David Young, the newly-minted GOP nominee for congress in Iowa’s third district, says his Washington, D.C. experience as an aide to three different senators is a strength, not a weakness. Young’s Democratic opponent, Staci Appel, has already started attacking Young as a “D-C insider.”
“Knowing how to hit the ground running in Washington, D.C., is an asset and working for Senator Grassley under his mentorship and tutalage is not a bad thing…He taught me how to listen to people,” Young says. “Iowans are my boss, not anyone else, not party leadership and we see what happens with party leadership sometimes. Look what happened to Erin Cantor when you don’t remember who your boss is.”
Young worked for Republican senators from Kentucky and Colorado before serving seven years as Grassley’s chief of staff. Young finished fifth in the Republican primary in Iowa’s third congressional district on June 3rd, but he secured his spot on November’s ballot in last weekend’s third district nominating convention.
Young says while he joins his fellow Republicans in opposing same-sex marriage and abortion, those are not issues he will stress in this year’s campaign. because nothing can be accomplished with President Obama still in the White House two more years.
“What I’ve been pushing here in my campaign are not social issues, although they are important to me personally, but issues on debt, the economy, government accountability,” Young says.
Young made his comments this afternoon during taping of the “Iowa Press” program that airs tonight on Iowa Public Television.