Senator Joni Ernst, a Republican from Iowa, has drawn a new Democratic challenger after she dismissed a suggestion that her party’s proposed cuts to Medicaid would lead to constituents dying.
J.D. Scholten, a Democratic state representative best known for his unsuccessful 2018 campaign against Representative Steve King of Iowa, said on Monday that he had felt compelled to enter the race against Ms. Ernst because of her comments.
On Friday, when a town hall attendee yelled that “people are going to die” because of the proposed Medicaid cuts, Ms. Ernst responded, “Well, we all are going to die.” She then mocked her critics in a video on social media over the weekend.
Mr. Scholten’s announcement that he would run for the Senate came before his campaign had built a website, filmed a kickoff video or sent fund-raising solicitations. He made a spur-of-the-moment decision, he said, because Ms. Ernst had been “disrespectful to Iowans.”
“I’m not a politician who plans things,” Mr. Scholten said in an interview on Monday. “This race was not on my radar at the beginning of the year. But I thought, ‘I’ve got to take this fight.’”
Several Democrats are likely to compete in a primary field to face Ms. Ernst, who will remain the favorite given Iowa’s rightward lean. One candidate, Nathan Sage, a Marine Corps veteran who served in Iraq and currently leads the Chamber of Commerce in Knoxville, Iowa, was in the audience for Ms. Ernst’s town hall on Friday. Zach Wahls, a Democratic state senator, has been preparing to announce a campaign.
In the interview, Mr. Scholten said his message to Democratic primary voters in Iowa was that he had performed better in his races — two losing contests for Congress and his elections to the State House — than Democrats who were at the top of the ticket. He also noted that he represents western Iowa, the most Republican part of a red state.
“If we’re going to have a primary on electability, I think it’s very clear that we represent a very good chance for the Democrats and the best chance for the Democrats to take on Joni Ernst,” he said.
His announcement was earlier reported by Politico.
Iowa is one of several red states where Democrats are hoping their candidates can prevail by riding a wave of opposition to President Trump in next year’s midterm elections. To win back a majority in the chamber, Democrats will need to hold their seats in Georgia, Michigan and New Hampshire and flip at least four Republican-held seats.
Two Republican senators in competitive states, Thom Tillis of North Carolina and Susan Collins of Maine, are expected to face well-funded challengers, but the math for Democrats is tricky after that. The party would have to win Senate races in at least two other red states, from a batch that includes Iowa, Alaska, Mississippi and Texas.
It will be a couple of months before Mr. Scholten hits the campaign trail full time. He is a minor-league baseball pitcher, and on Sunday he joined the Sioux City Explorers, an independent team in his hometown. He said he planned to remain with the team through the end of its season in early September.
“This is how I win votes, talking to people who come to the games who aren’t necessarily politically active,” said Mr. Scholten, 45. “Not only our fans, but my teammates. You know, the Democrats have a young men problem. I talk to young men every single day. I talk with my catcher, who’s 21 years younger than me.”
Reid J. Epstein covers campaigns and elections from Washington. Before joining The Times in 2019, he worked at The Wall Street Journal, Politico, Newsday and The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel.
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