Two events have taken place this first week of June, with one having repercussions on the political systems in Iowa, and another involves a longstanding summer program in Sioux City that helps young people with free meals for the next two months.
With the arrival of the summer down days with no classes, the Sioux City School District is once again participating in the free Summer Food Service Program, Which began this week on Monday, June 1.
I went out to see students and family members at one of those meal sites, and we will get to that portion a bit later in the show.
Before that, however, there were important primary elections on Tuesday, as voters in Iowa and South Dakota voted to pick Democratic and Republican nominees for the November general election.
There were some notable outcomes in those primary elections, which deserve to be chewed over here.
One of the key things that happened in Iowa and South Dakota was that sitting REpublican congressman, Randy Feenstra in the Iowa 4th District and Dusty Johnson in South Dakota, had their attention drawn to becoming governors, and giving up relatively safe seats.
However, both did not win those governor races, which were contested in wide fields, with at least 4 fellow Republican men also in the running.
In the case of Johnson in South Dakota, he came in third, and a newcomer, in Toby Doeden, got the most votes, just ahead of current governor Larry Rhoden.
For the first time in its history, South Dakota will have a runoff election to determine which Republican candidate for governor will become the party nominee to move to the November ballot.
Doeden was at 31 percent, Rhoden had 25 percent, and Dusty Johnson wasa at 23 percent. None of those people got the required plurality of 35 percent, so a runoff election between Doeden and Rhoden will give another voting opportunity on July 28.
In iowa, there were five Republicans running for governor.
Businessman Zach Lahn won the Republican nomination and will face Democratic State Auditor Rob Sand in the general election.
Lahn narrowly won the primary election over Congressman Feenstra,
Feenstra, who was endorsed by President Donald Trump last week, got 37.2 percent of the Republican vote, compared to 38 percent for Lahn.
Lahn also says Sand is a liberal pretending to be moderate. Iowa Democratic Party Chair Rita Hart says Lahn is a “career political operative and Kansas carpetbagger” who is pushing an extreme agenda.
Sand has already announced his 100 town halls tour will kick off on June 17. He will speak in Woodbury and Cherokee counties on July 16
*iIn one other notable Iowa Republican Party primary, Ashley Hinson won the nomination for Iowa’s open U.S. Senate seat.
She easily swamped beat her opponent, former state Senator. Jim Carlin, of Sioux City.
Hinson is currently a U.S. representative for Iowa’s second congressional district in the northeastern part of the state.
She announced her run for Senate last fall just days after Sen. Joni Ernst said she would not seek a third term.
Hinson will now face DEmocratic State representative Josh Turek, who won his own Tuesday party primary, over Zach Wahls.
We welcome Buena Vista University Political Science Professor Bradley Best, a longtime academic source for us at SiouxLand Public Media for that analysis.
*And, with the arrival of the summer down days with no classes, the Sioux City School District is once again participating in the free Summer Food Service Program, Which began this week on June 1.
I went out to see students and family members at one of those meal sites.
That was at the Irving Elementary lunchroom, where more than 25 people in my hour there were eating meals as part of the free summer food program in Sioux City, which has been in place for more than 20 years.
As part of that, I spoke with Heidi, has brought a group of children from the Mary Elizabeth Day Care facility that is one block away, plus also sharing their impressions are Anastasia, Selena and Yaphet.
One trend with the summer lunch program is that since the 2020 pandemic, the numbers of meals served is down from 2,000. to 3,000
*Click on the audio link above to hear the entire show.
What's The Frequency, Episode 107.
