Brown Woodward Awards dinner hosted in Ogden

Boone County Democrats (BCD) hosted the Brown Woodward Awards dinner on Saturday night at the Leonard A. Good Community Center. Intended to recognize outstanding democrats in the area, the dinner welcomed four speakers to talk about their campaigns while attendees enjoyed a delicious meal provided by the BCD organization.

After an appetizer and cocktail hour, up first to speak was J.D. Scholten, an Iowa native who is running for the House of Representatives as a challenger to Republican incumbent Steve King, who has held the seat since 2003.

Scholten ran against Rep. King during the 2018 election where he came within three points of defeating him. In a district that is considered heavily red, Scholten was able to receive 25,000 more votes than there are registered democrats in the area, moving the needle in his direction over 24 points; the third highest amount of movement in the country.

It is no secret that Rep. King has had his fair amount of controversy during his time in the House, forcing him off of all of his committee assignments and further reminding Iowans that the words you say do in fact have consequences. Scholten isn’t focused on this fact however, as he wants his campaign to be focused on what he can do better rather than what someone else is doing wrong.

“I pitch to my strengths,” said Scholten. “I want this campaign to be solely about us, not them.”

As a fifth generation Iowan, Scholten feels he represents the population of District 04 because he has lived through many of the same struggles. He notes that farming runs deep within his blood and wants to work toward common sense solutions to help uphold the very background that raised him.

“Nobody chose me to do this,” Scholten said of his campaign. “I am the one that chose to run.”

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