GOP candidate gathering focuses on families
SIOUX CENTER, Iowa – Four Republican presidential candidates talked about their faith and family life in front of a friendly audience in northwest Iowa in one of the last big multi-candidate events ahead of the caucuses.
Texas pastor Ryan Binkley, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, former United Nations Ambassador Nikki Haley and entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy spoke at the Faith & Family with The Feenstras event in Sioux Center on Saturday morning, taking turns at question-andanswer sessions moderated by U.S. Rep. Randy Feenstra and his wife, Lynette Feenstra.
Randy Feenstra, a Republican from Hull who represents the 4th Congressional District in northwest Iowa, kicked off the event saying the focus would be on faith.
“When you think of faith, you think of what’s in the heart, you think about what that means and what we look to,” he said. “We look to God for our direction and our guidance, and our leaders should do the same thing.”
The conversations touched on policy, but also got personal. The candidates were joined onstage by either their spouse or one of their children as they talked about the values that have shaped their lives and their outlook for their campaigns.
DeSantis talked about raising his young children. Binkley and his wife, Ellie, talked about their decision to adopt a child. Ramaswamy talked about his Hindu faith. Haley talked about her daughter’s career as a nurse.
Speaking to reporters after the event, Feenstra said having the candidates’ family members onstage with them helped the audience see them as a real person and not just a candidate.
“I think it made each candidate authentic, that ‘Hey, I’m not only running for president, but I also have a family, I have children, I have a husband or a wife,’” he said. “It makes it real for everybody to see the rest of that person.”
Feenstra said in July that he plans to endorse in the presidential race. But on Saturday, he emphasized that he sees himself as an ambassador for Iowans.
After Republican Gov. Kim Reynolds and evangelical leader Bob Vander Plaats weighed in on behalf of DeSantis, Feenstra is perhaps the state’s biggest potential endorser still up for grabs ahead of Caucus Day.
“I’ve said early on that my job first and foremost is to be the ambassador to anybody that wants to come,” Feenstra said. “Because I want to show them. And then whether it be endorsing, that will come later. But for me, I want everybody to be open-minded. I don’t want to dilute their thoughts. I want them to make the decision. And then maybe down the road we’ll make that decision.”
DeSantis says faith keeps his moral compass pointing north
Ron DeSantis and his wife, Casey, took the stage together, joking about the chilly weather that whipped across Sioux Center on Saturday. They said their three kids encountered snow for the first time in Iowa and asked why they couldn’t have snow in Florida.
Both DeSantises spoke about the challenges of balancing campaign life with being parents. Casey said it’s important to make sure their kids know
“what we’re fighting for,” but also laughed about how they’re processing the information.
Ron DeSantis spoke about the need to integrate the faith community into public policy. He said he created a program that relies on churches to help provide services to Floridians in need.
“And guess what, once that happens, they don’t go back for government assistance,” he said. “They’re on a pathway to prosperity. So, these are difficult things where we’ve recognized that the faith community needs to be brought to the table.”
He said his faith is what keeps his moral compass pointing “true north.”
“Every single day in this process, the media, opposition, everything — it’s all designed to push you off course,” he said. “It’s all designed to divert you from being able to achieve what you’re looking to achieve. And so having that foundation of faith in God is really what keeps you centered.”
Binkley: ‘God moments’ shaped trajectory of life
Binkley, a businessman and pastor from Texas, spoke about “God moments” he’s experienced in life where he said God changed the path he was on, including calling him to become a pastor and to enter the presidential race.
He said God began speaking to him in dreams that he should run for president eight years ago.
He said he ignored those messages for years, but they kept coming.
“God really spoke to our heart to enter this race for a message,” Binkley said. “And really the message was this: that America needs an economic revival and America needs a spiritual revival. And the time for that revival is now.”
Binkley’s wife, Ellie, spoke about her experience immigrating to the United States from South Korea as a child and the couple’s decision to later adopt a child from South Korea. She said the United States should make it easier to foster children and more affordable to adopt.
“We want to promote a culture of life that not only is there a culture of life for the baby but there’s love and support for the mother that’s in a point of crisis,” she said.
Ramaswamy predicts wave of nontraditional caucusgoers will support him
Ramaswamy promoted a new generation of leadership as he took the stage with his young son, Karthik, who sat next to him tucked into a big leather chair.
Ramaswamy spoke about the ways his Hindu faith overlaps with the values espoused in Christianity.
“My parents instilled in me my faith from a young age, and though I left it probably for much of my 20s and late teen years, I definitely came back to it with conviction,” he said. “My faith teaches me there’s one true God, that he put each of us here for a purpose, that we have a duty to realize that purpose, that God works through us. … That’s the core of my Hindu faith.”
After leaving the stage, Ramaswamy spoke to a group of male college students and dropped to the ground for 30 pushups after being challenged to a contest.
Ramaswamy said he believes the polls, which currently show him in the
low single digits, are not capturing the types of nontraditional voters his campaign attracts.
“Probably half the guys I just did pushups with ... they’re going to show up at the caucus, and they never would have if it weren’t for me,” he said. “So, I think that’s a major surprise in store on January 15.”
Haley recalls how she leaned on faith after church shooting
Lynette Feenstra asked Haley how she would ensure her Christian values are at the forefront of her administration.
Haley recalled the 2015 shooting at the Mother Emanuel Church in Charleston
when she was governor where a white supremacist killed nine Black churchgoers. After images emerged of the shooter with the Confederate flag, Haley called for the flag to be taken down from in front of the South Carolina Statehouse.
“It was a tough process, but at the end of it, we didn’t have violence, we had vigils,” she said. “We didn’t have protests, we had hugs. And we showed the entire world what strength and grace look like.”
A few days before the shooting, Haley said, she had called for a state day of prayer. In hindsight, she credits that faith and readiness for preparing the state for what would happen.
“Looking back, I truly believe that state day of prayer was preparing us for the tragedy that was going to happen,” she said. “And I think it’s what saved us at the end of the day.”
Brianne Pfannenstiel is the chief politics reporter for the Register. Reach her at bpfann@dmreg.com or 515-2848244. Follow her on Twitter at @brianneDMR.
Stephen Gruber-Miller covers the
Iowa Statehouse and politics for the Register. He can be reached by email at sgrubermil@registermedia.com or by phone at 515-284-8169. Follow him on Twitter at @sgrubermiller.