Ottumwa Courier: Republicans make pitch to voters in final sprint
OTTUMWA — With just over two weeks until the midterm election, Republican candidates for state and federal offices made final overtures to Wapello County voters.
Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds, attorney general candidate Brenna Bird and 3rd Congressional District candidate Zach Nunn joined Iowa Senate 13 candidate Cherielynn Westrich for a get-out-the-vote rally Wednesday at the Rural Health Education Center on the Indian Hills Community College campus.
All of them made pitches to voters in a room about three-fourths full, and detailed their accomplishments and why they believe they’re better choices than their Democratic counterparts.
“We need to make sure that we sweep all four of our congressional seats. This is an opportunity we haven’t had in a long time,” Reynolds told the crowd. So we need to get out and vote and make sure that we put Zach Nunn across the finish line.”
Nunn is challenging two-term Democrat Cindy Axne for a seat that could be one of the key races in the Republican effort to take control of the U.S. House of Representatives.
“So many other states have looked to Gov. Reynolds and they say, ‘How do I get to be more like Iowa right now?” Nunn said. “We are happy to share that playbook with the rest of the country. Our governor has signed more tax cuts than anyone in recent memory, and it has allowed our communities to grow and have money in your pocket.
“We’ve been under a Biden tax regime where our take-home pay as decreased by 11%. People see the American Dream evaporating before them because of interest rates at an all-time high. Stop the spending as we’ve done in Iowa, and that’s how we stop the bleed.”
Nunn said the federal government is “picking winners and losers and determines who’s going to be successful.”
“This is not the Iowa way,” he said. “This is not the common sense way that our governor has led. Let’s take what works in Iowa to Washington D.C. Let’s make sure we show up because by not showing up, you’re effectively giving your vote to someone else.”
Bird, who hails from Guthrie County, has made no secret about her disdain for the Biden administration, as evidenced by her “Give them the Bird” advertisements. She also contrasted herself from Democrat Tom Miller, the longtime attorney general Bird is running against.
“He has retired on the job. I have 74 sheriffs endorsing our campaign, both Republican and Democrat,” she said. “The most surprising thing I hear from them is they have never in their life met the attorney general. That’s unacceptable.
“We’re still going to have two more years of a Biden administration, and that’s terrible. But the bright side is that there is a target-rich environment. Whether it’s what the EPA is doing for farmers, or this covid and CDC garbage. It’s my job to take them to court, enforce the laws. That’s what I will do.”
Westrich, who is running for a state senate seat that consists entirely of Wapello, Monroe and Davis counties, and most of Appanoose County, touted the last legislative session’s accomplishments.
“We made sure divisive concepts are not going to be taught in schools. And we outlawed critical race theory in our schools,” she said. “Gov. Reynolds was a champion for this. She’s taking away taxes on our retiring seniors, which is exciting to me because I plan to retire one day.
“We’ve got to fight together to make this work. We have to stay fired up.”
