1,000+ people, 4 presidential candidates, 1 looming endorsement
Plus a candidate's wife encourages outsiders to "participate" in caucus
On a December morning with a wind that chilled like a mid-January blast, four Republican presidential candidates not named Trump got a prominent seat on stage at Dordt University in Sioux Center, Iowa (event was inside, fortunately) before more than a 1,000 people (according to Feenstra staff).
Iowa Republican Congressman Randy Feenstra and his wife, Lynette, co-hosted and co-interviewed the candidates one at a time before the audience, which included quite a few students who apparently didn’t mind going to a Saturday event at 9am.
(The program from the event. Notice anything not quite right?)
The Feenstras call their event “Faith & Family with the Feenstras.” The event featured four candidates:
Ryan Binkley, Dallas pastor and business executive
Ron DeSantis, Florida governor
Nikki Haley, former South Carolina governor and U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations
Vivek Ramaswamy, Ohio business executive
The booklet for the event featured five candidates.
(Sorry that I didn’t take a better picture of the Burgum section inside.)
North Dakota Governor Doug Burgum suspended his presidential campaign last Monday (apparently after the booklets were printed).
FAITH & FAMILY WITH THE FEENSTRAS
The Feenstras gave each candidate 20-25 minutes on stage as they asked questions, mostly about faith and family (remember, this event was called “Faith & Family with the Feenstras).
DeSantis said his faith guides his moral compass. Haley said that faith helped her (and her state) following a racist shooter’s rampage at a Charleston church in 2015 that killed nine Black worshippers. Ramaswamy said that his Hindu faith is like Christianity in that it guides him to serve. And Binkley said that God told him during his dreams to run for president.
WHAT ELSE STOOD OUT?
Haley was the only one of the four to criticize Trump while on stage. She said that Trump brings “chaos” (she told me something similar in our conversation before she took the stage). Of the candidates actively campaigning in Iowa, Haley seems to be most willing to criticize Trump (although not as aggressively as former New Jersey governor Chris Christie does. Christie hasn’t campaigned in Iowa this Caucus cycle).
Ramaswamy was far more civil in this setting than he is on the debate stage. He also did not again allege that the January 6th, 2021 attack on the U.S. Capitol Building where Trump supporters bludgeoned law enforcement, threatened to murder the house speaker and vice president and vandalized public property may have been an “inside job.” He did tell reporters after the event that his campaign would “shock” the expectations on caucus night. (Ramaswamy may not qualify for the next Republican presidential debate at Drake University in Des Moines on January 10th unless his polling improves.)
Binkley lingered longer than any of the other candidates after the event ended as he and his wife greeted the audience on the way out the door. Binkley is determined to stay in the race and soldier on through attrition as others drops out.
CASEY DESANTIS ENCOURAGED NON-RESIDENTS TO PARTICIPATE IN CAUCUS
Misunderstanding?
On Saturday Casey DeSantis did not repeat her request from Friday where during an interview on Fox News she said, "We're asking all of these moms and grandmoms to come, from wherever it might be — North Carolina, South Carolina — and to descend upon the state of Iowa to be a part of the caucus. Because you do not have to be a resident of Iowa to be able to participate in the caucus. So, moms and grandmas are going to be able to come and be a part and let their voice be heard in support of Ron DeSantis.”
The DeSantis’ and the campaign later clarified that you have to be a resident of Iowa to caucus for a candidate. The Republican Party of Iowa and the Dallas County Republican Party were among the others who later reminded people of the rules to legally take part in the caucus.
RANDY FEENSTRA, THE NEXT CAUCUS ENDORSER?
I’m not sure that U.S. Senators Joni Ernst and Chuck Grassley or Reps. Ashley Hinson, Zach Nunn or Mariannette Miller-Meeks will follow Governor Kim Reynolds’ lead and endorse a candidate before the January 15th caucuses. (A reminder: Reynolds endorsed DeSantis, despite Trump’s large lead in statewide polls).
But it sounds like Feenstra will endorse a candidate. He just likely won’t do it until after the holidays, he told me. Will he become another prominent Iowa Republican to back someone other than former president Trump before the caucus? Trump has already turned on Reynolds because she endorsed someone else. Will Feenstra be his next target?
LOVIN’ THE LAND
Picture the most boring, unrelatable professor or teacher that you ever had. Bruce Sherrick is not that person. The farm boy-turned-longtime researcher and farmland savant is brilliant but also easy to follow. He taught me a lot in the latest issue of American Farmland Owner. Here is his video interview.
HOLY SHOHEI!
Shohei Ohtani is a once-in-a-lifetime baseball talent. He is one of the best pitchers in the Major Leagues (although, not next year as his elbow recovers from another surgery) and also one of the best hitters in the game. The MLB has never seen a player perform like this — as both a pitcher and a hitter — at this level. And now Shohei will become a Los Angeles Dodger thanks a new 10-year, $700 million contract. There has never been a larger contract…in any sport…in the world.
Our family toured Dodger Stadium this past summer. A tour guide told us that she was hired for the expected rush of Japanese tourists in 2024 after Shohei left his previous team, the Los Angeles Angels. Sure enough, Shohei signed with the Dodgers. That tour guide will be busy in 2024!
THANK YOU!
150 paid subscribers of writers from the Iowa Writers Collaborative came to celebrate independent journalism during our holiday party this past week. It was so great to meet some of you. We can’t thank you enough for supporting our work. Thank you! And please encourage others to support local journalism like ours.
Our Collaborative has now reached 45 writers but also looking to expand its diverse group of talented authors.
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