Republican Congressman Randy Feenstra hosted his annual fundraiser today in Sioux Center, but did not mention running for governor.
Feenstra announced yesterday that he’s raised over $3 million for a likely campaign for governor, but his remarks today were focused on his work in the U.S. House. “The American spirit under President Trump and his administration, we’ve seen it this last week when we passed the ‘Big Beautiful Bill,'” Feenstra said, “results that were promised in his campaign.”
Feenstra said he worked with the Trump Administration in writing parts of the package that deal with tax and ag policies. “I was one of the key authors on this new economic forefront,” Feenstra said.
The bill extends the tax cuts President Trump approved in 2017 and Feenstra mentioned the new tax credit for contributions to scholarships that go to students in K-12 private schools. “For our families we made raising children more affordable,” Feenstra said, “and a strong voice for parents and a strong voice for education that promotes kids, not anything else.”
Feenstra, who is a member of the U.S. House Ways and Means and Agriculture Committees, told the crowd the bill will “secure” crop insurance for farmers.
According to Feenstra, the package moves the country into the future Trump described on the 2024 campaign trail. “There’s one word that sort of sums this up, this new chapter, this new chapter that has started just in the last five months and that is revival,” Feenstra said. “…It gives us hope in this country. Rival, it’s our shared conservative values, that we each have a dream for not only us, but for our children — a dream that President Trump calls a ‘golden age for America.'”
Feenstra announced in mid-May that he had formed a fundraising committee to explore a run for governor. He’s already run campaign style ads and the bio on Feenstra’s account on X does not mention he’s a member of congress. It says Feenstra is a “Republican for Governor of Iowa.”
(Reporting by Jerod Work, KSOU, Sioux Center; additional reporting by Radio Iowa’s O. Kay Henderson)