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Home - News
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Young Guns
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Two unlikely Democrats will challenge the Republican
establishment in rural
midlands districts
by Leo Adam Biga
A pair of 2010 congressional races will test whether young Democratic challengers can put a dent in their districts’ Republican allegiances. Each race, one in Nebraska and one in Iowa, features a 20-something Dem with an eye-catching resume going against an entrenched Republican incumbent.
Neophyte Rebekah Davis, 28, is challenging Rep. Adrian Smith for the 3rd District seat which has been held by Republicans since 1960. In Iowa, upstart Mike Denklau, 27, is opposing Rep. Steve King in the 5th District a Republican inheritance for much of the past 50 years. The odds weigh heavily against the newcomers. The incumbents have meager legislative records, but are part of state GOP machines in conservative, overwhelmingly Republican districts that often vote a straight Red party line.
Democrat Jim Esch has been down this road. With far more funds than Davis and Denklau, he twice challenged and lost to incumbent Lee Terry in Nebraska’s 2nd District.
Esch noted incumbents have an important, built-in advantage with name recognition which is hard to overcome, regardless of a challenger’s qualifications.
But King’s media coverage over the past year could be a boon for Denklau, with his frequent shoot-from-the-hip, right-wing, some say extremist, positions which have managed to offend even members of his own party. He has, among other things: declared same-sex marriage a “purely socialist concept” that undermines American values; compared immigrants illegally crossing the border to cattle, and advocated the use of an electrified fence; likened illegal immigration to a “slow motion Holocaust” and labeled the National Council of La Raza a racist organization. He’s also dismissed criticism of racial profiling, suggested that health care reform mandates government-encouraged suicide, and organized Tea Party rallies.
Denklau decries King statements and positions that, he said, deny gays and immigrants “the respect and dignity they deserve.”
The Center for Responsive Politics reports Davis and Denklau have each raised only a tiny fraction of the war chests their GOP opponents have available.
Nebraska’s 3rd District covers the western three-fourths of the state, a huge, mostly rural expanse of some 65,000 square miles and 68 counties. Except for some Hispanic pockets, it’s an almost exclusively white electorate. Iowa’s 5th is a mirror image. Outside of Council Bluffs and Sioux City, it’s a large, rural district covering the westernmost third of the state and is even whiter than Nebraska’s 3rd District.
The young Dems have roots in the districts they’re bidding to represent. Davis is an Alliance, Neb. native and Denklau a Blue Grass, Iowa native. Each left home to pursue careers in education in far-flung places, and each has returned to seek public office. The Gen-Xers are riding the political engagement wave among young people sparked by Barack Obama’s victorious presidential campaign.
“I think the clarion call to service [which] Obama demonstrated certainly resonated then and continues to resonate with me,” Davis said by phone during a campaign stop in Valentine, Neb. A Yale Divinity School graduate and Alegent Healthcare clinical pastoral education resident, Davis said, “my life has been a testament to public service.” She completed work-study programs in several countries.
Denklau, a former New York investment analyst with Lehman Brothers and Barclays Capital, said he embodies “a fair bit of idealism that has been inspired by the Obama victory. Having worked on the Bradley and Kerry presidential campaigns I was a little disheartened with politics and so Obama’s victory was something that propelled me over the top to decide to do this.”
Denklau was also influenced by the financial collapse. “Having been there during the height of the economic crisis I was very frustrated with the lack of action I saw in Washington,” he said by phone from his home in Council Bluffs.
Denklau patterns himself after New York City Mayor Mike Bloomberg.
“I really like his independence and willingness to stand up to some of the entrenched interests in that city and really bring about change,” he said.
Aside from incumbency, Davis feels her opponent is at a disadvantage.
“[D]uring his three years in office Rep. Smith has not been able to pass a single bill in Congress,” Davis said. “At a time when Nebraska needs all the help it can get in moving our state forward, having someone in office who’s not able to pass legislation is cause for concern.”
The two Dems consider their age a plus, not a minus, in positioning themselves as energetic, fresh-faced candidates.
Davis sees her gender working for her in the 3rd District, which elected the late Virginia Smith to the House for years. Smith was a conservative Republican.
“That remains a very strong testament to me of how voters in the 3rd District view the opinions of women and the role of women,” said Davis. She said Democrat Sandie Scofield winning a state legislative seat from western Nebraska reflected that some voters’ “willingness to not always vote the straight party ticket.”
Davis and Denklau support comprehensive heath care reform. She favors a public option and he advocates a regulated private system.
The issue is personal for Davis, who contracted malaria on one of her overseas work-study trips. The disease is in remission but still qualifies as a preexisting condition, making private-pay insurance unaffordable. The exorbitant costs of insurance and the subsequent toll on millions of people is something she frequently witnesses as a hospital chaplain.
“Families are utterly distraught as to how they¹re going to pay for a test or a treatment, and that is an excruciating position to be in even for families with insurance,” she said. “In my view we have an extremely backwards system, even the thought of a deductible -- that you are somehow punished financially for going to see a doctor when a condition first starts, whether that’s a cold or a lump on your body. I think there’s tremendous opportunity for reforming our system and we have a lot to gain in getting this right.”
Denklau said that “in talking to small business owners and individuals the cost of health care is consuming far too much of people’s budgets and in a lot of cases actually bankrupting people, and so we need to be focused on making sure there’s affordable insurance and access to care.” , |
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