Northwest Iowa — The Democrat who lost to 4th District Congressman Randy Feenstra last fall after coming very close to ousting Feenstra’s predecessor in 2018, has announced his plans for the 2022 election cycle.
J.D. Scholten of Sioux City released a video message Tuesday afternoon.
Scholten had been among those Democrats mentioned as potential candidates for the U.S. Senate in 2022. Scholten says the national group he’s now leading aims to boost Democratic turnout in about three dozen rural counties around the country.
Scholten got more votes in his 2020 run for Congress than Joe Biden did in Iowa’s fourth congressional district. Scholten drove himself around in an RV he called “Sioux City Sue” and visited each of the district’s 39 counties. He suggests Democrats have to learn the lessons of 2020 as they prepare for the next election.
He says that may or may not include Iowa. Before he entered politics, Scholten played professional baseball in Canada, Europe, and the U.S., including a stint with the Sioux City Explorers. This season, at the age of 41, he’s been pitching for a Minneapolis-based team in an amateur baseball league.
