MEMO: Grassley Campaign Looks Toward the General 

TO: Supporters of Chuck Grassley
FR: Grassley Works Team
RE: Campaign Strategy Update
DA: July 7, 2022

Summary:

Look what happens when President Joe Biden gets his way. Iowans are working harder than ever to make ends meet and finding themselves falling further and further behind. The reckless Democrat agenda that’s sending cost of living expenses through the roof, stopping the wall and opening the southern border, ramming through partisan tax and spending sprees, defunding police, blunting U.S. energy independence and undermining parents’ say over their child’s education has left Iowa families high and dry and has put America on the wrong track. This race will be a referendum on Biden’s failed leadership. Mike Franken has already tied his sail to Biden’s agenda, and it’s a sinking ship. 

Grassley Works and Works and Works:

Senator Chuck Grassley won his primary election with a record-breaking margin of victory showing Iowans are confident the Senator we need is the Senator we’ve got.  

As Senator Grassley travels the state for his annual 99 county meetings, he repeatedly hears Iowans’ concerns about three top issues: the record-breaking inflation contributing to cost of living increases, soaring gas and grocery prices, and lawlessness at our southern border. 

Now more than ever, we need strong, conservative leadership at the helm. 

Senator Chuck Grassley’s campaign strategy remains the same as it’s always been: work as hard as ever for Iowans as their United States Senator. The message from Iowans is clear: fight the bad policies of the Biden administration. 

Mike Franken: the Most Liberal Nominee to Run Against Chuck Grassley:

Mike Franken has Abby Finkenauer to thank for his nomination. With her campaign strategy of taking Iowans for granted and not putting in the work, she opened the door for Franken to finally make it past the primary election. 

Even with Finkenauer’s help to secure the nomination, Franken has a near-impossible road ahead. Franken is the most liberal candidate Grassley has faced in an election. From wanting to raise taxes to government-controlled health care to federalizing elections and supporting late-term abortions, Franken is out of step with Iowans at every turn. He’s gone as far as calling President Trump’s border wall “idiotic”, pushing conspiracy theories and stating his goal is to make Iowa more liberal than California. His top-down government knows best policies and self-righteous, privileged progressive pipe dreams don’t square with Iowans.

Franken will just be another check mark on Biden’s disastrous agenda. Franken has been quick to say Biden is doing a “fabulous job,” and he’s called Biden’s spending spree a “good plan.” That shows Franken is either tone-deaf to what Iowans are saying, or he doesn’t care. Iowans overwhelmingly reject President Biden’s job performance. Iowa is losing jobs because Bidenflation continues to hit Iowans where it hurts most: their pocketbooks. Iowans can’t afford to send Biden’s Yes-Man to the U.S. Senate. 

And while Iowans are struggling to pay for out-of-control gas and grocery prices, worrying about safety in our communities, and watching a crisis unfold at our southern border, Franken named his top priorities as climate change, reproductive rights and keeping corporations out of politics. 

On the stump, Franken overstates his experience and misstates facts to embellish his candidacy, including:

• Asserting he’s a Senate expert, yet he does not know how Senate committee leadership works or the Senate’s committee structure; 
• Conflating the U.S. Department of Defense and the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs;
• Misstating that Iowa has 100 counties, reminding voters he hasn’t kept in touch with Iowa for decades.

We have to wonder: is Franken dishonest or ignorant? Either way, he’s not cut out to represent Iowans in the U.S. Senate. And he won’t get the opportunity. 

Looking to November:

Looking to November, there’s no evidence the dynamic of this race has changed since Franken was named the Democrat nominee. Coverage of the primary election tells President Joe Biden and the Democrats that Franken’s campaign is dead in the water: 

• “But election forecasters say Iowa’s Senate race is solidly positioned in Grassley’s favor.” (Des Moines Register)
• “But this is for who decides Senate control, and more Iowa voters, overwhelmingly, are going to want to keep Republicans in power.” (The nonpartisan Cook Political Report in the Des Moines Register)
• “Grassley, who makes a point of visiting all of the state’s 99 counties each year, is a veritable electoral powerhouse.” (The nonpartisan Sabato’s Crystal Ball in the Des Moines Register) 
• “He’s the favorite to win in November. National elections analysts rate Iowa’s U.S. Senate race as “solidly Republican.” (Des Moines Register)
• “Grassley is seen as the heavy favorite in the Iowa Senate race in November. He has a history of winning reelection by wide margins, scoring a 25-point victory the last time he was on the ballot in 2016.” (The Hill)
• “Grassley will enter the general election campaign as the favorite. His six re-election campaign victories have been by a staggering average of 35 percentage points.” (Cedar Rapids Gazette)
• “Since his election in 1980, Grassley has won re-election by a margin of no less than 24 percent of the vote.” (Iowa Torch) 
• “Incumbent Republican Sen. Chuck Grassley is seen as a heavy favorite to keep the seat he first won during the Carter administration.” (MSNBC)
• “He will face longtime Republican Sen. Chuck Grassley in November, who cruised to his party’s nomination and who will be difficult to beat in a state that has trended Republican.” (NBC News) 

Conclusion: 

Without Chuck Grassley, Iowa would give up a seat of influence for our state and lose a powerful voice for Rural America in the Senate. With the failures of the Biden administration, Republicans are on their way to reclaiming the majority in the Senate, which would ensure Senator Grassley is the next chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, president pro tempore and dean of the U.S. Senate. 

Iowans will face a choice this fall: stand with the failures of the Biden administration or stand with conservative leaders who will put America back on track.

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