How the hell does this asshat keep winning in an R+4 district?
The PVI is a bit misleading, fundamentally it's a very conservative district that just happens to have Ames attached. When Ames was added, the Democratic floor in the district was raised by a lot. But the Republican floor has always been very high (remember it contains the infamous Dutch country of the northwest), remains so, and most of those Republicans are very conservative. You sort of have a microcosm of that happening in the Sioux City area, it's a swing to D-leaning city, but the Republicans there are quite conservative and not much movement is possible. Throw in some very conservative counties with that and Ames you end up with a district that any Republican can win, even if not by much.
