Campaign Almanac: Hawkeye Area Labor Council endorses local candidates

The Hawkeye Area Labor Council AFL-CIO issued the following endorsement of local candidates running for office in the November city-school election.

The endorsements were voted on by the labor council’s executive board and delegate body. All endorsements require two-thirds approval.

Candidates endorsed by the Hawkeye Area Labor Council are:

The labor council also endorsed the Cedar Rapids Community School District bond referendum. A committee of Cedar Rapids school officials is meeting Monday after the district received a challenge to signatures collected to put a $220 million general obligation bond issue on the ballot Nov. 7.

Tim Scott says Biden ‘caved’ to China, ‘sold out’ U.S. workers

South Carolina U.S. Sen. and Republican presidential candidate Tim Scott is hitting President Joe Biden over his relationship with Chinese leader Xi Jinping and vowing to stop borrowing from Beijing in a new ad released in Iowa.

“For too long, politicians like Joe Biden have caved to China and sold out American workers,” Scott says in the 30-second TV spot.

“As president, I won’t bow, and I won’t blink. I’ll go toe to toe with President Xi and fight for our jobs,” Scott adds, before vowing to “stop borrowing money from Communist China, expand energy production, strengthen American manufacturing, and bring our supply chains home.”

Republicans accuse Biden of being soft on China, demanding the White House take stronger action against Beijing in the wake of aggressive behaviors of the Chinese Communist Party, including a Chinese surveillance balloon that floated across the country before being shot down by a U.S. fighter jet in February.

Biden has claimed to have a close relationship with the Chinese leader, and has maintained that his policy with China is “competition, not conflict.” His administration has tried to counter Beijing’s growing global influence with a multilateral approach, aiming to shore up economic and diplomatic ties with regional allies.

The ad comes days after Scott called out the Biden family and rival Vivek Ramaswamy on the GOP debate stage for doing business with Chinese companies.

Business interests in China by President Biden’s son, Hunter Biden, have formed part of the basis for an ongoing impeachment inquiry into Joe Biden by House Republicans.

House Republicans this week laid out their case to justify the investigation. But their own witnesses testified that there isn't sufficient evidence — at least not yet — to impeach Biden.

Biopharmaceutical company Sinovant Sciences was formed between Ramaswamy’s Roivant Sciences and a state-owned Chinese investment company’s private equity firm, according to The Washington Post.

Ramaswamy responded that the Chinese are “good people who are tainted by a broken system.”

Scott continues on the campaign trail next week with stops in Texas, Iowa, Washington, D.C., and South Carolina.

Gazette-Lee Des Moines Bureau