After Sen. Joni Ernst (R-Iowa) told a town hall audience, “We’re all going to die,” when responding to constituents’ concerns about Medicaid cuts, Democratic state Rep. J.D. Scholten — who has been publicly flirting with a run against the GOP incumbent — decided to launch his campaign.
“I just felt, you know, I have to do this,” Scholten told POLITICO in an interview ahead of his announcement, which will be made official later Monday. “Now’s the time, and rather than being perfect with everything, I just feel like you got to do it.”
Ernst’s remarks, he said, “disrespected” Iowans.
“We’re taking them off [Medicaid], so billionaires can have a second yacht, so they can have a bigger tax break,” Scholten said. “We have a system that’s geared towards and favors billionaires and huge multinational corporations, and that’s not working for most of Iowa.”
Scholten, a 45-year-old pitcher for the Sioux City Explorers, is no stranger to running in deep-red areas. In 2018, he came within a few points of defeating embattled GOP Rep. Steve King. In 2020, he sought a rematch against King, but ultimately faced Randy Feenstra in the general election, which Scholten lost by more than 20 points.
Scholten will face a Democratic primary field that is still taking shape. Nathan Sage, executive director of the Knoxville Chamber of Commerce, is his only competition so far, but other Democrats in the state — including State Sen. Zach Wahls and state Rep. Josh Turek — have been openly mulling a run.
He’s hoping to use his past federal races as proof he’s the best choice for Democrats ahead of next year’s primary.
The race against Ernst is sure to be an uphill battle. Democrats have not represented Iowa in the upper chamber since 2008, and President Donald Trump won the state by 13 points in November.
Scholten knows that he will need to court Trump voters to his side in order to win a general election.
“I firmly believe that when you get out there to the people, prove you’re trustworthy, you’re gonna earn votes no matter who the folks are,” he said. “I know how to talk to folks who don’t always vote Democrat.”