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Melton talks Congress run in Orange City | News
Subject: 11000000 – Politics
•| Politics |•| 11000000 | •| POLY |
Melton talks Congress run in Orange City | News
ORANGE CITY—Ryan Melton still remembers the final signature he obtained for his candidacy to be the sole Democrat running for Iowa’s 4th Congressional District in this year’s midterm election.
“The last signature I got was in Estherville. It was from a guy wearing a lucky leprechaun shirt on St. Patrick’s Day,” Melton said Monday, July 25, to a sparse crowd at the Orange City Public Library.
The 37-year-old Nevada man may need more than luck to defeat the Republican incumbent Randy Feenstra of Hull for a seat in the U.S. House of Representatives. Feenstra amassed about 62 percent of the vote in the heavily red 4th District to win in 2020.
The uphill odds have not deterred Melton, who works as a Nationwide Mutual Insurance Co. supervisor. He recalled how he “spent every waking moment of my life beyond work driving around the 4th District” to get enough signatures to get on the June primary ballot.
Before coming to Orange City on Monday, Melton stopped at the O’Brien County Fair in Primghar that morning and made visits to Sibley and Rock Rapids.
Melton hopes to build on what previous 4th District Democratic candidate J.D. Scholten did in 2018 and 2020.
“We always need to remember that J.D. almost won this thing back in 2018. There’s reason for optimism,” Melton said.
He acknowledged part of Scholten’s narrow loss that year was due to former U.S. Rep. Steve King’s declining popularity in the 4th District. However, Melton said Feenstra’s voting record from his first term in office is the same as that of King’s during the latter’s congressional career.
“Since he doesn’t say the worst stuff out loud, he gets an air of authority and respectability that his voting record suggests he should not get,” Melton said.
For instance, Melton recounted how Feenstra voted against former President Donald Trump’s second impeachment in the wake of the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol. Feenstra later voted against the creation of a committee in the U.S. House to investigate the attack and earlier this year received Trump’s endorsement for re-election.
“Considering everything that we know that’s come out from the Jan. 6 hearings, it is clear at this point that an acceptance of Donald Trump’s endorsement is a rejection of American democracy,” Melton said.
The Democratic candidate also criticized Feenstra’s stances on everyday policy issues that he argued are making life harder for average people and contributing to population declines in the 4th District.
Regarding child-care access, Melton said several communities are “child-care deserts” due to lack of day-care options for families. He said state Republican lawmakers have approached the problem by trying to loosen regulations for existing centers instead of addressing day-care staff retention due to low wages. He contended that Republican tax cuts at the state and federal level would further hinder child-care funding.
Melton likewise contrasted himself with Feenstra on the matters of workers’ rights, discrimination based on race and sexuality as well as abortion.
He pointed to Feenstra’s low score from the American Federation of Labor and Congress of Industrial Organizations: 5 percent in 2021. Melton meanwhile secured the labor organization’s endorsement this year and said he hopes to raise the minimum wage and strengthen collective bargaining powers for workers.
Melton listed cases where Feenstra voted against bills that would fight against racial discrimination in the workplace and that strengthen protections for lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer people.
“He’s been celebrating the downfall of Roe, not showing a single ounce of empathy to the fact that pregnant people in our district now live in a much scarier world,” Melton said of the recent overturning of Roe v. Wade.
Melton said he has heard from dozens of people since the case was thrown out who told him stories of pregnancies that did not go well and in which an abortion was needed. Others he has spoken to recalled stories from before Roe v. Wade was decided in 1973 in which people died from pregnancy complications because abortion wasn’t an option.
The final topic Melton discussed was gun safety legislation, which he said Feenstra has consistently voted against. That included a bill the U.S. House passed last year that would close the “Charleston loophole,” which allows firearm transactions to proceed by default if a background check is not completed within three business days.
The name of the loophole comes from the 2015 mass shooting at the Emanuel A.M.E. Church in Charleston, SC, in which the shooter was able to purchase his gun due to the loophole.
Melton also noted Feenstra opposed the Bipartisan Safer Communities Act, which President Joe Biden signed in June. Among other things, the law expanded firearm restrictions to include people convicted of abusing dating partners, not just spouses.
Lucy Charleston of Sioux Center, one of four attendees at the Monday event, asked how Melton would work across the political aisle in Congress.
Melton acknowledged it would be tough and would require elected leaders to be more responsive to everyday people. He also said the Democratic Party needs to get better at advocating its message in rural America and connecting with rural voters.
“Why, if I were to knock on the door of a Republican and if I identify myself as a Democrat, is there a decent chance they’d close the door on me? Because we’ve lost the narrative war as of now,” Melton said. “But it doesn’t always have to be that way.”
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