(Radio Iowa) – Iowa’s two Republican U.S. Senators are praising the president’s choice of Amy Coney Barrett for the vacancy on the Supreme Court. Senator Chuck Grassley says Barrett is eminently qualified and Grassley says she doesn’t deserve to the kind of “shenanigans” that happened after President Trump nominated Brett Kavanaugh to the court in 2018. Senator Joni Ernst says Barrett is an experienced jurist and a working mom of seven who joins a growing, but still to small list of women nominated to be judges in the federal court system.

Both Grassley and Ernst are members of the Senate Judiciary Committee. The panel’s scheduled to start hearings on Barrett’s nomination on October 12th. Doug Emhoff, the husband of vice presidential nominee Kamala Harris, suggested during a weekend appearance in Iowa that Senator Harris would have much to say about Barrett during Senate debate. “She’ll be squarely in the fight to stop McConnell from jamming through a justice who will overturn the Affordable Care Act, just when we need it most,” he said.

Emhoff spoke at “drive in” campaign rally in Cedar Rapids on Saturday. Jill Biden, the wife of Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden, spoke at the rally, too, pledging that her husband would preserve the Affordable Care Act if elected. “He has spent his entire career listening, standing up to bullies and bringing people together,” Biden said.

Polls suggest Iowa’s six electoral college votes are up for grabs. Lara Trump, the president’s daughter-in-law, campaigned in Iowa last week and Vice President Mike Pence will campaign here this Thursday, October 1st.

(Radio Iowa) – The race in Iowa’s second congressional district to replace retiring Democratic Congressman Dave Loebsack is considered one of the country’s most competitive. Republican Mariannette Miller-Meeks of Ottumwa, an eye doctor, is making her fourth try for a seat in the U.S. House. On a recent Saturday morning, Miller-Meeks was at a Jasper County G-O-P fundraiser that featured a trap shooting competition. Miller-Meeks is not quite five foot tall and used a youth shotgun. “It’s shorter. It has less of a kick,” Miller-Meeks said. “…This one’s easier for me to handle.” Miller-Meeks told the crowd at the fundraiser that as one of eight kids, her parents scoffed at her dream of becoming a doctor. “My rebellion was to leave home at 16, get a job, enroll in San Antonio Community College, enlist in the Army at age 18, work and go to school until I got a degree in nursing so I could work at night,” Miller-Meeks said.

” Kept going to school, got a masters in education. Ultimately was able to…graduate from medical school, then I came in Iowa to do my residency…and now I’m a state senator.” Like other Republicans, Miller-Meeks has been actively campaigning since this spring, once businesses reopened after being closed due to the pandemic. “I really missed being able to interact with people and just listening, being there, being attentive,” Miller-Meeks. “…You can do that and be at a respectful distance.”

Democratic candidate Rita Hart of Wheatland has mainly held online events. “I certainly don’t want to be in a situation where I’m regretting that we had a public event of any kind,” Hart said. In mid-September, Hart began holding “backyard talks” in the district. Her first was in Ottumwa, Hart stood in the middle of a dozen people spread out in a circle. Hart, a former teacher and one-term state senator, was the Iowa Democratic Party’s 2018 nominee for lieutenant governor. She told the group in Ottumwa about growing up as one of nine kids on a dairy farm.

“I tell people I had the great advantage growing up of being raised by a strong Democratic father and strong Republican mother and that was such an advantage in my life because I learned how to stand up for what I believe in,” Hart said, “but I also learned to listen to the other side.”

The second district covers the southeast quadrant of the state and current voter registration data shows there are 26-thousand more Democrats than Republicans in the district. Barack Obama won the district twice. Donald Trump won it in 2016.

Here is the latest Iowa news from The Associated Press at 3:35 a.m. CDT

MANCHESTER, Iowa (AP) — A Manchester man who hit a pedestrian and then led authorities on a chase through several Iowa counties has been sentenced to 10 years in prison. Thirty-year-old Kevin Krapfl Jr. was sentenced recently after he pleaded guilty to four charges, including causing a serious injury with a vehicle. Krapfl was accused of hitting a pedestrian in Oelwein on April 18 and leading authorities on a chase. The pursuit ended when Krapfl’s car hit a patrol car driven by Buchanan County Sheriff’s deputy Dan Walter, who was seriously injured.

DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — Iowa health officials say the state confirmed another 804 positive COVID-19 cases and four more deaths as of Sunday morning. Iowa currently has confirmed 1,315 COVID-19 deaths and 86,229 cases. The Iowa Department of Public Health said it is adding the results of nearly 27,000 antigen tests to the state’s coronavirus website this weekend. The tests were conducted at long-term care facilities in September. Of the nearly 27,000 antigen test results included in the update, about 300 are positive for the virus. The state on Sunday was reporting a 11.1% positivity rate in cases.

CEDAR RAPIDS, Iowa (AP) — Jill Biden and Doug Emhoff have rapidly become two of the Democrat ticket’s most prolific surrogates. They’ve engaged in in-person campaign events and virtual fundraisers at a pace that often outmatches their spouses at the top of the ticket. In their first joint interview, they say they’ve begun to build a partnership that will help Joe Biden’s campaign on the trail and potentially beyond, if he wins in November. Jill Biden said as she campaigned in Cedar Rapids, Iowa: “Don’t you think the American people love seeing people in government who respect one another and are friends with one another?”

WATERLOO, Iowa (AP) — Authorities say gunfire erupted at a gathering of motorcycle clubs in Iowa, killing one person and wounding seven others. Waterloo Police Chief Joel Fitzgerald says about 100 people were at the gathering inside a building in Waterloo early Saturday when there was “some kind of confrontation.” He says nearby police officers heard the gunfire and responded within seconds. Eight people had gunshot wounds and one of them later died. Four other people were hurt by broken glass or other debris while fleeing. Investigators are still trying to determine whether there was more than one shooter and no arrests have been made.

A stolen vehicle report led to the arrest of a Red Oak woman, Saturday. The Adams County Sheriff’s Office says that at around 11:55-a.m., they received a report a vehicle had been stolen from a residence in the 1300 block of Orange Avenue, near Prescott. The damaged vehicle was later recovered northwest of the residence, on the same property. Inside the vehicle, authorities found 30-year old Mildred Douglas, of Red Oak. She was unresponsive in the driver’s seat.

Douglas was taken into custody and transported to CHI Corning for evaluation. Once released, Douglas was transported to the Adams County Jail and charged with Theft of a Motor Vehicle (a Class-D felony), Criminal Mischief causing more than $1,000 damage (also a Class-D Felony), and Burglary (an aggravated misdemeanor).