DES MOINES — J.D. Scholten and Randy Feenstra both want to represent Iowa in Congress from the fourth district and they finally had the only debate scheduled for the campaign on October 21 as both campaigns claimed victory in the exchange.
According to the Scholten campaign:
At the first and only debate of the general election in Iowa’s 4th congressional district, J.D. Scholten proved that he’s representing the people while Randy Feenstra pushed more lies and distortions of the truth to hide away from his corporate, special interest donors.
J.D. walks the talk: he’s visited all 374 towns in Iowa’s 4th district, held open and welcoming parking lot rallies, toured small businesses, visited farms, and walked down Main Streets. He doesn’t take a dime of corporate PAC money and has rejected help from the DCCC. This past quarter alone, J.D. has also earned contributions from 4,451 Iowans compared to Feenstra’s 2,900.
Randy Feenstra has taken hundreds of thousands of dollars from the very corporations and groups whose interests oppose the people of this district, including Chinese-owned Smithfield and Syngenta, Tyson, Koch Industries, Bayer, Wellmark (Blue Cross Blue Shield), and over $50,000 raised by anti-ethanol champion Ted Cruz, among others.
At the debate, J.D. Scholten asked Randy Feenstra, “Rural America is struggling. We have our backs against the wall right now. You see rural hospitals that are struggling due to the privatization of Medicaid, which you were for and you’ve taken money from the MCOs. We see people have to ration their drugs and you take money from pharmaceutical companies. You’ve taken money from two different monopolies that are owned by China that are squeezing our farmers both on the input side and on the market side. And then you have Congressman King say you are bought and paid for by billionaire, coastal, global elites. So how can you represent the district and the needs of the district when you haven’t even been around the district and you take from all these entities that are taking away from our livelihoods?”
Failing to answer the question and avoiding the gross conflict of interests between his corporate donors and the interests of Iowa’s 4th district, Randy Feenstra said: “I don’t take money from coastal elites and liberals that are on the East Coast and West Coast.”
The Feenstra campaign also declared victory and posted a graphic to social media saying so. There was no official announcement otherwise in the days following the debate.
Feenstra came across as cold, insensitive and evangelical. Steve King in newer clothes.