Help Ryan Melton turn IA-04 blue or at least purple. Sign up below for his excellent newsletter. It is excellent because you actually learn something. He doesn’t just give you talking points then ask for money. He gives you something of value drawing from his experiences talking with Iowans on the campaign trail.
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This is Ryan Melton, Democrat running for the U.S. House in Iowa’s 4th Congressional District. During my 2024 campaign, I’ll send you a weekly email to keep you in the loop while not overwhelming your inbox. Typically, the newsletter will be a review from the week prior: Where we went, what issues of note were on the minds of those I met with, where we’ll be in the next week, etc.
Where we went and what people were concerned about:
Last week, I had the privilege of speaking to the lovely folks in Audubon and Nevada. Nevada was a packed house, and considering it’s my home town, that really got me pumped up.
Last week on the campaign trail, the hot button issues folks cared most about were:
I’d say the most notable thing from last week was the response folks had to Gov. Reynolds rejecting millions of dollars of federal aid to feed hungry kids in low income households during the summer months. There are certainly a lot of upset Iowans regarding that decision on the campaign trail, and I too am frustrated by Reynolds’ decision.
Similarly, I heard yet again this argument from someone one the right today that giving hungry kids federal food assistance creates a dependency upon that program that stunts the growth of that person, that makes it harder for them to be self reliant.
I grew up in poverty, in a financially stressed neighborhood in Omaha, Nebraska full of neighbors going through the same thing. My single mom worked all throughout my childhood, sometimes needing food stamps (or SNAP benefits as they are known as today) to feed my two siblings and I. At no point in time did this assistance create a dependency on the federal aid. At no point did I, my mom, my siblings, or my neighbors think that since we were receiving such assistance that we had it made, that life was good, that we were content. Living in poverty is, for the most part, living in misery. A little bit of financial help so we can eat didn’t change that. If anything, it gave us one less thing to worry about that made it more likely that we’d be able to work our way out of that tough spot so we’d no longer need the help.
The data also bears this out. Per the link below, roughly only a third of those who receive SNAP benefits stay on those benefits for more than three years (and of course many of those folks are unable to work due to age or disability). Another third stay on it less than a year. It’s a hand up, not a hand out.
I’m the candidate that believes in feeding our kids, all of them.
Our schedule for this week:
Wednesday, January 10th at 5 pm, Albion Library in Albion
Saturday, January 13th all day, Progress Iowa Conference in West Des Moines
Sunday, January 14th, I’ll start door knocking to gather signatures in Story County
Recent press/social media posts of note:
We again are rejecting all Corporate PAC money, so we really rely on, and are extremely grateful for your support. We’ll spend your donations on ways to expand our reach to as many voters as possible, including:
-Post cards and other mailers and postage
-Hand out cards for events
-Text messaging campaigns
-Transportation costs for events and door knocking
-Campaign website costs
-Radio ads, Social Media Ads, and (hopefully) TV ads
-Our campaign managers
Finally, if you have anyone else in mind that would like to be added to our email list or who would be interested in volunteering, let us know at melton4iowa@gmail.com!
Let’s keep fighting the good fight together!
Ryan Melton
Blog For Iowa 