Randy Feenstra reelected to U.S. House

HULL, Iowa — Though Rep. Randy Feenstra had two competitors on the ballot in his re-election bid for the northwest Iowa’s 4th Congressional District, the one-term incumbent had little to sweat as votes came in Tuesday night.

With all 36 counties reporting, as of 10:48 p.m., Feenstra led Nevada, Iowa, Democrat Ryan Melton by more than 102,000 votes and more than 180,000 votes ahead of the Liberty Caucus' Bryan Holder of Council Bluffs.

At an evening event at the Hull Public Library, Feenstra expressed appreciation for the voters who opted to send him back to Washington, D.C. for another two years and announced his plans for 2023.

"I deliver results for the 4th District and for Iowa, and that's what I'll continue to do," Feenstra said. "I will be a passionate supporter for our farming community, for our small business and for our families. And that means getting inflation under control. It means securing our borders. It also means making sure that we become energy independent as a country."

Feenstra, a former state senator for 12 years, looks to past shifts in the state as a sort of reference point for what can happen in the nation's capital.

"I applaud our governor, our state Senate and our Iowa House of Representatives. They show what can happen in a great state. And those are the things I take to Washington to try to change our nation. Just like we have changed Iowa over the last several years," Feenstra said.

In the run-up to the election, Feenstra, a former head of sales for the Foreign Candy Company of Hull, said his top two priorities were inflation and immigration.

"Inflation is just crushing small business, crushing our producers and our families," he told The Journal in October. "Our families are sitting around the table trying to create a budget and trying to figure out how they’re going to pay for eggs, milk, cereal and all those other things."

As for immigration, Feenstra said at the time: "We have to secure our borders. We have to. We’re seeing it right now with two of the largest fentanyl busts ever in the history of the United States … It’s so key that we know who’s coming in and out of our borders."

Feenstra won his seat by dethroning former Rep. Steve King (R-Kiron) in the five-person 2020 GOP primary and then scored a November victory against J.D. Scholten who had previously run against King in the 2018 Congressional cycle.

Earlier this year, King, who served in the U.S. House of Representatives for 18 years, touted a book called "Walking Through the Fire" where, among a myriad of critiques of fellow Iowa Republicans, he called Feenstra "an off-the-shelf state senator."

During this cycle, Melton hammered Feenstra for "pushing for a federal abortion ban that has no exceptions" and for remarks about the "Jan. 6 insurrectionists (being) 'wonderful people that got carried away.'"

On the abortion issue, Feenstra said he's supported an array of ways to codify the Supreme Court's reversal of Roe v. Wade in the Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organization case.

"I will support any bill to save the life of the unborn. I think life is so precious. You think about our Founding Fathers that were endowed by our creator to have life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness," Feenstra said. "And my faith teaches me that we are created for a purpose and a reason."