Iowa Republicans make outlawing gay marriage key 2024 campaign priority

Iowa Republicans have made outlawing gay marriage a key goal in their 2024 party platform. 

During the Iowa GOP’s 2024 state convention on Saturday, Republican delegates endorsed a policy platform that calls for the repeal of the federal Respect for Marriage Act that protects homosexual and interracial marriages.

The Iowa GOP’s 2022 platform also included language about repealing laws supporting gay marriage.

According to Radio Iowa, a majority of delegates at Saturday’s convention “voted to encourage repeal of any law allowing marriage that’s not between one man and one woman.” This would include the Respect for Marriage Act signed by President Biden in December 2022.

Of Iowa’s then congressional delegation, Republican Sen. Joni Ernst and Republican representatives Ashley Hinson and Mariannette Miller-Meeks joined then-Democratic Rep.Cindy Axne in voting for the act while Republican Sen. Chuck Grassley and Rep. Randy Feenstra voted against it.

Several county-level Republican parties went after Ernst and Miller-Meeks for their votes. 

Radio Iowa noted that the 2024 platform plank against gay marriage was written by Brad Sherman in his capacity as a delegate for Iowa County. Sherman, a Republican from Williamsburg, is also a state representative and was the lead sponsor for a bill to ban gay marriage in Iowa that was introduced last year.