Free Republic

"Aren't Border Patrol agents who do food prep, laundry, shower runs, diapers & warm bottles for illegal kids "doing work Americans won't do?" Iowa Rep. Steve King isn’t alone in wondering why the Border Patrol seems to be doing everything but patrolling the border to keep it secure.

Senate Democrats blocked Republicans on Thursday from passing two bills that would require companies to verify the legal status of people before they hire them, and stop the government from handing out child tax credits to illegal immigrants. Sessions tried to get approval for the two bills after saying illegal immigration is swamping the U.S., which is leading to reduce wages for Americans and higher costs as these immigrants start improperly receiving federal tax benefits. He first tried to pass the Accountability Through Electronic Verification Act, sponsored by Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa.) That bill would require companies to verify whether...

Congressman Steve King released the following video excerpts from his questioning of the witnesses in the Full House Judiciary Committee on “An Administration Made Disaster: The South Texas Border Surge of Unaccompanied Alien Minors.”

Republican First Congressional District nominee Rod Blum exuded confidence as he spoke to the crowd of more than 1,400 delegates at the Iowa GOP state convention earlier this month. The Dubuque businessman faces an uphill fight in November, but Blum believes it’s a fight he can win. “Is it a great time to be a Republican or what?” Blum asked the crowd upon taking the podium. “We have got a great lineup this year. This is our time. Our energy is high. The crowd turnouts have been tremendous as we’ve travelled around eastern Iowa and we’re going to do it...

This is how partisan and corrupt Lois Lerner is: Here is more from Rep. , chairman of Ways and Means committee: Today, Ways and Means Committee Chairman (R-MI) announced the Internal Revenue Service’s (IRS) targeting of conservative individuals includes a sitting United States Senator. According to emails reviewed by the Committee under its Section 6103 authority, which allows the Committee to review confidential taxpayer information, Lois Lerner sought to have Senator (R-IA) referred for IRS examination. “We have seen a lot of unbelievable things in this investigation, but the fact that Lois Lerner attempted to initiate an apparently baseless IRS...

DES MOINES — Maryland Gov. Martin O’Malley was the only potential 2016 presidential contender to set foot in Iowa over the weekend, and yet the Democrat didn’t really have the stage to himself. Shortly after O’Malley (D) spoke at a dinner Friday night for retiring Sen. Tom Harkin (D-Iowa), Hillary Rodham Clinton’s image appeared on two large screens overhead. In a video, she teased that she needed advice from Harkin on a “momentous plunge” that she is about to take. “Tom, what’s the secret to being such a terrific grandparent?” Clinton asked, drawing uproarious laughter from the crowd. The good...

Bush trails by 13 points. Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton holds a wide lead over former Florida Governor Jeb Bush in Iowa, according to a hypothetical 2016 Presidential poll conducted by Quinnipiac University. Clinton holds 49 percent while Bush trails with 36 percent. Clinton leads all potential 2016 contenders, but holds the greatest margin over Bush. She leads 47-41 percent over Rep. Paul Ryan (R-Wisc.), 46-40 percent over Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.)

(AP) — In a setback for the tea party and libertarian forces in Iowa, establishment Republicans on Saturday nominated their candidate for a House seat in one of the nation's most competitive congressional districts. The nomination of David Young in Iowa's 3rd District punctuated the efforts of Republicans in the party's mainstream who had desperately worked to avoid repeating embarrassing losses suffered in congressional races in other states in 2010 and 2012. It also marked a rollback in influence of libertarians who had controlled the state GOP in recent years.

After spending much of the day at the back of the pack, David Young of Van Meter was chosen Saturday by Iowa Republicans as their candidate for Iowa’s 3rd District House seat. “I’m so humbled by your support,” said Young, a former aide to U.S. Sen. Chuck Grassley. “But the work has just begun.” At a special convention in Urbandale, GOP delegates from across the district selected Young from a field of six candidates. None of the six received the required 35 percent in the June 3 primary, so the convention was needed.

The Brody File has learned that Mike Huckabee will host evangelical pastors from the early political Primary states of Iowa, New Hampshire, South Carolina and Nevada as he leads them over to Europe in an event called, “Reagan, Thatcher, Pope John Paul II Tour: God Raising Extraordinary Leaders for Extraordinary Times" Watch the invitation video below that Mike Huckabee is sending out to pastors in these key states. It goes out today. Huckabee says he’s leading this tour because it’s an opportunity to show, “the human instruments used by God to change the world’s history.” The 10-day tour takes place...

Rep. Bruce Braley (D-IA) holds a 4-point lead over state Sen. Joni Ernst (R) in the race for U.S. Senate in Iowa, according to a new Quinnipiac University poll released Wednesday. The poll found Braley leading Ernst 44 percent to 40 percent among registered voters. That's tighter than a previous Quinnipiac poll published on March 13 which found Braley leading Ernst 42 percent to 29 percent. The new Quinnipiac poll also found Braley with a wide 11-point lead over Ernst among women voters. Forty-seven percent of women said they backed Braley while 36 percent said they backed Ernst. Meanwhile 44...

Iowa Republican Senate nominee Joni Ernst told a local news outlet she's "appalled" that her husband once called former U.S. Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano a "traitorous skank" on Facebook. As reported by the Des Moines Register, Democrats took a screenshot of Gail Ernst's written comments, which had been up since April 2013, and seized on them. That prompted him to delete that and other inflammatory posts and apologize for them before Ernst denounced them. "I'm appalled by my husband's remarks," Joni Ernst said, according to the Register

With the departure of Eric Cantor as majority leader, it's time to replace him with someone with strong conservative values. My choice is Steve King of Iowa. Steve is not looking for votes, but is looking for solutions to problems.

=Joni Ernst, candidate for U.S. Senate in Iowa, was forced to apologize after her husband's Facebook posts calling Hillary Clinton a 'hag' surfaced this week.A week after easily winning the Iowa Republican primary for the U.S. Senate, Joni Ernst has found herself defending her husband's "inappropriate" Facebook posts. Democratic operatives in Iowa found posts on Gail Ernst's Facebook page, which was public and mostly used to promote his wife's campaign, that they accused of being sexist. The posts, from 2013, were revealed Monday and deleted Tuesday. "I'm appalled by my husband's remarks," Joni Ernst said in a statement. "They are...

A word for the wise: If you're a male candidate running against a woman hoping to make history as the first female federal officeholder in her state, you might want to refrain from comparing her to a baby chick in your campaign advertisements. Rep. Bruce Braley, D-Iowa, who's battling Republican state Sen. Joni Ernst for Iowa's open Senate seat, criticized his opponent's record in a new ad, showing a baby chick onscreen as the narrator says Ernst never made a "peep" about wasteful spending as a state lawmaker. "When Joni Ernst had the chance to do something in Iowa, we...

Des Moines – Iowa Republicans forged a unified plan of attack Saturday to seize opportunities in Iowa’s fall election and begin assessing their choices looking ahead to the first-in-the-nation presidential nominating process in 2016. Nearly 1,450 delegates to the Iowa GOP state convention heard rallying cries from U.S. Senate candidate Joni Ernst, Gov. Terry Branstad and three presidential hopefuls before finalizing a conservative platform and nominating Kim Reynolds as lieutenant governor, Sam Clovis as their state treasurer candidate and Adam Gregg for his attorney general bid. “I think we’re going to have a very strong and unified party and the...

In the midst of all the foreign affairs stories it was probably easy to miss a bit of domestic political news coming out of the Hawkeye State yesterday. At the 2014 Iowa GOP state convention, political activists loyal to Governor Terry Branstad essentially ousted all of the “dissidents” loyal to Rand Paul, securing control of the state party for the perceived establishment. Establishment forces officially wrested control of the Iowa Republican Party from supporters of Rand Paul on Saturday, a development the victors said would help save the state’s first-in-the-nation presidential caucus from being marginalized and possibly spell the demise...

Presidential hopefuls Sen. Rand Paul, Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal and former Sen. Rick Santorum are in Iowa to deliver their prescriptions for how to unite the Republican Party. […] It is Paul’s third trip to Iowa since the 2012 election. The Kentucky senator says the GOP should maintain its core message but make the party more attractive to black and Hispanic voters. …

U.S. Senate primary runner-up Sam Clovis plans to accept a nomination for state treasurer at this Saturday’s Iowa’s GOP convention, TheIowaRepublican.com has learned. Clovis, a professor and the chairperson of the Department of Business Administration and Economics at Morningside College in Sioux City, confirmed the news Thursday evening. “This all developed in the last 24 hours or so,” he said. Clovis has received a lot of encouragement to run over the past couple of days, which at first he shrugged off, but after hearing how serious people were about him running, the former Air Force pilot started giving the idea...

Rep. Steve King said Thursday GOP leaders are “stacking the deck” with a snap election to replace Eric Cantor as majority leader and urged the Republican Conference to slow down and elect an “anti-amnesty” majority leader. “At a time when Republicans in Congress are fighting the Obama Administration to oppose snap elections for unions on American employers, Republican Leadership is trying to do the same in the United States House of Representatives,” the Iowa Republican said in a statement. “This snap election has the effect of stacking the deck. “Unfortunately, while both current candidates benefit from the hasty timeframe prescribed...