Check out the website: https://lenspoliticalnotes.com  Look at the recent Daily Bits on the website. Bill Clinton’s Trial in the Senate

2020                                                         General Election

Iowa used to be a man’s world. In 2014, Republican Joni Ernst was elected to the US Senate. She was the first woman to be elected to either branch of Congress from Iowa.  After the 2016 election, Joni Ernst was still the only woman representing Iowa. In 2018, the Republican incumbent (by way of the Governor having resigned) Kim Reynolds was elected in her own right, bringing transformation to the Iowa State House.

Democrats joined that transformation in 2018 – electing Cindy Axne (IA 03) and Abby Finkenauer (IA 01) to Congress. Cindy Axne and Abby Finkenauer https://www.abbyfinkenauer.com/ are back for the 2020 election. They are joined by Rita Hart who is running to replace Dave Loebsack in IA 02. When the 2020 elections are over, Chuck Grassley may be the only Republican left representing Iowa in Washington; he and Freshman Representative JD Scholten may be the only men left representing Iowa in Washington. (Both Abby Finkenauer and Rita Hart will probably have female Republican opponents.)

Abby Finkenauer is one of the kids in Congress. The only person younger than she who was ever elected to the US House of Representatives is Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. Young as she was when she was elected to Congress, Abby Finkenauer was an experienced legislator. She had been in the Iowa House of Representatives since she was 24.

Abby Finkenauer was union oriented. Her dad was a pipefitter.  Her mom worked for the school department.  One of her grandfathers was a fireman.  She and her four older siblings all went to college They were the first in their family to do that.

After graduating from college, Abby Finkenauer began right away doing what she wanted to do. She started to campaign — for the state legislature. She spent nearly two years doing that.  She recalls the conversations she had with people as she went door to door.  She thinks of the campaign as a right of passage, her way of becoming a grown up. This was adult work.

As a state legislator, Abby Finkenauer did the work.  She sought relief for people with college loans, urged that people be able to testify about legislative proposals via the internet, and fought to protect women’s right to control their bodies — asking publicly at age 26, why so many adult males wanted to control her body.  Eventually, as the ranking member of the government oversight committee, she worked on privacy, public disclosure, and the regulation of lobbyists.

In Congress, like some Members, Abby Finkenauer joined a bunch of caucuses. They range from the Blue Collar Caucus and the Skilled American Worker Caucus to the Rural Caucus and the Agriculture and Rural Caucus and the Rural Education Caucus. Unlike most Members of Congress, she has not joined an ideological caucus – not the progressive caucus, not the moderate nor the conservative Democratic caucus.

In Congress, Abby Finkenauer has tried to be a worker without a label. She works through the Highways and Water Resources subcommittees of the Transportation and Infrastructure Committee and through the Rural Development subcommittee of the Small Business Committee. She touts her support for bills that passed to reduce drug costs and to raise military pay. She is proud to have been the first freshman to see a proposal become law – a law to increase access to Defense Research for small businesses in rural communities. Her next proposals address teacher shortages in rural areas and protection for Renewable Fuel Standards (She is protecting ethanol, for those of us on the coasts).

Abby Finkenauer is no shoo-in in 2020. Her opponent is a familiar face. She was a television anchor before being elected to the Iowa state legislature. Abby Finkenauer works hard at fundraising as well as legislating. At last report, she had more than $1.2 million on hand for her campaign – just about double what her opponent had.  Help Abby Finkenauer https://www.abbyfinkenauer.com/ keep that funding gap. She’ll need it because the Republican money will show up in PACs.

Vulnerable Democratic Members of Congress need to play defense. Choose a few to support. Read my Notes about them in https://lenspoliticalnotes.com

Only two of those below have announced a vote against impeaching the president – Collin Peterson and Jeff Van Drew. Peterson said he would probably vote “no.” Jeff Van Drew, on the other hand, is considering switching parties. That is an indication of how much pressure someone like Ben McAdams (who has announced he would vote for impeachment) has to feel on this issue.

 

Elected by fewer than 1,000 votes

California 21                        TJ Cox

Utah 04                                 Ben McAdams

 

Elected by 5,000 votes or fewer

Florida 26                             Debbie Mucarsel-Powell

Georgia 06                           Lucy McBath

Maine 02                               Jared Golden

New Mexico 03                   Xochitl Torres Small

New Jersey 03                    Andy Kim

New York 22                        Anthony Brindisi

Oklahoma 05                       Kendra Horn

South Carolina 01             Joe Cunningham 

Elected by fewer than 10,000 votes

California 10                          Josh Harder

California 39                         Gil Cisneros

Iowa 03                                   Cynthia Axne

Virginia 07                            Abigail Spanberger

Elected by 15,000 votes or fewer

Illinois 14                              Lauren Underwood

Michigan 08                        Elissa Slotkin

Minnesota 07                      Collin Peterson

New York 11                          Max Rose

New York 19                         Anthony Delgado

Texas 07                                 Lizzie Fletcher

 Other close races

Illinois 08                              Sean Casten

Iowa 01                                 Abby Finkenauer

New Jersey 02                    Jeff Van Drew

Washington 08                   Kim Schreier