Iowa’s fourth congressional district race features a Republican who knocked out GOP incumbent Steve King in the June Primary and a Democrat who came within three points of defeating King in 2018.
Republicans have a 77,000 voter registration edge over Democrats in the fourth congressional district. Democrat J.D. Scholten of Sioux City, a former professional baseball player who is a paralegal, is counting on his strategy of visiting all 374 communities in the district this and voters he describes as “free thinkers.”
“I think one of the biggest strengths of our campaign both last cycle and this cycle is showing up,” Scholten said. “We went to all 39 counties at least three times last cycle. Last fall, we did the ‘Don’t Forget About Us’ tour where we went into towns of under 1,000 people and did town halls there.”
Republican Randy Feenstra of Hull, a Dordt University business professor, is a former Sioux County Treasurer who promises to push for more federal tax cuts.
“I’ve served in the Iowa Senate the last 12 years where I have produced results time and time again,” Feenstra said. “…When I get to Congress, I’ll do the same thing. I’ll also fight against the Green New Deal and the government take-over of health care.”
Feenstra said he wants to serve on the House Ag Committee if elected and help write the 2022 Farm Bill.
“We’re the second-largest district in the nation when it comes to agriculture,” Feenstra said. “Virtually everything pivots around agriculture. When our agriculture is successful, our Main Streets are successful.”
Scholten said he’ll pressure federal agencies to break up the monopolies in agriculture.
“Right now in hogs, four companies control 70% of the market share,” Scholten said. “Right now cattle, four companies control 85% of the market share.”
Scholten said if elected, he will not support giving Nancy Pelosi another term as House Speaker and will press for campaign finance reform. Feenstra met with President Trump in the Oval Office in late September and Trump, who won the 4th district overwhelmingly in 2016, has tweeted his “complete and total endorsement” of Feenstra.