Lee County, in Iowa’s southeast corner, garnered national headlines this fall when President Donald Trump announced that a new steel plant would be built there. The deal was intended to give a shot in the arm to Republicans struggling in a state Trump carried two years ago by 13 points and to vindicate the administration’s protectionist manufacturing agenda.
It didn’t work electorally, and it probably won’t pan out economically.
The White House trumpeted the Sept. 28 announcement by Mesabi Metallics to build a $15 billion steel plant, saying it would create 1,750 jobs in a county with 32,000 people. “This is the kind of project Democrats spent years making impossible,” the White House said, but “Trump reversed those policies — and American mining is roaring ahead.” Kevin Dempsey, head of the American Iron and Steel Institute, said: “Trump’s Section 232 steel tariffs continue to energize the American iron and steel industry.”
In addition to tariff protection, which raises prices for everyone who buys anything made with steel, Mesabi Metallics is set to receive $1.3 billion in public support for the project. Iowa had to change its laws to allow for such generous corporate welfare. A handful of Republican lawmakers in Des Moines initially opposed the giveaway, out of concern for taxpayers, but most fell in line.
GOP volunteers touted the project while knocking on doors in the state. “The largest steel mill in all of the United States is gonna be built in Iowa,” Trump said during a rally the Sunday before the election.
There is no indication the effort swayed voters. Rep. Mariannette Miller-Meeks (R), who represents Lee County and said she was “proud to have helped make this historic investment a reality,” lost by nine points. State Rep. Matthew Rinker (R), in whose district the plant is planned, won 52-48 in 2022 and 56-44 in 2024. He lost 55-45 on Tuesday. Democrats also flipped the governorship and a U.S. Senate seat.
In the Senate race, Lee County shifted 21 points toward the Democrats compared with 2024. That was larger than the overall swing of 17 points in Iowa or the national average of 15 points for small cities and rural areas.
At a packed public meeting on Wednesday, the day after the election, locals raised concerns about the project. A third-generation resident who lives three miles from the proposed steel plant said she might move if the facility comes online. “Seventeen-hundred jobs sounds great, but not if they don’t live, shop and pay taxes in Lee County,” said a skeptical former member of the city council.
A Mesabi executive said the plant would need to divert water from the Mississippi River and would use 1.3 gigawatts of electricity. For perspective, that’s 13 times more electricity than a hyperscale, AI-focused data center.
The project could work out in the end, but skeptical residents are right to remember the many previous failures of federal-state economic planning. In his first term, Trump claimed that the “eighth wonder of the world” was coming to southeast Wisconsin, with GOP politicians in tow. The proposed Foxconn tech manufacturing facility was supposed to employ 13,000. Today, the site is mostly barren, despite having taken $1.2 billion in taxpayer money. And Wisconsin went for Democrats in 2018 and 2020.
Politicians in Washington don’t know what’s best for Lee County. Protectionism and corporate welfare always undermine the free market. If they can’t even deliver votes, they really serve no purpose.
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