J.D. Scholten.
The Democratic candidate for Iowa’s 4th district congressional seat has a new twist on campaigning during the Covid era. J.D. Scholten has equipped his “Sioux City Sue” RV with special equipment so he can hold parking lot rallies.
“I know a lot of churches have gone this way,” Scholten says. “We’re going to have a site where people can go and drive to and if they just want to stay in their car and tune in on the local frequency that we’ll be broadcasting, they can do that. Otherwise they can come out of their cars and just make sure that they’re socially distant.”
The RV will have speakers, so those who stand outside the R-V will be able to hear, along with those tuned-in and sitting in their vehicles. Scholten is planning to visit all 375 towns in the district before Election Day.
“We are taking extra precautions,” Scholten says. “Wear a mask. We’ll have a lot of hand sanitizers and things like that.”
This is Scholten’s second run in the district. In 2018, he narrowly lost to Republican Congressman Steve King. In 2020, he faces Republican Randy Feenstra, who defeated King in the June 2nd GOP Primary. A recent poll suggests Feenstra has a comfortable lead in the district, which has a significant Republican voter registration edge.
“The last time and again this time, we say all the time that it doesn’t matter if you’re white, black or brown, it doesn’t matter if you’re Democrat, independent Republican or never voted before — we’re going to go out there and earn your vote,” Scholten says, “and that continues to be our strategy.”
On Tuesday evening, Scholten’s holding a parking lot rally at the Plymouth County Fairgrounds in Le Mars. On Wednesday evening, he’ll speak from the Sioux City North High School Parking lot.
(By Woody Gottburg, KSCJ, Sioux City)