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DES MOINES — Saying Iowa needs members of Congress “who will have President (Donald) Trump’s back,” Republican former state lawmaker Joe Mitchell on Monday announced his campaign for the U.S. House.

Mitchell, a 28-year-old property developer from Clear Lake, becomes the second Republican to officially declare a campaign in Eastern Iowa’s 2nd Congressional District, which became an open-seat election last week when Republican incumbent Ashley Hinson announced her intention to run for the U.S. Senate.

Mitchell became one of the youngest people ever elected to the Iowa Legislature in 2018, when he was 21 years old. In addition to serving two terms in the Iowa House, from 2019 to 20022, Mitchell

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