After the initial welcome from the night’s emcee, Marshall County Board of Supervisors Chairman Jarret Heil, attendees joined in prayer, the Pledge of Allegiance and the national anthem before the first speaker, Republican Party of Iowa Chairman Jeff Kaufmann, took the stage. Kaufmann, never one to mince words, was complimentary of the local GOP but quickly lamented the fact that the city of Marshalltown hadn’t been represented by a Republican in the Iowa House of Representatives in well over 20 years, characterizing former Minority Leader Mark Smith as “a knucklehead” and current Rep. Sue Cahill as “a union hack.”

“You have no representation. Sue Cahill does exactly what she’s told by the labor unions, which is completely skewed and outside of what the average Iowan wants,” Kaufmann said.

He also praised Sen. Jeff Edler (R-State Center), who was in the audience, as “humble, a hard worker and a true public servant” who was “not looking for the spotlight (but) looking to make Iowa better,” borrowing words from Senate Majority Leader Jack Whitver, and jokingly chastised Marshall County’s other State Representative, Republican Dave Deyoe of Nevada, for shaving his mustache as Kaufmann himself is known to wear one.

Kaufmann sought to dispel the idea of “moderate Democrats” and criticized the party for failing to fight harder to keep its caucus the first in the nation. Despite his fiery rhetoric, he did urge Republicans to coalesce around whoever the presidential nominee ends up being to in hopes of defeating Biden next November, arguing that even the worst Republican would be a better option than the best Democratic candidate.

Republican Party of Iowa Chairman Jeff Kaufmann, right, shakes hands with former Marshall County GOP Chairman Reed Riskedahl, left, after Kaufmann delivered one of the first speeches of Thursday night’s pork chop fundraiser.

“We must remove this fool in the White House. He’s ruining this country,” he said. “This is a team sport, and the number one goal is to get that fool out.”

Iowa Attorney General Brenna Bird was next, chronicling her backstory growing up in rural Iowa just west of Des Moines and her journey to defeating longtime Democratic incumbent Tom Miller in the 2022 election. She shouted out Marshall County Attorney Jordan Gaffney and Sheriff Joel Phillips for their efforts to enforce the law locally and spoke of her frequent lawsuits against the Biden Administration since she has taken over as attorney general.

“We’re gonna do everything we said we’re gonna do. It’s not hard. I know what to do in office because we ran on the issues, and you remember what our campaign was all about, don’t you?” she asked. “About supporting law enforcement, supporting our prosecutors, crime victims, doing what it takes to keep Iowa safe (and) backing the blue.”

Some of her biggest issues with the current president, she explained, include his executive order canceling student debt, restrictions on the Second Amendment, the Waters of the United States (WOTUS) rule and the refusal to implement year-round E15. She said she would prefer to stop suing him if his administration would follow the law and stop attempting “unconstitutional power grabs.”

Lt. Gov. Adam Gregg, who had been at the State Fair earlier in the day, then took the stage and discussed some of the highlights of his tenure as second-in-command to Gov. Kim Reynolds, who was not able to attend the event Thursday. He argued that leadership matters from the local to the state to the federal level, citing he and Reynolds’ decisions during the COVID-19 pandemic as a prime example.

Republican presidential candidate Ryan Binkley, a businessman and pastor from Dallas, Texas, was the final speaker at Thursday night’s pork chop fundraiser on the MCC campus.

“I hope you see the amazing contrast in leadership styles and results between what we’re seeing out of Joe Biden and the Democrats in Washington D.C. and what we’re seeing out of the Reynolds-Gregg administration and our partners in the Republican legislature,” he said.

He also highlighted cuts in state taxes and a balanced budget and contrasted Iowa with the Democrats in charge of “once-great cities” like New York City, Chicago, San Francisco, Washington, D.C., San Francisco and Los Angeles, where he said leaders have embraced the “defund the police” movement, and characterizing the opposition as the party of “open borders and closed schools” before praising Reynolds’ decision to send Iowa National Guard troops to the southern border.

Gregg reiterated Kauffmann’s criticism of state Democrats losing their first in the nation caucus and charged that they were abandoning rural America, while arguing that he and Reynolds were embracing and investing in small town Iowa. As he wrapped up, he urged those in the audience to stay involved and do their part to elect Republicans up and down the ticket.

“Let’s set the United States back on track and make it maybe just a little bit more like Iowa,” he said.

The first of two presidential hopefuls to speak, businessman and former Michigan gubernatorial candidate Perry Johnson, outlined the basic parameters of his “Two Cents to Save America” plan and described himself as “pro-life, pro-Second Amendment, anti-woke and anti-China” while also criticizing the amount of military aid the Biden Administration has sent to Ukraine in its war against Russia.

A few of the goals he outlined during his stump speech included banning gender transition surgeries for minors, eliminating the Department of Education, “dismantling” the FBI and reining in spending to put a serious dent in the national debt, which is now well over $30 trillion.

Johnson made his fortune as an expert on quality control working with the major American automotive manufacturers in Detroit, and he hopes to apply some of those skills he has acquired if elected to the nation’s highest office.

“I have the most perfect life on the planet. I have the best wife you could ever have… I love this country more than life itself. I’ve been bringing quality and efficiency to companies my whole life, and I say ‘Let’s bring quality and efficiency to the federal government,'” he said.

He grew impassioned as he concluded his speech, contending that he wouldn’t let anything happen to the U.S. under his watch.

“We really are the greatest country the world has ever known, and let’s keep it that way. God bless Iowa, and God bless the United States of America,” Johnson said.

Iowa’s two Republican National Committee members, Tamara Scott and Steve Scheffler, both addressed the crowd, with Scott focusing on the plight of individuals who were at the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021 and are still incarcerated without resolution of their trials. She clarified that she did not tolerate any violence and did not like some of the videos she had seen but encouraged attendees to contribute to the legal defense and expenses of those who were “just expressing their First Amendment rights for the most part” that day. Scott wondered why Hunter Biden and other members of the president’s family hadn’t faced similar legal scrutiny, and she urged those in attendance to ask presidential candidates tough questions and choose wisely in 2024, referencing both the Constitution and the Bible.

Scheffler worried that the Democrats would promote an “evil” agenda if they were ever to get control of all three branches of the federal government, complete with rampant voter fraud, “woke” schools and punishment for churches. A surrogate for Sen. Tim Scott briefly spoke before another presidential candidate, Ryan Binkley — who, like Johnson, is something of a political outsider and has never held elected office before — delivered the final address of the night.

Binkley, a Texan, started a mergers and acquisitions company and also serves as the lead pastor at a Dallas area church, and he called for a “spiritual revival” in America along with the need to reverse course on spending, echoing one of Johnson’s key points and telling a joke about a college student who came home for the summer and asked his father for another credit card because his debt was “outstanding.”

He struck a bit of a different chord in the next portion of his speech, however, stressing the need for unity and offering a somewhat mixed assessment of former President Donald Trump’s tenure, arguing that while he supported his tax cuts, his Supreme Court appointments and the decision to move the U.S. Embassy in Israel from Tel-Aviv to Jerusalem, he gave Trump lower marks on the national debt and the decision to hand the country’s pandemic response to Dr. Anthony Fauci.

“I don’t want to pick on him too harshly, but the bigger issues are this. We have to grow our party. We have to learn to win again,” Binkley said.

As urban vs. rural culture wars have become a key talking point in recent years, Binkley stressed the need to bring the GOP’s message to America’s cities and reach people of color like many of the individuals who attend his church. He said he was impressed with all of the patriotism he had seen in Iowa, which he sees as a now “bright red” state, but he also noted that Trump had lost 46 of the 50 most populous cities in the country in the last election.

“We have to own our city. We’re gonna have to own Des Moines. I’m gonna have to own Dallas. We’re gonna have to see things differently. I see things through a different lens. I think it’s time our country unified,” he said.

Relating the stories of his own children and their friends, Binkley said members of Generation Z are struggling to find gainful employment and live on their own out of college, but he called the current moment “the biggest opportunity for the Republican party since Jimmy Carter” and suggested a “work movement.”

“We need young people to see that America is a country that they contribute to and that they can actually lead again,” he said. “The next generation is always one that dictates the culture, and I want to see the next generation step up and own their generation as well. But it’s up to us to hand them a baton that they can truly receive.”

He suggested a renewed emphasis on trades education, fixing healthcare, changing the culture and finding a “sensible solution” on the southern border. Binkley also shared stories from members of his diverse congregation who said they vote for Democrats because the GOP “doesn’t have a message for the poor or immigrants,” and he envisioned a new sense of patriotism across all age groups and demographics especially with America’s 250th birthday looming in 2026.

“We just have to show love in a different way — not a socialist movement. A Republican, small government, freedom movement,” he said. “Don’t expect anybody to vote for you or the party if you’re not willing to lay down your life and show them how you can be a bridge to help them succeed in life, and that’s what I’m calling on America to do.”

Once the speakers had wrapped up their remarks and headed off to their next stops, Gaffney did the honors of auctioning off a delicious selection of homemade pies. The Republican presidential caucus is currently scheduled for Jan. 15, 2024.

——

Contact Robert Maharry at 641-753-6611 ext. 255 or

rmaharry@timesrepublican.com.

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