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Eastern Iowa plays heavily in GOP plans to land the state in Donald Trump’s presidential column and give Republicans control of the Statehouse by ending Democrats 10-year grip on the Iowa Senate, Gov. Terry Branstad told a conservative group Wednesday. Iowa Republicans are expecting Trump’s visits to Davenport and Cedar Rapids on Thursday to fire up the party’s base as well as draw support from independents and disaffected working-class Democrats who are feeling their party’s elites have left them behind in a “rigged system” that has made Hillary Clinton their 2016 nominee, he said. Also Thursday, Branstad’s son, Eric, who...

Word is that Hillary Clinton will announce her vice presidential choice on Friday, and rumors that she’s going with a “safe” pick should worry Democrats. In this political climate, a search for “safety” could put her candidacy in serious danger. Change vs. the status quo. The GOP chose Mike Pence in part because his extremist views will reassure the Republican base. Pence is also an seasoned politician whose nomination is meant to reassure voters who worry that Trump has no experience in statecraft or governance. (Note to readers: Yes, I just used the words “Trump” and “statecraft” in the same...

Congressman Steve King of Iowa violated the greatest taboo in mainstream American politics. He defended White people, and said their contributions to civilization were greater than other groups. His remarks were in response to a leftist political commentator, Charlie Pierce, who said that Republicans should stop being the party of old White people. Here is a story on the controversy: http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/rep-steve-king-clarifies-remarks-white-people-civilization/story?id=40687050

One of the top candidates being considered for former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s Running mate in 2016 has had some email problems of his own. Tom Vilsack, the former governor of Iowa and President Barack Obama’s current secretary of agriculture, was caught up in a 2004 scandal that resulted in emails being “inadvertently” destroyed. Vilsack partially blamed himself for destroying emails regarding the Iowa Department of Economic Development Foundation. The Des Moines Register had requested the emails. Vilsack’s response to the controversy, rather ironically, mirrored Clinton’s response to her own email scandal: he basically said he was old and...

LAS VEGAS — Fast approaching her final decision on a running mate, Hillary Clinton appears to be looking closely at Virginia Sen. Tim Kaine and Labor Secretary Tom Perez, say multiple people who are in regular contact with her inner circle. But it’s another member of President Barack Obama’s Cabinet whose stock has been steadily and notably rising in recent days, vaulting him into what close Clinton friends call the “top tier": Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack.

Rep. Steve King, R-Iowa, landed in some hot water this week after he gave an interview to a local TV station in his Sioux City district office and viewers noticed that he kept a Confederate flag on his desk. (SNIP) And we’ve lived with respecting the South and their way of life for 150 years and now, after 150 years, there has to be an issue about a Confederate flag?” King told Angelo that he had ancestors who had fought and died in the Union Army. “Our family cares a lot about unity but also about the truth and accuracy...

A Republican congressman who is considering both a bid for the White House and a campaign for governor in his home state of Indiana in 2012 made a trip to Iowa this past weekend. Indiana Congressman Mike Pence was the headliner at the Iowa Faith and Freedom Coalition’s fall banquet in Des Moines.

BBC: Donald Trump chooses Mike Pence as his running mate If there's anything resembling a "safe" vice-presidential pick for Donald Trump, Mike Pence is it. He has executive experience as Indiana's governor and a strong legislative resume from his 12 years as a member of the US House of Representatives. While in Washington, he chaired the Republican Study Group, a coalition of hard-core conservatives, which gives him solid bona fides among the grass-roots Tea Party wing of the party that has occasional doubts about Mr Trump's ideological purity.Mr Pence also hails from the mid-west, which Mr Trump's team has...

July 14, 2016, 08:57 pm The Hill Christie: Initial Cruz endorsement shouldn't ‘disqualify’ Pence from VP By Mark Hensch New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie said he has no room to criticize fellow Trump vice president contender Indiana Gov. Mike Pence for initially endorsing Ted Cruz during the primaries. “I mean, he made a judgment at the time,” Christie told MSNBC in a Thursday interview. "You’d have to ask why he endorsed Ted Cruz at the time that he did. I don’t know. But I don’t think that should disqualify you. “Because if you had a different choice early in...

(CNN) Donald Trump has called Indiana Gov. Mike Pence and offered him the vice presidential slot on his ticket, CNN has learned. Pence has accepted. The pick sets up a stark clash in styles: a brash presumptive nominee with a tendency to freelance into controversies alongside a cautious former congressional leader who's stuck close to conservative orthodoxy since starting his career in talk radio. Trump said Thursday evening he's postponing the official announcement, previously set for Friday morning...

Donald Trump's political director, Jim Murphy, told House members that the campaign would focus on 17 states this fall, the Wall Street Journal reports. Included are 12 states Barack Obama won in both 2008 and 2012 (145 electoral votes) and five states Mitt Romney won in 2012. Not in the list are extreme longshots like California and New York, states Trump has previously indicated would be competitive for him.

Monmouth University has recently polled a sample of Iowa voters (full pdf below) and finds Donald Trump leading Hillary Clinton 44% to 42%: 2 candidate trump vs clinton Monmouth University Iowa Poll July 2016 Patrick Murray is shocked, s.h.o.c.k.e.d, to find Donald Trump leading with voters under 50-years-of-age. Trump is leading with younger voters 51% to 32% ! Monmouth University […] One unusual finding in the poll is that Trump leads among voters under 50 years old in Iowa. In Monmouth polls conducted nationally and in other states, Clinton has held an advantage with younger voters. Specifically, 51% of Iowa...

Hillary Clinton leads Donald Trump in Iowa and Pennsylvania, while the two are tied in the key battleground state of Ohio, according to a trio of new NBC News/Wall Street Journal/Marist polls. In Iowa, the presumptive Democratic nominee is ahead of Trump by three points among registered voters, 42 percent to 39 percent, which is within the poll's margin of error of plus-minus 3.4 percentage points while a combined 18 percent say neither, other or undecided. (Back in January, Clinton held an eight-point advantage over Trump, 48 percent to 40 percent.) In Pennsylvania, she leads the presumptive GOP nominee by...

Other GOP elected officials may be avoiding the Republican National Convention later this month, but Iowa Sen. Joni Ernst sees an opening night speech as an opportunity “to give Iowans a voice on the national stage.” “Right now, Iowans are pretty darned frustrated — just like when I ran for election,” said Ernst, whose 2014 campaign caught fire with a “Make ’em Squeal” promise to cut federal spending. National security is to be her focus when she addresses the Cleveland convention on Monday, July 18. “There’s a real pushback against the failed policies we have right now,” Ernst said Tuesday....

West Long Branch, NJ - Donald Trump holds a nominal 2 point lead over Hillary Clinton in the battle for Iowa's electoral votes, according to the Monmouth University Poll. In the race for U.S. Senate, incumbent Chuck Grassley has a 10 point lead over Democratic challenger Patty Judge. This is a far cry from the 30+ point margins Grassley enjoyed in prior re-election bids, as more Iowa voters disapprove than approve of his decision not to hold hearings on Barack Obama's Supreme Court nominee. Among Iowa voters likely to participate in November's presidential election, 44% currently support Trump and 42%...

An Iowa pastor, saying the government needs to stop “meddling in religious affairs,” is at odds with the state over a law focused on sexual orientation and gender identity that he says hinders his First Amendment right to teach on matters of sexuality. “The state of Iowa is not the self-appointed pope of all churches,” Cary Gordon, pastor of Cornerstone World Outreach, a nondenominational church with around 900 members in Sioux City, Iowa, told The Daily Signal.

Joni Ernst all but removed herself from Donald Trump’s vice presidential search, telling POLITICO in an interview that she wants to help Trump become president but that she’s focused on Iowa and the Senate, where the freshman senator said she's “just getting started.” The GOP senator met with Trump on Monday and received effusive praise afterward, with Trump predicting he will “see her again.” But it likely won’t be as his running mate. “I made that very clear to him that I’m focused on Iowa. I feel that I have a lot more to do in the United States Senate....

<p>A church in Des Moines has filed a federal lawsuit seeking to strike down as unconstitutional a portion of a 2007 Iowa law and a similar Des Moines city code section that could apply transgender bathroom rules to churches.</p> <p>The Fort Des Moines Church of Christ filed the lawsuit Monday in federal court in Des Moines against the Iowa Civil Rights Commission and the city. The church asks for an order that keeps the state and the city from enforcing the rules that would allow biological males who identify as women from using women's bathrooms, showers or changing rooms and the same for females identifying as men.</p>

Is a church a place of public accommodation and if so – are congregations required to follow anti-discrimination laws regarding gender and sexual orientation? That’s the issue raised by a brochure published by the Iowa Civil Rights Commission. They contend that any church that opens its doors to the public would be required to comply with sexual orientation and gender identity laws. It’s unclear when the Commission’s brochure was published, but it clearly outlines their interpretation of the 2007 Iowa Civil Rights Act – known as Iowa Code

Donald Trump on Monday spent part of his July 4th with Sen. Joni Ernst -- fueling speculation that the Iowa freshman senator could be on the short list of his vice presidential picks. Ernst told Fox News they had a "good conversation," adding, "I will continue to share my insights with Donald about the need to strengthen our economy, keep our nation safe, and ensure America is always a strong, stabilizing force around the globe." Earlier, Trump tweeted, "I look forward to meeting (Ernst) today in New Jersey. She has done a great job as Senator of Iowa!"