Sioux City’s Chris McGowan touts Trump endorsement in 4th Congressional District race

SIOUX CITY — Current Siouxland Chamber of Commerce President and Republican candidate for Iowa's 4th Congressional District Chris McGowan added another endorsement to his list, as high profile an endorsement as there could be. The endorsement of President Donald Trump.

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McGowan, 59, announced late Wednesday he had secured the backing of Trump following a phone call he said he would "cherish for the rest of my life."

"The President of the United States personally reached out to communicate his endorsement of our ‘McGowan for Iowa’ campaign. He was kind, complimentary, and even cracked a joke," McGowan wrote on Facebook. “He was also serious and spoke of his desire to continue to bring peace to war-torn nations, especially Russia and Ukraine. It would be the honor of a lifetime to represent the exceptional people of Iowa in the United States House of Representatives, and I am beyond grateful to President Trump for his confidence and support of my campaign to do so.”

The support from Trump in a race to succeed three-term U.S. Rep. Randy Feenstra in Iowa's reddest district comes a matter of weeks after McGowan announced he'd also garnered support from former GOP Gov. Terry Branstad, the longest-serving governor in U.S. history.

McGowan, who is competing with former Iowa House Majority Leader Matt Windschitl of Missouri Valley, Iowa Tea Party founder Ryan Rhodes of Ames and software consultant Christian Schlaefer of Lakota; has also received the backing of U.S. House Majority Leader Steve Scalise (R-La.), Majority Whip Tom Emmer (R-Minn.), and House Judiciary Chair Jim Jordan (R-Ohio).

The other candidates in the race have been outpaced by McGowan when it comes to fundraising as the longtime Siouxland Chamber president has raked in more than a half a million dollars since he launched his campaign in June 2025. In the most recent fundraising period, McGowan took in $136,000 and ended with $354,000 in cash on hand. Rhodes, who's been campaigning since July 2025, raised about $131,600 over the same period and ended with about $170,500 in cash on hand. Last fundraising quarter, his reports showed that he took out a $100,000 loan. Windschitl, who stepped down as House Majority leader in July to run for Congress, did not raise any money this quarter. He had about $46,800 in cash on hand. Numbers for Schlaefer were not available.

When he launched his campaign, McGowan said "agriculture and small business are the backbone of our national economy" and that "Iowans raise the food, manufacture the products, generate the energy and instill the work ethic that makes America great."

"I'm running for Congress to make sure that Washington never forgets it," he said.

Since 2011, McGowan has served as president of the Siouxland Chamber of Commerce and The Siouxland Initiative, which are focused on promoting the economic welfare and quality of life of the tristate region of Northwest Iowa, Northeast Nebraska and Southeast South Dakota. He has said he will stay on in the role at least through the June 2 primary.

Reporting from the Gazette-Lee Des Moines Bureau contributed to this story.