DES MOINES, Iowa – The National Republican Congressional Committee (NRCC) released a new digital ad that calls on U.S. Rep. Cindy Axne, D-Iowa, in Iowa’s 3rd Congressional District to stand up to her Democratic colleagues’ efforts to defund the police.
“Cindy Axne was silent when Rashida Tlaib demanded an end to policing and incarceration, and even voted against censuring Maxine Waters for encouraging anti-law enforcement protestors to engage in violence. Iowa voters can’t trust Cindy to stand with law enforcement and keep them safe,” Mike Berg, spokesman for the NRCC, said in a released statement.
While Axne has not made any such inflammatory statements like her colleagues U.S. Rep. Rashida Tlaib, D-Mich., and U.S. Rep. Maxine Waters, D-Calif., she has not distanced herself from those members and voted against a resolution censuring Waters for her controversial remarks.
Iowa’s 3rd Congressional District is the lone congressional district that Republicans could flip in 2022, while the district has trended Democratic, it could be competitive and the NRCC hopes her silence can be a wedge issue in 2022.
Axne first won the seat by defeating then U.S. Rep. David Young, R-Iowa, by less than 6,000 votes in 2018, and defeated him again in a rematch in 2020 by less than 7,000 votes. It is unclear how redistricting will impact the congressional district.
