T-R PHOTO BY ROBERT MAHARRY U.S. Rep. Randy Feenstra (R-Iowa), left, converses with Marshall County Attorney Jordan Gaffney, center, and Marshall County Treasurer candidate Deeann Tomlinson, right, during a meet and greet at Legends American Grill in Marshalltown on Thursday evening. If he is re-elected, Feenstra’s Fourth Congressional District will include Marshall County as of Jan. 1.

A small but passionate crowd of about 15 filed into Legends American Grill in Marshalltown on Thursday night to hear from Republican candidates for local office and the headliner, U.S. Rep. Randy Feenstra (R-Iowa).

Feenstra, a first-term Congressman, was about four hours from his home in Hull on the other side of what will be the Fourth Congressional District come January, but he was excited to familiarize himself with Marshalltown and Marshall County as he will soon represent them if he is re-elected next Tuesday. Due to redistricting, Marshall County is set to move from the First District (currently represented by Ashley Hinson) to the Fourth at the beginning of 2023.

Current Marshall County Treasurer and County Supervisor candidate Jarret Heil said a few words about his old friend Feenstra — himself a former Sioux County Treasurer — and joked that between the two of them, Heil’s predecessor Deane Adams and Treasurer candidate Deeann Tomlinson, both of whom were also in attendance, there were “a lot of recovering tax collectors” in the audience.

Before Feenstra took center stage, Marshall County Attorney Jordan Gaffney had an opportunity to speak on why he is running for his first full term in office, some of the ups and downs of campaigning and what he hopes to accomplish if elected. Gaffney, a Republican, is facing current First Assistant County Attorney Sarah Tupper, a Democrat, in his race.

Heil then formally introduced the Congressman, who shared some of his own background as a sales leader for a large candy company before pivoting to politics — first as a city administrator, then a county treasurer, then a state senator and finally as a U.S. representative. Feenstra defeated fellow Republican Steve King in the 2020 primary and then coasted to victory over Democrat J.D. Scholten in the general election the same year.

“You’re my bosses. The reason I’ve come is because I want to get to know you and Marshall County,” Feenstra said. “We are going to get to know each other over the next several years, and you’re the voice. You’re the voice of this area, and I want to hear from you. I want to hear what’s going on, what’s going well tonight. How can I help?”

From there, he explained his committee assignments — agriculture, budget and science and technology — and what he is doing to combat the “liberal, progressive agenda” of people like President Joe Biden, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) and Democratic Senate Leader Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.) Feenstra blamed recent inflation on the ever-increasing national debt and called the Biden administration “tone deaf.”

“They believe that we should have electric cars and not worry about gas even though it’s going up, and it’s going to continue to go up,” he said. “They say ‘Let’s buy our oil from OPEC, from Saudi Arabia, from Venezuela,’ but wait a minute. These are our adversaries.”

He went on to tout American energy — both renewable and fossil fuels — as cleaner than sources from other countries, and he also stressed the need to secure the southern border due to the increased prevalence of the drug fentanyl. Because the Fourth District is one of the most agriculturally productive in the country, Feenstra is keeping a close eye on the upcoming Farm Bill.

After wrapping up his initial speech with a call to vote to protect the Constitution and honor America’s founding fathers, Feenstra opened the floor to questions from the audience. Amanda Freiberg, a teacher in the Marshalltown Community School District and parent of two children, told the Congressman she “agreed with everything he was saying” and added that the word Feenstra had used to describe Biden was polite, in her view. She identified herself as “one of few Republican teachers” and pushed back against the notion that public schools are underfunded, arguing instead that money was being misappropriated and misused. She also said she had been passed over for other teaching jobs because of her political views.

Freiberg then accused Steve Sodders, a former Democratic State Senator, of teaching a grant-funded career exploration class at Miller Middle School through Mid-Iowa Community Action (MICA) where students “identify the different body parts of males and females.” Sodders, she added, is not a licensed teacher.

“It had absolutely nothing to do with the course and the curriculum and whatnot, and that’s just one of so many things,” Freiberg said. “I think that we’re getting the money, but we need people that have been in education helping to figure out how the money should go. And there’s a lot of people right now making decisions that don’t know.”

Feenstra responded that parents should be involved in the education of their children, and school boards should be more responsive. He added that he knew Sodders and served with him, but he didn’t believe such a class was necessary.

According to Freiberg, parents who do speak up are being met with “disrespect” and having their concerns brushed aside by district officials. Another questioner asked if Feenstra was hearing similar stories about education across his congressional district, and he said he had.

“We need to elect school board members who are like minded and who are open minded, and we need to put more attention into who is running on the school board because those people have a lot of power in your district,” another woman in the crowd said. “More power than any of your superintendents or any of your administrators.”

There is ample money to fund public education, Feenstra said, it is just a matter of how it is being spent. Heil told Feenstra the two biggest issues he saw nationally were inflation and global unrest, referencing the Russia-Ukraine war and tensions between China and Taiwan, and he wondered how Biden would handle them in the White House, even if, in Heil’s words, “he may not know he’s there.”

In Feenstra’s view, former President Donald Trump kept the leaders of countries like North Korea, China and Russia “in their place,” but he didn’t feel that had continued under the current administration.

“We fought this desert war for 20-some years. We took our eye off the ball of China and Russia and things like that, and now we’re kind of paying the price,” Feenstra said. “Where are we as a country? We have to bring it back that they fear us and they’re not gonna mess with us. I’m not a warmonger. I just think that, just like Reagan said, you have power, right? That means they’re scared of you. That’s what we’ve got to get back to.”

Another audience member asked Feenstra if he was a strong supporter of Israel, and he responded affirmatively. Marshall County GOP Chair Reed Riskedahl lamented what he considered a missed opportunity the last time the Republicans took the House, Senate and presidency back in 2016, which he said pushed some people away from the party.

“Four years ago, we had the trifecta. We had the Senate, we had the House, and we had Trump as president. And excuse my language, but we pissed it away. We absolutely did,” Feenstra said. “It’s gonna be our task (this time) because people are electing us to do something, and we can’t be fighting. We’ve gotta do something… We’re gonna have an opportunity come Jan. 1, and we’d better capitalize on it.”

Adams asked why the federal government had so much control over education when schools are primarily financed by local property taxes, and another event attendee encouraged Feenstra to push back against both a Biden administration plan to hire 87,000 Internal Revenue Service (IRS) agents and what he saw as the weaponization of the FBI against conservatives.

“This is the great thing about being in the majority. Think about what happened to the majority with the Democrats, right? They had investigative powers and oversight powers. Guess who gets that Jan. 1? We do,” Feenstra said. “And Jim Jordan and Mr. (James) Comer, they’re gonna lead the way. And if I’m Hunter Biden, I’d be a little worried.”

Most polls show Feenstra leading Democratic challenger Ryan Melton and Liberty Caucus candidate Bryan Jack Holder by double digits in the Fourth District.

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Contact Robert Maharry at 641-753-6611 ext. 255 or rmaharry@timesrepublican.com.