At a town hall meeting conducted by Iowa Sen. Chuck Grassley last week, multiple audience members interrupted the seven-term lawmaker and said he was endangering children’s lives by “filibustering gun reform.”
Grassley told attendees that, before commenting further, he wanted to monitor negotiations between Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas) and Sen. Chris Murphy (D-Conn.) as the pair discuss gun reform.
At 88, Grassley is campaigning to secure his eighth term as a U.S. Senator in Iowa.
Endorsed by former president Donald Trump, he is the oldest Republican serving in the Senate. He was elected to the House of Representatives in 1975 and won his Senate seat in 1980.
The Iowa native and farmer, who is the longest-serving U.S. senator in the state’s history, faces state Sen. Jim Carlin in the GOP primary on June 7.Carlin, an attorney, was elected to the Iowa House of Representatives in 2017, succeeding the retiring Ron Jorgensen. Later that year, Carlin was elected to the Iowa Senate, a seat he currently holds.
The Democratic U.S. Senate primary features former Rep. Abby Finkenauer, retired Navy Adm. Michael Franken, and city councilman Glenn Hurst.
Finkenauer, who is 33, is talking about abortion access as part of her platform. She is a former two-term state representative.
“It is why we need somebody standing on the floor in 2023 in the United States Senate who is a woman of childbearing age, who does actually have a personal stake in this,” Finkenauer said at a May debate.
“It is absurd to me that we don’t have more voices standing on that floor right now.”
Open Secrets reported that Finkenauer generated more than $3,700,000 for the June 14 primary and Franken topped $2,800,000.
In a TV ad aired in late May, the narrator says, “Our Chuck Grassley is a conservative icon.”
Grassley is expected to win the primary and the general election.
Incumbent Republican Gov. Kim Reynolds is also heavily favored to win in November. She is running unopposed in the June 7 primary. Democrat Deidre DeJear and Libertarian Rick Stewart are also candidates for governor.
Other statewide races that have no primaries this year include the one for attorney general where Republican Brenna Bird will challenge incumbent Democrat Tom Miller in November—and treasurer, which pits incumbent Democrat Michael Fitzgerald against Republican state Sen. Roby Smith.
All four of Iowa’s U.S. House of Representative seats are on the ballot this year, and the Iowa Republican Party is striving to go four-for-four.
The race to watch is in the newly redrawn 3rd Congressional District, where Republicans hope to unseat incumbent Rep. Cindy Axne, a two-term Democrat.
Financial services professional Nicole Hasso, Iowa state senator and Air Force veteran Zach Nunn, and farmer Gary Leffler are the challengers in the Republican primary on June 7. Hasso and Nunn lead in fundraising.
Former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, U.A. Rep. Dan Crenshaw (R-Texas) and Americans for Prosperity Action have backed Nunn, who has served in the Iowa House and the Senate.
In a recent debate, Nunn described how he voted for the most expansive tax cut package in Iowa history.
“We’ve proven that we can do it here in Iowa and I would use Iowa as a playbook for what we can do for the entire country,” Nunn explained.
“When you look at our economy, we were one of the first ones to reopen. When you look at government overreach, we were one of the first ones to put kids back in schools.”
Hasso told debate audience members that “I am a Christian, I am a conservative, I’m a wife, I’m a Mom and I guess now I am a woman and a biologist.”
The “woman” and “biologist” remarks were in response to Supreme Court Justice Katanji Brown, who during her confirmation was asked to define “woman.” She answered that she’s a judge, not a biologist.
Leffler has raised little money. He is best known for his antique tractor adorned with a patriotic theme that he brings to events. He attended the Jan. 6 events at the U.S. Capitol but was not in the building.
Axne was first elected to the U.S. House in 2018, but the territory she now represents has a different landscape.
The redrawn 3rd District gained nine counties that voted for Trump in 2020.
Dennis Goldford, a political science professor at Drake University political science professor Dennis Goldford told Iowa Public Radio that Axne could be vulnerable in November.
Voters who are angry at the condition of America under Biden could take out their frustration on Democrats.
“In a way you have an incumbent but you don’t have an incumbent, right?” Goldford said. “The fact that most national observers consider the 3rd District a toss-up is something that favors Republicans and shows Democrats in some difficulty.”
On June 4, Axne wrote an article that appeared in the Perry News that proclaimed:
“I’m pleased to share that for the second year in a row I’ve been named the most bipartisan member of the Iowa congressional delegation by the Lugar Center and Georgetown University’s McCourt School of Public Policy.
“I was also named the 20th most bipartisan member of the 435 voting members in the U.S. House of Representatives, putting me in the 96th percentile of all members.”
Axne added, “The Lugar/McCourt Bipartisan Index demonstrates how often a member of Congress works with those across the aisle by measuring how many bills members write that are supported by those in the other party or in turn supporting a bill written by the other party.
“Since coming to Congress, I’ve been laser-focused on cutting through bureaucratic red tape, lowering costs and expanding opportunities for Iowans.”
Two years ago, Axne prevailed by around 6,200 votes, which was less than 1.5 percentage points. The new congressional map has moved the district to a side that is friendlier to Republicans.
