Ryan Melton

(music)

Republicans hold a big voter registration advantage in Iowa's 4th Congressional District. But there is a democrat on the ballot. We'll talk with democratic congressional candidate Ryan Melton on this edition of Iowa Press.

Funding for Iowa Press was provided by Friends, the Iowa PBS Foundation.

(music)

The Associated General Contractors of Iowa, the public's partner in building Iowa's highway, bridge and municipal utility infrastructure.

Elite Casino Resorts is rooted in Iowa. Elite's 1,600 employees are our company's greatest asset. A family run business, Elite supports volunteerism, encourages promotions from within and shares profits with our employees.

(music)

Across Iowa, hundreds of neighborhood banks strive to serve their communities, provide jobs and help local businesses. Iowa banks are proud to back the life you build. Learn more at iowabankers.com.

(music)

For decades, Iowa Press has brought you political leaders and newsmakers from across Iowa and beyond. Celebrating more than 50 years on statewide Iowa PBS, this is the Friday, October 4th edition of Iowa Press. Here is Kay Henderson.

(music)

Henderson: Today we begin a series of interviews and debates with candidates for the U.S. House of Representatives. As you likely know, Iowa has four congressional districts. Let's take a look at the 4th District. It is the largest geographically among the four. It encompasses 36 counties and covers much of western, northwestern and north central Iowa. It includes the cities of Carroll, Council Bluffs, Sioux City, Storm Lake, Spencer, Algona, Fort Dodge, Ames and Marshalltown. Randy Feenstra, a republican currently representing the 4th District, did not accept the invitation to a debate on Iowa PBS. So, Iowa PBS has invited his challenger to join us on Iowa Press today instead. That is Ryan Melton, a democrat from Webster City. He holds a master's degree in history and works for a large insurance company. This is his second campaign. He ran in 2022. Welcome back to Iowa Press.

Melton: Glad to be here.

Henderson: Also joining our conversation are Stephen Gruber-Miller of the Des Moines Register and Erin Murphy of the Gazette in Cedar Rapids.

Murphy: Ryan, when we talked to you two years ago for that campaign you said at that time it was never in your life plan to run for political office. And yet here you are again running again. Why a second try at this?

Melton: Well, a similar situation last time where there's not a deep bench of folks willing to run. It's obviously an uphill climb, one of the more conservative congressional districts in the country. And I felt considering we had the same concern in '24 as we did in '22, the fact that I had that robust infrastructure built in '24 that I didn't have in 2022, I felt like I was best positioned to fight the good fight on behalf of the people in the 4th.

Murphy: So, what do you consider a successful campaign then knowing that victory is a long shot? In 2022 your competitor, Congressman Feenstra, won by more than 102,00 votes, 36 percentage points.

Henderson: Ahead of you.

Murphy: Yeah. What is a successful effort for you?

Melton: Well, I think we've had a number of successes already. Number one, on the carbon capture pipeline front, when I first campaigned against those pipelines in early 2022, long before most Iowans even knew what they were, Randy Feenstra was very public facing in his support for them, writing an op-ed in support of them. He has taken tens of thousands of dollars from Bruce Rastetter, the godfather of the Summit carbon pipeline. Since I ran robustly on that issue and have continued to it has really silenced him and has rendered a lot of that money that Rastetter has donated to him moot. That is one example. We've also forced difficult conversations around things like water quality that just simply weren't being had at this level, the cancer crisis, and ultimate Randy Feenstra was simply going to go without accountability if I hadn't run. And so, I know inherently that me running was a boost for democracy and for the voices of the people in our 4th congressional district that would have otherwise gone unheard. So, I think we have accomplished a number of great things. The other thing is that I'm really proud of, of the 25 state House seats we have in our 4th congressional district in 2022, we only had 10 democrats running for those 25. This time we have 17. So, I know that this is going to be a mid-to-long-term build but I have played a role in recruiting those candidates and it's hopefully building a new direction for the party in our district.

Gruber-Miller: So, as we mentioned, it's a conservative district. There are about 107,000 more registered republicans in the district than there are democrats. How do you talk to those voters and earn their support? And how do you make the case that you would be a better candidate to represent their values than the republican you're running against?

Melton: Well, I think the answer to that question is a pretty simple one. I think the fact that Congressman Feenstra's republican primary challenger Kevin Virgil endorsed me is really a testament to the fact that there is a path forward in this district. The article he wrote on his X account about a month ago goes into great detail as to why so many republican rank and file voters are really upset with republican party leadership in this state. They have been sold out to Bruce Rastetter, they have been sold out to disproportionate and excessive corporate power. And I have talked to so many republicans, I have been in plenty of rooms full of republicans on the campaign trail who are ready to make a protest vote. And I think the Kevin Virgil endorsement of me is really one example of many where the republican party leadership in this state have completely abandoned their rank and file. One other thing on that, the entire week after that Kevin Virgil endorsement, leader after leader from the Iowa Republican Party circled the wagons to attack Virgil, but not one of their social media posts addressed any of the valid concerns Kevin Virgil has regarding the downward trend of our state under republican party leadership, amplifying Kevin Virgil's point in endorsing me.

Henderson: You have, in many respects, made the carbon capture pipeline and your views on it sort of the centerpiece of your campaign whereas the democrats who are running in the 1st, 2nd and 3rd congressional districts have made abortion the keynote of their campaign. Why?

Melton: Well, I mean, I talk about reproductive rights too. I'm certainly a pro-choice candidate and I think that the six-week abortion ban in the state has set us behind and has made women in this congressional district and this state second class citizens. I think it's horrible. And it has put our medical professionals in impossible positions. But as far as the 4th congressional district, our congressional district is where the vast majority of those pipelines will be impacting people. So that in and of itself is a big reason why I have prioritized it. But I also think that the carbon capture pipeline issue is a basic really attack on fundamental rights that I thought were bipartisan in agreement, property rights, water access and availability, the right to public health, to not waking up in the morning worrying that a carbon capture pipeline is going to fracture underneath your feet and asphyxiate you. I think these are all very basic things. And the fact that the republican party leadership has completely sold out its rank and file to get more big money donations from their corporate handlers, again one of the many reasons why republican rank and file voters in my district are ready to do something new.

Murphy: You have mentioned clean water a couple of times already. The federal Farm Bill is sort of in limbo right now. They have temporarily extended the current one and will have to address it again later this year. Is the status quo sufficient what is in the federal Farm Bill for those priorities that you're talking about? Or what more needs to be done?

Melton: I think if you talk to water works managers across the state, they would say the status quo is not sufficient. They are spending massive amounts of money getting the required amount of nitrate out of the drinking water that they give to their citizenry, getting it to that 10 milligrams per liter of nitrate federal threshold.

Murphy: So, what more do we need from the federal government? What should we have in that Farm Bill?

Melton: Well, here's the thing, I certainly agree that we need to subsidize ag, but we have choice over how we do that. I've talked to plenty of farmers on the ground that know, farmers themselves who know, that the status quo is not working. The fact that we have become the toxic beach advisory state, the fact that so many of our folks cannot recreate in our rivers and our lakes and our streams. And so as far as solutions for that, the first thing we need to do is we need to get all stakeholders involved at the table, but be very clear that where we're at right now is just simply not working. None of us are happy with the fact that every summer we get dozens and dozens and dozens of toxic beach advisories. None of us are happy with the fact, regardless of political affiliation, with the fact that we have a cancer crisis on our hands and that we have republican elected officials representing this state in Des Moines and D.C. that are not even willing to acknowledge the problem, much less try to get to the root of the problem and begin mitigating it. And so, the public health concerns are massive. We definitely need to do a lot more robust action as far as incentivizing a number of waterway and pollution mitigation strategies, and also by default the fact that you talk to any or more agronomists in the state and they'll say we only have 50, 60, 70 years of topsoil left before we can't do ag the way we do it now. Clearly the status quo is falling well short in a wide variety of different ways.

Henderson: So, would you support a federal edict in regards to the amount of fertilizer that goes on that topsoil?

Melton: I think that's something we need to explore. I know that Minnesota, the Minnesota state government was considering something like that. We do have plenty of experts in agronomy that have set forth formulas as far as the amount of fertilizer you should be using per land mass. And I think Iowa State University, their agronomy department developed a formula a few decades back that hasn't really gained as much momentum as I think we'd want to see. But on top of that, it's not just about that context, it's also about the fact that we're continuing to see ever more CAFOs in our state and a lot of folks are really concerned about CAFOs and the fact that you're adding so much more manure to the landscape and yet you have not added more and more mitigation strategies to protect our waterways. We need to sync up the increase with increased protections for public health and for water --

Henderson: And for those of us who don't know what a CAFO is, that is a --

Melton: Confined animal feeding operation. Right --

Henderson: We're talking about pork production.

Melton: That's right. Those are springing up more and more and more. And I think that we need to be more responsible when we have a ramp up in industrial ag to also recognize the downstream implications, which are many, to public health, to home values, to the hollowing out of our communities, to the fact that they are driving more and more small and mid-scale farmers off the land. They are amplifying the fact that we are falling further and further behind our Midwestern neighbors when it comes to per capita household income. A lot of downstream issues there.

Gruber-Miller: So, over the summer northwest Iowa was hit hard by devastating flooding. We've seen news in recent weeks in the eastern part of the country about Hurricane Helene. What policies do you think you would support at the federal level to improve the resiliency of communities so that they can withstand disasters like this in the future?

Melton: Well, there's a very easy one that is very unique to our congressional district and that is the fact that for four years in a row my opponent, Randy Feenstra, has literally asked for zero dollars and zero cents of community improvement earmark money for our district. And as a state, we have more bridges in need of repair, for example, than any other in the country. Most of the quality-of-life indicators that are backsliding in Iowa are worse in our 4th congressional district. Just this year alone the other three U.S. House republicans representing this state asked for a collective $115 million of that community improvement earmark money for things like flood mitigation, water projects, infrastructure. So that is a simple one. If I'm elected, I would recognize that it is absolutely illogical that the residents of our 4th congressional district are paying federal tax money and yet that have a representative in Congress that is just leaving that money on the table when we are in dire need of money, the fact that with those floods you had so many people worried about levee, dam failures, the fact we've had so much damage and you have a congressman that is leaving so much money on the table that we need.

Gruber-Miller: Is that enough just requesting that money? Or are there other solutions?

Melton: Oh, certainly that's not the only thing, but that is the easy low hanging fruit. That, to this day, blows my mind that Feenstra just completely just neglects to bring back home. Gosh, I'm certainly a big supporter of infrastructure bills. The bipartisan infrastructure bill I thought was great. There's a massive number of projects that are now funded in our 4th congressional district as part of that bill. I think also the fact that we continue to see republican legislators claim credit for projects happening in their communities that were funded by infrastructure bills that they voted against. Randy Feenstra, I was up at the Lewis and Clark Water Works ribbon cutting up in northwest Iowa, voted against the infrastructure bill that gave it its final financial boost. And so, there is a lot of disingenuousness around these kinds of things. And I think we need to shed a lot more light on that.

Henderson: For the benefit of our viewers, before I ask this next question, we're having this conversation on Friday morning. And I want to ask you about the Middle East. In other words, something could happen between now and the time somebody looks at your comments here. What, as a member of the U.S. House, would you do in regards to U.S. foreign policy in the Middle East? Would you vote to go to war?

Melton: No. So, I've been on the record about this, I've been very public about this. Hamas is horrible and everything that can be done that still respects the dignity of the Palestinian folks in Gaza, in the West Bank, anything in that context should be done to try to rid Hamas or rid Palestine of Hamas. However, I have been on the record as saying that we should not be providing offensive military funding to Netanyahu considering the status quo of how he is conducting his operation there. I think he is making an already horrible situation, October 7th was absolutely horrible, indefensible, but I think Netanyahu has really amplified problems here and has played into the hands of Hamas by giving them so much advertising on the fact that there have been tens of thousands of Palestinians that have lost their lives. The dropping of non-precision munitions upon densely populated areas while Hamas fighters were in the tunnels unscathed from those big bomb drops. I have not hesitated in my concern that we are funding an operation that is killing tens of thousands of innocents. And I would also say, I think it's hard for anyone to really put together a robust argument that what Netanyahu is doing in Palestine is increasing the likelihood that Israelis will have a longer lasting peace as well. And if you look at what is happening in Israel, the citizenry there are very unhappy with Netanyahu, they have wanted him out of there for quite a long time. And the fact that Netanyahu continues to add fuel to the fire here and amplify without concern for the well-being of the civilians on the ground, I don't think that is something that we should be supporting financially.

Henderson: You mentioned Hamas. You haven't mentioned Hezbollah.

Melton: Well, sure. I guess my view, Hezbollah is obviously a horrible organization as well, there's no question about that. But the question again is, is the person on the Israeli side that is leading the offensive cognizant and sufficiently concerned about minimizing civilian casualty? And his track record pretty clearly since October 7th has been no. And I think the fact that we are still providing offensive military funding and it feels like we are not any place as far as a federal government infrastructure to robustly point of the obvious, which is how are we providing Palestinians or Israelis long lasting peace when we're killing, when we're aiding in the killing of tens of thousands of innocent folks, many of them children? How is that benefiting any long-term goal as far as long-term peace? And also, Netanyahu has been on the record as saying he's not in support of a two-state solution. Biden, Harris are in favor of a two-state solution. And so as long as a Netanyahu is receiving massive amounts of financial aid from us, and his goals are not aligned with ours, and he is amplifying the concern in the Middle East, I just don't see how you can reconcile those things. I have been very public about my concern there.

Murphy: Very quick before we move on because I'm curious to hear, whenever people give an opinion like that you hear the pushback that anything less than a full-throated endorsement of Israel and full backing of Israel --

Henderson: And its right to exist.

Murphy: -- and its right to exist is unacceptable and a betrayal of an ally of the U.S. -- I'm just curious --

Melton: I just strongly disagree with that. A lot of Israeli citizens would disagree with that. I am all about long lasting peace for both Israelis and Palestinians. If you look at what the folks in Israel are saying regarding Netanyahu that are incredibly unhappy and concerned that Netanyahu's conduct of this operation is making it less likely they'll have long lasting peace and security. So, I think you can ask legitimate question and levy legitimate criticisms of what Netanyahu is doing while still being an advocate of long-lasting peace for both Israelis and Palestinians.

Henderson: Speaking of questions --

Murphy: Yeah, so the Register's Iowa Poll found that Iowans consider immigration a top issue in this election. Your opponent, Congressman Feenstra, says immigration is his top issue. What conversations are you having with voters about immigration? What do you think needs to be done?

Melton: Well, I think it's more complicated than that. So, when Donald Trump before the Iowa Republican Caucus said that immigrants are poisoning the blood of our country, which is a horrible thing to say, there was a journalist and I forget what outlet they are with, before the Iowa Republican Caucus they went up to farm owners in northwest Iowa that hire migrant labor and they showed them that clip, most of these republicans. And the journalist asked those folks if they agreed with that sentiment. And to a T they said no, that the immigrants that they hired are amazing people, hardworking folks who just want to provide for their families. Right? Data point after data point after data point shows that regardless of, or despite what Donald Trump says, where he depicts immigrants as criminals, as violent, the data shows that's not true and the data shows that both documented and undocumented immigrants to this country commit crime at much lower rates than native born citizens do. So, let's get that out there. I'm not going to be involved in the fear mongering that has dominated that space. Now, beyond that I have been in favor and have advocated for publicly a robust immigrant labor program where you have to have much more robust federal and state coordination to align migrant flow with labor need. In northwest Iowa, we are finding it very difficult to find the workers we need to make our communities run. There is a reason why there is a rollback, an unconstitutional rollback of child labor protections laws in this state, because we are really struggling with brain drain, we're struggling with worker shortage. I would argue, having my historical background, we have had robust immigrant labor programs in the past where federal and state coordination align those flows with labor need. We certainly need to make sure that communities that absorb that labor are ready to do so, that they have the sufficient housing stock they need and other amenities, because we have seen some situations with that lack of robust federal and state coordination where communities have been a bit overburdened and they have seen some stress there. So, we need to -- a lot to improve in that space for sure.

Murphy: And before we move on, we just have a few minutes left and some other issues, just quick before we move on there was a bill, a compromise bill in Congress that was ultimately not voted on. Would you have voted for that immigration bill?

Melton: You know, I've got to say I think that considering there is bipartisan support for it, considering the fact that there has been a decent amount of stress on our communities, I probably would have voted for it, but I would have added or introduced my own amendments to allow for such things as a robust immigrant labor program per what I mentioned. With bills that come in front of you in Congress there is no such thing as a perfect bill and I certainly don't want to support anything that lends to a vilification of immigrants because they don't deserve that. But clearly, we have a need for a much more robust immigrant reform than what we have been seeing. And I think that even though we've had a lot of great success stories around our 4th congressional district as far as immigrants coming in and rejuvenating a lot of towns that have been dying and struggling due to this decades long hollowing out, it is clear we need guardrails. We need more same page common ground guidance between state and federal authorities to make this as seamless as we can.

Gruber-Miller: We just have a couple of minutes left. I want to ask about taxes. The Trump administration tax cuts are set to expire at the end of 2025 unless Congress takes action. Is there any part of those tax cuts that you would vote to keep?

Melton: Well, I've done a lot of research on that, I've talked to a lot of folks on that, and to me the Trump tax cuts really feel like a robbery of the U.S. Treasury and the U.S. taxpayer. We already have a massive wealth gap in this country, a massive amount of wealth hoarding in this country, while tens of millions of folks are living in poverty, while 60% of Americans live paycheck to paycheck. I'm not a fan of the Trump tax cuts. I do think you need to be mindful of any potential impact to the business community. But I will say, and I'm not anti-corporate when I say something like this, but I think it's just reasonable that in our current climate where you have company after company, industry after industry raking in record profit while we on our backs. There's an awful lot of issues with greedflation and there's an awful lot of hesitancy in Congress to robustly push back on this price gauging that we have been seeing. I think a lot of that is because there's so much power and so much money in the corporate space and that corporate power has corrupted the political space. And these Trump tax cuts just gave the wealthiest more money and the biggest corporations more power to leverage and to hurt the rest of us on the ground. So, I'm certainly not a fan of the Trump tax cuts and don't think they should be extended in their current form.

Henderson: You mentioned greedflation. We have about a minute left. Inflation has been something that your opponent, Congressman Feenstra, has been talking about. He's an advocate of a balanced federal budget. Do you think the federal budget should be balanced?

Melton: I think that is a goal we should eventually reach, we should work toward. I mean, democratic administration after democratic administration have been pretty darn successful historically in modern history in building surpluses. I think what is unfortunate is Randy Feenstra talks about things like inflation, but he supports the Trump tax cuts that amplified the wealth gap. He fought against the bulking up of the IRS to go after the wealthiest tax cheats. He in no way would ever mention greedflation as a concern. He would in no way mention a windfall tax to clamp down on greedflation during times of inflation. And he voted against a bill that was in the U.S. House that would have helped us address price gauging in oil and gas. So, he's all talk but he hasn't had the action to back it up.

Henderson: I have to end our conversation there. Thanks, Ryan Melton, for joining us today.

Melton: Thank you so much.

Henderson: Iowa Press, Iowa PBS, will be hosting two congressional district debates in the coming weeks. On Monday, October 14th, the 2nd Congressional District Debate between Sarah Corkery and Ashley Hinson and the 1st Congressional District Debate will be Monday, October 21st with Christina Bohannan and Mariannette Miller-Meeks. Watch both debates live at 8pm on Iowa PBS. For everyone here at Iowa PBS, thanks for watching today.

(music)

(music)

Funding for Iowa Press was provided by Friends, the Iowa PBS Foundation.

(music)

The Associated General Contractors of Iowa, the public's partner in building Iowa's highway, bridge and municipal utility infrastructure.

Elite Casino Resorts a family run business rooted in Iowa. We believe our employees are part of our family and we strive to improve their quality of life and the quality of lives within the communities we serve.

(music)

Across Iowa, hundreds of neighborhood banks strive to serve their communities, provide jobs and help local businesses. Iowa banks are proud to back the life you build. Learn more at iowabankers.com.

(music)