A Look At Iowa Candidates’ Messages Before Post-Labor Day Sprint

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The Iowa State Fair has come and gone, with another year of political candidate visits in the books. Starting Line attended nearly all the of the Soapbox speeches hosted by the Des Moines Register, but got a little distracted with fair food afterward and I didn’t write them up right away. Instead, let’s do a review of the Iowa candidates’ speeches, which are still quite relevant as each perfectly encapsulated where the candidate is at in their race. It will be interesting to watch how their pitch changes post-Labor Day as we move ever closer to early voting. None of the […]

Steve King Suggests Some Additions To Donald Trump’s Wall

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The Iowa State Fair kicked off today, as did the Des Moines Register’s Soapbox series. There’s not a non-stop schedule of presidential candidates on stage this year, but most of Iowa’s candidates for federal office will speak. Steve King was the first up on Thursday morning. As expected, the 4th District Republican had some interesting things to say. King focused a lot on the presidential politics of 2016 and very little on his own reelection race against Democrat Kim Weaver. He was famously hesitant on Donald Trump’s candidacy earlier this year, but explained to the crowd that the Republican national […]

Why Western Iowa Keeps Voting For Steve King

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After two straight weeks of Steve King racial controversies, much of the country is once again asking: how on earth does this man keep getting reelected? It’s an understandable conundrum about a Congressman who displays a Confederate flag on his desk, who repeatedly defended his belief that white Christians contributed more to civilization than any other “sub-group,” along with his many other past controversial statements. King has made a career out of outlandish and inflammatory rhetoric, often on racial topics. It’s diminished his role in his party in Congress and he’s come under criticism from fellow Republicans at times. And […]

Steve King Goes Full Racist – Says Whites Contribute Most To Civilization

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When news emerged last week that Iowa Congressman Steve King displays a Confederate flag on his desk in his official office, most had a pretty good idea why. King removed all doubt in an interview today on MSNBC. The seven-term Congressman from Western Iowa, well-known for often using racially-charged language, joined Chris Hayes for a panel discussion about the Republican convention. They began with King talking about his past support for Ted Cruz, but how the Congressman was encouraged by the people Donald Trump was starting to surround himself with, and how they might influence his thinking on policy. Then the […]

Is That… Yep, Steve King Has A Confederate Flag On His Desk

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Iowa Republican Congressman Steve King appeared on a story on Sioux City’s KCAU TV this Friday, talking about the bill he introduced named “Sarah’s Law.” King explains how his law would change ICE deportation policies in honor of Sarah Root, a young woman killed by an undocumented immigrant while at… Wait, wait a second… What’s that on Steve King’s desk in that shot? Is that a Confederate flag? Yep, that’s what is, alright. Because of course it is. Of course it is. Yes, it appears King has a whole little collection of flags on the desk where he works on crafting the nation’s […]

New Iowa Registration Numbers Post-Primary And What They Mean

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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 Democrats had 4,823 new registrants. No Party totals dropped by 9,499. Those top-lines are pretty good for Republicans, but lets take a deeper look to see why registration levels changed and where. As before with the early vote numbers, you can take a look at the spreadsheets I threw together if you want to play around with it […]

Sick Of Steve King’s Insanity? You Could Send A Tubman To His Opponent

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Days Since Last Offensive Steve King Statement: 0 In a perfect example of the projection defense mechanism, Republican Congressman Steve King called the move to place Harriet Tubman on the $20 bill “racist” and “sexist.” King argued that it was divisive to put a woman of color on the currency, replacing President Andrew Jackson, because it was simply “liberal activism” by President Obama to divide people. Okay. It appears King believes that recognizing an inspiring historical figure like Tubman is a racist attack on white people, because she is black. Or something like that, it’s a little frightening to get into […]

Key Takeaways From The Iowa Primary Results

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Iowans didn’t have to stay up too late last night to see who came out on top of the main primary races on both the Democratic and Republican side. For the most part things played out as people expected. Starting Line will spend part of the next week taking some dives into specific primary results and what it means for the general. For the moment, let’s take a look at some of the main takeaways from the night:   Hogg Keeps It Close, Has A Bright Future Things looked bleak for Rob Hogg when the Des Moines Register released a poll on […]

What To Watch For In Today’s Iowa Primaries

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It’s primary day in Iowa! Polls are open until 9:00PM, and campaigns are going all-out today to get their identified supporters to the polls. What should Iowa politics watchers keep their eye on tonight? Starting Line has a few suggestions below. You can also watch myself and The Iowa Republican’s Craig Robinson do live commentary on the results tonight with the ABC 5/WOI team. We’ll be covering the results on The CW Channel (Channel 9 in Des Moines, I believe), then on Channel 5 during their 10:00 newscast. Make sure to tune in for some good, informed analysis!   Iowa Senate In […]

Another Look At Updated Early Vote Numbers For The Primary

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With just two weeks left before Iowa’s primary elections on June 7, let’s take another look at the early vote totals across the state. A lot has changed since we first discussed the numbers three weeks ago. The Secretary of State’s office is posting these totals regularly now, so you can always go check yourself on their website. Also, here’s the useful list of candidates running. One caveat for the numbers I’m posting here – you’ll note that in some places the return rate of absentee ballots is very low. My guess in most of these cases is that those are areas […]