Area GOP Leaders Talk About Opportunity In Supreme Court Vacancy

Northwest Iowa — The recently-announced retirement of U.S. Supreme Court Justice Anthony Kennedy creates an interesting opportunity for President Trump and the Republican-led Senate.

While conservative, Kennedy has often been seen as a “swing” vote in abortion-related and other issues important to Republicans.

We wanted to hear what thoughts local Republican leaders had about the opportunity.

Iowa Republican Party Co-Chair, Dr. Cody Hoefert of Rock Rapids says he thinks President Trump will appoint someone in the mold of Justice Antonin Scalia, similar to the nomination of Justice Gorsuch.


Hoefert says he thinks it will be a fairly quick nomination.


Dr. Hoefert says he doesn’t think the nomination will have a large effect on the midterm elections or the presidential elections of 2020, but he does anticipate that Democrats will try to paint the President’s choices as too conservative.

He tells us what he thinks the nomination will mean for Iowans who voted for Trump.


Republican Iowa State Senator Randy Feenstra from Hull says that Trump should nominate someone who will uphold the Constitution.


Feenstra says another significant issue for Iowa could end up being the Heartbeat Bill. The Iowa Legislature passed a bill this year that would ban abortion after a fetal heartbeat can be detected. It is anticipated that the Iowa Supreme Court will end up deciding the constitutionality of that bill and that the fight could end up in front of the U.S. Supreme Court.


Feenstra says he’s also excited to see that two of the possible nominees on President Trump’s list are from Iowa. He says it’s an exciting time in politics and it will be interesting to see how it all turns out.

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