Campaign Almanac: National party leader to speak at Iowa GOP fundraiser

DES MOINES — National Republican Party chairwoman Ronna McDaniel will speak at the Republican Party of Iowa’s annual fundraiser next month, the state party announced Tuesday.

McDaniel will speak at the state party’s Lincoln Dinner at the Iowa Events Center on Aug. 10 in Des Moines.

According to a news release from the state party, the event will be a celebration of Iowa Republicans retaining the state’s status as the first to cast votes in the nation’s presidential nominating process.

“Iowa has always had a friend in Ronna McDaniel, and there is no better way to celebrate our first in the nation status than to have her join us for our annual Lincoln Dinner,” Iowa GOP Chair Jeff Kaufmann said in the news release. “Iowa leads the nation when it comes to starting off the presidential nominating calendar as well as with our incredible lineup of conservative statewide leaders. We look forward to highlighting all of their accomplishments.”

In addition to McDaniel, Iowa’s U.S. Sens. Chuck Grassley and Joni Ernst, Gov. Kim Reynolds, and congressional members and candidates are scheduled to appear.

Tickets for the fundraising event can be purchased at iowagop.org.

RISING STAR TO WING DING: Mallory McMorrow, a state senator from Michigan and rising star in the Democratic Party, will speak at the Iowa Democratic Wing Ding, the annual fundraiser held by the county party organizations in seven northern Iowa counties.

McMorrow rose to prominence earlier this year when, on the Michigan Senate floor, she gave an impassioned defense of herself against the unfounded accusations from a Republican senator that she had groomed and sexualized children. The video went viral, and earlier this month Politico wrote a feature on McMorrow with the headline, “The Michigan Democrat Who Could Solve Her Party’s Identity Crisis.”

The 2022 Iowa Democratic Wing Ding is scheduled for Aug. 12 at the Surf Ballroom in Clear Lake. Tickets can be purchased at iowawingding.com.

CLOVIS ENDORSES GRASSLEY: Sam Clovis, the former national co-chair to Donald Trump’s presidential campaign and former senior White House adviser to the U.S. Department of Agriculture, endorsed Sen. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, for the U.S. Senate.

In a statement provided by Grassley’s campaign, Clovis said Grassley is a leader on “limited government, fiscal responsibility, strong national defense, and the preservation of cultural values.”

“I know he will fight to bring our government and the Congress of the United States back inside its constitutional bounds,” Clovis said in the release. “After all, the Constitution is the supreme law of the land, and it is the moral obligation of our nationally elected officials to support and defend the constitution. To do less is an abomination.”

Grassley is running for his eighth term in the U.S. Senate against Democratic challenger Mike Franken, a former U.S. Navy admiral from Sioux City.

Gazette Des Moines Bureau