Democrats feel re-energized and rally around Iowa House candidate

Oftentimes the Jasper County Democratic Party Soup Supper is a low key affair barely running off the fumes of a handful of ticked off candidates, and while its atmosphere this year was certainly relaxed, the event was teeming with eager party members who haven’t looked this motivated in some time.

For what seems like an eternity — especially for Republicans — Jasper County has remained a Democratic stronghold. It was blue through and through. Unions and the presence of Maytag most surely supplied the votes come Election Day. But, obviously, times have changed. Now, there are only a few blue offices left.

In 2018, Chaz Allen resigned from his seat on the Iowa Senate. That same year Jasper County welcomed a fully Republican board of supervisors with newly elected Brandon Talsma and re-elected Denny Carpenter serving alongside Doug Cupples. In 2021, Wes Breckenridge resigned from the Iowa House.

Today, only four Democrats hold major offices in Jasper County: Denise Allan in the recorder’s office, Doug Bishop in the treasurer’s office, John Halferty in the sheriff’s office and Scott Nicholson in the attorney’s office. However, upon Halferty’s retirement this year, that total will reduce to three.

Following a string of defeats, the Jasper County Democratic Party has struggled to find its footing. That is until Brad Magg announced he was running for Iowa House District 38 against incumbent Rep. Jon Dunwell. The response from the community certainly gave the party a boost of confidence in their candidate.

Coupled with the announcement that President Joe Biden would be dropping out of the race in favor of Vice President Kamala Harris and Midwestern running mate Tim Walz, the Jasper County Democratic Party has been given the swift kick in the butt it needed to get back on a somewhat even playing field.

Republicans still outnumber registered Democrats in Jasper County. That is a fact. There are one-and-a-half times more Republicans than there are Democrats in the county. Until just a few years ago it was neck and neck. While it is unlikely the pendulum will swing back in a year, Democrats are acting like it has.

This year the soup supper was held at Legacy Plaza, a short jaunt from both the brewery and the pub. As far as fundraisers go, the soup supper feels more like a potluck than anything else. In fact if it weren’t for the speeches and political signs, one could mistake the event for an old class reunion or family gathering.

Of course the political entourages would also be a dead giveaway. This year the party welcomed Christina Bohannan who is running for Congress against U.S. House Rep. Mariannette Miller-Meeks. Former Congressman Dave Loebsack also showed up to support Bohannan and the Harris/Walz campaign.

Even former lawmaker Dennis Black, who served the Iowa Senate for 10 years, made a surprise appearance to the soup supper.

However, it was Loebsack who would engage the crowd first by sharing his support of Bohannan and recalling the 2020 election in which Rita Hart and Miller-Meeks competed for this vacant congressional district seat. Loebsack asked the crowd how many votes Hart lost by. As if they forgot.

“Six!” they shouted back to him.

Loebsack said he wants to make sure Miller-Meeks doesn’t get back into Congress. He also wants to see Harris back in the White House as president.

Both Loebsack and Walz joined the U.S. House of Representatives in 2007 after successful bids in the 2006 election. He said the “Class of 2006″ was to meet for an online fundraiser the day after the soup supper. Loebsack said the class is going to raise a “ton of money” for the Harris-Walz campaign.

Looking back at his early days of campaigning, he recalled that no one thought he had “a shot in hell” to beat Jim Leach. Even his wife didn’t think he could beat the then-Republican incumbent. Loebsack said the brother of Gil Gutknecht told him the same thing when he ran into him in Cedar Falls back in 2006.

Gutknecht happened to be a Republican member of the U.S. House, and his opponent just happened to be Walz. Loebsack recalled the brother was confident Gutknecht would win. It was a story similar to Loebsack. No shot in hell. Loebsack pushed back, confident Walz could win.

“Sure enough, Tim won,” Loebsack said. “Five days later we’re at orientation and Walz finds me and I find him and we’re soul mates because he actually heard about that story … We became good friends. He really had a tough district in southern Minnesota. He became a Blue Dog like Leonard Boswell.”

Fast-forward a few years, Walz becomes governor of Minnesota and gets a Democratic legislature to pass a law to give free school lunches for kids.

“I like Tim’s response to somebody calling him a socialist or a communist. He’s like, ‘Oh yeah I’m a real monster. I want kids to have school lunches for free,’” Loebsack said. “…(Harris) was a fantastic senator and she’s a fantastic campaigner. She’s done so many great things with her life.”

Results from a new Des Moines Register/Mediacom Iowa Poll show Harris has resonated with Iowa voters far more than Biden did. Trump leads Harris by only four points. Loebsack said this is an “amazing” achievement and a huge turnaround in the race. He cautioned it is still going to be a tough race.

“But the fact of the matter is: the closer she gets the better it’s going to be for everybody else running down the ballot,” Loebsack said.

Especially for Bohannan, who is taking another swing at the seat currently held by Miller-Meeks. Bohannan recalled the values her father instilled in her at a young age, particularly that of right and wrong. Values like these are why she is running Congress in the first place.

“Politicians, including Mariannette Miller-Meeks, are so obsessed with the left and the right that they have forgotten about right and wrong,” Bohannan said. “Our Washington, D.C. politics are broken. We live in a time now when politicians won’t do anything good for their own people if it means giving a win to the other side.”

Bohannan claimed Miller-Meeks puts corporate PACs and special interest campaign contributions above the people she is supposed to represent. She further hammered in the point by saying Miller-Meeks has taken in one-quarter of a million dollars from big pharmaceutical companies.

“And then voted against letting Medicare negotiate for lower drug prices for people like my dad,” Bohannan said. “She even took campaign contributions from a group of insulin manufacturers on the exact same day she voted against capping the price of insulin.”

Iowa Starting Line’s Nikoel Hytrek reported this story back in August. Hytrek’s report references records from the Federal Election Commission which show Miller-Meeks received $1,000 from Eli Lilly and Company PAC on Aug. 12, 2022, the day the Inflation Reduction Act was voted on in the U.S. House.

“There is a word for that. That word is ‘corruption,’” Bohannan said. “Let me tell you that’s not about left and right. That is just wrong.”

Bohannan also criticized Miller-Meek’s views on education and her support of vouchers, or education savings accounts, for students to attend private schools. She also condemned the representative’s views on women’s health and Iowa’s anti-abortion law, which she said is one of the strictest in the country.

Several TV news stations have aired fact check segments on these claims from Bohannan, saying that Miller-Meeks — whom she pinned it on — was not involved in the vote and that other states have stricter bans by outright banning the practice. Iowa allows abortions up to six weeks of pregnancy.

However, many have argued pregnancies are difficult to detect in that six-week period, and thus put the mother in a situation where she has run out of time and is forced to go the full term. Bohannan said Miller-Meeks’ record is clear “and it’s extreme and it’s terrible for Iowa women.”

Magg closed out the evening of speeches. He took aim at this opponent, saying Dunwell has not represented his district well the past two terms.

“They’ve lost touch with us,” Magg said. “They don’t understand who we are and what we take pride in. They’ve talked about children and saving the children but Jon voted against federal funding that was going to feed 240,000 children. How do you vote against free money to feed starving children? Heartless.”

From the moment Magg announced his campaign, there was excitement from community members who know him as a council member for the City of Colfax and as owner Goldie’s Ice Cream Shoppe in Prairie City and numerous concession stands at the Iowa State Fair. It was certainly a recognizable name.

As a candidate, Magg postured himself as someone who knows his communities and is frustrated by what lawmakers are trying to turn them into. Early on he expressed frustration over Dunwell’s decision making, saying his actions do not represent the values the constituents and the district have.

Since then he has been door knocking and leading a huge campaign. From what he has gathered, people are sick of the fighting and the politics and the “total BS.” He recalled a story while campaigning with his door knockers in which he approached easily discernible Republican household.

Three guys were on the property talking amongst themselves. They wanted nothing to do with Magg and they pointed to their large Trump signs.

“We’re voting for him!” they said.

Magg said, “Well, I’m not running for president!”

Then they told him they wish he would. Magg went about with his door knocking but eventually made his way back. He called back out to the three men, who were still enjoying their beers, and asked if he had brought them a beer would they have talked to him then.

“They were like, ‘Oh! Would you like a beer? And they had beer for me faster than I could no.’ I told ‘em no, no, no I gotta keep knocking doors and I’ll lose my motivation if I do that,” Magg said. “But I stood there talking to them for a second.”

Soon they conversed about the school district and developed some common ground. Magg said he has no idea whether they will vote or even vote for him, but the experience was humbling. And it reinforced the idea that it is important to be friendly and have calm conversations with people that think differently.

“Lending out a hand and being polite can go a long way,” Magg said.

Magg is also finding out that even Republicans are resonating with his message, his stance on issues or just him as a candidate.

“We haven’t ran the numbers yet, but I’m pretty sure we have more Republican donors than Jon Dunwell has himself,” Magg said. “So even their own people are sick of their stuff and sick of him. We can do this. We can get this brought back.”

Magg told Democrats he wants to send a message to the governor and the Republican Party.

“We’re sick of their BS and this is not Iowa, and they better straighten up because we’re coming for them.”