Category: Republicans

There are two reasons state and local campaigns don’t typically engage in extremely personal attacks on political opponents: 1) The candidate or people running the campaign are decent-enough human beings to not bring up their opponent’s very personal failings, embarrassing moments or private life, and 2) It usually backfires. Now, as we all know, some times the desire to win will overcome that first reason. It is the second that keeps our Iowa politics from devolving into tabloid-style muck. Yes, Iowans are seeing a lot of very nasty stuff in TV ads right now, but it revolves mostly around policy differences or obscure […]

Iowa Republicans’ twin Reagan Dinner fundraisers provided oddly perfect bookends to possibly the most volatile four-day stretch ever in American politics, encapsulating everything the beleaguered party experienced throughout it. The state party hosted their annual Reagan Dinner in Des Moines on Saturday night, while the Scott County Republicans held their own of the same name in Bettendorf on Tuesday night. Arkansas Senator Tom Cotton headlined each. I attended both events. The Des Moines event, held in the upstairs ballroom at the Iowa Events Center, was a dimly-lit affair with red backdrops, a dark setting that matched the mood of the attendees and […]

While the state party was as unified as ever for Donald Trump at the Republican Party of Iowa’s Reagan Dinner in Des Moines last night, two defections happened outside the fundraiser. Ankeny State Senator Jack Whitver was the first major Iowa Republican to publicly call for Donald Trump to step down as the party’s nominee this afternoon. State Representative Ken Rizer of Marion announced he would write in Mike Pence’s name for president in a lengthy Facebook post put up Saturday evening. This was after a wave of statements from Terry Branstad, Kim Reynolds, Chuck Grassley, Joni Ernst, Rod Blum and […]

Republican Party of Iowa Chair Jeff Kaufmann responded to Donald Trump’s bombshell comments from 2005 ahead of the state party’s Reagan Dinner in Des Moines tonight, comparing Trump’s comments to Bill Clinton’s actions. “I find Donald Trump’s comments 11 years ago disgusting,” Kaufmann said in a prepared statement. “I condemn those kinds of comments when Clinton did those kind of actions, and I’ll condemn it again when Trump says those kind of actions. I’m going to be consistent all the way through, so hopefully you can see the sincerity in terms of this condemnation. I’m condemning not for my own […]

Wake up already, Iowa Republican leaders: this election is over. Donald Trump will never recover from the revelation of the 2005 tape that shows his abhorrent views on women and sexual assault. Yes, we’ve all thought any number of his earlier outrageous, sexist and racist comments would have done him in, only to be proven wrong. But this is different. It simply is. Your presidential nominee bragged about sexually assaulting women. “I moved on her like a bitch, but I couldn’t get there. And she was married,” Trump said in the tape. “And when you’re a star, they let you […]

A lot of attention has focused on the Democrats’ difficulties with young voters – typically their best voting bloc – this year, but Republicans are dealing with a similar – if smaller – rebellion among their youthful backers. Donald Trump’s candidacy has many young Republicans and conservatives questioning their loyalty to the party and searching for different options. Some of those young ex-Republicans showed up at an event for Evan McMullin in Des Moines this past week. McMullin, an independent candidate drafted to give frustrated rank-and-file Republicans a conservative choice, drew a notably young crowd to his Des Moines event […]