A candidate said Iowans don’t ride bikes. The state has a famous bike tour.
It was an off-the-cuff comment Joe Mitchell made to President Donald Trump during a Republican campaign rally Thursday.
“We don’t ride bicycles in Iowa. We ride Harley-Davidsons, isn’t that true,” said Mitchell, a former Trump administration housing official who’s vying to represent the state’s 2nd Congressional District.
Iowa’s roughly 900,000 cyclists, many of whom have participated in an annual cycling tour that’s made the state synonymous with biking, weren’t amused.
“I think the idea that Iowans don’t ride bicycles would just really surprise a lot of people here,” said Rose Willey-Farver, board president of the Iowa Bicycle Coalition. “Cycling is part of Iowa’s identity.”
In a statement to The Washington Post, Mitchell said, “Some people have lost their sense of humor.”
Every summer, the state plays host to the largest, longest-running citizen bike tour in the world. Called the Register’s Annual Great Bicycle Ride Across Iowa, or RAGBRAI, the ride attracts thousands of cyclists from throughout the nation and world. The cyclists cross the state, generating an economic impact estimated at $25 million.
The RAGBRAI was started by and continues to be organized by the Des Moines Register newspaper. In July, the west-to-east ride across the state passed through a significant stretch of the northeastern Iowa district Mitchell hopes to represent.
“I know you’ve been spending a lot of time at Mar-a-Lago recently Joe, but we’re pretty proud of our bikes here in Iowa,” Lindsay James, Mitchell’s Democratic opponent, wrote on X, referring to Trump’s Florida estate.
The race to represent Iowa’s 2nd District is rated a toss-up, according to the nonpartisan Cook Political Report.
