Beto O’Rourke Adds New Iowa Endorsers

Riding off of a strong performance at last weekend’s Steak Fry in Des Moines, Beto O’Rourke is announcing a new round of Iowa endorsers today.

Nine new caucus activists and elected officials are publicly throwing their support behind the former congressman. They include Floyd County Treasurer Frank Rottinghaus and Oelwein Mayor Peggy Sherrets, two well-known Democratic elected officials in Northern Iowa.

“Beto’s approach is paying off across Iowa — from having no fear in combatting our gun violence epidemic, to fighting for our farmers, teachers and students — and these endorsements show that we’re picking up momentum as we enter the fourth quarter of 2019,” said Norm Sterzenbach, O’Rourke’s Iowa state director.

The new additions bring O’Rourke’s total endorsements in Iowa up 37, which is one of the longer lists of the Democratic contenders. He has seven elected official endorsements.

It’s a helpful sign of positive momentum for O’Rourke in Iowa after taking a dip in the polls for a good portion of the year after his energetic launch.

He got strong reviews for his speech at the Steak Fry, where he and his campaign leaned into his call for a mandatory buyback program of assault weapons. And O’Rourke maintains a sizable ground operation in Iowa, which should be able to take advantage of any renewed interest he beings to see. He continues to hover around that 2% to 3% range in most Iowa polls — not great, obviously, but there’s still a base of support there to build from.

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As Starting Line wrote earlier this week, he’s one to watch for some potential late movement in Iowa.

Here is the full list of new O’Rourke endorsers:

Frank Rottinghaus, Floyd County Treasurer
Peggy Sherrets, Mayor of Oelwein
Mark Rocha, Political Director CWA 7102
Doug Thompson, former USDA official and Hancock County Farmer
Don Dew, President of Sioux City Pride and Co-Founder of Siouxland Pride Alliance
Jose Maldonado, Founder, Lambda Softball Association of Eastern Iowa
Tommy Hexter, Founder, Grinnell College Farm House
Bobbie Fox, Sierra Club member and Environmental Activist, Cedar Falls
Reverend H. Milton Cole-Duvall, St. Timothy’s Episcopal Church, West Des Moines

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by Pat Rynard
Photo by Julie Fleming
Posted 9/27/19