Charles City plant owners and family members host presidential candidate

To The Press

Diversified Fastening Systems in Charles City has been visited by politicians before, including Gov. Kim Reynolds and Sen. Chuck Grassley, but their latest visitor aspires to an even higher office.

Ryan Binkley is seeking the Republican nomination for president, and he has a special connection to the local Crawford family members who have been running the Charles City manufacturing company for decades.

They say they are all caucusing for him Monday night, after personally interacting with him for months through Morgan Bonwell, granddaughter of company founder Dan Crawford and Binkley’s Iowa campaign director.

“My family has gotten to know Ryan really well over the last year,” said Bonwell. “They’ve seen him and come to his events and even chatted with him on the phone while we’re riding in the car. He’s part of their family now.”

Bonwell’s uncles, Toby Crawford and Trevor Crawford, along with her aunt, Trisha (Crawford) Hemesath, and mother, Tracey (Crawford) Streich, have been running the company since Dan Crawford retired and then passed away.

As the four family members took Binkley through the plant recently, he talked to the owners and workers about their concerns.

“I understand how hard it is to face all the challenges of business,” said Binkley, co-founder and CEO of mergers and acquisitions firm Generational Group. “Inflation is out of control, and health care inflation is 40% more than regular inflation. That hits business owners and workers hard. We have to get the waste out of the system. I have a reform package to get rid of the monopolies and remove the power from Big Pharma.”

Streich said she was drawn to Binkley because of his faith in God and his position as co-founder and co-lead pastor of Create Church in Dallas along with his wife, Ellie.

“It’s so important to me to hear Ryan talk about putting God back in our country again,” Streich said.

Bonwell has her own political consulting company, Right Strategies. She grew up in Charles City and said she was influenced by her grandfather, who founded the manufacturing plant that specializes in metal component parts for the building, electronics and automotive industries.

“During the tour with Ryan, I was thinking how cool would that be if Poppy could have seen that I’m working with a presidential candidate my second year in business,” said Bonwell, who was recently named one of the Top 30 Under Thirty: America’s Rising Republican Operatives, by data firm Cygnal.