Chuck Grassley has been in the Senate since 1980, but we don't know if he's running again. Former Iowa Congresswoman Abby Finkenauer plans to run against him.
"Congresswoman, welcome to The Reid Out. I just have to ask you, why are you running?" Jonathan Capehart asked.
"Because Iowa is my home and this is our country, and both are worth fighting for," she said.
"There's so much work to do both for Iowa and our democracy. When 1/6 happened, it changed America and it changed me. I know folks we send to the United States Senate have to know the difference between being public servants and being politicians. And i think it's time we actually had people that believe in the truth and aren't afraid to stand up for it and fight for it."
"Now, you were first elected in Congress in 2018 during the Democratic wave. You barely lost re-election in 2020. So you weren't in the Capitol on January 6th when that happened. Did that indeed play -- one, actually -- after losing your election, have you even given any thought about running for re-election two years later? Or was January 6th the thing that just pushed you over the edge to run for office again to take on Grassley in particular?" Capehart asked.
"That day, I'll never forget it. I was sitting with my husband on our couch in Cedar Rapids, as I'm watching lie coverage of a violent mob that, by misinformation and lies, stormed the Capitol and attacked my friends and my former colleagues.
"And as I'm watching this, I'm looking at my husband and we had wondered after 2020, I couldn't understand it, we got beat by misinformation and lies. We looked at that and we thought, okay, we don't -- they don't get to keep lying, they don't get to keep pushing misinformation in our state and in our country and not have us push back. We realized it was time to speak the truth and speak it louder. So I know what we're up against.
"I know what campaigns are. I know they're still going to say what they want to say, lie about records, push misinformation. but we're going to be louder, and we need you with us. Go to abbyfinkenauer.com and join us, because we need all hands on deck."
Capehart pointed out that Grassley won re-election in 2016 by 24 points, and asked how confident she was that she could make a dent in Iowa.
"When I ran for Congress in 2018, I was 28 years old. I came from a working class family. I had no money of my own to put into a campaign, and I was told, you know, what are you doing? How are you going to beat a millionaire in Congress? And folks didn't think Iowa was worth fighting for, but I did.
"I proved them wrong and I'm going to do it again because my home is worth it. The working families in our country and in my state are worth it. I'm tired of having politicians in D.C. who just read about working families, study them, but haven't actually lived it. And so that's why we're going to win this.
"In 2018, I overperformed the top of ticket. I did the same in 2020 and we're going to take our message across this state to make sure Iowans know they have a champion who believes in them, who understands them and isn't going to back down when it comes to the policies that actually move their families forward and actually make a difference around the kitchen tables in Iowa."
