Cornhole Champions #3 – Talking turkey (with Rep. Jennifer Konrfst)

By Amie Rivers

November 27, 2024

When the Iowa Legislature returns to Des Moines in January, the chambers will only have gotten redder. Iowa Democrats did not have many successes this November. Meanwhile, Republicans expanded their majorities. The Iowa Senate will have a 35-15 Republican majority; the House will have a 67-33 majority.

On this episode of Cornhole Champions, host Zachary Oren Smith spoke to House Minority Leader Jennifer Konfrst, a Democrat from Windsor Heights, about what levers of power are available to the minority.

Iowa Starting Line’s community editor Amie Rivers joins to talk about Iowa’s refusal to make use of existing support for hungry Iowans and new data on abortion in Iowa.

Cornhole Champions is a weekly podcast powered by Iowa Starting Line with music by Avery Mossman. We are a member of the Iowa Writers Collaborative. For more, check out its roundup of local writers.

Links
1. Hundreds of Iowans had additional barriers to clear before they could vote this year. And a survey of nearly every county auditor found that the majority of people who came into vote were eligible to vote (The Des Moines Register): https://www.desmoinesregister.com/story/news/politics/elections/2024/11/26/iowa-secretary-of-state-paul-pate-challenged-voter-citizenship-how-many-voted-election-2024/76432448007/

2. The Iowa Hunger Coalition and other anti-hunger advocates called on Republican Gov. Kim Reynolds to apply for Summer EBT after the federal government rejected her alternate program (Iowa Starting Line): https://iowastartingline.com/2024/11/25/summer-ebt-iowa/https://iowastartingline.com/2024/11/25/summer-ebt-iowa/

3. The new data show a monthly average of 400 clinician-provided abortions in Iowa in the first six months of 2024. After the six-week ban went into effect on July 29, the number of abortions dropped to an estimated 250 in August, a decrease of 38% from the average over the first six months of the year (The Guttmacher Institute): https://www.guttmacher.org/news-release/2024/iowa-had-nearly-40-drop-clinician-provided-abortions-first-month-six-week-ban

Rep. Jennifer Konfrst of Windsor Heights is the House Minority Leader in the Iowa Legislature.

Amie Rivers

Amie Rivers is Iowa Starting Line's newsletter editor. She writes the weekly Worker’s Almanac edition of Iowa Starting Line, featuring a roundup of the worker news you need to know. Previously, she was an award-winning journalist at the Waterloo-Cedar Falls Courier; now, she very much enjoys making TikToks and memes and getting pet photos in her inbox.

Have a story tip? Reach Amie at [email protected]. For local reporting in Iowa that connects the dots, from policy to people, sign up for Amie's newsletter.

View all posts

CATEGORIES: LOCAL VIDEO

Support Our Cause

Thank you for taking the time to read our work. Before you go, we hope you'll consider supporting our values-driven journalism, which has always strived to make clear what's really at stake for Iowans and our future.

Since day one, our goal here at Iowa Starting Line has always been to empower people across the state with fact-based news and information. We believe that when people are armed with knowledge about what's happening in their local, state, and federal governments—including who is working on their behalf and who is actively trying to block efforts aimed at improving the daily lives of Iowan families—they will be inspired to become civically engaged.