Elizabeth Meyer

Iowa Sen. Joni Ernst last made the headlines of the gun control debate in August when she was confronted in Johnston by a teacher distraught over active shooter drills practiced in the wake of mass shootings in Texas and Ohio. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell has said he will not bring a bill to the…

In just over two weeks, Congress will face another government shutdown if it doesn’t pass a new spending bill. In a recent tweet, Iowa Congresswoman Cindy Axne said her support for a short-term funding bill, known as a continuing resolution, was contingent on “tariff aid.” “We cannot cut a lifeline to struggling farmers,” said Axne,…

Photo: Finkenauer meeting with farmers in district earlier this month. Iowa Congresswoman Abby Finkenauer wasted no time this week jumping back into her work in Washington after a long summer recess in the 1st District. On Tuesday, as chair of the Small Business Subcommittee on Rural Development, Agriculture, Trade, and Entrepreneurship, Finkenauer led a hearing…

As state and federal party leaders desert Congressman Steve King, one Republican leader in the 4th District is a prime example of the constituents who never have wavered in their support. Mark Leonard, chairman of the Ida County Republicans, defended King in a recent article in The Atlantic centered on supporters of the House Republican.…

Michael Franken, a retired Navy admiral, Monday morning rolled out a list of staff and advisers for his bid for the U.S. Senate. Franken, originally of Sioux Center, in Northwest Iowa, is one of four Democrats challenging Republican Sen. Joni Ernst in 2020. This is Franken’s first run for public office, and political insiders have…

Iowa Sen. Joni Ernst said at a recent town hall meeting in Emmet County that politicians should “sit down behind closed doors” as a way to avoid public scrutiny when discussing was to fix Social Security policy. A video clip of Ernst this past Saturday at a school in Estherville shows the Republican senator responding…

Abby Finkenauer took her public service career to Washington, D.C., with her election to Congress in 2018, but she hasn’t forgotten her roots in the Iowa Legislature. Her second term in the Iowa House saw the 2017 and 2018 legislation sessions entirely guided by a Republican agenda, as lawmakers of the opposite party controlled the…

“Frustration” was the word Congresswoman Abby Finkenauer often used to describe the mood of her agricultural constituents during a trip throughout her district last week. On Wednesday, Finkenauer met with multiple groups of concerned farmers, manufacturers and ethanol producers, many of whom told her they were at their wits’ end with the president’s trade disputes…