Welcome back to The Status Quo Squad — your weekly newsletter from the Iowa Democratic Party, bringing you the latest updates on the chaotic, messy, and wide-open Republican gubernatorial primary where all the candidates promise one thing: a continuation of the status quo that has failed Iowa for the last decade.
This week, Randy Feenstra and the rest of the Republican field refused to take a stand against costly tariffs, Adam Steen said he wants to slash funding for our already-underfunded public schools, new reporting revealed that Zach Lahn and Brad Sherman are being bankrolled by violent criminals who attacked police officers, and Art Cullen exposed Feenstra’s struggles with the grassroots.
Let’s get into it.
Vote alert: Feenstra votes TWICE in 24 hours for costly tariffs that the field supports
While Iowa farmers, small businesses, and working families are seeing prices skyrocket and struggling to break even thanks to reckless federal economic policies, tariff-lover Randy Feenstra voted twice in 24 hours to sell out farmers and uphold tariffs. The entire Republican gubernatorial field supports the tariffs that are estimated to cost the average Iowa family $2,100 in 2026 and have pushed our agriculture industry to the brink of another farm crisis.
Feenstra is also facing continued scrutiny for failing to protect Iowa cattle farmers over Argentine beef producers on the heels of a new U.S.-Argentina trade deal. Chaotic trade policies from D.C. are crushing Iowa farmers, but Feenstra, Adam Steen, Zach Lahn, Brad Sherman, and Eddie Andrews refuse to speak out.
The entire GOP field all support cost-raising tariffs that are hurting farmers:
- Randy Feenstra voted four times to rubber stamp the disastrous tariffs that are raising prices on Iowa farmers, cheered on chaotic tariffs, and said “I applaud” Washington’s reckless trade policy. Feenstra has also failed to pass a new Farm Bill after three terms in Congress, which would give Iowa farmers the certainty they need.
- Adam Steen defended the chaotic trade policy and even told struggling Iowa farmers “to be patient” and “to expand their infrastructure, expand their business” to make up for plummeting profits from tariffs.
- Zach Lahn cheered on cost-raising tariffs, saying “we should tariff them anyways. Just incase.”
- Brad Sherman dismissed and downplayed the harmful impacts of tariffs on Iowa farmers, saying “we all knew that the tariffs would have some ups and downs to it. I’m not too worried about it.”
- Eddie Andrews refused to speak out against the tariffs that are raising prices on hardworking Iowans and undercutting farmers.
In his own words: Adam Steen wants to make Iowa’s public school funding crisis worse
This week, Adam Steen told a crowd he wants to further slash funding for Iowa’s already-underfunded public schools. Steen said public education “in every area has a spending problem” and claimed “there’s more money going into those schools that we don’t know about that doesn’t need to go in there.”
Steen also praised Kim Reynolds’ disastrous private school voucher scheme and opposed oversight measures for school vouchers, saying “you have my commitment, absolutely, 100%, I will protect ESA’s … I will continue to push them forward as best we possibly can.”
Randy Feenstra, Zach Lahn, Brad Sherman, and Eddie Andrews agree with Steen on attacking public schools. Feenstra backed Reynolds’ voucher scheme in the state legislature and voted to further shift tens of billions of taxpayer dollars away from public schools to private schools in Congress. Lahn, Sherman, and Andrews have praised the unaccountable vouchers that are undermining the future of public education in Iowa.
A decade of one-party control has left Iowa students, teachers, and public schools behind:
- Under Reynolds, Iowa fell from 5th in the country in education to 20th.
- Schools are chronically underfunded to the tune of $520 million per year, or over $1,000 per student.
- Reynolds’ voucher scheme has funneled $315 million in tax dollars to unaccountable private schools and left rural school districts to foot the bill for wealthy families — forcing cuts to local programs that kids and families count on.
Donor watch: Candidates bankrolled by violent criminals who attacked police officers
A new report from Heartland Signal revealed that Zach Lahn and Brad Sherman are bankrolled by violent criminals who attacked police officers, receiving their “largest campaign donations from individuals who were later pardoned for their roles in the Jan. 6, 2021 Capitol riot.”
Lahn’s largest donor “was arrested by the FBI and charged with several crimes relating to his involvement with the riot at the U.S. Capitol … video evidence showed DeNeui using a flag pole to break into the Capitol and hit a police officer.” Sherman’s largest donor “was one of the first offenders arrested for his actions at the U.S. Capitol.” Lahn and Sherman “did not respond to a request to comment.”
The rest of the Republican field are no better. Randy Feenstra has also refused to speak out against letting dangerous rioters who assaulted police officers at the U.S. Capitol back on the street, and even praised these violent criminals as “a wonderful group.” Sherman went as far as calling rioters “patriots.”
Feenstra fail of the week: Art Cullen exposes Feenstra’s struggles with the grassroots
Storm Lake Times Pilot editor Art Cullen exposed “congressman of little note” Randy Feenstra for facing problems with his own party after he failed to get Donald Trump’s endorsement, was snubbed by Bob Vander Plaats, and came in a distant third in straw polls at the Iowa Caucuses — amid the “split and foundering” state of the Iowa Republican Party.
Feenstra has come under fire from his opponents and his party’s grassroots for bailing on events with the rest of the primary field, including last month’s Moms for Liberty debate, as a petition circulating among the grassroots begging Trump to endorse anyone but “absent congressman” Feenstra has garnered over 700 signatures. Feenstra being “unable to clear the primary field” has caused GOP activists to plan for the “very, very real possibility” of the “chaotic and competitive” primary going to a “contested” convention.
Read more from the Storm Lake Times Pilot here.
Bottom line: No matter who emerges from this underwhelming and extreme crop of candidates, they are all running to continue Kim Reynolds’ failed policies that have put Iowa dead last in economic growth, set kids and public school teachers up for failure, and ripped away access to health care.
That’s a wrap for this edition of The Status Quo Squad. Thanks for reading, we’ll see you next week.