Kevin Virgil, who gained nearly 40 percent of the vote in the Republican primary to represent Iowa’s fourth Congressional district, has encouraged his supporters to consider splitting their votes: Donald Trump for president and Democrat Ryan Melton for Congress.
Virgil shared one of Melton’s posts on X/Twitter on the evening of August 23, praising the Democrat for opposing “land seizure for CO2 pipelines” and “corporate capture in Iowa and in DC,” while asking “hard questions about Iowa’s sky-high cancer rates.”
“If you care about our children’s future,” Virgil wrote, “then it’s time to think about voting for a split-ticket with Trump and @melton4iowa.”
Virgil added that he does not “say this lightly,” since the Democratic Party is “beyond redemption” and “truly evil” at the national level. He asserted that voting for Melton would shock the Iowa GOP establishment, which in his view “is selling out its constituents.”
At this writing, Virgil hasn’t endorsed the same tactical voting strategy on his campaign’s Facebook page.
A LONG SHOT IN A DEEP-RED DISTRICT
It would take a massive crossover vote for any Democrat to win in the reddest of Iowa’s four U.S. House districts. Feenstra defeated Melton in the 2022 election to represent IA-04 by 67.3 percent to 30.4 percent. The latest official figures indicate that the Congressional district contains about 114,000 more registered Republicans than Democrats. Melton would also need strong support from no-party voters, who outnumber registered Democrats in IA-04 by about 53,000.
According to calculations by the Daily Kos Elections team (now known as The Downballot), Trump received 62.2 percent of the 2020 presidential vote in the 36 counties that currently make up IA-04, while Joe Biden received 36.2 percent.
Melton has been reaching out to diverse political constituencies. Earlier on August 23, he met with a Republican group in Marshalltown, where, he said, he and the audience “found a lot of agreement on our opposition to the carbon capture pipelines,” getting corporate money out of politics, addressing the root causes of Iowa’s high cancer rate, and developing a “robust immigrant labor program.”
Opposing eminent domain for CO2 pipelines was a central focus of Virgil’s primary campaign in IA-04, and he has made clear he is strongly considering running for Congress again. He may be hoping for an easier path next cycle. If Melton scores a huge political upset, Virgil would be seeking the 2026 nomination in an open field, rather than challenging an incumbent who outspent him by more than 20-1 before this year’s June primary.
About 40 minutes after urging followers to consider splitting their votes for Trump and Melton, Virgil reinforced his conservative bona fides by sharing my X/Twitter post about Vice President Kamala Harris’ acceptance speech with his own comment:
My 8th grade son can read from a teleprompter too.
Harris would humiliate herself in a live, unscripted event. That’s why she won’t do them. She’s like Feenstra, but even dumber.
They want you to forget that she didn’t win a single delegate in 2020 and dropped out before Iowa.
DEMOCRAT SEES OPPORTUNITY FOR “COMMON GROUND”
Melton shared Virgil’s post on August 23, saying he was “grateful” for the consideration. “Kevin and I disagree on a number of issues, but we align on the issues he highlights, and I’d argue they are among the biggest issues causing the most harm” in the district. The Democrat also said he respects Virgil “for calling it as he sees it without hesitation despite the powerful in his own party wishing he wouldn’t.”
Melton provided this additional comment to Bleeding Heartland on August 24.
I’ve spoken with so many Republicans in the district that are fed up with Feenstra selling them out to Bruce Rastetter and other big moneyed corporate donors, and have decided it’s time for a protest vote to wrestle back power for themselves. I agree that their anger is warranted, and will work to listen to and represent all citizens of the district regardless of political affiliation if I receive the honor of winning the election in November.
Time and time again, when I meet Republicans, we typically agree we share more common ground than the powers that be that want to keep us divided want us to recognize. Once Republicans in the 4th meet me, they see they can trust me, as I’ve always rejected all corporate PAC money and always will. I don’t use party taking points and I don’t pay consultants to tell me what to say. My words are my own and my word is my bond.