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Iowa early News Headlines: Friday, Dec. 27, 2019

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December 27th, 2019 by Ric Hanson

Here is the latest Iowa news from The Associated Press at 3:40 a.m. CST

DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — Few states have changed politically with the head-snapping speed of Iowa. In 2008, its voters propelled Barack Obama to the White House. In 2012, Iowa backed Obama again. But by 2016, Donald Trump easily defeated Hillary Clinton in Iowa. Republicans were in control of the governor’s mansion and state legislature and held all but one U.S. House seat and both U.S. Senate seats. Democrats are hoping the state could be swinging back. Tom Vilsack, Iowa’s only two-term Democratic governor in the past 50 years, says Republicans have “gone too far to the right and there is the slow movement back.”

WINTERSET, Iowa (AP) — Iowa Democratic Congresswoman Cindy Axne defeated a Republican incumbent in 2018 even as she lost 15 of her district’s 16 counties. Axne won by offsetting her losses in rural counties with an overwhelming victory in urban Polk County. Despite that urban strength, Axne has returned again and again to those rural counties she lost. Axne says that’s because people who supported her opponent deserve representation in Washington. That could be true, but her effort also could help answer the question of whether rural residents will vote for a Democrat who lavishes attention on their issues and repeatedly visits their communities. As one voter put it, “If you come personally, I’ll consider voting for you.”

OMAHA, Neb. (AP) — President Donald Trump likes to joke that America’s farmers have a nice problem on their hands: They’re going to need bigger tractors to keep up with surging Chinese demand for their soybeans and other agricultural goods under a preliminary deal between the world’s two largest economies. Yet skeptics are questioning how much China has committed to buy — and whether American farmers would be able anytime soon to export goods to China in the quantity Trump has promised: $40 billion a year, according to Trump’s trade representative, Robert Lighthizer. For perspective, U.S. farm exports to China have never topped $26 billion in any year.

SIOUX CITY, Iowa (AP) — An Omaha, Nebraska, man will face attempted murder charges after allegedly firing shots at an Iowa State Patrol trooper in Sioux City, Iowa. The incident happened Thursday morning when a trooper pulled over a vehicle and found a 27-year-old passenger had a warrant for his arrest. The man resisted arrest and as they struggled, the trooper used a stun gun. The man ran away and during a chase he allegedly fired two shots at the pursuing trooper. The shots missed. After a search, officers found and arrested the man. The state patrol says it’s unclear what charges the man will face but that one will be attempted murder. The driver wasn’t arrested.