Des Moines Register.com - Ben Lange and John Archer win "Young Gun" Designations from NRCC

News Article

By Jason Noble

The Republicans challenging incumbent Democrats in two eastern-Iowa congressional districts have ascended to the top tier of a national GOP candidate-recruiting effort.

Ben Lange, running in the 1st District, and John Archer, in the 2nd, have been designated "Young Guns" by the National Republican Congressional Committee, the GOP's campaign arm for the U.S. House of Representatives.

Lange and Archer have been rising in the Young Guns program for several months, earning steadily higher designations as they met fundraising and organizational benchmarks and demonstrated their competitiveness in races against established incumbents.

Lange faces U.S. Rep. Bruce Braley, while Archer is challenging Rep. Dave Loebsack. Both are three-term incumbents.

The Young Gun designations are an indication of the candidates' ability to compete, but also presumably avails them to additional support from the NRCC, which raises and spends money on behalf of candidates nationwide.

"The momentum behind these campaigns is proof-positive that Americans are fed up with President Obama's policies that spend too much, tax too much and borrow too much at the expense of hard-working families," NRCC Chairman Pete Sessions said of the most recent Young Gun designees in a statement."These seven candidates are leading the pack as Republicans continue to send a loud and clear message that we will hold Democrats accountable for their job-destroying agenda."

Across the country, 28 Republican congressional candidates have been named Young Guns.

Source