Drawing heavily on her life experiences growing up in a working-class family, Dubuque State Representative Abby Finkenauer officially entered the 1st Congressional District race today. She's currently in her second term in the Iowa House, and at age 28, would become...
Congressman Blum, I Too Am America
Congressman Rod Blum has caused quite a commotion among many of his constituents, both Republicans and Democrats, for his response to being asked about holding public town hall meetings in his District. Rep. Blum, with an alarming casualness, brushed off the requests...
New Ranking Report Push Iowa Congressional Seats To The Right
The Cook Political Report unveiled its new Partisan Voting Index scores for the nation's congressional seats, and it's all bad news for Iowa Democrats. Typically, Cook's ratings change little year-to-year, but the shifting voter loyalties resulting from Donald Trump's...
Abby Finkenauer Considering Run For Congress In Iowa’s 1st District
Second-term U.S. House member Rod Blum could face second-term Iowa House member Abby Finkenauer in his reelection campaign in 2018. Finkenauer, the 28-year-old Democratic legislator from Dubuque, has been strongly considering a run against the Republican incumbent for...
Hilarious: Joni Ernst’s Name Blurred Out In Anti-Rod Blum/Trump Ad
Donald Trump: bad. Joni Ernst: good? That at least must be what the polling shows for a Democratic Super PAC hitting Rod Blum over his support of Donald Trump. Priorities USA, the well-funded organization supporting Hillary Clinton, just released a new ad showing Blum...
Rod Blum Is Too Extreme Even For Republicans
First District Congressman Rod Blum, elected in 2014, made the first vote of his career a protest vote by voting against the reelection of John Boehner as House Speaker. Blum was one of 25 rogue Tea Party-supported members to vote against Boehner. Boehner has since...
Meet Iowa Democrats’ All-Female Tickets
When voters go to the polls in the Northeast Iowa counties of Allamakee and Clayton this year, this is what they’ll see in the Democratic column of their ballot: President: Hillary Clinton U.S. Senate: Patty Judge Congress: Monica Vernon State Senate: Jan Heikes State...
New Iowa Registration Numbers Post-Primary And What They Mean
The Iowa Secretary of State's office released this morning the updated registration totals for July, which are the first to show major shifts from the June 6 primary. Overall, Republicans saw the largest registration gain, adding 10,094 voters to their rolls while...
Monica Vernon Gets Ground Game Assist From Progressive Turnout Project
Democrats will be getting some extra ground forces in their battle to flip Iowa's 1st District back to their control. The Progressive Turnout Project is launching a full field operation to assist Democrat Monica Vernon in her campaign against Republican Congressman...
Digging Into Iowa Primary Numbers To See How Voters Make Their Decisions
Before we move completely on the general election, let's take one last look at some of the specific numbers from last week's Iowa primary. For a website like Starting Line, we love having numbers to pore over and didn't want to move on before examining a few more...