(Radio Iowa) — Former Third District Congressman David Young has cleared the first hurdle in his bid to regain a seat in the U-S House. Young easily defeated challenger Bill Schafer in Tuesday’s Republican primary, winning just under 70-percent of the vote, to set up a rematch with Incumbent Democrat Cindy Axne. Young — who served as the district’s representative from 2014-2018 — lost a bid for a third term to Axne in 2018. Since then, Young says Axne has misled voters. “Back in 2018, she ran as a moderate, ran as a common sense candidate and mainstream,” said Young. “But, she has just followed the line of the left really hard and votes 98% of the time with Nancy Pelosi. She’s not who she said she was going to be. We are ready to take this seat back and lead again for this district.”

In the 2018 matchup, Young fell 2.2% short in the race. Young won 15 of the 16 counties in the district, but Axne held a large majority in Polk County — the largest county in the district. Young says the COVID-19 pandemic has forced his campaign mostly online for the time being. “We’re wired to be together,” said Young. “We want to be together, and we need to be. We have to be conscious of COVID-19. It is serious, but I believe that we can do both: get back to work and protect one another.”

As he pivots towards the general election, Young says he feels his past record in Congress aligns with the values of the district. “We are not for raising taxes and high amounts of government regulation that chokes our economy,” said Young. “My opponent is a regulator. She wants to repeal the tax relief that was given a few years ago by President Trump and the Republican Congress and that means raising taxes on Iowans.” Prior to serving in Congress, Young was chief of staff for long-time Iowa Senator Chuck Grassley and served as chief of staff for Kentucky Senator Jim Bunning prior to that.