(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.