J.D. Scholten Taking on Iowa's Steve King Again in 2020

Steve King

You might think that because Republican representative Steve King, from Iowa's 4th Congressional District, has been ostracized by the Republican caucus in Washington for his outspoken racism, you'd think that the voters of the 4th District might want to replace him with someone who's welcomed in the club house and who can do good things for his district. Those voters will have the chance -- again -- next year with the Democrat J.D. Scholten, a former professional baseball player who ran against King in 2018 and came within 3.4% of beating him.

The Iowa 4th is heavily Republican, which is why a toxic spill like Steve King has been reelected over and over. There are some 70,000 more Republicans than Democrats in the district, but Scholten only lost to King in 2018 by 10,430 votes. Now, that's some margin-cutting!

After a career playing professional baseball in Canada for the Saskatoon Legends, in Sioux City for the Explorers, and finally in Europe, Scholten changed careers to work as a litigation para-legal specializing in intellectual property. For the 2018 campaign against King, Scholten travelled to every one of the 39 counties in the 4th district at least three times, putting over 35,000 miles on his personal vehicle and an additional 24,000 miles on the now-famous “Sioux City Sue” — his Winnebago RV which was actually made in the district.

His 2020 announcement video (below), released on Monday this week, has gotten a good deal of attention. And, yes, that's Kevin Costner doing the narration.




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