Over 20 years ago, Eddie Andrews’ former business partner and mentor made off with hundreds of thousands of dollars from the sale of his successful business. Eddie was blindsided and, in addition to the personal toll, was left facing lawsuits and court battles and considerable financial costs.
Many would have given up on the pursuit of entrepreneurship after being betrayed by a business partner and mentor, but Eddie has refused to give up on his success dreams. It’s those dreams and goals that influenced his decision to run for office.
“Mental health has affected our family and thousands of other families, and we need to close the gaps and make better navigation systems to help parents, families, veterans and trauma survivors. We’ve suffered loss and I made a commitment to help as many families as I can.
Plus, as a small business owner, I know what so many of our families face. It is important we have someone at the State House representing those voices and understands those challenges.”
Today Eddie is running to unseat Democrat Karin Derry in Iowa House District 39. While he has been outspent, He continues to work hard to speak to every voter in his district. He has enjoyed the opportunity to talk about issues and get the opportunity. As Election Day approached, Eddie feels good about the race. He points to the success he’s had in recruiting Democrats to join his bipartisan coalition and things that are due to his common-sense approach to problems that everyone sees rather than the ones one party puts a priority on. It seems that it’s not just Eddie who believes his grassroots campaign is gaining traction; the democrats and his opponents likely agree. Why? We’ll suddenly there has been a deluge of attacks on him, about his 20-year-old business issue and even going to far as bringing up user reviews.
“The Democrats must really be worried about this seat If they are bringing up something that was settled in court decades ago,” said Andrews. “Overall, my business had millions of satisfied customers, with my complaint rate being less than 0.1 percent. Could you imagine having an elected official with that kind of success rate?”
Despite the attacks, Eddie Andrews says he plans to keep doing what he’s been doing, which is talking about the issues that matter to the voters. The issues that created the successful message that led to the attacks.
“No one’s perfect, but I’m not going to let them win. I’m going to continue talking about fixing Iowa’s mental health care system. I’m going to continue advocating for education options for parents and families. I’m going to continue to talk about how important entrepreneurial zones are and how we benefit from them and lastly, if I’m elected I’m going to work even harder every day to find ways to lower taxes for the voters of this district,” stated Andrews
In February, Iowa field report ran a profile on Eddie Andrews and commented on the state of the race:
In 2016, Republicans held the district with a turnout that was only about 1/2% higher than the Democrats. In 2018 the Republicans lost the seat to Democrat Karin Derry. Democrats turned out at approximately 80% Republicans turned out at about 75%. Republican Representative Jake Highfill lost by only 305 votes. The 2018 midterms were tough for Republicans across the country. Despite her strong showing across the state in 2018, Governor Reynolds won the district by only about a point. Republicans were so confident about their ability to hold the seat in ’18 decided not to invest any money in it early on. It wasn’t until the last minute of the campaign that they put some cash on the table. It was too little too late. Interestingly enough, this was the only seat in the state where the winner did not get 50% of the vote in 2018.
If Republicans can reach parity on turnout, a very reasonable expectation considering inevitably higher turnout in a presidential year, they feel confident in their ability to take it back. Karin Derry ran as a moderate Democrat. However, the GOP will take every opportunity to message voters that she has been a dependable ally to the far left Liberal bock of Dems in the legislature.
