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Lawmakers and bureaucrats in official Washington often act as if their decisions lead the nation forward. News from Iowa this week, however, shows once again that the culture leads and politicians lag behind. Kim Reynolds became Iowa's Governor last May when her predecessor (Terry Branstad) resigned to serve as the U.S. Ambassador to China. Reynolds is now running for her own full term in a state where the average Obamacare premiums jumped 57 percent. "Many Iowans faced a choice of going broke or going without insurance," according to Reynolds. "And that's really not a real choice." Seizing the opportunity...

CEDAR RAPIDS, Iowa - President Donald Trump covered a wide range of topics in a 75 minute speech at the U.S. Cellular Center in Cedar Rapids Wednesday night. Trump touched down early at the Eastern Iowa Airport and headed to Kirkwood Community College, where he toured agriculture technology innovations, then reveled in Karen Handel's victory in a Georgia special election. "We're 5-0 in special elections," said Trump. Trump's stop at Kirkwood was intended to draw attention to the school's advancements in high-tech agriculture. During the tour, Trump marveled at a "combine simulator," which is a virtual way to practice using...

After postponing a Cedar Rapids rally in May, President Trump will travel to the city for a rally at the U.S. Cellular Center. Protests are also scheduled to take place near the venue. Nearly half a year after President Trump’s inauguration, it seems to some he is rallying to garner excitement about the prospects of his re-election. After postponing a Cedar Rapids rally in May, he is set to hold a 7 p.m. rally at the U.S. Cellular Center. Holding a rally five months into his presidency has some people wondering if this is a belated victory lap or the...

A broad majority of senators voted Monday to install President Trump's choice to be the U.S. ambassador to China in his first term. Gov. Terry Branstad, R-Iowa, was supported by several Democrats in the final vote, but that didn't spare him completely from the partisan gamesmanship that has dominated Trump's nominees' path through the Senate. Republicans faulted Democrats for slow-walking his nomination, despite their approval of the pick. "It's been disappointing to see so much pointless obstruction by our friends across the aisle," Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., said on the Senate floor. "And they've done so not to...

This time next week, Gov. Terry Branstad is likely to be the United States ambassador to China, Sen. Chuck Grassley predicted Thursday. The Iowa Republican expects a vote on Branstad’s appointment as early as Tuesday, despite Democratic senators forcing a cloture vote on President Donald Trump’s nomination. “Realize he got out of committee on unanimous consent,” Grassley said. After a hearing last week, the Foreign Relations Committee recommended Branstad’s conformation unanimously on a voice vote. “Now we want to get him through the United States Senate and we have to file a cloture motion on it.” The objections may not...

DES MOINES — The U.S. Senate Foreign Relations Committee has scheduled a hearing for Tuesday on Gov. Terry Branstad’s nomination to be ambassador to China. The 21-member committee will question Branstad about a range of issues, including his views on U.S.-Chinese relations based on him leading trade missions to China and his personal relationship with President Xi Jinping. Branstad already has submitted extensive background material documenting his education and work experience to the committee, as well as to the Department of State and the FBI. If a majority of the committee, which is chaired by Tennessee Republican Sen. Bob Corker...

As reported in Frontrunning, President-elect Donald Trump will nominate Iowa Governor Terry Branstad as the next U.S. ambassador to China, choosing a longstanding friend of Beijing after rattling the world's second-largest economy by speaking to Taiwan's president. Earlier in Beijing, Foreign Ministry spokesman Lu Kang called Branstad an "old friend" of China when asked about a report on the appointment, although he added Beijing would work with any U.S. ambassador.The appointment of Branstad will likely ease trade tensions between the two countries, the world's two biggest agricultural producers, diplomats and trade experts said according to Reuters. It also suggests...

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...

America's Future Fund, a political action committee that opposed Sen. Ted Cruz in Iowa, has purchased $1.5 million in negative advertising against Cruz that will run on television in the weeks leading up to the Feb. 20th South Carolina primary. The ad, "Weak," attempts to discredit Cruz's national security bona fides in a state with a heavy military and veteran population. America's Future Fund is run by GOP establishment operative Nick Ryan. As CR's Rob Eno wrote in "Why The Establishment Fears Cruz More Than Trump": "Ryan is a longstanding force in Iowa politics, allied with the moderate Governor Branstad....

I'm rather torn as to whether this is some sort of indicator that's worth watching tomorrow or just a piece of inevitable political minutia like so many others which gets flushed away with the next dawn. We learned something about Iowa Governor Terry Branstad's primary preferences last month at that same time that he celebrated the milestone of becoming the longest serving governor in the nation's history. He insisted that he wasn't going to be endorsing anyone or playing favorites, but he definitely didn't want Ted Cruz to carry the day. At the same time we saw how the rest...

Former Texas Gov. Rick Perry is endorsing Ted Cruz in the Republican presidential primary, Perry told POLITICO in an interview Sunday night. Perry, who also sought the GOP nomination before dropping out in September, said he now sees the race as one that is between Cruz, a fellow Texan, and Donald Trump. Through phone calls and during a December day spent driving around his Round Top, Texas, home in his truck with Cruz, Perry said he found the senator to be a good listener who respects the Tenth Amendment, "knows what he does not know" and is more conservative than...

It's well known that many Republicans in Washington do not like Sen. Ted Cruz, but the full extent of that antipathy is coming to light this week as several current and former lawmakers say they prefer Donald Trump as the GOP nominee, although they have little regard for either man. Some GOP consultants and strategists started the rumblings in recent days. Then Iowa Gov. Terry Branstad told Republicans in his state to oppose Cruz because of the senator's opposition to ethanol subsidies. But the story broke wide open on Wednesday when former Senate Majority Leader and 1996 Republican presidential nominee...

Hollywood screenwriter Craig Mazin, who shared a dorm room with Republican presidential candidate Ted Cruz during their freshman year at Princeton University, spent most of Tuesday and Wednesday trashing the Texas senator on Twitter. The storm of tweets, which started Monday evening, seemed to be sparked my Mazin's influx of Twitter followers, which he attributes to people learning that he was Cruz's roommate for a short time. "I have 30k followers now, and all I had to do was be stuck in a room with Ted Cruz for a year. I'm sure you're all nice, but SO NOT WORTH IT,"...

Donald Trump said Tuesday that federal regulators should increase the amount of ethanol blended into the nation’s gasoline supply. Speaking at an event hosted by the Iowa Renewable Fuels Association, Trump, a real estate mogul and the front-runner for the Republican presidential nomination, said the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) ought to follow the ethanol volumes Congress set in 2007. “The EPA should ensure that biofuel ... blend levels match the statutory level set by Congress under the [renewable fuel standard],” Trump said. The mandate is popular in Iowa, which hosts the nation's first caucuses.

Iowa Gov. Terry Branstad would like to see Ted Cruz defeated, he said on Tuesday. The Iowa governor, whose powerful network of supporters is a prized political commodity, was speaking to reporters at the Iowa Renewable Fuels Summit. Branstad's son Eric is leading efforts to portray the Texas senator as hostile to ethanol, a narrative Cruz has been trying to stifle in recent weeks. Asked if he'd like the Texas senator to lose, Governor Branstad said, "Yes." "I think it would be very damaging to our state," he continued, according to Iowa's Channel 13 news. "I believe it would be...

Iowa Gov. Terry Branstad (R) said Monday that the birthplace of Sen. Ted Cruz is "fair game," adding to a growing chorus questioning whether the Texas Republican's Canadian birth could affect his ability to secure the GOP presidential nomination. "When you run for president of the United States, any question is fair game. So let the people decide," Branstad told reporters Monday. Cruz, speaking to reporters in Baton Rouge, La., noted that Branstad's son has thrown his support elsewhere, hosting fundraisers for New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie.

[snip] So it was a bit surprising Monday when the typically reserved [Iowa Gov.] Branstad lent credence to the inflammatory question of whether Ted Cruz, the Texas senator and co-front-runner in Iowa's Feb. 1 caucuses, is eligible to serve as president.

Nobody expects Chris Christie to win Iowa, but he does have an ace card up his sleeve: The tacit support of longtime moderate Gov. Terry Branstad, whose vast political network remains the state's most coveted human resource. Christie's goal in Iowa, according to multiple people familiar with his plans, is to do better than expected by taking votes away from Jeb Bush and Marco Rubio -- his chief competitors in the Republican primary's crowded establishment lane. Beating Bush and giving a scare to Rubio, the thinking inside his orbit goes, would give the New Jersey governor a head of steam...

Republican presidential hopeful Ted Cruz received an anti-endorsement from the governor of Iowa, Tuesday, host of the country's lead-off presidential caucus, on account of his failure to support renewable fuels like ethanol.Gov. Terry Branstad,a Republican who has not endorsed any of the GOP presidential candidates for president, said at a renewable fuels conference near Des Moines that Iowans should reject Cruz because he supports phasing out the fuel standard.His comments,which come within two weeks of the state's critical Feb. 1 caucus,could resonate with state farmers who grow the corn used in ethanol,and the soybeans widely used in biodiesel or risk...

Of course, to hear Branstad say it, what he actually said was that he hopes Ted Cruz loses. The problem with Branstad's jeremiad against Cruz is that Brandstad is everything that is wrong with both the Republican Party and the political class in the country as a whole. The fecklessness and self-dealing of Terry Branstad would put any fat cat Republican Senator in the caucus to shame. It's the shameless behavior of people like Branstad who have given rise to the Trump/Cruz phenomenon in the first place. Basically, at the end of the day, Republican voters have shown that they...