Meet Democrat Jim Mowrer, easily one of the hero candidates of the 2014 cycle. Why? Well, first he's a Fighting Dem, one of the many candidates Daily Kos has endorsed who served in Iraq and/or Afghanistan. Second, he's running as a real Democrat in a red district, Iowa's Fourth District. Third, he's taking on Rep. Steve King. You know King—the guy who regularly competes with Rep. Louis Gohmert to see who can most effectively combine bigotry, stupidity and flat-out crazy in his public pronouncements. Like
this one:
"His vision of America isn’t like our version of America. That we know," King said of Obama. "Now I don't assert where he was born, I will just tell you that we are all certain that he was not raised with an American experience. So these things that beat in our hearts when we hear the National Anthem and when we say the Pledge of Allegiance doesn't beat the same for him."
That was just last week, meaning that the birther movement is alive and well in the Republican Party in the form of Steve King. Do you need to remember more about him? How about
calves the size of cantaloupes? Yeah, that was him. The guy who thinks people being able to buy affordable private insurance is a
government scheme to "take over our skin and everything inside it." And don't even get me started on the
light bulbs. The best thing there is to say about King is that Gohmert
might be worse.
Iowa would be doing a service to the entire nation to replace King with Jim Mowrer, an Iraq war veteran who returned to work at the Pentagon after his active service in the National Guard. He's an award-winning civil servant, in fact, having received the "Outstanding Civilian Service Award," the third-highest honor a civilian can get for helping increase the efficiency of the Army. Now that's an achievement.
But Mowrer's motivation continues to be serving Iowa, and doing so as a real Democrat. He left D.C. and took his family back to his Iowa hometown to take on this race. He won't shy away from marriage equality or from a woman's right to make her own medical decisions. And read what he has to say about being a Democrat in his questionnaire for Daily Kos.
When I was just 7 years old, my father died in a farming accident. We lost the farm and my mom moved into town and raised my sister and I on a small salary. If it weren't for Social Security survivor benefits, we would have fallen too far to get back up. This is why I'm a Democrat. This is why I'm running for office, because if our neighbors fall, they shouldn't fall so far they can't get back up.
King has so far been able to hold off challengers, but Mowrer is a new kind of candidate, with very deep roots in the district and a smart campaign. There are about 160,000 independent voters in the district, and at least some of them must be embarrassed on a daily basis by their "representation." PPP
polled on King last October, and found significant problems for him: 47 percent disapproval to 40 percent approval, he loses 49-45 to a generic Democrat and the tea party is underwater in approval 48-37. King has had
lackluster fundraising and at the end of the last quarter, trailed Mowrer in cash on hand.
Here's a chance to do a real service for Iowa, and for the nation, by replacing one of the GOP's worst—not just with a Democrat, but with a Fighting Dem. Chip in $3 today to help Daily Kos elect Jim Mower and defeat Steve King.
