Arnolds Park businessman challenging King to run in U.S. Iowa 4th

By Bob Steenson, bsteenson@charlescitypress.com

Steve Reeder thinks Steve King’s time representing northwest Iowa should be over. But he wants a Republican to retain the seat.

Reeder is running for the GOP nomination for the U.S. House seat representing Iowa District 4, which has been held by King since 2003.

District 4 is by far Iowa’s largest congressional district geographically, from the western state border to Chickasaw County in the north and as far south as Audubon and Story counties.

Reeder, a real estate agent and developer from Arnolds Park, is traversing that area gathering signatures to be able to run in the June party primary.

In addition to King, he’ll be facing three others challenging King to represent the party in the 2020 general election.

“I feel that we’re not getting good representation in northwest Iowa,” Reeder told the Press during a stop in Charles City Tuesday morning. “I feel that we need a voice for small towns. We need a voice for agriculture.”

Reeder said he saw King face his closest election in 2018 since King has been in office, when he beat Democrat J.D. Scholten by only 3 percentage points.

“I don’t think that J.D. Scholten even comes close to representing the good, hard-working, conservative people of northwest Iowa,” Reeder said, referring to Scholten’s run again for the seat this election.

Reeder said he and his wife, Brenda, have been on the campaign trail since his announcement Sept. 26.

He said he and his wife started at each end of Charles City Tuesday to spread their message and collect signatures on nomination papers.

“She’s as passionate about it as I am,” Reeder said, adding that his two daughters enthusiastically support his run as well.

“We want to see some changes in our government. I feel like there are too many career politicians that are not representing their constituents and what rural Iowa is all about.

“There’s just so many neat, hard-working, patriotic people in this district and I see all this divisiveness in Washington. I think they would rather fight with each other than try to solve problems,” he said.

Reeder cited his business experience and communication skills as reasons for voters to back him in the party primary and then the general election.

“I’ve never been in politics,” he said. “I’ve been 35 years in brokerage and development business, and I feel like I could use my negotiating skills to try to reach across to both Democrats and Republicans to try to solve problems. We’ve got a lot of national problems.”

He hands out copies of the U.S. Constitution to anyone who wants one, and says his core principals are smaller government, pro-life and protecting that document.

“I feel that there’s too many people in Washington that are trying to trample on this or trying to, I would say, rewrite this,” he said, waiving a copy of the Constitution. “I think there’s a reason why people flee these other countries to come here, because this protects everybody.”

Reeder said he supports President Donald Trump and would continue to stand behind him if they are both elected next year.

“I believe that he is a patriot. I believe he loves America and I also believe that his policies that he’s tried to get through are a benefit to all Americans,” Reeder said about the president.

“I feel like there’s a group in Washington that have been dissatisfied with our electoral process and they’ll put real issues and their constituents in the second position to try and take out a president who was elected by everybody.”

Reeder said he believes Trump is passionate about legal immigration, reducing the size of government and reducing regulation.

“If I had any disagreement with our president, it’s the fact that, like past presidents, he has continued to sign spending bills that just keeps spending out of control,” Reeder said.

He has a postcard that he hands out, summarizing his priorities. No. 1 is “Balance the budget,” and he said he favors U.S. Sen. Rand Paul’s idea of reducing the federal budget by 2% each year, which he said would result it in being balanced in five to seven years.

“I would stand right beside Rand Paul and I would go across the aisle and say that there is no reason why we can’t cut spending 2% a year and try to get that under control,” he said.

Reeder said he isn’t interested in a career in politics, that he has put his real estate and development business “on pause.”

“I think that folks are tired of career politicians. They want to send people from the communities, their churches and their businesses to Washington that will defend and promote the Constitution,” he said.

“I’m just gonna be a better communicator, and I’m going to use my business experience as probably the main way I’m going to distinguish myself from the others. I’ve always been able to get along with all types of people and whether Democrat or Republican, I’m not afraid to engage.”

The others who are running in the Republican primary to challenge King are state Sen. Randy Feenstra, Woodbury County Supervisor Jeremy Taylor and former Irwin Mayor Bret Richards.