra repeatedly voted to back the disastrous tariffs policy that would raise prices on Iowa farmers and is anticipated to cost the average Iowa family over $2,400 per year.
  
• Feenstra voted to let Wall Street banks charge eight times higher fees on Iowans, increasing their profits while working people pay more. 

Randy Feenstra has made it harder for Iowans to access health care: 

• Randy Feenstra voted for the OBBB, which will kick over 106,700 Iowans off their health care, puts rural hospitals at risk of closure, and will raise Iowans’ insurance premiums.
  
• Randy Feenstra has spent his career working to strip Iowans of their healthcare rights, including co-sponsoring a complete national abortion ban with no exceptions and voting for a version of Iowa’s extreme 6-week abortion ban. 

Randy Feenstra is joining a clown car Republican primary that includes:

• State Sen. Eddie Andrews:
  • Andrews’ company was investigated for fraud after more than 200 complaints from consumers.
    
  • Andrews supports Iowa’s extreme 6-week abortion ban.
    
• Brad Sherman:
  • Has attacked Iowa’s schools as “indoctrination centers.”
    
• Adam Steen: 
  • Bragged about his ties to the country’s least popular Governor, Kim Reynolds, and said “I support everything that Governor Reynolds is doing.”
    
  • Led the insider plan to make state government even less accountable to Iowans, while increasing power for insider politicians and special interests. 
     

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