Making it Official
Iowa fourth district congressman Randy Feenstra made it official yesterday morning, formally kicking off his campaign for the Republican nomination for governor in 2026.
The fact that he is running is not a surprise; he formed an exploratory committee soon after incumbent Gov. Kim Reynolds indicated she would not seek another term, and has had a blitz of radio and TV ads on the air already.
The timing was perhaps a surprise; back on October 11 in a live interview on KXEL from Des Moines, Feenstra told me it was not appropriate for him to announce his candidacy while there was a federal government shutdown going on. There still is, of course, but perhaps he also saw no end in sight to that stalemate and figured he needed to remove any doubt about his 2026 plans.
We immediately invited him back on KXEL to discuss his plans for the state; if we get a response from his team, we’ll let you know.
This makes four Republicans and three Democrats who have officially tossed their respective hats into the ring; in addition to Feenstra on the Republican side, there’s state representative Eddie Andrews, former state representative Brad Sherman, and former state official Adam Steen. On the Democrat side, the presumed favorite is current state auditor Rob Sand, with Julie Stauch and Paul Dahl also in the race.
Predictably, Feenstra claims to carry on the strong leadership at the state level he has demonstrated in Washington, and before that in the state senate; predictably, Democrats have sounded the alarm that it’s more of the same failed leadership from Republicans in Des Moines. We expected nothing different from either side, of course.
While many may want to jump ahead and handicap a Feenstra v. Sand general election…there is that primary to go through. And since these jobs don’t open up too often, partisans are going to want to take a good look at all the candidates, and hold supposed front-runners to a high standard. That’s especially true since the primary is seven full months away…plenty of time for yet someone else to jump in, if the current field on either side seems to be lacking.
