Rep. Randy Feenstra, Republican Candidate for Governor, March 23, 2026

Today i'm gonna take a little time visit with congressman randy feenstra he is gonna be visiting with us about a number of different things he's been busy with the congressman thanks for taking time to talk with us. Hey jim great to be on kw bg always great to be all of you.

Well we are getting rid of we didn't have our blizzard so that was okay we had our fair share there. I mean now we got 70 is 78 degree weather and a week ago it was like zero only in iowa.

Stick around stick around and we'll find out what's going on well i know one of the big things you want to talk about in the end again you are one of five candidates on the republican primary ballot and you got your.

got your information in and going to be on the ballot so talk a little bit about the campaign because between going back and forth to washington and stuff you don't get to spend as much time probably going around the state as you have.

Well, I do I tell you what four days a week i'm on the road it's just been so great I spent a lot of time out in moon and then eastern iowa last week and debuke and lance and you know cater.

I just want to say we have this amazing state I mean every area is different being in northeast iowa you know often you have the hills you got all the trees.

Then around boom and where i'm from right more flat and corn and soybeans but we just kind of love the state and I love it I can't wait to be governor of the state but going around and just having these.

meet and greets at the different pizza ranches where people can just ask me questions and they're telling my vision about.

The four points of making sure that we become the most business and egg fairly state in the country, making sure that we deliver world class education when i'm governor and then keeping our kids right now we have all these wonderful kids in.

In high school and college and when they get out we can make sure they have a skill and a job waiting for them then finally delivering high quality affordable health care for everyone.

This needs to happen that starts with lowering health care premiums but I tell you why it's just been fun going from the merritt missouri river to the mississippi talking with everyone.

I'm guessing those are some of the things that people keep asking a lot of questions about too is so what are you going to do you know as governor what like how do you get started what are the first things you're going to build off of.

Yeah I tell you what we hear the same thing all over the state and that is hey we got to lower property taxes I have seniors coming to me and saying Randy I can't live in my own home because I can't afford the property taxes anymore.

We have mainstream businesses that are saying hey I can't turn on the lights I'm going to have to close because I can't pay the property taxes.

That's the wrong thing to have an aisle we got to make sure that on day one that we lower property taxes and freeze them for seniors we got to put more money in people's pockets that's how you grow the economy.

Now say this that every community is different and we got to work with communities you can't have a one size fits all bill.

No you got to understand that some communities are growing some people communities aren't some communities have a lot of extra dollars so we got to find a way and a solution to make sure every community can lower property taxes but also have an economic engine that grows their community.

And people need to remember you are on that end of how do we how do we handle those property taxes and how do you provide the services that people want in. Again the cost just the cost of operating continues to go up.

It does I tell you here's the deal I was a city administrator for many years or eight years in my local community in whole Iowa is also a county treasurer so I know more about.

And then also a state senator where I dealt with property taxes so I know more about property taxes by than anybody in the state. But here it comes back to local control I again I don't believe you can have a one size fits all bill I believe that you got to give.

Some ability to each community and each county and school to say all right we need to lower property taxes these are some of the parameters but this is you got to get it done and give them the latitude to make it happen now there's other pieces and parts like tax instrument financing to make sure that that you know these are little buckets.

That are in all communities and if you don't ever release these tips tax and finance area they are actually creating a real burden for the general funds of these these schools counties and cities so once they're released that dramatically lowers taxes so there's a lot of things that we can do to get this done but we got to make sure that's not one size fits all.

Yeah I know and I was going to say you know in the 30 plus years of covering what the legislature does property tax reform is not a new thing it's just getting to be a lot more prevalent right now.

Exactly I worked I worked with it under governor Branstad we have the first time we actually lowered property taxes that was then 12 years ago and but now we've got we've got to do better.

I mean we have allowed it to get out of control so the challenges again that's your pointing out here is one size doesn't fit all but how do we fashion this because the system is so complex.

Exactly right so from the state side we got to simplify the system but we also got to give latitude to communities like Boone does a great job but we got to figure out a way and give them the ability to say all right you're tasked with lowering your property taxes right so go after it.

These are the tools that I'm going to give you to get that done and you can decide what is the most important things that you want to make sure like fire ambulance these things obviously are so important library and stuff like that but what is your solution to get it done but with the state giving the parameters to make sure that it happens.

And I know a school funding and I'm sure you talk about the education system too again one of our big challenges we're seeing declining enrollment I mean we that's been the biggest factor that I'm seeing at least in all our rural school districts just being able to get enough money to continue to operate.

Yeah I tell you what it goes with two of my talking points number one we got to make sure our kids stay right here in Iowa all right education is dramatically changing you know when I graduated in 87 we were number one in education our state was and now we're way down the list we got to bring it back to world class that means that we're teaching the fundamentals again of math and science and history.

My wife or the kindergarten teacher for 24 years my parents were both teachers for over 35 years and they say the same thing Randy here's the problem with our educational system right now we have created so much bureaucracy that in teaching you like my wife said I spent two to three hours a day just doing paperwork I mean if a kid didn't eat his sandwich you had to do you had to write write something up if a child threw a shoe at somebody all right you have to write some up and also all these teachers are doing the paperwork and not just doing the work.

That's not teaching we see this in so many schools that you have to administrator functions to everyone teacher that's not right all right we got to make sure it's back to what the kids need and back to the skills that are required to create the jobs that are going to be open to us as we grow our economy here in Iowa.

That's again one of the hard parts keeping keeping your people here rather than having them go yet exactly so getting those jobs that's the challenge to keep those are one issue number one number one is we gotta make sure i will become the most business and a police state in the country we are competing with forty nine other states that means that there's so much business that i wrote the big beautiful bill work with president trump on this and we talked about it is.

That we're bringing so much manufacturing from around the world back to America well we have Iowa we gotta be at the forefront making sure that we're bringing these manufacturing jobs to Iowa number two is we gotta make sure that the manufacturing jobs that are here that were growing these businesses that were growing our main main streets that's how we keep our kids here if they have the right skills all right they'll have great employment you know it all goes together.

Some of the other vision that you're looking at again you've hit on some of the highlights of that again I know all candidates have those visions there what sets you apart.

I've got it in the private sector i was head of sales a large candy company I was the city administrator county treasurer I worked in the state senate where I wrote the largest tax cut in Iowa history that was passed and signed and I worked at the federal level.

With president trump and president trump and I talked about this is that we wrote the largest tax cut in US history and sitting on air force one for about two hours of president trump and with that best sent.

And Kelly Loeffler head of small business administration we talked about how I can become the key state in the country to grow and develop manufacturing and workforce and now we just gotta apply and get it done and i'm so excited to work with you.

I'm so excited to work with the administration and make sure that we are that state that we are the number one state in the country for economic growth.

Well we know there's a number of candidates there recently former former governor and ambassador Terry Branstad did do an endorsement for you and once again how'd you take that how'd that feel.

Yeah I was so excited I got to work with Branstad when I was in the state senate and you know worked with him again to cut taxes to invest in education to support our farmers.

You know Branstad is a great ally of president trump and you know working with president trump and working with Branstad he gives me all these ideas also so it's great to see the ambassador get involved.

And endorse me but we have the same same thing whether it be at the federal level with the president or at the state level we want to make Iowa great again we want to make sure the US is great again but it takes a lot of work when it comes to taxes when it comes to reducing regulation all these things are work together to make it all happen.

I did want to ask you to a little thing about elections in the voter ID I know there's some legislation going out for that.

When I go back and I look at everybody obviously goes back to absentee voting and COVID I throw that out because that was so messed up but anyway I remember when the Republican Party really had to push on to get absentee voters out because democrats were always doing it.

So let's we got to get on the same plane here now we're what are we dealing with here on voter ID because I know occasionally we get little issues come up but is it that big of a problem?

I tell you what save America act at the federal level we passed it three times to the US House this is so important let me explain why we have it in Iowa.

You know whether you check into a hotel whether you go to a movie theater and you got to pick up your tickets you got to show an ID this isn't hard we do it all the time but for the most important thing that we have in our country and we're not showing ID this is repulsive in California they actually banned voter ID so anybody can walk up to the poll illegal or citizen can walk up and just vote in Minnesota they simply say as long as somebody can vouch for you you can vote.

I mean this is how we have corrupt elections this is America this is a country where we're 1.6 million people died for our freedoms and our liberties.

We got to protect our voting system and it starts with save America act but I'll say this when I was in the state Senate we passed voter ID I'm so proud of that so we are one of the beacons of states that does it right.

I know there's a lot of different things people can do to follow along now your campaigns going around there going to be some more events coming around here how do they keep up on that.

Absolutely go they can go to seamstress for governor dot com I'm doing meet and greets all over the state usually at the local pizza ranch just a reminder.

My I met my wife at the local pizza and real pizza ranch romance so we both work there when we're in high school and so I love to eat there but I tell you what you come out and ask your questions and hear my vision and I want to earn every single vote in Iowa and that's my job that's what I'm working on.

Well it's going to be I think it one of the busier primaries we've had in some time so I'm looking forward to it. Thank you so much for visiting with us.