Iowa Politics: Ernst Out, Hinson In

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
I've been talking over the last few weeks about just

(00:03):
the changing landscape of politics in general, especially with so
many people not seeking reelection. That includes in our second
congressional district in Nebraska, Don Bacon not seeking reelection was
going to be tough for a Republican to replace him
and win in the Omaha district. But the state of
Iowa is going through a lot of changes and they have,
much like Nebraska been, with a Republican stronghold. All six

(00:24):
members of their delegation in Washington are Republicans, their governor
has been a Republican, and now it feels like a
big old version of musical chairs, which was added to
domino effect style yesterday when Joni Ernst, the two term
senator from Iowa, announced that she was not going to
seek reelection, and basically within a couple of hours of

(00:47):
that announcement, it was made official that Ashley Henson, who's
already representing Iowa in the second Congressional district, was going
to leave that seat to go for the Senate spot.
That's the second person that's apparently leaving their seat is
Randy Finscher, also the fourth congression of district in Northwest
Iowa in Pottawatamee County would be leaving to go after
the governor spot that is being vacated by Republican Kim Reynolds.

(01:08):
Joining me is a person that actually served and I
think the same exact district as Kim Reynolds eventually would
and Jony Ernst eventually would. Is a guy who actually
never lost an election, left on his own terms. His
name is Jeff Angelo and he's a talk show host
on mornings on her sister station in Des Moines ten
forty Who how was that for an intro?

Speaker 2 (01:28):
No, that was a fantastic intro, because, of course, yes,
I'm I'm the guy that recruited both of them for
my spot. Senator Earns turned me down and Governor Reynolds
took me up on the offer after turning me down
a couple of times. So yeah, these are folks that
I have a very close personal connection with.

Speaker 1 (01:47):
So let's start with Jony Ernst here. What do you
think her legacy is? Is she bows out after next fall?
She will no longer be the United States Senator? What
is the legacy? Did she make him?

Speaker 2 (02:01):
She did make them squeal. I think she was doge
before DOGE was cool. I think that the make Them
Squeal ad, which brought her national attention, really propelled her
into the office to basically say, look, we're going to
go to Washington and we're going to cut spending. You know. Ironically,

(02:22):
that seemed to be a pipe dream until President Trump
was elected, until Elon Musk got appointed as the head
of DOGE, and and and then suddenly Jony Earnst had
a real role in being able to talk to both
Elon Musk and the President about I think the issues

(02:42):
that she'd worked on for years, and the spending that
she worked on for years, finally someone was listening and
someone was acting on the spending. Because it's interesting if
your Senator Earnst, the wasteful spending that you were uncovering
was really ridiculous. I mean a lot of items that
nobody in the public could ever defend, nobody in government

(03:06):
could ever defend. But no one would ever really take
her seriously as far as actually reducing spending or eliminating
the programs that she was talking about. So I think
that that is her legacy. That's the very public legacy Emery.
I think the less known legacy of Senator Ernst is

(03:27):
that Sener was a victim of sexual violence when she
was a member of the military, and she worked very
hard to reform how the military approaches an accusation of
sexual misconduct. I know that she personally that she worked
with victims that experienced sexual misconduct in the military, that

(03:52):
that was a personal passion of hers, and so that's
something that doesn't get a lot of the headlines, but
was a personal passion of hers that she did pursue
and I think successfully reformed the military. I got them
to take the look at that topic much more seriously
and also pursue accusations in a much more serious fashion.

Speaker 1 (04:15):
Yeah, Jeff Angelo joining us here on the phone line today.
It's interesting because she did say pretty upfront when she
ran for Senate initially in twenty fourteen that she wanted
to serve two terms. The second term is up. There's
a lot of people out there, mostly Democrats obviously, who
are just going to be opposed to any Republican, and
they're really letting her hear it on social media. It

(04:39):
was kind of a question Marcus to who was going
to actually step in to replace her, because this is
much later, I mean, was March that Kem Reynoldson. Now,
she wasn't seeking reelection, right, so, I mean she waited
a long time, almost until the last minute here to
get somebody else's campaign kind of off and run running,
and it ends up being Ashley Henson who steps up.

(04:59):
I know that there are other Republicans like Jim Carlin
from Sioux City who's actually trying to get in it
or is in the race also, But Ashley Hinson's the
big name. What is it about her that makes her
the right choice for the Republicans here with the recognition
she already has and how the federal government and other
top Republicans in Washington already view her.

Speaker 2 (05:20):
Well, I think you've just said it. You're absolutely right.
First of all, I have a soft spot in my
heart for people who are former members of the media
who then run for political office. She's incredibly articulate in
the defense of her positions. She worked very, very hard
to establish a statewide profile from the very beginning and

(05:42):
has assembled quite a campaign team around her and can
raise money. Really just showing all the requisite things that
you expect from a person that would be a powerful
candidate for any office. I think that she suspected that
this was coming. Emery, you and I were together at

(06:04):
the Iowa State Fair, and you might recall that. So WHO,
the radio station for which I do the morning show,
we broadcast from the Iowa State Fair all day every
day at the Iowa State Fair. She appeared on every
single program on WHO Radio during the Iowa State Fair.

(06:24):
Was very, very prominent the fair. Was really making herself
very available to the media at the fair, and at
the time there began some rumblings like well represented Hinson,
who of course is a congress person from eastern Iowa,
certainly seemed to be speaking statewide publicity. So I think

(06:47):
that people who are reading the tea leaves at the
Iowa State Fair thought is something going on here? Is
there some reason that Ashley Hintson is raising her profile
so prominently during the Iowa State Fair. I think that
she either had inside knowledge that this was coming or
suspected it was coming from personal conversations that she was

(07:10):
having with Senator Ernst, and therefore she was really ready
when the news broke that Senator Ernst was not going
to run for reelection.

Speaker 1 (07:19):
Yeah, it is interesting, as Jeff Angelo joins us on
the show today, so that leaves she's coming into a
vacated spot, So no real incumbent there, even if she
kind of feels like one. You have the governor's seat,
no real incumbent because you know Gilvire Kim Reynolds is
no longer seeking for reelection next year. You have Randy

(07:40):
Finstra going to leave his spot in the fourth Congressional district,
which is pretty red and I don't think Republicans are
too concerned about that district, but that's going to be
a new person. He's running for governor instead. We know
Mary and that Miller makes Christina Bohannan maybe on a
collision course for round three of their battle in the
first congressional district in southeast Iowa. That got a lot

(08:01):
closer the second time than it was the first time,
so that should be competitive. You have, you know, we
have to wait and see what it's going to look
like in the second district without Hintson there, and then
Zach Nunn is certainly going to have his hands full
with whichever Democrat ends up emerging, maybe Sarah Trungariot, who's
one of the more high profile Iowa Democrats there as well.
And then you throw in rob sand who has already

(08:21):
been campaigning very strongly with at least some momentum for
the Democrats for that governor spot. I know it's a
long shot to see all of these things flip to blue.
I don't anticipate any of that happening. But this is
a pretty interesting development for Democrats in Iowa, isn't it,
after this Republican stronghold to all of a sudden have

(08:41):
an opportunity against it in a lot of ways, very
few incumbents and even the incumbents that they have seem
to be kind of locked up into pretty competitive races.
Is this a chance for Democrats to really start to
try to morph Iowa a little bit more purple here?

Speaker 2 (08:58):
Yes, and this becomes a proving ground for Democrats. Is
that how do you move forward in states that have
become more red do? I absolutely think it's fascinating because
you know that on the national level, national democrats are
pulling a little bit less in popularity than I think
Monkey Pops. So I think that, you know, Iowa democrats

(09:22):
have to look and find their own way to popularity.
They have to figure out how if your state seemingly
is going inevitably read how do you get back into power.
You just don't go away, You say, Okay, what do
we have to do differently? And already signs that I
see that the Democrats are trying to distinguish themselves in

(09:43):
Iowa from the national Democrats, and the problems they're having
is they stop the anti Trump rhetoric. In Iowa. There's
a lot of talk of bipartisanship. There's a lot of
focus on kitchen table issues, the cost of things. You
hear the Democrats talking about the cost of things and

(10:04):
talking about working with Republicans, even using rhetoric that sounds
a little bit Trump like. In a news release, one
of the Democratic candidate, Zach Walls said, Ashley Hinson is
the swamp. So I find it really fascinating because you
have this really rare opportunity in Iowa with all of

(10:25):
these open seets, which almost never happens in Iowa. Iowa
loves incumbents. You get the Iowa Democrats who've been watching
the state slide inevitably read now all these years, to
actually take it back to a competitive swing state. But
how do you do that, and how do you do
that in a state where that Trump won by double digits.

(10:45):
They've got to completely revamp their message in their approach
to campaigning for votes and something that could serve as
a model for other Democrats around the nation if it
is indeed successful. So that's the issue. You You can't
just say, oh, all these seats are going to flip blue.
Maybe none of them will. And Iowa Democrats just have

(11:06):
to face the future where they're not going to be
a significant force in politics beyond the big urban areas
that Iowa have. Yeah, there is a real opportunity for
them here to actually show the nation how you can
win in a country in which Trump is very popular
in many many so called red states like Iowa.

Speaker 1 (11:28):
Yeah, I like how you said that. Also is you know,
there's it didn't feel like it. And you can attest
to this that the strength of Democratic candidates in Iowa.
I mean, you go back to twenty twenty two Deirdre
de jir Is, who's running against Governor Kim Reynolds for
the governor's spot. And that's no disrespect to her, but
there was no chance that she was going to be

(11:48):
able to stand up to an incumbent like Kim Reynolds.
There has not been really strong Democratic candidates. Lenan Bekom
was the guy, you know, kind of out of nowhere,
complete obecurity to challenge Zach Nunn for that seat that
covers Des Moines in twenty twenty four. So it just
felt like there weren't very many strong candidates, and now
all of a sudden, it feels like there's several strong

(12:10):
candidates and it kind of sprinkled out throughout a lot
of these different races too, right, So there's got to
be something to be said for at least the development
of this kind of younger generation, because most of these
Democrats are younger, a little bit more exciting, and are
willing to change kind of their tune versus what the
national narrative is.

Speaker 2 (12:29):
Yeah, I think you made a great point there, which
is I think the previous Democratic campaigns have just aligned
themselves with the National Party and there's just no distinguishing
their message from the message that was going on nationally.
They nationalized elections in Iowa, Well, that's just not going
to work. You actually have to ford your own path

(12:50):
in Iowa and away from whatever the National Party is doing,
because again, this is a state that loves Donald Trump.
This is a state that is conservative socially, and this
is this is a state where they're they're they're going
to be overwhelmingly opposed if a lot of the positions
of the Democrats have been taking nationally. So you really

(13:12):
do have to forge your own path. And I think
these candidates, as you pointed out, younger candidates that have
been thinking about forging their own path and having their
own message separate from whatever the national Democrats have been doing.
This is their chance to show that you can win
in a state that has been trending red. Now. Their

(13:34):
biggest issue, as you know, Emory, is these are also
strong Republican candidates that are pushing back at them. These
are no pushovers, and so you know, represented Hinson probably
gets the nod as the Republican nominee and probably becomes
the immediate favorite in the US Senate race. So it's

(13:54):
a real test for Iowa Democrats as to Okay, we're
not going to nationalize our rates, We're not going to
have the same message as Democrats have on the national level.
We're going to run our own race, our own message,
and see if it works, and if it works, it
becomes a model for Democrats nationally. If it doesn't work, again,

(14:14):
Iowa Democrats are kind of lost in the wilderness as
to how to win in this state.

Speaker 1 (14:19):
It is going to be interesting, and a person that
knows more about it than pretty much anybody is Jeff Angelo.
And Jeff, as always, really do appreciate the time. Thanks
so much for being on our show today.

Speaker 2 (14:29):
Yeah, always a pleasure see around Emery