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, Iowans in Des Moines gathered to call out Randy Feenstra and Kim Reynolds for gutting health care, Feenstra and Zach Lahn skipped the only televised primary debate of the cycle, and Feenstra once again failed Iowa farmers on E15. IDP Chair Rita Hart also set the record straight on Reynolds’ failed record.
Let’s get into it.
Health care headaches: Iowans speak out against Feenstra and Reynolds’ health care cuts in Des Moines
On Wednesday, Iowans in Des Moines gathered for the last stop of the Iowa Democratic Party’s “Decade of Denied Care” Tour. Speakers called out Feenstra’s vote to gut Medicaid for 110,000 Iowans and put rural hospitals on the chopping block, Kim Reynolds’ mismanagement of Iowa’s privatized Medicaid program, and how health care has suffered under a decade of one-party rule.
This comes after MercyOne South Des Moines announced they will end urgent care and family medicine services on June 26, citing “cuts to Medicaid and Medicare reimbursement” that Feenstra voted to pass.
What Iowans are watching about the event:
→ KCCI: Iowans speak out against Medicaid cuts in Des Moines
→ WHO13: Feenstra, Reynolds called out for health care cuts in Des Moines
Messy primary alert: No-Show Randy Feenstra and Zach Lahn blow off Iowa Press debate
Iowa’s “unsettled,” “chaotic and competitive” gubernatorial primary came to a head this week with Adam Steen, Brad Sherman, and Eddie Andrews squaring off in the only televised debate of the cycle. In a surprise to no one, No-Show Randy Feenstra didn’t bother to show up, and longtime political insider Zach Lahn used Feenstra’s absence as an excuse to skip the debate as well.
- Feenstra had promised it was “time to debate” after the filing deadline on March 13 passed and the primary field became official. Since then, he’s continued to skip events with his opponents and has yet to commit to a single primary debate.
- While Feenstra hides from the campaign trail, GOP activists are planning for the “very, very real possibility” of the wide-open primary going to a “contested” convention.
Feenstra’s fellow candidates and members of his own party have spent months attacking his no-show campaign. Steen has harshly criticized Feenstra’s absences, calling him “Runaway Randy” and questioning Feenstra’s ability to unite his base in a general election, while his ally Vander Plaats has warned that Feenstra’s “nomination places all [Republican] gains at risk.”
Feenstra fail of the week: Once again failing to pass nationwide year-round E15
Randy Feenstra left farmers and working families stranded after failing — once again — to pass year-round E15 in the long-overdue and flawed Farm Bill, which would help boost farmers’ bottom lines and lower prices at the pump.
- As Politico reported, one House Republican said that Feenstra’s inability to pass nationwide year-round E15 means it’s “lights-out for Feenstra’s governor bid.”
- Feenstra — the chair of a useless biofuels council in Congress that only exists because of his failure to deliver on E15 — claimed last month that an E15 bill would pass “in the next couple weeks,” despite his failure to put a bill on the floor since January.
Feenstra has repeatedly proven he’s too weak to deliver for farmers and was even warned that his “protests against the Farm Bill and E15 measure were unnecessary — since the House version of the Farm Bill was going nowhere in the Senate.”
Reynolds apology tour: Candidates pledge to continue Reynolds’ failed legacy
Ahead of Kim Reynolds’ legacy tour stop in Davenport on Thursday, IDP Chair Rita Hart set the record straight on the most unpopular governor in the country’s failed legacy, calling Reynolds out for crushing Iowa’s economy, shortchanging public schools, and making it harder for Iowans to get health care.
Reynolds’ visit comes after the Iowa PBS primary debate, where the candidates — at least those who bothered to show up — shared how they’re running to continue Reynolds’ record of failing Iowans:
- Adam Steen said it was “an honor to serve her for five years” as head of the Department of Administrative Services after previously stating “I support everything that Governor Reynolds is doing.”
- Steen, Brad Sherman, and Eddie Andrews applauded Reynolds’ unaccountable private school vouchers that rip taxpayer dollars away from public schools.
- Steen, Sherman, and Andrews praised Reynolds’ extreme abortion ban that restricts access to care before most women know they’re pregnant, and promised to go further — threatening medication abortion, contraception, IVF, and surrogacy.
While Randy Feenstra and Zach Lahn skipped Tuesday night’s debate, they’re just as eager to continue Reynolds’ failed record by supporting her school voucher scheme and pledging to go even further than her six-week abortion ban. Feenstra was even caught touting Reynolds’ endorsement on the campaign trail, despite the fact that Reynolds promised to remain neutral in the primary — and even denied Feenstra’s claim at her legacy tour event.
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.