(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.

The Iowa Department of Public Health (IDPH) says in their most recent COVID-19 dashboard report, there were four more deaths from the virus over the past 24 hours, for a total of 564. and 61 new cases, for a total of 20,017. Officials said also, 164,139 Iowans have been tested for COVID-19, while 11,890 have recovered. Iowans who have tested negative for the virus, number 143, 691. Those figures, and the number of persons hospitalized due to COVID-19, continue to remain relatives flat since an apparent peak around May 6th.

IDPH reports 314 are currently hospitalized with the virus, while 116 are listed in intensive care. There were 15 persons admitted to hospital in the last 24 hours and 76 patients on ventilators. IDPH also reports one more LTC outbreak, for a total of 42. There have been 1,595 positive cases, with 764 recovered and 283 deaths. The numbers continue to remain flat with increased testing.

The Region 4 Regional Medical Coordinator Center – covering hospitals in western/southwest Iowa – (RMCC) reports 10 Iowans are hospitalized, 8 are in an ICU, none were admitted over the past 24-hours, and 2 are on ventilators. Those numbers continue a downward trend. Here are the latest county-by-county numbers for Cass & surrounding Counties (with the number recovered in parenthesis) and a 24-hour change marked by an *:

• Cass: 12 (11)
• Adair: 9 (6)* [1 more recovered than Tuesday]
• Adams: 7 (4)
• Audubon: 13 (8)* [1 more positive case]
• Guthrie: 53 (30)
• Montgomery: 8 (6)
• Pottawattamie: 274 (172)* [2 more positive cases/3 more recovered]
• Shelby: 37 (31)

While most eyes in Iowa during the Primary Election were on State races, there were also a handful of locally contested races in Cass and surrounding counties, with the winners advancing to the November General Election. In Cass County, incumbent Republican District 4 Supervisor Steve Baier of Griswold, defeated fellow Republican challenger Travis Erickson, from Cumberland, 236-to 89. In the Republican race for Supervisor/District 5, Bernard Pettinger, of Anita, handily defeated challenger Linda Reineke, of Massena, 182-to 92. Current District 5 Supervisor Frank Waters is not running for re-election.

In Audubon County, in the Republican race for two Supervisor At-Large seats, incumbents Todd M. Nelson and Rick Thompson were the winners, with 448 and 418 votes, respectively. Challengers Duane Deist and Louis J. Wanninger, Jr., garnered 287 and 168 votes, respectively.

In Montgomery County, incumbent Republican District 3 Supervisor Bryant Amos lost to challenger Randy Cooper, by a vote of 235-to 196. In Pottawattamie County, Brian Shea and Tim Wichman garnered the most votes out of five candidates, to take the two At-Large seats on the Board of Supervisors. And, Andy Brown was the winner for Pottawattamie County Sheriff, with 3,415 votes to challengers Rob Ambrose’ 2,588 and Danielle Bentzinger’s 1,732.

And finally, in Shelby County, the two At-Large seats on the Board of Supervisors will be filled by Steve Kenkel and Charles Parkhurst, who were not challenged for those seats.

Voter turnout across the immediate listening area averaged 25.4%, with the highest turnout of 32.5% being among voters in Montgomery County.

DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — Longtime Rep. Steve King has been ousted in Iowa’s Republican primary after being ostracized by party leaders for comments about white nationalism. State Sen. Randy Feenstra won the five-way race Tuesday after he argued the nine-term conservative Republican had cost the district a voice in Congress by losing his committee assignments over comments in a 2018 New York Times story that seemed to defend white nationalism.

Randy Feenstra

King has a long record of incendiary comments about immigrants and white supremacy. Feenstra becomes the heavy favorite to win in the district, where registered Republicans outnumber Democrats by roughly 60,000. He faces Democrat J.D. Schoulten, who lost by 2 percentage points to King in 2018.

(Radio Iowa) — Theresa Greenfield of West Des Moines has captured the Democratic Party’s nomination for the U.S. Senate and will challenge Republican Senator Joni Ernst’s bid for a second term.”There’s no doubt this will be a tough fight, but that’s never stopped me before,” Greenfield says. “and it’s going to take all of us working together to build a strong grassroots team.” Greenfield addressed supporters with a Facebook live speech, promising to be a “new voice” as the country grapples with consequential challenges. “This moment in Iowa and our country calls for new leadership,” Greenfield said, “leadership with compassion and integrity and grit that has defined Iowans for generations.”

Theresa Greenfield

Ernst released a video message to her supporters last (Tuesday) night.  “We are going to drive on to the General Election,” Ernst said. “We are going to turn Iowa red, no doubt about it.”Ernst did not mention her opponent’s name. Greenfield used much of her primary victory speech to offer her critique of Ernst’s voting record, starting with Ernst’s opposition to the Affordable Care Act. “When it comes to our farmers, Senator Ernst voted for a fossil fuel lobbyist to run the EPA who prompted issues 85 RFS waivers,” Greenfield said. “I’ll fight to get our markets back and to protect our ethanol industry.”

Greenfield’s closest challenger was Michael Franken of Sioux City, a retired Navy Admiral who’s a native of Sioux County. He issued a statement congratulating Greenfield on her victory, pledging his support and hinting he might run for office again. “I stand before you now humbled, but with enduring faith in this great state, this great country and the value and the necessity of public service,” Franken said. “I relish what the next chapter brings.” Franken says running for office convinced him the time has come for public financing of campaigns. “And if we can’t do that as a nation, then I will go on record and say that we should have term limits,” Franken says.

Kimberly Graham, an attorney from Indianola, placed third in her first run for elected office. During an online conversation last (Tuesday) night, some of Graham’s supporters urged her to run for governor. “I’m sure there’s going to be a lot of people wanting that job and I don’t know,” Graham says. “People say this, but I truly don’t know what’s happening after tonight.” Eddie Mauro, a Des Moines businessman, finished in fourth place.

A traffic stop at around 9:30-p.m. Tuesday in Red Oak, resulted in two arrests. Red Oak Police say the driver, 49-year old David Anthony Daugherty, of Sidney, was arrested for driving while suspended with 11 withdrawals. A passenger, 40-year old Shawn Michael Wilburn of Shenandoah, was arrested on a Page County warrant for violation of probation on a drug charge.

Both men were taken to the Montgomery County Jail pending further court proceedings.