Hello, again, my fellow Republicans

The columnist had been a Democrat the past decade. Given his lifelong record, it was probably time for a change again. And along came Nikki Haley.

JEFFERSON, Iowa – I’m baaaaaaaaack!

You may have read my column a week ago in which I endorsed Nikki Haley, the former two-term South Carolina governor and former U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations, for president this year. 

I wrote that it’s high time we elect a woman president in this country, and that the 51-year-old Haley is the right woman, right time, and right generation.

I endorse her in the campaign for the Republican Party nomination, which starts Monday night with the Iowa Caucuses.

Nikki Haley, arriving at a campaign event in Indianola on Jan. 6. 

I plan to stick with her all the way to victory in November’s general election. With one caveat: In the unlikely event that 81-year-old President Joe Biden, a Democrat, should decide not to seek re-election, I reserve the right to vote for the Democratic nominee if that person is someone I favor.

Meantime, I have rejoined the Republican Party.  I made a visit Thursday to the Greene County auditor’s office here in Jefferson, and changed my voter registration – again.

Let’s see.  I was a Democrat through my younger years.  I was never actively involved in Democratic politics then, except to vote.  That was primarily because in my 26 years with the Des Moines Register, the newspaper rightly had an ethics code forbidding news employees being active participants or advocates in campaigns.

By 1999, things were changing.  I had resigned from the Register.  I was very concerned with the number of abortions in Iowa. And I was very inspired by the presidential campaign of Lamar Alexander, the two-term Republican governor of Tennessee.  Both of us are graduates of Vanderbilt University, where each of us served as editor-in-chief of the Vanderbilt Hustler student newspaper.

I traveled the state with Alexander, and with the campaign’s state chairperson former Gov. Terry Branstad.  Despite our best efforts, we got rolled by the bandwagon of Texas Gov. George W. Bush, who went on to the presidency.

I continued being actively involved in the Greene County Republican Party for more than a decade, including serving on the county Central Committee and as a delegate to county, district and state conventions.

But in 2012, I stirred up a hornet’s nest when I endorsed the Congressional campaign of former Iowa First Lady Christie Vilsack, a Democrat who’d been a good friend of mine for 30 years.  She was challenging the Republican incumbent Rep. Steve King in northwest Iowa. The Greene County Republican leaders said I couldn’t do that without resigning from the Central Committee.  I at first refused to resign, but calmed down and did resign early on the evening when they were going to vote me off the committee.

I spent that summer and fall traveling the district as a volunteer and speaker with the Vilsack campaign.

For the next two years, I was mostly registered as a “No Party” voter, except for a brief registration as a Libertarian – in solidarity with Greene County newcomer Thomas Laehn. He’d become a friend, was running for County Attorney, and was elected as a Libertarian.

By 2016, I was a Democrat again, and remained one until Thursday.

My anti-abortion view has made it uncomfortable for me sometimes in the Democratic Party.

But there are a couple of ideas I’ve embraced in politics that have served me very well over my six decades of participation.  One is that I’m not, and never have been, a single-issue voter.  Another is that the people with whom I disagree on political issues are not my enemies, they’re just my opponents – and there’s no reason we can’t be friends.  Or even married.

My wife Mary Riche is a lifelong feminist and active Democrat activist, one who is strongly pro-choice on the abortion issue and has been a leader with Planned Parenthood and now with the physicians who founded Iowans for Health Liberty.  She has a resume that includes years of work on issues seeking equality and equity for women.  I fully support her doing all she does.

We’ve both got deep roots in politics.  In fact, we met for the first time 50 years ago when she was press secretary for a Democrat running for governor and I was a young reporter for the Register spending a couple days covering that campaign. We’d been friends ever since, although we never had a romantic thought about each other until 18 months ago.

So, what does she think of my latest political switcheroo?

You’ll have to ask her.  She tells me she will speak publicly, with lots to say about our differences on the issue of a woman’s individual freedom to make reproductive decisions and on the presidential contest if I remain a Republican.  Until then, she has refused to speak publicly about our differences on choice and my decision to change parties, other than to respond to her friends, tongue in cheek, that “she went to bed with a Democrat last Saturday and woke up with a Republican on Sunday morning.”

What I really hope is that all Iowans are putting as much time, research and consideration into making their choices for president as I have.

I also hope that despite the miserable weather, there is a huge turnout for the Iowa Caucuses on Monday night, especially for the Republican caucuses where all the action is right now.

And please consider a vote for Nikki Haley.  In my view, she’s been the most “presidential” of all the candidates we’ve seen in Iowa this cycle.  I believe she’s the future.

In fact, I’ve been named the Haley campaign’s chairperson for Jefferson Precinct One, which is scheduled to meet at 7 p.m. at the Greene County Elementary School.  I’ve volunteered to speak in support of her candidacy. 

There may be some of my fellow Republicans there who’ll look on me as the bastard showing up at the family reunion.  But I’ll like ’em anyway.

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You can comment on this column below or write the columnist directly by email at chuck@offenburger.com.

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A NOTE TO MY READERS: I write my “Iowa Boy Chuck Offenburger” columns here as a member of the Iowa Writers’ Collaborative, which is led by Julie Gammack, of Des Moines. In less than two years, our group has grown to 48 professional journalists. We are spread across Iowa and write on a wide variety of topics, but all share a deep interest in life in this state. You can become free subscribers on Substack and read us without cost, but if you enjoy our work, I encourage you to become a paid subscriber at whatever level you’re comfortable.

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Nicole Baart: This Stays Here, Sioux Center

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Tory Brecht: Brecht’s Beat, Quad Cities

Doug Burns: The Iowa Mercury, Carroll

Dave Busiek: Dave Busiek on Media, Des Moines

Iowa Writers’ Collaborative, Roundup

Steph Copley: It Was Never a Dress, Johnston

Art Cullen: Art Cullen’s Notebook, Storm Lake

Suzanna de Baca: Dispatches from the Heartland, Huxley

Debra Engle: A Whole New World, Madison County

Arnold Garson: Second Thoughts, Okoboji and Sioux Falls

Julie Gammack: Julie Gammack’s Iowa Potluck, Des Moines and Okoboji

Joe Geha: Fern and Joe, Ames

Jody Gifford: Benign Inspiration, West Des Moines

Rob Gray: Rob Gray’s Area, Ankeny

Nik Heftman: The Seven Times, Los Angeles and Iowa

Beth Hoffman: In the Dirt, Lovilia

Chris Jones, Chris’s Substack, Des Moines

Pat Kinney: View from Cedar Valley, Waterloo

Fern Kupfer: Fern and Joe, Ames

Robert Leonard: Deep Midwest: Politics and Culture, Bussey

Letters from Iowans, Iowa

Darcy Maulsby: Keepin’ It Rural, Calhoun County

Tar Macias: Hola Iowa, Iowa

Alison McGaughey, The Inquisitive Quad Citizen, Quad Cities

Kurt Meyer: Showing Up, St. Ansgar

Vicki Minor, Relatively Minor, Winterset

Wini Moranville: Wini’s Food Stories, Des Moines

Jeff Morrison: Between Two Rivers, Cedar Rapids

Kyle Munson: Kyle Munson’s Main Street, Des Moines

Jane Nguyen: The Asian Iowan, West Des Moines

John Naughton: My Life, in Color, Des Moines

Chuck Offenburger: Iowa Boy Chuck Offenburger, Jefferson and Des Moines

Barry Piatt: Piatt on Politics Behind the Curtain, Washington, D.C.

Dave Price: Dave Price’s Perspective, Des Moines

Macey Shofroth: The Midwest Creative, Norwalk

Larry Stone: Listening to the Land, Elkader

Mary Swander: Mary Swander’s Buggy Land, Kalona

Mary Swander: Mary Swander’s Emerging Voices, Kalona

Cheryl Tevis: Unfinished Business, Boone County

Ed Tibbetts: Along the Mississippi, Davenport

Kali White VanBaale, 988: Mental Healthcare in Iowa, Bondurant

Teresa Zilk: Talking Good, Des Moines

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