A poisoned candidacy

Feenstra, with glasses, behind the President

He is, by any definition save one, my brother. He is kindred, not family but closer to me than anyone else making national news this morning. He is--or was--a leading Republican candidate to become Governor of Iowa, his home state. He is--and will forever be--a child of Sioux County, Iowa, a man whose birthright is "Dutch Reformed," by birthright, if not by choice.

He grew up here, went to private, Christian schools, Dordt College (now University), where, several years later, (as did I) he taught. In the doctrinal language of the heritage he and I share, he's a "covenant child," born and baptized in a tradition whose history and character I've wandered through for most of my life.

I should, one would think, support his candidacy to be the next Governor of the state of Iowa (he is running, or was, until last night). Not only was he running, he was also the favorite, given his husky endorsement by the President just last week. Trump was for Randy Feenstra for Gov. "He's in," people thought.

Sorry. Yesterday, despite that hefty, prized endorsement, he lost. He has conceded.

Every news network used his loss as one of its headlines after yesterday's series of primary elections. He wasn't alone on the ballot; he was one of three candidates for gov, only two of which were positioned to grab the nomination. He came in second, lost the race by just 1500 votes. His loss was a huge story, a national headline because of someone else: he held the golden support of a man who's shown himself once again, recently, to be the ticket to victory. This time it may have been the kiss of death; Trump's support didn't do the job--his hand-picked boy and Dordt's most famous graduate went down to defeat.

And I voted against him. I didn't campaign against him, didn't say a word or write a sentence saying mean things or disparaging his candidacy; but neither did I vote for him, a fine man, a brother Hollander. I didn't vote against him; I voted in the Democratic primary for the man who did win his party's nomination--Josh Turek, a relative newcomer who opposes most everything our President, and Randy Feenstra, stands for. 

And there lies the difference. I don't know if it occurred by choice or request, but President Trump's endorsement of Randy Feenstra soured me. I wasn't registered to vote Republican anyway, but even if I had been, Trump's endorsement would have sunk anyone else's candidacy in my estimation too.

What the headlines missed is the significant issue of private education. Recently, in the state, more funding has found its way into private (in this case, Christian) education. Trump supports it, so did Randy Feenstra, with his family, his politics, and his contributions. 

That commitment was likely sufficient--even here-- to bring down his candidacy. He did well, just not good enough to win, and the difference, last night, between winning and losing, in his case, could well have been the voters, even here in Sioux County, his home, many of whom have opposed increased state aid for private education. Somewhere in the neighborhood, I'm sure, some people who love Trump don't like state funding of private education. No national news sources I saw this morning mentioned that in their analysis.

I'm sad about it, but, truthfully, I feel more sad that a man with his moral framework (which is to say, a moral framework I understand) would covet the endorsement of a man like Donald Trump (28 tweets in the last 24 hours). 

For me, Trump's support--and Feenstra's whole-hearted acceptance thereof--was cause enough to avoid him and his poisoned candidacy.