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Feenstra, Scholten Spar Over Green New Deal In Debate

Iowa 4th Congressional District candidates Democrat J.D. Scholten and Republican Randy Feenstra took part in their first and likely only televised debate in Des Moines Wednesday.
Screenshot from KCAU-TV
Iowa 4th Congressional District candidates Democrat J.D. Scholten and Republican Randy Feenstra took part in their first and likely only televised debate in Des Moines Wednesday.

The Green New Deal was a major point of contention during Wednesday’s 4th Congressional District debate, which was the candidates’ first and likely only televised debate before Election Day.

The Green New Deal was introduced by Democratic House members last year. It lays out a plan to tackle climate change and income inequality. Republicans argue it would overregulate Iowa’s agriculture industry.

Republican Randy Feenstra has been running ads accusing Democrat J.D. Scholten of supporting the resolution. During the debate at WHO-TV in Des Moines, Feenstra brought up a couple of Scholten’s tweets from early 2019. One of the tweets Feenstra referenced was an opinion article that Scholten had shared from the Kansas City Star: “Small farms in the Midwest can heal the environment and prosper with ‘Green New Deal’.”

“Why do you support the Green New Deal?” Feenstra asked Scholten. “You just said it in tweet after tweet and along on your campaign website.”

Scholten said the tweets Feenstra was referencing were shared when the Green New Deal was “an idea.”

“And as it has come out, it’s been clear: They did not include rural, they did not include farmers at the seat at the table. And to me, that's a no starter,” Scholten said. “And so I've been clear on this, Randy. You have been lying in your ads.”

Feenstra retorted that Scholten never deleted those tweets.

“He's been buddy buddy with Bernie Sanders. He's been endorsed by Elizabeth Warren,” Feenstra said.

Scholten and Feenstra also debated on the coronavirus pandemic and immigration, among other topics. They were asked about what legislation they would author to support renewable fuels if elected. Feenstra said he wants to expand the market to export more ethanol.

“And we can do this by our new trade deals that we're making,” Feenstra said. “We have to make sure that we expand the [Renewable Fuel Standard], and we can do this, we can't just rely and say, 'well, 15 billion gallons is good enough.' Oh no. Oh no. We have to expand.”

Feenstra didn’t respond to an attack from Scholten, who pointed to Feenstra taking money from U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas. Cruz, a supporter of big oil companies, won the Iowa Caucuses in 2016. He later blocked Iowa Ag. Secretary Bill Northey's confirmation to a U.S. Department of Agriculture position in 2017 over oil, corn and changes to the Renewable Fuel Standard.

“This is the number one district in America with renewable fuels, and you take money from the one guy who is trying to just destroy the system and destroy the industry,” Scholten said. "It's disgusting."

Scholten is running for the 4th District seat in the U.S. House of Representatives for a second time after he narrowly lost to Congressman Steve King in 2018 by 3 percentage points. Feenstra beat the nine-term Congressman by nearly 10 points in the June Republican primary.

The candidates have also participated in a handful of forums around the 39-county district that spans northwest and north-central Iowa.

Katie Peikes was a reporter for Iowa Public Radio from 2018 to 2023. She joined IPR as its first-ever Western Iowa reporter, and then served as the agricultural reporter.