Iowa (RI) — Leaders of Iowa’s two major political parties are condemning political violence and making an appeal for calm in the wake of the shooting death of influential conservative Charlie Kirk. Iowa Democratic Party chair Rita Hart spoke at an outdoor fundraiser in Des Moines on Saturday.
Steve Scheffler, one of Iowa’s representatives on the Republican National Committee, opened a Sunday afternoon event in Cedar Rapids with a prayer for healing.
Four Democrats who are running for the U.S. Senate also denounced political violence when speaking with reporters this weekend. Josh Turek, a state representative from Council Bluffs, says he’s worried the country is headed toward a cycle of political violence not seen since the 1960s.
Nathan Sage of Indianola — the former executive director of Knoxville’s Chamber of Commerce — says no one should be gunned down in America.
Jackie Norris, a former teacher who’s chair of the Des Moines School Board, says it’s time to tone down the rhetoric.
Zach Wahls, a state senator from Coralville, says no matter how it happens — or who it happens to — political violence is unacceptable.
Wahls says his county should have complied with the governor’s order to lower flags to half staff through sundown Sunday in Kirk’s honor. Johnson County Board of Supervisors chair Jon Green condemned Kirk’s killing in a post on Facebook, but Green said Kirk made it his life’s mission to denigrate the marginalized, so Green ordered that flags not be lowered in Johnson County. Ashley Hinson, the Republican who’s running for the US Senate, led a moment of silent prayer for Kirk Sunday at a campaign event.
Republican Congresswoman Mariannette Miller-Meeks has called for the University of Iowa’s new Center for Intellectual Freedom to be named in Kirk’s honor.
