Ahead of the Nov. 5 general election vote, the Times-Republican sent questionnaires to all of the candidates in contested races for county, state and federal offices. Today’s feature highlights the race for the U.S. House seat in Iowa’s Fourth District — two-term Republican incumbent Randy Feenstra of Hull and Democratic challenger Ryan Melton of Nevada, who previously ran against Feenstra unsuccessfully in the 2022 election.

The first half of the responses from Feenstra and Melton are printed below, and the rest will be included in Tuesday’s edition of the T-R.

1. What is your personal, professional and educational background, and why are you running for U.S. House?

Randy Feenstra: I’ve lived in Hull, Iowa my whole life. It’s where my wife of 30 years, Lynette, and I chose to plant our roots and raise our four kids. Before my time in government, I worked at Iowa State Bank in Hull and was Head of Sales for the Foreign Candy Company. I also taught business and economics at Dordt University — my alma mater. After working in the private sector, I served as City Administrator of Hull, Sioux County Treasurer, and Chairman of the Ways and Means Committee in the Iowa Senate where I worked with Governor Reynolds to write and pass the largest tax cut in Iowa history at the time. I received my bachelor’s degree from Dordt, my master’s degree in Public Administration from Iowa State University, and, in February of 2022, I completed my Doctorate in Business and Healthcare Administration, focusing specifically on maternal healthcare outcomes and healthcare deserts in rural America.

Ryan Melton: I was born and raised in Omaha, Neb. but lived with my grandparents for three years in Laurens, Iowa in Pocahontas County in our Congressional District when I was in middle school. I earned my undergraduate degree in History and Political Science from Iowa State University, and my graduate degree in U.S. History from the University of Kansas. I’ve been at Nationwide Insurance for the past 16 years, having served as a people leader the last 8 years. I’m running for the U.S. House because we need more independently-minded politicians that reject corporate PAC money and can speak truth to power without hesitation, because our citizens in the 4th are being sold out to corporate interests so corporate titans can abuse eminent domain to steal our land, water, public health security, and taxpayer money.

2. Mr. Feenstra, why do you feel that you deserve another term, and Mr. Melton, why do you believe a change is needed?

Feenstra: I have delivered real, conservative results for our families, farmers, businesses, and rural communities. Legislation that I led with Senator Grassley to combat the opioid epidemic in rural Iowa was signed into law, an amendment that I introduced to ban China from buying American farmland suitable for energy production passed the House of Representatives, and Sarah’s Law — a bill that honors the memory of 21-year-old Iowan Sarah Root who was killed by an illegal immigrant and ensures that illegal immigrants who harm or kill American citizens are detained and punished — passed the House Judiciary Committee this year. Like I promised when I first ran for Congress, I will continue to deliver real, conservative results for our families, farmers, businesses, and rural communities.

Melton: Most of the communities and counties in our Congressional District have been hollowing out for 40-plus years. We’ve seen a steady decline in quality of life indicators across the board here over those 40 years, as we’re now last in the country in mental health care bed availability rate, last in the country in OBGYN availability rate, our public education rankings have plummeted due to chronic underfunding, we’re the only state with a rising cancer incidence rate and yet those running this state refuse to acknowledge our state’s cancer crisis, and our per capita household income is lower than most of our neighboring midwestern states. In other words, we’ve been going in the wrong direction for a long time. Rep. Feenstra has done nothing to show us how he plans on helping to get us out of this perpetual decline. We deserve better.

3. In general, do you agree with the House’s current fiscal priorities, and how, if at all, would you propose changing course if elected?

Feenstra: Our national debt has officially surpassed $35 trillion and trillions of dollars in reckless government spending approved by the Biden-Harris administration has fueled the worst inflation crisis in over forty years. We have to put our country on a strong, fiscal foundation to lower costs for our families and ensure that we don’t leave our kids and grandkids with mountains of debt that they didn’t create. That’s why I strongly support a balanced budget amendment to our Constitution and believe that we must end reckless government spending that is bankrupting our country. We also need to reauthorize important pro-growth provisions from the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act that expire at the end of 2025. As a member of the Ways and Means Committee, I’m working to maintain the doubled standard dedication, the expanded child tax credit, the 20% tax cut on qualified business income for our small businesses, and other policies that help our farmers buy needed equipment and invest in their operations. When we grow our economy through tax cuts for our families and small businesses, it helps us cut our debt and reduce inflation.

Melton: No, as the U.S. House Randy Feenstra serves in has literally been the least productive U.S. House since the Civil War. Feenstra and his friends there are doing what they can to make the wealthy wealthier on the backs of the rest of us. They want to extend the Trump Tax cuts that have increased the wealth gap, and haven’t done their part in strengthening worker rights. Feenstra is literally one of the lowest rated members of Congress by the AFL-CIO for his anti-worker voting record. I, meanwhile, am endorsed by the AFL-CIO and other labor unions like the UAW.

4. While the U.S. military is not directly involved in either, our government is heavily involved in providing weapons to Ukraine and Israel in their conflicts against Russia and Hamas, respectively. Do you agree with the current course of action, and if not, how would you propose changing course going forward?

Feenstra: Thugs and terrorists must be defeated around the globe to protect our national security. Since October 7, 2023, when Hamas launched one of the deadliest terror attacks in history against Israel — murdering, raping, and kidnapping innocent Israelis — Israel has repeatedly come under attack from vicious terrorists. Hezbollah has launched deadly attacks and, most recently, Iran carried out a massive ballistic missile strike against Israel, which forced approximately 10 million Israelis to seek shelter to protect their lives. I am an unapologetic and strong supporter of Israel — our closest ally in the Middle East — and will continue to work to ensure that they have the resources and weapons that they need to protect their homeland and defeat terrorists wherever they lurk. Putin is a tyrant and his war of aggression against Ukraine must be stopped — because we know from history he wont stop there, putting Europe and the West in danger. Ukraine must be able to defend itself and we must ensure no involvement of American troops. As is the case with any munitions allocated for the security of Israel and Ukraine, we must ensure rigorous oversight of taxpayer dollars to prevent fraud and misuse.

Melton: I am in support of providing aid to the Ukrainian defense as long as there are transparency and accountability measures so we don’t see the fraud and waste we saw in Afghanistan, but I have long called for the ending of offensive military aid to Netanyahu considering his operations in Gaza have led to the deaths of thousands of innocents and the blocking of massive amounts of humanitarian aid. Hamas is horrible and what they did on October 7 is indefensible. Regardless, Netanyahu’s actions have made it less likely that Israelis and Palestinians will find long lasting peace with his actions in Gaza and the West Bank.

5. The Fourth District is one of the most productive agricultural regions in the entire country. Do you support the Farm Bill currently under consideration, and what, if any, changes would you propose?

Feenstra: In May, my Republican colleagues on the House Agriculture Committee and I passed the Farm Bill out of committee. Our farmers are facing declining farm income, low commodity prices, and a growing agricultural trade deficit — which are just a few examples of why Senate Democrats need to work with Republicans to pass a strong Farm Bill. Listening to the needs and priorities of our farmers and producers, we strengthened crop insurance, increased reference prices for commodities like corn and soybeans, and doubled funding for trade programs like the Market Access Program (MAP) and the Foreign Market Development Program (FMD) to build demand for our commodities across the globe. I also had 10 of my bills included in the Farm Bill to support Iowa agriculture. For example, I worked to include legislation to construct refrigeration infrastructure both domestically and internationally to ship our perishable commodities worldwide and lower the cost of crop insurance for young and beginning producers during their first ten years in business. I also had bills included to expand broadband access in our rural communities, improve the Livestock Indemnity Program to deliver fair and accurate prices for our cattle producers, and strengthen oversight of foreign purchases of our farmland to keep our farmland in the hands of American farmers. The bottom line is that we need to pass the Farm Bill this year to deliver certainty and relief for our producers.

Melton: I don’t support the fact Feenstra and his friends in Congress are attempting to cut food assistance benefits in the Farm Bill, so I certainly don’t support that. I also don’t think the current version does enough to help small and mid scale farmers out, doesn’t do enough to remove some of the massive barriers to entry for first time farmers, and doesn’t do enough to incentivize a new path forward that prioritizes clean water.

6. Do you support the use of eminent domain on private property for carbon capture pipelines? Why or why not?

Feenstra: No. Like I have said many times before, I do not support the use of eminent domain. The decision to run a pipeline through private property is a conversation between the landowner and the private company.

Melton: I absolutely do not, and was arguably the first candidate in this state to run against the pipelines dating back to early 2022, when most Iowans weren’t familiar with them. I don’t support eminent domain for these pipelines because they are not an intended use of eminent domain, and because these pipelines would not deliver the carbon capture benefit claimed but would instead steal people’s land, threaten their water availability, and increase the risk of severe public health consequences if such a pipeline fractures, all in the name of making the likes of Bruce Rastetter wealthier. Rastetter has donated tens of thousands of dollars to Feenstra. Feenstra often expressed public support for the pipelines until I began running against them. Feenstra claims these pipelines are just a state issue and claims that’s why he no longer talks about them, but he himself admitted in a late 2021 newspaper article that federal tax credits are driving these pipelines to our state.