Gov. Kim Reynolds, a Republican, has balked at mandating masks be worn statewide, and has been criticized for barring Ok-12 colleges from holding o
Gov. Kim Reynolds, a Republican, has balked at mandating masks be worn statewide, and has been criticized for barring Ok-12 colleges from holding online-only lessons until the virus positivity price reaches 15 p.c or above of their counties. The state’s current spike in circumstances has occurred as each Ok-12 and faculty college students returned to campuses.
The governor solely final week ordered bars and nightclubs to shut within the two massive college cities. In the meantime, Iowa State College, in Ames, stated it could enable 25,000 followers to attend a soccer recreation on Sept. 12, about 40 p.c capability for its stadium.
Ms. Greenfield, a businesswoman who, like her opponent, grew up on a farm, known as on Wednesday for a statewide masks mandate, which Ms. Ernst has stated ought to be a private selection.
“All of us wish to beat this coronavirus pandemic, restart our financial system, start the varsity yr safely, and get again to regular,” Ms. Greenfield stated. “The science is evident — one of the simplest ways to try this is that if all of us put on our masks.”
David Yepsen, a former political reporter and columnist at The Des Moines Register, stated the coronavirus was only one difficulty unsettling the electoral panorama in a largely rural state that Mr. Trump simply gained in 2016. Ms. Ernst, who lives in a county of simply 5,700 individuals, ought to have a pure benefit over the Des Moines-based Ms. Greenfield, 56, who’s showing on a basic election poll for the primary time.
“The governor’s managed to make everybody sad with the uncertainty over faculty openings, closing or not closing bars,” Mr. Yepsen stated. “Ernst’s musing about conspiracy theories” about coronavirus performs into that unease, he added.
However Ms. Ernst, 50, who has been extra seen on the marketing campaign path, together with appearances just like the one in Waterloo, has a transparent attraction to rural voters. “As at all times in rural America, the cultural points of faith, weapons, abortion and now crime drive quite a lot of votes and it will harm Democrats,” Mr. Yepsen stated. “Kenosha and Minneapolis are a bit too shut and can hearth up the G.O.P. base.”