Campaign Almanac: Iowa Corn Growers endorse candidates, mostly Republicans

The Iowa Corn Growers Association has released its candidate endorsements, mostly Republicans, running for statewide and federal office.

The endorsements include Gov. Kim Reynolds, U.S. Sen. Chuck Grassley, and incumbent U.S. Reps. Randy Feenstra, Ashley Hinson and Mariannette Miller-Meeks, all Republicans, was well as Iowa’s Republican Secretary of Agriculture Mike Naig.

“Corn GROWS Iowa!” Reynolds said in a tweet announcing the endorsement. “Working alongside Iowa Corn to support our producers who feed and fuel the world!”

In a statement, Grassley said his experience as a farmer helps him understand the problems facing Iowans in the agriculture industry.

“It's an honor to have the support of Iowa corn growers and to have their endorsement of my work for them in Congress,” he said.

Iowa Sen. Kevin Kinney, a Democrat from Oxford, also announced he had received the group’s endorsement.

GRASSLEY AD NOTES TENURE, TOUR: A new ad from U.S. Sen. Chuck Grassley highlights Grassley’s annual 99-county tours of Iowa and his long history in the Senate.

The ad calls Grassley a “farmer, pushup pro, runner, husband, father, and champion for Iowa.”

“He visits all 99 counties every year, has the best attendance record in the Senate ever, and if re-elected, Chuck Grassley will have the most seniority in the entire Senate,” the narrator says in the ad.

“It’s easier to fight the rising cost of living when you have clout,” the ad continues.

Grassley is seeking his eighth term in the Senate and faces Democratic challenger and retired Navy Admiral Mike Franken. Grassley is the second-longest serving U.S. senator after eight-term Democrat from Vermont Patrick Leahy, who is retiring at the end of 2022.

“Re-electing Chuck Grassley this fall ensures Iowa will be well represented for the next six years. Our newest ad reminds Iowans why the senator we need is the senator we’ve got," Grassley’s campaign spokesperson Michaela Sundermann said in a news release.

Franken’s spokesperson C.J. Petersen said on Twitter that the ad highlights Grassley as a “lifelong career politician.”

“Sen. Grassley admits he’s a lifelong career politician in his new ad, which somehow means we should give him an eighth six-year term to fix the things he broke four terms ago. Wild stuff!” Petersen tweeted.

MATHIS AD TOUTS LAW ENFORCEMENT SUPPORT: Democratic state lawmaker Liz Mathis, who is challenging Republican incumbent U.S. Rep. Ashley Hinson for Iowa’s 2nd Congressional District seat in the Nov. 8 election, has a new ad emphasizing her record of supporting and funding law enforcement.

With violent crime increasing in many parts of the country, Republicans see a winning strategy in portraying Democrats as soft on crime ahead of this year’s elections, using calls from some progressive activists to “defund the police” as an attack line. In campaign appearances and interviews, Hinson has criticized liberal policies and blamed Democratic lawmakers and the White House for rising crime.

Democrats have been quick to note a handful of Republican lawmakers have called for the FBI to be defunded or abolished in the wake of a criminal investigation into classified documents seized at former President Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago estate last month.

Linn County Sheriff Brian Gardner, a Democrat, in the 30-second ad says he “doesn’t care for politicians who want to defund the police, or lie and say that their opponents do.”

Black Hawk County Sheriff Tony Thompson, a fellow Democrat, calls Mathis “a longtime friend of local law enforcement” who worked in the Iowa Senate to “fully fund training and protective equipment” for Iowa law enforcement.

“In Congress, I will continue to have the backs of all federal, state and local law enforcement officers,” Mathis said in a statement.

The TV ads will air on broadcast, cable and streaming services in the Cedar Rapids-Waterloo-Dubuque and Rochester-Mason City media markets. To date, the Mathis campaign said it has placed $435,000 for the TV media buy with another longer-term media placement being reserved.

"Liz Mathis isn't pro law enforcement," Hinson's campaign manager Sophie Crowell said. "She voted against imposing tougher penalties against those who attack law enforcement and is surrounding herself with defund the police activists.

“Meanwhile, attacks against law enforcement, fueled by Washington Democrats' soft on crime rhetoric, are at an all time high. Ashley will always back the blue and stand strong against the radical defund the police movement that hurts Iowa's law enforcement and makes our communities less safe."

Hinson released her first TV ad last week emphasizing her support of veterans as part of what her campaign said would be a more than $2 million ad campaign through Election Day.