So...now what?

Guilty on 34 counts. Former president Donald Trump is a convicted felon. He is also the Republican Party’s nominee (or will be when they re-nominate him during the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee in July.)

Photo by Natilyn Photography on Unsplash

Will Iowa Republican politicians run away from him? No, they are not.

Senator Joni Ernst, Senator Chuck Grassley, Governor Kim Reynolds, Representative Ashley Hinson and Representative Zach Nunn all said in one form or another during Ernst’s Roast and Ride fundraiser at the State Fairgrounds on Saturday that the prosecution of Trump was “political,” “a sham,” or “a political lynching.”

(Grassley was the one who compared the conviction to hanging a person.)

They didn’t call Trump “innocent.” No one said that the jury falsely convicted him. They didn’t say that Trump is a faithful husband.

They instead focused on why they think the jury’s conviction of Trump in New York for falsifying business records of his payment to porn actress Stormy Daniels was political.

No matter what the Iowa politicians said publicly or privately about Trump before the Iowa Caucuses, they all publicly now display their allegiance to their party’s nominee.

I found it interesting that all of them urged people to vote for Trump during the Roast and Ride. Wouldn’t it be a given in a presidential election year for the base to support the party’s nominee?

Did the Republicans in the room at this Republican political event need to be told by Republican leaders to vote for the Republican presidential nominee?

Will Trump become president again? Before this conviction, I would have said that it seems like Trump was the favorite. It’s the economy, stupid.

I wonder if Democrats understand how much inflation and the situation at the southern border are hurting Biden’s re-election chances. They could be hurting Biden enough that Trump could beat him this November.

Having said that, I question optimistic Trump backers who think this conviction will help him gain followers. Will it strengthen the allegiance of the diehards? Most definitely.

But I don’t see how this conviction makes Trump any less offensive to Independents and others who are repulsed by his personal and professional behavior.

However, I don’t think Democrats should assume that those people will rush to their candidate. They should worry about many of those people choosing not to vote for either unpopular man.

THE CHALLENGER — David Pautsch surprised me. Pautsch is a Davenport businessman running in Iowa’s 1st Congressional District against incumbent Republican Rep. Mariannette Miller-Meeks in Tuesday’s primary.

I expected Pautsch to come after Miller-Meeks. I didn’t expect him to say what he did about every one of the six Iowa Republicans serving in Congress, including the two U.S. senators. Here is what he told me about them.

MEAT MAN — Are you eating more meat? Less meat? Different cuts of meat? Chances are that Dr. Glynn Tonsor knows the meat-eating trends of people like you. He is a Kansas State University professor, who grew up on a hog farm in Missouri. He leads the Monthly Meat Demand Monitor.

(If only they had one of these exclusively devoted to bacon!)

The Monthly Meat Demand Monitor is a fascinating digital publication that details whether we are changing our meat consumption and by how much. Tonsor also discussed why it matters how Americans feel about their finances, not just how their finances actually are.

Here is our conversation for American Farmland Owner.

Thanks for reading. Thanks for your support. And thanks for your feedback.

I write this column as part of the Iowa Writers Collaborative, a growing group of nearly 50 independent columnists with a variety of specialties. Here’s a link to check them out.