That we did as well as we did considering what we were up against is an enduring testament to the incredibly generous support of so many people who share our unshakable belief that a better future is possible — and that there is nothing wrong with our state or our country that cannot be fixed by what is right with it. Thank you for sharing that belief and supporting my campaign.

After several weeks of winding down our campaign operation, a little more sleep, a lot more family time, and several home improvement projects… I am excited to share what’s next.

Introducing: Build the Barn PAC

Today, I am launching Build the Barn PAC, which will continue the work we began together in my Senate campaign.

“Build the Barn” was the unofficial motto of my U.S. Senate campaign, a tribute to the classic line often attributed to Sam Rayburn: “Any jackass can kick down a barn, but it takes a good carpenter to build one.”

Like the campaign, our PAC will not accept or solicit a single dollar from corporate PACs, and every dollar we raise will be fully and transparently disclosed. I’m not interested in building the thing I spent a year running against.

We will formally launch this new endeavor at my eighth annual birthday brunch fundraiser on Sunday, August 16 at 11:00 AM in Coralville — you are invited to join us if you can be there in person — and if you cannot be there in person, you can support the effort online by donating securely online via ActBlue by clicking on this link or via the button below:

Donate Now

Our first endorsement: Rep. Josh Turek

Josh won our primary, he can win this seat, and I was proud to give him my full support on the night of our primary election — and today, he is the first candidate we are endorsing and whose campaign we are supporting.

As I said on the night of our primary election, Josh and I competed hard against each other, as we should. We had real disagreements. Scripture tells us that iron sharpens iron — and while our primary made us both sharper, it didn’t make us colder. We got to know each other, even as we competed with each other. Josh is a good man. And he will be an infinitely better U.S. Senator than Ashley Hinson.

Between now and November 3, he needs doors knocked in places that are a long drive from wherever you live, and he needs money. So does Rob Sand, and so do the U.S. House candidates who can flip that chamber and put a check on the corruption and chaos in Washington.

That’s the work of the next eighty-five days, and if you’ve been looking for the right time to get involved, today is the day.

Finally: The work ahead

We drove tens of thousands of miles across this state, attending or hosting nearly 400 events — including 100 stops during our “Iowans Over Insiders” tour — and if you met me on the trail, there’s a good chance you noticed that I like to take notes. Over the course of the campaign, I heard more stories than I can count, and we carefully listened to Iowans describing the challenges facing their communities.

Those stories became the backbone of our campaign message:

• Big investment companies jacking up the price of fire trucks, squeezing the budgets of small towns and big cities alike

• Factories closing in places like Burlington, where CNH shuttered a profitable plant that had been open for a century

• Young and next-generation farmers failed by a government that works great for the largest corporations but not Iowa family farms

• Greedy investors taking advantage of Iowans living in mobile and manufactured homes with massive lot rent increases

• Young families unable to afford the costs of childcare, renting, or homeownership

And unfortunately, I’ve got many, many more examples. But one of the core beliefs of my campaign was that there is nothing wrong with Iowa that cannot be fixed by what is right with Iowa — and what is right with Iowa is the people.

So we’re going to keep at it. Even if I won’t be addressing these problems from the U.S. Senate in 2027, I know that together we can move the needle.

In the coming weeks and months, I’ll be sharing more about what we heard on the campaign trail, and sharing opportunities about how you can join the grassroots efforts to build a better future for Iowa.

What I’m asking you to do this week

1. Come to my Birthday Brunch event this weekend — Sunday, August 16, 11:00 AM, Coralville. If you’ve been waiting for a good moment to get involved, this is it.
   

   RSVP Now

2. If you can’t be there, chip in online — you can donate securely through ActBlue to fund our support of our endorsed candidates.
   

   Donate Now

3. Sign up here to volunteer for Josh Turek and Rob Sand through Iowa’s coordinated campaign.

   Sign Up to Volunteer

I hope you’ll pick up a hammer and join us.

Onward!

ZW

This campaign started with a simple conviction: Iowa deserves a senator who is actually working for Iowans. Not for party bosses. Not for outside special interests. Not for the corporations and the billionaires who have corrupted our politics and rigged our economy. For Iowa. For us. For you.

I know a lot of folks are still making up their minds about who they plan to vote for in this primary election, so today I want to share exactly what I’ll fight for in the United States Senate.

What we have been getting from Washington — from both parties — has failed us. And after 362 campaign events, visiting over 100 different communities in 75 different counties, and meeting nearly 20,000 Iowans face to face, I can confidently say that Iowans across our state and across the political spectrum agree it’s time for a new vision.

After 10 months of listening to Iowans on the campaign trail, my team and I have assembled — in painstaking detail — a new vision for Iowa that directly addresses the concerns we have heard on the trail, crisscrossing our state. We call it the Iowans Over Insiders Agenda.

End the Corruption. Unrig the Economy. Fix our Healthcare. Save our Small Towns. Restore our Democracy.

What has happened to our country — to our politics, our economy, our democracy — isn’t an accident. The system isn’t “broken” at all, in fact it’s working exactly the way it has been designed to work.

It’s been built deliberately and methodically, by the insiders, billionaires, special interests, big corporations, and party bosses who profit most from the rigged system. The meatpacking executives who control 85% of the beef market. The pharmaceutical companies that charge Iowans twice what Canadians pay for the same drugs. The dark money donors who write the campaign checks. The lobbyists who write the legislation and the politicians who vote those bills into law. And we’re the ones who are paying for it: at the grocery store, the gas station, the doctor’s office, the pharmacy, the nursing home, the childcare center — and even your property taxes.

Last October, I was in Atlantic, the seat of Cass County, for a roundtable discussion with community leaders. One of the things that came up was that the price for a new fire engine has exploded over the last decade, doubling and even tripling in some cases. The waitlist to take delivery of a new fire engine has doubled, too. And it’s not just Cass County - this is happening all over our state, and all across the country.

Why is this happening? There are a lot of factors at play, but the biggest driver is simple: industry consolidation and corporate greed. Private equity has consolidated what was previously a highly competitive and diversified manufacturing industry, with 70% of the market now controlled by just three companies.

Fire trucks are not an optional expense. No matter whether you live in a big city, a small town, or a rural community, fire safety protection is one of the single most essential services that we expect our government to provide. During my eight years in the Iowa State Senate, property taxes have been a hot topic every single year because they keep going up. But there has been virtually zero discussion about why costs to local governments have been growing out of control, or the fact that our property tax dollars are padding the profit margins of corporate monopolies.

And my Republican opponent in this race? Ashley Hinson loves private equity, the big investment companies that are rigging our economy. She’s received huge campaign contributions from their executives and then votes in their interests, not Iowa’s.

As everything gets more expensive, paychecks and benefits haven’t kept up (in fact, Ashley Hinson voted to cut Social Security by $452M in 2024). The federal minimum wage has been stuck at $7.25 since 2009. The rich keep getting richer, and Elon Musk is set to become the first ever trillionaire after spending $300M to elect Donald Trump in 2024.

We simply cannot continue this way. That’s why I endorsed Bernie Sander’s 5% billionaire wealth tax. (We all pay wealth taxes, by the way — that’s what our property taxes are.) That’s why I proposed a comprehensive anti-corruption and campaign finance reform plan and took the Political Integrity Pledge.

Restoring trust in our politics starts with leading by example.

I’m not taking corporate PAC money. Not one dollar. Because I’ve seen what happens to politicians who do. They arrive in Washington claiming to be full of fight and leave full of excuses for not getting anything done. The way you stay accountable to Iowans is by never selling out. That’s a choice I made at the start of this campaign, and I’m proud of it. And when super PACs started spending in our race, I challenged my Democratic opponent to join me in cracking down on the outside spending — he refused.

Here’s what I’ll fight for: overturn Citizens United through a constitutional amendment, bipartisan work I’ve already started in the Iowa Senate. Ban members of Congress from trading stocks on inside information – and enact real consequences when they do. Close the revolving door between the Senate and K Street. Make dark money donors disclose who they are.

To make an economy work for Iowans again, the era of politicians serving their donors while pretending to serve their constituents has to end.

On the economic side: I’ll enforce antitrust law against the corporate monopolies hollowing out Iowa’s farm economy. I’ll fight for trade policy that protects Iowa farmers instead of gutting their markets. The Trump-Hinson tariffs have done real damage, and I will fight to repeal them. I’ll be a day-one co-sponsor of the PRO Act, fight to repeal right-to-work, and enforce Davis-Bacon on every federally funded project in Iowa.

More than 25 labor unions have endorsed this campaign. The Ironworkers even invited me to become a dues-paying member, because they know I will always fight for working people.

I’ll fight for Small Towns and Family Farms.

I am a sixth-generation Iowan. My family has been farming, building, and raising families in this state for generations. And I have watched rural communities get hollowed out — hospitals that closed, school districts that consolidated and Friday night lights turned off for the last time. That doesn’t have to be our future — if we’re willing to fight back.

With your support, I’ll lead the fight to break up the corporate consolidators squeezing family farmers out. I’ll push for a Family Farm Authority to help young and next generation farmers get a foothold in the land. I’ll crack down on foreign and Wall Street ownership of Iowa land, because Iowa farms should belong to Iowa farmers. And I’ll fight for the rural broadband, rural hospitals, and rural investment that Washington has been promising and failing to deliver for decades.

I’ll fight to protect healthcare and Social Security.

No Iowan should go broke from getting sick. I’ll fight to let Medicare negotiate drug prices directly, cap insulin at $35 a month for every American, restore the Trump/Hinson Medicaid cuts that are closing our rural clinics, and address Iowa’s cancer crisis with serious investment in screening, research, and access. I’ve introduced or co-sponsored 28 pro-choice bills in the Iowa Senate, and I will fight to restore and codify the protections of Roe v. Wade. Ashley Hinson voted to block lower insulin prices and to cut Medicaid. She voted to cut Social Security. She is a vote to keep abortion banned in Iowa. That’s the choice this election.

Iowa’s seniors earned their Social Security. My Keep the Promise Act protects and strengthens it, not by cutting benefits or raising the retirement age, but by scrapping the cap so the wealthiest Americans pay the same rate into the system that working Iowans do. I will not let Trump, DOGE, or anyone else take what Iowa’s seniors were promised.

I’ll fight to Restore Our Democracy.

Donald Trump is an existential threat to American democracy. Not a political opponent to be managed. Not a governing style to disagree with. An existential threat to the courts, to the free press, to the rule of law, to the principle that elections are decided by voters and not by whoever has the most power to contest the result. We are living through a stress test of our democratic institutions, and a lot of them are failing it.

Ashley Hinson is complicit in all of this. She has been Trump’s loyal vote in the House, and she will be his loyal vote in the Senate. I will not. I believe that defending democracy is not a partisan act; it is the most basic obligation of anyone who takes an oath to the Constitution. And I intend to take that oath seriously.

In the Senate, I’ll fight to ban partisan gerrymandering, pass the John Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act, implement automatic voter registration, and push for ranked choice voting to break the stranglehold of a two-party system that is failing most Americans. Democracy is not self-executing. It requires people who are willing to fight for it, even when it’s politically inconvenient, even when powerful people are spending $10 million against you. That’s the senator I intend to be.

Iowa’s Choice.

I’ve spent this entire campaign traveling all across the state listening to Iowans. The message I’ve heard is consistent, whether I’m in Dubuque or Sioux City, Storm Lake or Cedar Rapids: people want a senator who shows up, listens, and actually delivers. A Senator who isn’t afraid to take on powerful interests. A Senator who isn’t afraid to challenge the failed leadership of both parties.

I have spent a decade proving, in the Iowa Senate, that I am exactly that kind of fighter. And I have the endorsements to show for it — Iowa’s firefighters, building trades, community leaders, ironworkers, and more — not because I made back-room deals, but because I kept my promises. And my promise to you is that I will always fight for what I believe is best for our state.

Ashley Hinson is Donald Trump’s choice for this seat. My primary opponent is Chuck Schumer’s choice. But this seat doesn’t belong to them — it belongs to the people of Iowa. Tomorrow, Iowa Democrats have a chance to send someone to Washington who is beholden only to the people of this state, someone who will fight like hell for every Iowa family, every Iowa farm, and every Iowa community that Washington has left behind.

I am asking for your vote tomorrow, and I would be honored to be your Democratic nominee for the U.S. Senate.

— Zach

On a cool spring day in 2019, my husband Zach came home from Des Moines furious. He’s not a man who angers easily – an important character trait when you’re in politics, as well as a marriage. But that day, he was angry, because the thing he’d been working on for months, a common sense bill that would grant basic protections to our neighbors living in mobile homes, had been killed by a member of the Iowa House of Representatives.

As a freshman State Senator, Zach had started hearing from constituents whose mobile home communities had been bought up by an out-of-state company that proceeded to raise their lot rents by 50%, or 60%, or 70%, from one month to the next. These were people on fixed incomes, or living paycheck to paycheck, who were being forced to choose between keeping a roof over their heads and buying groceries or filling their prescriptions. They were trapped, and they were scared, and they needed someone to fight for them.

Zach heard these stories, and then he did what I’ve seen him do so many times: He got to work. He went to his colleagues in the Senate, where even though he was a freshman in the minority, he worked with them until they arrived at a compromise bill that would protect Iowans from these predatory practices. He brought our neighbors to the Capitol so they could speak on their own behalf about how the bill would make a difference for them. It worked: In the Senate that bill passed 48-0, and it went to the House, where its passage seemed like a done deal.

But then a single House member, at the behest of the lobbyist representing those predatory out of state companies, killed Zach’s bill. That House member was Ashley Hinson.

Zach watched with his own eyes as Hinson, who is now running for Iowa’s open US Senate seat, sided with powerful out of state corporations over her own constituents. Later, he learned that all it had cost the lobby was a $1500 donation to her 2016 re-election campaign.

Like I said, Zach doesn’t get mad easily. But in the last decade I’ve learned that nothing makes him angrier than seeing people who have power screw over people who don’t.

It’s an anger we’ve heard about all over the state as Zach has spent the last year running for the US Senate. Iowans are angry at politicians who have written them off and left them behind. They’re angry at Republicans, who have signed off on President Trump’s disastrous tariffs and his war of choice in Iran, which have sent prices skyrocketing – to say nothing of the tragic human cost for the state of Iowa. They’re angry at Democrats, who have stopped fighting for small towns and blue collar workers, and do the bidding of corporate donors instead of answering to working people.

Iowans pay the price for that corruption every day at the gas pump, the supermarket, the pharmacy, and the childcare center. We pay it in poorly-staffed maternity wards and nursing homes, in water we can’t swim in and are scared to drink, in boarded up main streets and consolidating public schools.

Zach knows it doesn’t have to be this way. And as always, he’s ready to get to work. As our next US Senator, Zach will work tirelessly to root out corruption and make life easier for hardworking Iowans. He won’t win every battle, but he’ll never back down from a hard fight. After so many years of being let down by our leaders, Zach is the fierce, independent champion that Iowans deserve.

Like many Iowans, I became aware of Zach because of a viral moment–a powerful speech he gave about his family in the face of a government that was targeting and scapegoating them. Perhaps you know about our “meet-cute,” the blog post I wrote in response to the viral video, which I headlined, “Marry Me, Zach Wahls.”

It’s a great how-we-met story. But the real love story is what happened next: I fell for Zach because I recognized the values we shared. Hard work. A clear sense of right and wrong and a hunger for justice. A dedication to public service, and the belief that everyone’s story is worth not just hearing, but really listening to. The ability to turn anger and fear into something positive and productive that makes people’s lives better. These are Zach’s values. He lives them every day. They’re what drives his campaign. And they’re why he’ll make a formidable US Senate candidate this November and an effective US Senator.

He’s earned my admiration, and my vote, a hundred times over. I hope he’ll earn yours, too.

Chloe Angyal

Thank you.

Together we’ve built a movement that has spread across all 99 counties and we’ve laid out a clear vision for tackling corruption, unrigging our economy and lowering healthcare costs, and investing in small town and rural Iowa.

Thousands have stepped up to volunteer their time and resources to make this happen. We’ve included notes and letters from a few below. It takes courage to speak up for what you believe, especially when we’re going up against an establishment that wants things to stay just the way they are. I’m proud to be in this fight with all of you.

Onward,

ZW

Sophia Joseph, Cedar Rapids, IA

When endorsing, We are CR looks for candidates with progressive stances, integrity, authenticity, and a willingness to stand for what is right, regardless of opposition.

I met Turek at my door. His strength was nothing short of admirable. He is the definition of a fighter. But when I asked the hard questions about progressive values and the need for change, he went into a stump speech, before tiddily wrapping up the conversation and moving along. Turek aligns with, is supported by, and operates like the Old Guard. The Democratic party has played defense full-time, while operating without an offensive plan. We saw the defensive strategy play out in Josh’s vote for a virulently anti-immigrant bill SF 2340. It is time for a new tide.

I talked to Wahls. He’s down-to-earth, approachable, smart, and not afraid to call it like it is. For over an hour, he dug into the weeds with me on policies, votes, and issues. He spoke of women’s health, maternity rates, healthcare, and jobs. I brought up immigration, Palestine, and racial disparities. He was willing to really dig into hot-button issues and stay in the conversation even when we didn’t align.

In my conversation with Wahls, it was clear that he understood the gravity of the fight and who he is fighting for. I believe he has the fortitude and strength of character needed to maintain his integrity. This moment calls for a leader and we believe that leader is Zach Wahls.

I’m supporting Zach Wahls in the Primary, here’s why: Opinion Piece By Heather Staton, Reinbeck, IA

I know this race is contentious. I also know there have been some less than favorable moves from both candidate camps. So, let’s talk about the mudslinging.

Wahls Claims against Turek:

Dark Money/Establishment Pick:

Zach has stated multiple times that Josh Turek is being funded by a dark money Schumer PAC. Is VoteVets a Schumer PAC? I don’t know, not officially. Is it a dark money group, yes.

https://www.opensecrets.org/dark-money/basics

Women’s Rights & Healthcare:

Zach Wahls has called out Josh Turek’s lack of votes for women’s rights. As someone who spends a whole lot of time breaking down legislation, I noticed this early on, it is absolutely true. So true, in fact, that we had the privilege of chatting with Josh Turek via zoom very early on in his campaign: So we asked him about it. His response was that he had appointments due to his Spina Bifida. That would make total sense, if he hadn’t missed every vote on women’s rights and healthcare over multiple sessions. This is of course aside from a single vote regarding women’s healthcare- funding for predatory crisis pregnancy centers. These are fake women’s health clinics with no medical training who intentionally misrepresent themselves as medical providers to persuade and shame women out of choosing abortion, regardless of the reasoning.

Wahls has said that Turek had not proposed any legislation regarding women’s rights and from all of our research, this is also true. Josh Turek first proposed a bill on women’s rights this most recent session, after he had launched his campaign.

Lastly, in January I attended a fundraising event for a local county party. This was soon after the voting record had been brought up. All three senate candidates were in attendance, but Josh’s team appeared in matching Planned Parenthood shirts, which came off as being grossly performative to many attendees and one particular senate candidate who is no longer in the race.

https://iowaabortionaccessfund.org/2023/01/04/crisis-pregnancy-centers-cpcs-exposed/

ICE & Immigration:

Zach Wahls has called out Josh Turek’s vote in favor of a 2024 Biden-Era Immigration bill that allows Iowa law enforcement to charge people with a misdemeanor if they are in the country after being denied admission or have been deported, even if they are currently in the United States legally. Turek was one of three democrats to vote with republicans on passing the bill into law. The bill was run alongside SF2340, which was passed and signed into law April 10th, 2024.

Some argue that this was a pre-trump bill, so ICE was not the same organization that it is now under Donald Trump. I disagree with this. ICE was formed in 2003, and has always been problematic, in my opinion. Back in 2018, I was a dedicated Grey’s Anatomy watcher. In April of 2018, there is an episode called “Beautiful Dreamer” that tells the story of a Dreamer and resident doctor who breaks a traffic law and loses her Dreamer status for breaking the law. Now, clearly this is not reality, and not a real life example- however it does show that even back in 2018, ICE was a concern- and that exact scenario is the kind of action this type of bill perpetuates.

Original Bill: https://www.legis.iowa.gov/legislation/BillBook?ba=HF%202567&ga=90

Grey’s Episode: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt7044320/

Turek’s Claims:

Shady Crypto Donation:

During Zach Wahls time as Senate Minority Leader, he and the Iowa Democratic Party accepted a contribution of $250,000 from FTX, a now bankrupt crypto exchange company. When FTX went under, IDP was legally required to return $200,000 of that donation. Wahls maintains that he and IDP fell victim to fraudsters and has vowed to not own, trade, or accept any contributions from crypto.

In my opinion, the responsibility of this situation does not live with Zach Wahls, it lives with the Iowa Democratic Party. Regardless of who procured the contribution, the Iowa Democratic Party holds the responsibility of making sure that they abide by campaign finance laws. The contribution was made to IDP, not Zach Wahls.

Flew First Class:

This claim originated from a right wing news publication, Washington Examiner published on April 1st of this year, I first saw the article shared by Iowa Senator Molly Donahue on her Facebook page. The article claims Zach Wahls was reimbursed for nearly $30,000 in expenses over the span of three years from 2020 to 2023, noting that amount is significantly higher than other minority leaders of the past. Included in the reimbursements were multiple flights and travel expenses across the country.

During Zach Wahls time as Senate Minority Leader, he assisted the Iowa Democratic Party in raising almost $800,000. That kind of money doesn’t typically come from in-state donations. So while I agree that $30k in travel expenses seems crazy, raising roughly $800k is also a huge task. The article sources 1278 pages of Federal Filings.

I feel pretty strongly about campaign finance and getting money out of politics. That being said, it is the world we live in. We can’t get money out of politics until we elect the right people to get the job done- and you can’t do that without money until we get money out of politics. You have to play the game before you can win it. That is reality. A HUGE part of campaigning, and politics in general to be very honest, is fundraising. And while I don’t necessarily think anyone should be living the high life on donated dollars, there is not a lot of information provided in federal filings. There is nothing that says Wahls specifically flew first class, just that he paid Delta $2472. We don’t know if it was a last minute flight, we don’t know if it was the only flight available. We don’t know.

What we do know is that this claim didn’t see the light of day until April 1st of this year, although Zach was Senate Minority Leader from 2020 to 2023. So for the last three years, no one had an issue with these expenses, but suddenly it’s an issue? That smells like political games to me.

https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/news/campaigns/4511340/zach-wahls-iowa-expenses-travel-records/

https://www.facebook.com/reel/1988900955169354

Ethics Complaint:

An Ethics complaint was filed by Kathy Ulrich of Cedar Rapids claiming Zach Wahls violated state Senate ethics rules by working for the Next 50 Network, LLC. The Next 50 based in New York focused on “investing in next-generation candidates” for the Democratic Party.

Elected officials are not permitted to work for Political Action Committees (PAC), 501(c)(4) or 501(c)(6) organizations. However, prior to accepting the position, Zach Wahls sought guidance from Secretary of Senate, Charlie Smithson.

The complaint was dismissed bipartisanly and unanimously by the Iowa Senate Ethics Committee.

https://cbs2iowa.com/news/local/iowa-senate-ethics-complaint-filed-against-zach-wahls

https://iowacapitaldispatch.com/2026/05/22/senate-ethics-committee-dismisses-complaint-against-sen-zach-wahls/

Represents Coralville, a “blue” city:

Turek has implied that Zach Wahls was elected by “blue” voters while he was elected in a Trump led district.

I have a hard time with this. While western Iowa is known as being more “red” than eastern Iowa, Josh Turek represents a city. Council Bluffs is a populated city, whereas Zach Wahls district is quite rural. Zach may represent eastern Iowa, however he also represents parts of rural Iowa.

Both Wahls and Turek can do the job. They both have similar platforms and similar talking points. They both have experience as elected representatives. They both have incredible origin stories. They’re both kind and easy to converse with, and they both seem to care a great deal about the state of Iowa and the people who reside here.

The electability argument:

I believe VOTERS determine who is electable. In my opinion, electability is a term used to peer pressure voters. That may be an unpopular opinion, but it is mine. Considering the wave of change in recent races, I think it is easy to see that electability is not the end all be all of elections. We have a 34 time felon in the White House, did he have electability? What about Mamdami? Was he considered electable? The list goes on. The more of us (voters) who stop listening to the electability argument, the more we can change what that term means and how it is used.

This argument can be solved simply: Define electability. If you can’t define the word, or find a list of attributes that make someone electable, then it really doesn’t exist, does it? It’s just another unnecessary social construct to make voters feel as if there are only certain types of people who are equipped to run for office.

In this case, BOTH of the people running for this seat have electability- being they both serve in elected positions, they’ve clearly both been elected at some point in their careers which makes them electable, no?

So, why am I voting for Zach:

We need a fighter:

I believe that Zach Wahls is a fighter. He’s had no issue standing up to people in his years of being a representative and beyond, and I believe he will continue to do the same in the US Senate. I believe we need someone who isn’t afraid to challenge the bad decision making in D.C. and will take on the people who threaten our democracy. He has shown that he is not afraid to take a hard stance, and stay there.

Women’s Reproductive Rights:

Zach has a proven history of protecting women’s reproductive rights. While I don’t believe Josh Turek is necessarily anti-abortion or pro-life, I also don’t believe women’s reproductive rights have been a priority for him during his time as a state representative. I think women’s reproductive rights are one of the most important issues facing America today and I want someone who will consistently show up to protect and restore the rights of women in the United States.

The Chuck Schumer of it all.

Zach Wahls has called for Chuck Schumer to step down from leadership multiple times, and has repeatedly stated he will not vote to keep Schumer in place, and I think that is the first step toward a democratic party that actually operates for the people.

What anti-establishment means to me:

To me, being “anti-establishment” is being willing to go against the grain, even when it differs from your own party. It means calling out shitty behaviors, regardless of party affiliation. No corporate PAC money, no million dollar ad buys on your behalf, no commitment to vote party lines. I want someone who votes for the people, not for the party. We need someone in D.C. who is unafraid of the slander campaigns, the do-nothing leadership, and the current President. I believe Zach Wahls is that person. Zach isn’t just fighting for a Senate seat, he is fighting to improve the democratic party and push for the progress that should have been happening for years.

Iowa is in need of a big change, we’ve seen it over many years of GOP leadership. Zach has shown where he stands with his voting history in the Iowa Senate. I cannot in good conscience say the same about Josh Turek. For me, voting history was the deciding factor. I don’t want a representative that votes with republicans on bad immigration bills, or misses votes on important women’s reproductive rights.

No matter who wins the primary election, I will congratulate them and support their campaign. Because as a CD-2 resident, I know either of them will be far better than Ashley Hinson.

But, I am casting my primary vote for Zach Wahls in the hopes that he will go on to face Ashley Hinson in the general election, because he is what I want to see in D.C. A champion for Unions, a fighter for women, and a progressive representative willing to stand ten toes down on issues that matter most.

J.P. Claussen, Coralville, IA

I’ve been a Johnson County Democrat for a long time. In the Iowa caucuses I’ve supported Bill Bradley, Howard Dean and Barack Obama, candidates who shared genuine intelligence, a pragmatic way of governing and an independence from wherever the party mainstream was at the time. Democratic Senate candidate Zach Wahls reminds me of those candidates.

There’s a lot being said in this primary about polish and poise — that Wahls is a career politician, that he’s too smooth, too prepared. I’d push back on that. There’s a difference between someone who performs politics well and someone who actually has the skills the job requires. Wahls listens to understand, not to perform. He knows the issues deeply and can explain them clearly. He has spent years in a Republican-majority legislature putting Iowans over outside interests and learning how to move things. That’s not a liability. That’s exactly what you need in Washington.

And then there’s Ashley Hinson. She has a machine, she has money, and she will run a merciless campaign against whoever Democrats nominate. The question isn’t just who has the better platform, it’s who can keep a clear head under that pressure and make the case for Iowans with force and precision.

Watch the debate. I mean that literally, watch Zach Wahls debate. He is the clearest, most forceful advocate in this race. When the attacks come, you want someone who will fight back and who will take the fight to Washington, D.C.

I’m a lifelong Iowan, a Vietnam veteran, a retired small-town lawyer, and yes—a registered Republican, or at least I was. I’ve voted for plenty of Republicans over the years, but this election, I’m proud to be supporting Democrat Zach Wahls for the United States Senate.

That might surprise some folks, but it really shouldn’t. Zach represents the kind of leadership both parties used to value: honest, practical, and grounded in Iowa common sense. He’s part of a new generation that’s more interested in solving problems than scoring partisan points, and that’s exactly what our country needs.

I first met Zach last year when he came to Belmond. He spent four hours with me and convinced me that he’s my guy. What struck me wasn’t his party label—it was his character. He listens. He shows up. And he’s not afraid to stand up to anyone, including his own party, when it’s the right thing to do. That’s too rare these days.

Zach and I may not agree on everything, but we share some core beliefs about how government should work. We both believe in term limits, because politicians shouldn’t make a career out of holding on to power. We believe public service is about helping people, not helping yourself. And we believe that protecting programs like Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid isn’t about politics—it’s about keeping the promises our country made to its veterans, seniors, and working families.

What really sold me on Zach was his willingness to take on the corruption that’s infected both parties in Washington. He’s leading the charge to ban insider trading by members of Congress, to overturn the U.S. Supreme Court’s Citizens United ruling, and to stop politicians from cashing in on corporate PAC money. Those are ideas every Iowan—Republican, Democrat, or independent—should be able to get behind. As Zach likes to say, “To fix our broken economy, we have to fix our broken politics.” I couldn’t agree more.

Like many Republicans, I’m tired of watching career politicians talk tough back home, then go to Washington and do the bidding of lobbyists and special interests. We’ve seen what that kind of politics gets us—higher prices, fewer good jobs, and rural hospitals on the brink of closure. Zach’s proven in the Iowa Senate that he’ll work across the aisle to actually get things done. He brought Democrats and Republicans together to protect residents in mobile-home communities from corporate landlords, passed bipartisan bills to cut taxes for middle-class families, and fought to keep pharmacies open in small towns like mine. That’s real leadership.

Zach Wahls doesn’t see Iowans as Democrats or Republicans—he sees us as neighbors. He’s running to lower costs for families, protect our farms, and make sure our kids have good schools to learn in and good jobs to stay for. He’s the kind of leader who talks less about party loyalty and more about personal responsibility—something I was raised to value.

This election isn’t about left versus right. It’s about right versus wrong. It’s about whether Iowa will send another politician to Washington to protect the status quo—or send someone who will challenge it. For me, the choice is clear. Zach Wahls is the only candidate talking about solutions that can actually bring people together and move Iowa forward.

So from one Republican to my fellow Iowans—take a good look at Zach Wahls. You’ll find an honest man who loves this state, fights for working families, and believes in putting country over party. That’s why I’m proud to stand with him, and why I’ll be casting my vote for Zach Wahls for the United States Senate.

Gary Berkland

Belmond, IA

I’m sure you feel the same way. But deserving something doesn’t make it happen — we have to fight for it. And that is what my campaign for the US Senate is all about. Fighting for a better future for Iowa, an America that lives up to her promise, and a stronger Democratic Party that can make what we deserve a reality.

Today, I want to talk plainly about my vision of a future worth fighting for and what I have learned in fifteen years of being in this work.

If this message resonates with you, I would be honored if you would join our grassroots campaign by making a contribution, or — most importantly — voting for me in the Democratic primary on or before June 2.

Thank you.

-ZW

A Future Worth Fighting For

Iowa needs a fighter in the Senate. A fighter to defeat Ashley Hinson, bring some courage to the Senate Democratic caucus by replacing Chuck Schumer, and finally end Donald Trump’s assault on our democracy. I’m asking for your vote on or before June 2, because I will be that fighter as your senator.

I proudly said on Day One of this campaign: it’s time for new leadership in our party, including Chuck Schumer. As I have shown in the fifteen years since unexpectedly going viral at the age of 19 fighting for my family, I’m ready to fight for a future that is worth fighting for. And I know that our party will keep losing over and over and over until we show voters that we are actually ready to fight for them. That’s how we win back the rural and blue-collar voters that Chuck Schumer lost when he said we should write them off.

That is the choice in our June 2 primary. My opponent is Chuck Schumer’s pick. A dark money Super PAC closely linked to Schumer and funded by his billionaire allies has spent more than $10 million in outside money trying to buy his nomination. (The previous Iowa record for outside spending was $1M, if you’re wondering.) That’s the Schumer playbook.

For more than a decade, we’ve watched the same movie here in Iowa. Washington Democrats pick a candidate. DC runs the same losing playbook: suck up to special interests, campaign in the cities, and hope rural voters stay home. That’s how we lose. The consultants get paid, the autopsy gets “written,” nobody actually learns anything, and in the next campaign, the same losing playbook gets run again. For them, nothing changes.

But things change for us — for the worse. While they get paid, our Medicaid gets cut and our insurance premiums go up. Rural hospitals and clinics close. Grocery bills climb. Our water gets dirtier. The billionaires get richer. And every two years, more and more Iowans wonder why the party that claims to be on their side never actually wins the fight.

There’s a reason this keeps happening. When National Democrats fold instead of fight, we pay the price. They fold to the corporate donors who fund both parties. They fold to the consultants who tell them to soften every edge until there’s nothing left for an Iowan to grab onto. And then they wonder why more and more Iowans are abandoning the party that refused to fight for the people we used to proudly represent.

I’m sick of it. I’m sick of losing. I’m sick of watching Democrats in Washington fold. I’m sick of the empty press releases and phony press conferences. I’m sick of Democratic leaders like Chuck Schumer writing off rural and blue-collar voters and then wondering why we’ve lost them. I’m sick of politicians in both parties getting rich trading stocks while Donald Trump is dismantling our democracy.

It’s time to fight. Our future is worth fighting for, our state is worth fighting for, our rural and blue-collar neighbors are worth fighting for, and our democracy is worth fighting for.

Fighting for that future means electing a senator who takes on Donald Trump every single day — not staying quiet while he defies the courts, punishes his political enemies, and shreds the Constitution.

It means new leadership in our party. It means ending the filibuster to actually get things done. It means passing the PRO Act to make it easier for workers to join a union. It means making Medicare available and affordable for every American who wants it. It means a fifteen dollar minimum wage tied to inflation. It means reversing the Big Bad Bill, passing a wealth tax on billionaires, and finally making paid family and medical leave, affordable childcare, and affordable senior care a reality.

It means breaking up the corporate monopolies that treat Iowa like a colony instead of a state. It means reversing the failed “get-big-or-get-out” approach to agriculture that is hollowing out our small towns and rural communities, selling our farmland to the highest bidder, poisoning our water, depleting our topsoil, and literally killing our state with an out-of-control cancer crisis.

I believe Iowans are desperate for a new vision for our politics and for our state, and that we can win in Iowa again by showing Iowans what we’re for and not just what we’re against. In fact, this vision is already resonating with the voters we need to win back, because it is concrete, tangible and worth fighting for. And that’s exactly why polls consistently show me as the strongest Democratic candidate to defeat Ashley Hinson in November.

The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results. We know that the Chuck Schumer/D.C. playbook has lost in Iowa before, and it will lose again. Or we can try something new, tell the truth about the corruption of our politics, and actually fight for what we believe and a new way forward for our state.

If you’re ready to try something new, and if you’re sick of Democrats playing it “safe” and losing, I am asking for your vote on or before June 2.

Donald Trump is the most serious threat to American democracy in our lifetimes. He has tried to overturn an election he lost. He has pardoned the people who attacked the United States Capitol on his behalf. He has deployed federal troops into American cities over the objection of governors and mayors. He has used the Department of Justice to investigate his political opponents and protect his political allies. He has defied court orders. He has openly mused about a third term the Constitution does not allow. He has called the free press the enemy of the people, threatened to revoke broadcast licenses for unfavorable coverage, and floated jailing American citizens for their political speech. And he has spent every single day of his second term making it clearer that he believes the President of the United States is above the law.

This is not normal. This is not partisan politics as usual. The only thing standing between this president and the end of American self-government is whether the rest of us are willing to fight for it. Our constitution only lives if we’re ready to defend it.

Too many Democrats in Washington still don’t get it. They are still treating this like a normal political moment, where you give a tough floor speech, send a strongly worded letter, and wait for the next election to fix things. That is not going to be enough. The people who are dismantling our democracy do not play by the old rules, and we are not going to save it by pretending they do.

It is time for Democrats to fight back like we actually mean it.

That means more than condemning this corrupt administration. It means rebuilding the democratic foundation he is tearing apart: the right to vote, the freedom of speech, fair maps, fair elections, a court system that is not for sale, and a campaign finance system that does not let billionaires buy our government out from under us. It means doing the structural work that previous generations of Democrats put off because it was hard. It means using power, when we have it, to actually fix the system instead of leaving the next generation to clean up the mess.

Ashley Hinson is part of the problem. She votes with Trump nearly every time. She has cheered while he deploys troops on American streets, defies court orders, and threatens his political opponents with prosecution. She voted to gut Social Security, voted for the largest Medicaid cut in American history, and has done nothing to defend the constitutional system she swore an oath to protect. She is not a check on this president; she is a rubber stamp. And every day she remains in office is another day Iowa is represented by someone whose loyalty is to Donald Trump, not to the people of this state.

Part One of our Iowans Over Insiders agenda took on Washington corruption directly: banning corporate PAC money, overturning Citizens United, ending congressional stock trading, and shutting down the revolving door between Capitol Hill and K Street. (Read it here.) Parts Two, Three, and Four laid out plans to build an economy that works for Iowans, revitalize rural Iowa, and deliver universal, affordable healthcare.

Part Five is the foundation that makes all of it possible. You cannot fix the economy if an authoritarian president is using federal power to crush dissent. You cannot save rural hospitals if gerrymandered districts insulate corrupt incumbents from accountability. You cannot deliver universal healthcare if voters are being purged from the rolls or intimidated at the polls. And you cannot keep any of it if Donald Trump or any future president succeeds in turning the United States into a country where elections are theater and the rule of law is a suggestion. Every problem we set out to solve in this campaign starts with one question: who actually gets to decide? Right now, Donald Trump and the billionaires who bought him are deciding. We are going to change that.

My Plan: Defend Our Democracy

A democracy that can survive an authoritarian moment doesn’t just happen. It takes deliberate choices, and it takes leaders who are willing to use the power of the federal government to defend the constitutional system instead of waiting politely for the next election to bail us out. That’s how we beat back the Trump assault on our democracy and put power back in the hands of the people it belongs to. Every proposal in this plan starts from the same place: Iowa deserves a Senator who will fight to defend and expand democracy, not one who will collaborate with the people trying to dismantle it.

This democracy agenda has eight pillars, each takes on a specific way Donald Trump and his allies are working to rig the system against the people, and offers a concrete plan to fight back.

1. Pass the Freedom to Vote Act and the John R. Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act

2. Guarantee Automatic Voter Registration and Make Voting Easier for Every Iowan

3. End Partisan Gerrymandering with Independent Redistricting Commissions

4. Get Big Money Out of Politics

5. Secure Our Elections from Foreign and Domestic Threats

6. Protect Voters and the People Who Run Our Elections

7. Modernize Our Democracy: Ranked Choice Voting and a National Popular Vote

8. Restore Trust by Reforming the Supreme Court and the Federal Bench

1. Pass the Freedom to Vote Act and the John R. Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act

The right to vote is the foundation of our democracy. It is the one tool ordinary Americans have to fire a politician who has stopped working for them. That is exactly why Donald Trump and his allies have spent the last decade trying to undermine our elections and make it harder to vote.

When the Supreme Court gutted the Voting Rights Act in 2013, it set off a wave of voter suppression we are still living with today. States rushed to close polling places, purge voter rolls, and slash early voting in an effort to keep certain people — working people, students, seniors, people of color, people with disabilities — away from the ballot box. Iowa wasn’t spared. Kim Reynolds and the Republican legislature passed one of the most aggressive voter suppression laws in the country in 2021, cutting early voting, shortening poll hours, and making it a crime for county auditors to send absentee ballot request forms to voters who hadn’t asked for them. Trump and his allies are now pushing the same playbook at the federal level.

That is not a free and fair election system. That is a system designed to pick the winners before the voters get to the polls. And we are going to end it.

I will fight to:

• Pass the John R. Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act to restore the federal preclearance requirement that the Supreme Court gutted in Shelby County v. Holder. States and counties with a recent history of voting discrimination should not be allowed to change their election rules without federal review. Period.

• Pass the Freedom to Vote Act to set strong national standards for federal elections, including no-excuse mail voting, at least two weeks of early voting, same-day registration, restoration of voting rights for Americans with past felony convictions, and an end to partisan voter roll purges. Voting in the greatest democracy on earth should not depend on which state you live in or which party controls your statehouse.

• End the Senate filibuster. The most basic protections of American democracy are being held hostage to a Senate procedural rule that does not appear in the Constitution. If a majority of the Senate votes to protect the right to vote, the right to vote should be protected.

• Make Election Day a federal holiday so working Iowans don’t have to choose between cashing a paycheck and casting a ballot.

2. Guarantee Automatic Voter Registration and Make Voting Easier for Every Iowan

America has one of the most cumbersome voter registration systems in the developed world. We are virtually alone in placing the burden of registration on the individual voter rather than on the government. The result is predictable: roughly 1 in 5 eligible Americans isn’t registered, and the people who fall through the cracks are disproportionately young, working-class, and mobile — exactly the voters whose voices we need most in this moment.

That is not an accident. The harder it is to register, the easier it is for entrenched politicians to stay in power. Trump and his allies understand that perfectly well. That is why they have spent years attacking automatic registration, mail voting, and same-day registration.

I will fight to:

• Pass nationwide automatic voter registration, so that every eligible American is registered to vote whenever they interact with a government agency — the DMV, the Social Security Administration, a public university, a public health program — unless they affirmatively opt out. This single reform would add tens of millions of eligible voters to the rolls and eliminate one of the biggest barriers to participation in our democracy.

• Guarantee same-day voter registration in every state, so that no eligible Iowan is turned away from the polls because of a clerical error or a deadline they didn’t know about. If you are eligible to vote and you show up to vote, you get to vote.

• Require pre-registration at age 16 so that young Iowans are automatically registered to vote the moment they become eligible. This is a basic civic step that costs the government nothing and pays dividends in lifelong participation.

• Expand vote-by-mail and early voting with at least two weeks of in-person early voting, no-excuse absentee ballots, and prepaid postage on every mail ballot. Working Iowans, parents juggling kids, farmers in the middle of harvest, shift workers, and people with disabilities, all deserve real options for casting their ballot.

• Modernize voter rolls and end partisan purges. Voter list maintenance should be done with care, not as a partisan weapon to disenfranchise eligible voters weeks before an election. I will fight to set strong federal standards that prevent the kind of mass purges we’ve seen and that the Trump administration is now pushing nationwide.

• Guarantee accessible voting for Iowans with disabilities, including accessible ballot machines at every polling location, curbside voting, and accessible vote-by-mail materials. Roughly one in four Iowa adults has a disability. Their access to the ballot is not optional.

• Protect voting rights for military members, Native Iowans, and Iowans living overseas by passing the Native American Voting Rights Act and strengthening federal protections for absentee voting by service members and overseas voters.

3. End Partisan Gerrymandering with Independent Redistricting Commissions

Iowa is one of the few states in America with a redistricting process that actually works. For more than fifty years, our nonpartisan Legislative Services Agency has drawn our congressional and legislative maps using objective criteria — population equality, contiguity, compactness, and respect for political subdivisions — without regard to where incumbents live or how the lines would benefit one party over the other.

Most states are not so lucky, and we all pay the price. In states across the country, partisan politicians of both parties draw maps designed to lock in their own power for a decade at a time. Trump and his allies are now openly pushing red states to redraw congressional maps mid-decade to manufacture a Republican House majority through gerrymandering rather than through votes. This is not democracy. This is politicians choosing their voters before voters get to choose them. And we are going to end it.

I will fight to:

• Ban partisan gerrymandering nationwide by passing federal legislation that prohibits the drawing of congressional districts to favor or disfavor any political party or any incumbent.

• Require every state to use an independent redistricting commission, modeled on Iowa’s nonpartisan process or on the citizen commissions that voters in California, Michigan, Colorado, and Arizona have already approved. Politicians should never get to draw the lines that determine their own job security.

• Establish strong federal standards for fair maps, including population equality, contiguity, compactness, respect for communities of interest, and protection of minority voting rights under the Voting Rights Act.

• Stop mid-decade partisan re-redistricting. A state should not be allowed to tear up a decade-old map and draw a new one just because one party decides it can squeeze out a few more seats. Congressional maps should be drawn once a decade, after the census, by an independent commission — not whenever a party in power decides it wants more power.

• End prison gerrymandering, which counts incarcerated people in the rural districts where they are imprisoned rather than the urban communities they came from. This practice artificially inflates the political power of districts with prisons and dilutes the political power of the communities — disproportionately Black and brown — where most incarcerated Americans actually live.

• Require full transparency in the map-drawing process, with public hearings, publicly available data, and a real opportunity for citizens to weigh in before maps are finalized. The maps should belong to the people, not to the consultants who draw them in back rooms.

4. Get Big Money Out of Politics

In Part One of the Iowans Over Insiders agenda, I laid out my plan to end Washington corruption: banning members of Congress from trading individual stocks, ending corporate PAC money, closing the revolving door between Capitol Hill and K Street, and overturning Citizens United. (Read it here.) That plan was about the corrupt politicians who take the money. This pillar is about the broken system that allows the money to be spent in the first place.

Citizens United was one of the worst Supreme Court decisions of my lifetime. In a single 5-4 ruling, five unelected justices overturned a century of campaign finance law and declared that corporations could spend unlimited amounts of money to influence elections. The result was exactly what every reasonable person predicted: an explosion of dark money, a tidal wave of corporate political spending, and a political system in which the voices of working Iowans get drowned out by the voices of billionaires and their corporate lobbyists.

Elon Musk spent $291 million in 2024, and his net worth has increased by more than half a trillion dollars since. That is not a coincidence. That is the deal. The billionaires bankroll the politicians, and the politicians deliver the policy. Working Iowans pay the bill. This is what oligarchy looks like. And we are going to end it.

This year, I worked across the aisle with Republican State Senator Dave Sires to introduce a bipartisan constitutional amendment in the Iowa State Senate to ban corporate campaign money in our state — a direct, Iowa-grown response to Citizens United. We don’t agree on a lot. We agree on this: the people of Iowa should not have to compete with multinational corporations for the attention of their own elected officials.

I will fight to:

• Pass a constitutional amendment to overturn Citizens United and Buckley v. Valeo, which together created the legal fiction that corporations are people and that money is speech. The American people overwhelmingly support this — across party lines, in poll after poll. It is past time for Washington to listen.

• Establish a system of public financing for federal elections with a small-donor matching program — six federal dollars for every dollar from an in-state small donor up to $200. Public financing is the surest way to break the grip of big donors and let candidates run for office without first auditioning for billionaires.

• Ban corporate PAC money in federal elections. I do not take corporate PAC money in this campaign, and I will not take it in the United States Senate. I will fight to make that the law for every member of Congress.

• Abolish super PACs and shut down dark money, which were the inevitable consequence of Citizens United and which now spend more on federal elections than the candidates themselves. Pass the DISCLOSE Act so that every dollar spent influencing an election is publicly disclosed, in real time, before voters go to the polls.

• Ban foreign money in American elections, including the laundering of foreign cash through American subsidiaries, shell companies, and trade associations. Our elections are not for sale to foreign governments, foreign oligarchs, or anyone else.

5. Secure Our Elections from Foreign and Domestic Threats

In 2016, a hostile foreign power launched a coordinated attack on the American election system. They probed voter registration databases in all fifty states. They breached systems in at least two. They ran a sophisticated disinformation campaign on American social media platforms. And they did it while a future Republican president cheered them on from the campaign trail.

Today the threat is bigger and the response is smaller. Many states still rely on voter registration databases that are decades old. Some are still using software older than most college graduates. Some still use paperless voting machines with no auditable paper trail. Most don’t have the resources to train election officials on basic cybersecurity. And the Trump administration has actively gutted the federal agencies — the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, the FBI’s election integrity efforts, the State Department’s counter-disinformation office — that were built to defend us. The President of the United States is dismantling our election defenses while foreign adversaries and domestic extremists test them every day.

Our elections are the foundation of our democracy. They deserve to be defended like it. And the people supposedly in charge of defending them right now are the ones tearing down the walls.

I will fight to:

• Make a serious federal investment in election security and administration by passing the Sustaining Our Democracy Act and providing $20 billion in federal funding to states and localities over the next decade to upgrade voting equipment, modernize voter registration systems, train election officials, expand polling places, and protect the people who run our elections.

• Require hand-marked, voter-verified paper ballots in every federal election with rigorous post-election audits. No paperless machines. No untraceable digital votes. If we’re going to ask Iowans to trust the result, we have to give them a result they can verify.

• Restore and strengthen federal election cybersecurity capacity that the Trump administration has gutted. Rebuild CISA’s election security mission. Restart the federal-state intelligence sharing that protects voter registration systems and election night reporting. Fund state and local election officials at a level that lets them meet the threat.

• Combat election disinformation, including AI-generated deepfakes, with strong legal penalties for the deliberate creation and distribution of false content designed to deceive voters about when, where, or how to vote, or to fabricate the words or actions of candidates.

• Protect critical election infrastructure from foreign attack by designating it a top national security priority, sharing real-time threat intelligence with state and local election officials, and aggressively pursuing foreign actors who attempt to interfere in our elections — regardless of which candidate they are trying to help.

6. Protect Voters and the People Who Run Our Elections

Since 2020, too many people who run America’s elections, most of them volunteers, most of them our neighbors, have been subjected to a wave of harassment, threats, and physical intimidation unlike anything our country has seen in modern times. County auditors have been doxxed. Poll workers have been threatened with violence. Secretaries of state have needed personal security details. The man currently in the White House has personally attacked election workers by name, falsely accused them of fraud, and incited his supporters to harass them. He pardoned the people who attacked the United States Capitol on January 6, 2021, and he has signaled to every would-be vigilante in the country that political violence in his name will be rewarded, not punished.

This is by design. The people who want to undermine American democracy understand that if they can drive enough good people out of these jobs, they can replace them with partisans who will do their bidding. Voter intimidation is the same playbook with a different audience: scare working Iowans away from the polls, and you don’t have to win their votes — you just have to suppress them.

Iowans deserve better. Our democracy depends on it.

I will fight to:

• Make threatening, harassing, or assaulting an election worker a federal crime, with strong criminal penalties for anyone who tries to intimidate the people who run our elections. The same protections that apply to federal judges and federal employees should apply to the volunteer poll workers and county auditors who keep our democracy running.

• Pass strong federal protections against voter intimidation, including criminal penalties for anyone who threatens, harasses, or coerces a voter at the polls or in the lead-up to an election. Pass the Deceptive Practices and Voter Intimidation Prevention Act to ban the deliberate spread of false information about elections.

• Ban paramilitary groups, armed militias, and unauthorized armed observers from polling places. Iowans should not have to walk past a man in tactical gear with an AR-15 to cast a ballot. Period.

• Prevent ICE and other federal officials from committing voter intimidation at polling locations.

• Provide federal funding for election worker security, including physical security at polling places and ballot processing centers, training in de-escalation and active-threat response, and personal security for election officials who have been targeted.

• Crack down on insider threats to election integrity, including partisan election officials who refuse to certify legitimate election results. Certifying a lawful election is a ministerial duty, not a political opportunity, and a partisan official who refuses to do their job should face real consequences. Trump and his allies have made overturning lawful election results a political project. We are going to make it a federal crime.

• Protect the rights of voters to assist others — including family members, caregivers, and trusted community members — to vote, especially for voters with disabilities, voters who don’t speak English as a first language, and elderly voters who depend on someone they trust to help them participate.

7. Modernize Our Democracy: Ranked Choice Voting and a National Popular Vote

Some of the rules our democracy operates under were written before women could vote, before Black Americans could vote, before there were cars or telephones or televisions. Those rules made sense in a different time. They don’t make sense in this one.

Donald Trump has lost the popular vote in two of the three presidential elections he has been on the ballot in. The first time he lost it, the Electoral College made him president anyway. That is not a system that has the consent of the governed. It is a system that hands the most powerful office in the world to the person fewer Americans voted for. If we want a democracy that survives the next century, we have to be willing to update the operating system.

I will fight to:

• Elect the President of the United States by national popular vote. The Electoral College has produced two presidents in this century who lost the popular vote. The candidate who gets the most votes should win. That is the fundamental promise of democracy.

• Pass a constitutional amendment to abolish the Electoral College, and in the meantime, support the National Popular Vote Interstate Compact, which already has commitments from states representing more than 200 of the 270 electoral votes needed to make the popular vote the law of the land.

• Allow ranked choice voting in federal elections, as Maine and Alaska already do, and as growing numbers of cities across America are adopting. Ranked choice voting eliminates the spoiler effect, gives voters more meaningful choices, and produces winners who actually have majority support — not just the most votes in a fragmented field. It rewards candidates who build broad coalitions instead of candidates who appeal only to a narrow base, and it is one of the strongest structural defenses we have against extremist factions capturing major-party nominations.

8. Restore Trust by Reforming the Supreme Court and the Federal Bench

Public trust in the Supreme Court has hit historic lows, and the justices have only themselves to blame. We have learned that members of the Court accepted lavish gifts and undisclosed travel from billionaires with business before the bench. We have watched the Court overturn fifty years of precedent on reproductive freedom and watched them gut the Voting Rights Act. And in 2024, we watched the Court hand Donald Trump a blanket grant of presidential immunity that has no basis in the Constitution and that has emboldened him to act, openly, as if he is above the law.

That is not a court the American people trust. And it is not a court that can credibly serve as the final arbiter of our democracy at exactly the moment our democracy needs an honest one. If we are going to restore confidence in our democracy, we have to restore confidence in the institutions that enforce it.

I will fight to:

• Pass a binding code of ethics for the Supreme Court, with real disclosure requirements, real recusal standards, and real enforcement. Every other federal judge in America is bound by an enforceable code of ethics. The nine most powerful judges in the country should be too.

• Establish 18-year term limits for Supreme Court justices, with regular appointments every two years. Lifetime tenure made sense when life expectancy was shorter and confirmations were less politicized. Today, it has turned every Supreme Court vacancy into an existential political war. Term limits would lower the temperature, restore predictability, and ensure that the Court reflects the America of today, not the America of forty years ago.

• Require full financial disclosure for Supreme Court justices and their spouses, with the same rigor we require of every member of Congress and every senior executive branch official. If a justice or their spouse is making money from someone with business before the Court, the American people have a right to know.

• Reverse the Court’s presidential immunity ruling by statute and, if necessary, by constitutional amendment. No president — Republican or Democrat — should be above the law. The Supreme Court invented a new doctrine of immunity in 2024 that has no basis in the Constitution’s text or in two and a half centuries of American practice. Congress has the authority to write that doctrine out of our law, and we should.

Expand and protect lower federal courts by passing legislation to increase the number of federal judges to keep up with caseload growth, and by making the confirmation process work — not as a partisan blockade, but as a real check on qualifications and integrity.

What’s at Stake

Democracies do not usually die in a single dramatic moment. They die when judges accept gifts and nobody acts. They die when presidents defy court orders and nobody stops them. They die when election workers are threatened and nobody protects them. They die when the press is attacked and nobody defends it. They die when one party makes a deliberate, decade-long project out of dismantling the institutions that hold it accountable, and the other party responds with strongly worded letters.

That is the road we are on right now. And it is not too late to get off of it. But it is going to require Democrats, including Democrats in the United States Senate, to meet the moment we are in.

Every condition that is making American democracy weaker, more captured, and more vulnerable to authoritarianism is the result of a political choice. And every one of those choices can be made differently.

Our democracy isn’t broken by accident. It’s being broken on purpose. And we can fix it.

My Promise to Iowa

The next six years will decide whether the constitutional system will stand for the next generation. That is not hyperbole. That is the actual stake of this election.

I am running for the United States Senate because I am not willing to leave that fight to anyone else, and because Iowa cannot afford a senator who treats this moment as politics as usual. Ashley Hinson is a rubber stamp for an authoritarian president. Iowa needs a senator who will be a check on him.

I refuse corporate PAC money. I will abide by my own term-limit pledge: twelve years and out, no exceptions. I will not own, buy, or sell individual stocks while I serve in office. I will vote to end the filibuster to actually get things done. I will vote to expand voting access. I will vote to ban gerrymandering. I will vote to overturn Citizens United. I will vote to hold this president, and every future president, regardless of party, accountable to the law. And I will not be quiet, and I will not be patient, and I will not wait for someone else to lead this fight.

Democrats have spent too long bringing strongly worded letters to a constitutional crisis. The people dismantling our democracy are not going to be persuaded by op-eds, and they are not going to be shamed by floor speeches. They are going to be beaten — at the ballot box, in the Congress, and in the courts — or they are going to win.

On my honor, I will be that senator.

My mom Terry is a physician who was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis when I was only a child. She has lived with a chronic illness for most of her adult life. I learned young — too young — that access to quality, affordable healthcare isn’t an abstract policy debate. It is a matter of security and dignity. Nobody should ever have to wonder whether the next prescription, the next specialist, the next hospital stay will be the one that breaks the bank.

My mom Jackie is a union nurse at the VA outpatient clinic in Coralville. She has spent her career on the front lines of our healthcare system, caring for the veterans who served this country. She has seen up close what happens when that system fails the people who need it most. She has watched a system that should serve Iowans get squeezed harder every year by the same corporate special interests that bankroll politicians like Ashley Hinson.

We deserve better.

That’s why in this campaign, I’ve visited with hospital leadership in places like Belmond, Denison, and Red Oak to make sure I understand the issues facing healthcare in Iowa. I’ve seen the promise of hard working Iowans going above and beyond in these places: how Belmond Specialty is stepping up to provide mental health support for their community, how Crawford County Memorial makes sure patients receive care even when insurance fails, and how Montgomery County Memorial is finding ways to expand dental services.

Each of those hospitals are staples of their communities, but see real challenges ahead due to the recently passed federal cuts to healthcare programs that one hospital called “our salvation”.

We need a fighter in Washington D.C. to make sure Iowans get the care they need regardless of their zip code, and I am committed to being that fighter.

No Iowan should go bankrupt because they got sick. No Iowan should drive two hours because the rural clinic in their county closed. No Iowan should ration a life-saving medicine to make it to the next paycheck. And no veteran who served this country should have their VA care privatized out from under them.

That’s the promise I’m running on. And it’s a promise Ashley Hinson has already broken.

The Hinson Healthcare Crisis

Ashley Hinson didn’t just vote the wrong way on healthcare. She bragged about it.

When Congressional Republicans pushed through the largest cut to Medicaid in American history to pay for tax cuts for billionaires. Hinson called it something to be “proud” of. Then she went home and watched the consequences hit her own constituents.

What Hinson’s votes have cost Iowa:

• Roughly 110,000 Iowans are projected to lose their health insurance because of the Medicaid cuts Hinson voted for.

• Up to 117,890 Iowans are seeing their health insurance costs go up.

• Iowa health insurance premiums are projected to rise 97 percent — an average increase of $1,080 a year for working families.

• Two more Iowa clinics have closed — MercyOne clinics in Ottumwa and Des Moines — because of Hinson’s vote to gut Medicaid. That’s on top of the 20 rural Iowa hospitals already at risk before she cast her vote.

• Thirty-four healthcare workers were laid off at MercyOne North Iowa Medical Center in Mason City — in Hinson’s own district — with the hospital system citing her Medicaid vote as a direct cause.

• Iowa is losing obstetric care faster than any other state in the country.

• 37,700 rural Iowans will lose Medicaid coverage over the next 10 years and rural Iowa hospitals will lose $2.7 billion

Then, when Iowans came begging Hinson to at least restore the Affordable Care Act premium tax credits and stop premiums from doubling, she refused.

13,529 fewer Iowans signed up for ACA coverage this year during open enrollment. The cost of insurance for those who kept it doubled.

Ashley Hinson voted for every bit of this. She voted to gut Medicaid so billionaires could get a bigger tax cut. She voted to let premiums double rather than extend the subsidies that were keeping working families covered. And when rural hospitals in her own district started laying people off, she didn’t lift a finger to fix what she had broken.

That isn’t a market outcome. That’s a policy choice. And it’s time to choose differently.

My Plan: Lower Healthcare Costs and Expand Access

The American healthcare system isn’t broken by accident. It is broken because corporate special interests — insurance companies, drug manufacturers, hospital chains, and the middlemen who profit off all of them — spend billions every year to keep it that way. And politicians like Ashley Hinson take their checks and do their bidding.

That ends when I get to the Senate.

Healthcare is a human right, and this healthcare agenda has four pillars, each targeting a specific way the system has been rigged against hardworking Iowans, and offering a concrete plan to fix it.

1. Lower Costs

2. Ensure Access to Care

3. Fight Iowa’s Cancer Crisis

4. Expand Mental Health and Substance Use Disorder Services

Here’s what that looks like in practice.

1. Lower Costs

Americans pay more for healthcare than anyone else in the developed world, and we don’t get better outcomes for it. We get a system that has been engineered by design to extract as much money as possible from Iowa families before it grudgingly delivers care.

Here’s how we change that.

I will fight to:

• Create a true public option. Every Iowan should have access to a quality, affordable public health insurance plan, whether or not their employer offers coverage. I support allowing every American to buy into Medicare at any age. It’s the quickest path to lowering costs across the entire system, because it forces insurance companies to compete on price instead of squeezing patients. And it’s the foundation for reaching universal coverage in this country.

• Take on Big Pharma. Americans pay more for prescription drugs than anyone else in the world, not because our drugs are better, but because Big Pharma has spent decades buying off Washington. I will fight to:

  • Expand Medicare’s power to negotiate drug prices. The Inflation Reduction Act finally let Medicare negotiate the price of a small number of drugs — and on the first ten alone, the negotiated prices came in 38 to 79 percent below list. That’s the model.

  • Allow Americans to safely import lower-cost prescription drugs from Canada. Big Pharma has spent decades scaring Americans about safety to protect that price gap, but the FDA has had legal authority to certify safe importation since 2003 and Congress has blocked it from being used. I will fight to finally implement safe importation at scale, so Iowa families and Iowa pharmacies can access the same lower prices our neighbors to the north already pay.

  • End the pharmaceutical industry’s stranglehold on what Iowans pay at the pharmacy counter. Big Pharma games the patent system to block generic competition for years after a drug should have gone off-patent. They make small tweaks to existing drugs and call them new inventions to extend their monopolies. All of it is legal. None of it should be. I will fight to close the patent loopholes, ban pay-for-delay deals, and stop the patent abuse that keeps prescription drug prices artificially high in this country and nowhere else.

  • End the taxpayer subsidy for prescription drug commercials. The United States and New Zealand are the only two developed countries that allow direct-to-consumer pharmaceutical advertising. Drug companies get to deduct the cost of those ads as an ordinary business expense — which means American taxpayers are effectively subsidizing the TV commercials that drive up the prices we pay at the pharmacy counter. I support the End Taxpayer Subsidies for Drug Ads Act to close that loophole for good.

• Crack down on Pharmacy Benefit Managers. Pharmacy benefit managers, the corporate middlemen who sit between patients, pharmacies, and drugmakers, are one of the biggest reasons drug prices keep climbing. Three PBMs now control about 80 percent of the U.S. prescription drug market, and they’ve been routinely paying Iowa pharmacies less than the cost of the drug. Iowa has lost more than 200 pharmacies since 2014, with 31 closing in 2024 alone. In a county with one pharmacy, that closure means seniors and farmers drive an extra 30 miles for a prescription. I voted for Iowa’s PBM reform law in 2025, and the federal version of that fight needs to happen too.

• Expand access to affordable children’s health insurance. Currently, state Medicaid and Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP) coverage ends when children turn 19. This is despite most private plans allowing children to remain on their parents’ coverage until they turn 26. Eligibility for these programs should work the same way until an individual enrolls in a separate plan by their own choice, or exceeds established income limits.

• Break up the hospital and insurance monopolies driving up Iowa’s healthcare costs. The same corporate consolidation that has hollowed out Iowa’s farm economy and Iowa’s Main Streets has come for Iowa’s healthcare system. A handful of hospital systems and insurance carriers now dominate the market in most of our state. The research is clear: hospital consolidation drives prices up by 20 percent or more without improving care, and insurance consolidation lets carriers squeeze patients and providers on both ends. The federal government has rubber-stamped merger after merger while Iowa families pay the bill. I will push the DOJ and FTC to aggressively review pending healthcare mergers, unwind the ones that should never have been approved, and stop the consolidation that is making American healthcare more expensive every single year.

• End surprise medical billing for good. No Iowan should get hit with a $3,000 bill from an out-of-network anesthesiologist they never chose to see, or a “facility fee” for a five-minute visit at a hospital-owned clinic that used to be a doctor’s office down the street. Congress passed the No Surprises Act in 2020, but hospitals and insurers have spent the last several years gaming it. I will fight to close the loopholes, expand the protections to ground ambulance rides, one of the biggest remaining sources of surprise bills, and ban the hidden facility fees that turn a routine appointment into a four-figure invoice.

• Take on the medical debt crisis. Medical debt is the single leading cause of personal bankruptcy in the United States, and one in three Americans carry it. That isn’t a moral failing on the part of working families. It’s the inevitable result of a system designed to bill people who are too sick to fight back. I will fight to ban medical debt from credit reports, undoing the Trump administration’s rollback of the CFPB rule, cap the interest rates that turn a hospital bill into a decade of compounding debt, and crack down on the aggressive collection practices that nonprofit hospitals use against the very patients they got tax breaks to serve. A medical emergency should not be a financial death sentence.

• Cap insulin at $35 a month — for everyone. Insulin costs pennies to manufacture. There is no excuse for any Iowan with diabetes to ration a life-saving medication. Democrats already capped insulin at $35 a month for Iowans on Medicare. We need to extend that cap to every American, regardless of how they get their insurance.

• Restore the ACA premium tax credits — permanently. When Congress let the enhanced ACA tax credits expire, Iowa families saw their premiums double overnight. Small business owners told reporters their premiums would “eat up” their entire profits. A breast cancer survivor in Des Moines said her premiums without the credits would exceed her mortgage payment. Ashley Hinson voted to let it happen. I will vote to restore the enhanced premium tax credits permanently — not as a temporary patch, but as a long-term commitment to keeping coverage affordable for the working families who rely on the marketplace.

Insurance companies, drug manufacturers, hospital chains, PBMs, and debt collectors have written the rules of American healthcare. It’s time to write them differently.

2. Ensure Access to Care

Affordable insurance only matters if you can actually use it. In Iowa today, that’s getting harder every year — especially in rural communities where hospitals are closing, OB-GYNs are vanishing, the nearest specialist might be a hundred miles away, and the people who provide care are stretched past the breaking point.

I will fight to:

• Lower the Medicare eligibility age to 55. Medicare works. It’s popular, it’s reliable, and it provides quality coverage for tens of millions of Americans. Lowering the eligibility age to 55 would let more Iowans access affordable coverage during the years when healthcare costs typically rise the fastest, and it would relieve pressure on the entire insurance market.

• Expand Medicare to cover dental, vision, and hearing. It is absurd that Ashley Hinson voted against it. Coverage for healthy teeth, eyes, and ears shouldn’t be optional. Iowa seniors shouldn’t have to choose between a dental procedure and groceries. Medicare should cover dental, vision, and hearing — period.

• Reverse the Medicaid cuts to Iowa’s rural hospitals. The Medicaid cuts Hinson voted for are projected to strip $2.7 billion from rural Iowa hospitals over the next decade and force tens of thousands of Iowans off their coverage. Critical access hospitals in Ottumwa, Oelwein, and Red Oak are now on the brink. Layoffs have already started in Mason City. Clinics in Des Moines have already closed. Iowa cannot afford to lose another rural hospital. I will fight to fully restore the $800 billion in Medicaid funding Hinson voted to cut, and I will work to deliver real, sustained federal investment in the rural hospitals that are the heart of small-town Iowa and establish a federal rural healthcare infrastructure fund that converts abandoned buildings into permanent medical facilities, with long-term lease agreements for rural practitioners and explicit protections against private equity acquisition after title transfers. I’ll push to move rural hospitals away from a volume-based reimbursement model toward upfront, operating-cost-based funding that gives critical access hospitals the stability to keep their doors open year-round. And I’ll fight for a permanent network of mobile health units reaching Iowa’s most underserved counties.

• Defend women’s healthcare and end the maternal mortality crisis. Iowa ranks near the bottom of the country in OB-GYN access, and we are losing obstetric care faster than any other state in America. Women in rural Iowa are being forced to drive hours for basic prenatal appointments. The United States has the worst maternal mortality rate in the developed world, and it is getting worse — with Black women dying in childbirth at three times the rate of white women (six times in Iowa). That is unacceptable, and it’s a direct consequence of decades of disinvestment, the rollback of reproductive rights, and a healthcare system that treats women’s health as an afterthought. I will defend access to the full range of women’s healthcare, including reproductive services, contraception, maternal care, abortion care, and OB-GYN coverage. I will fight to restore the federal protections Iowans deserve, and push for serious federal investment in maternal health, including expanded postpartum Medicaid coverage and the rural OB-GYN workforce Iowa desperately needs.

• Make long-term care safe and affordable for Iowa families. Iowa’s population is aging faster than the national average, and the cost of long-term care is catastrophic for middle-class families. A year in a nursing home in Iowa now costs more than $80,000, and a single bad fall or dementia diagnosis can wipe out a lifetime of savings in a matter of months. I will fight to defend the federal nursing home staffing standards the industry is trying to kill, support the home- and community-based care alternatives that let Iowa seniors age in place with dignity, and crack down on the private equity firms that have been buying up Iowa nursing homes, slashing staffing, and pocketing the difference. Every Iowan who has spent decades contributing to this state deserves to retire with dignity, not to be exploited by a fraudulent operator cutting corners on their care.

• Make disability care part of traditional Medicaid coverage. Iowa is the birthplace of the “Medicaid Waiver” system that allows states to include additional necessary services for individuals with specific diagnoses. Whether that’s home health, supported community living, adult day care, or expanded mental health support - these waiver programs help ensure that individuals with disabilities can receive the services they need. The problem is that Iowa has a waitlist of 13,406 individuals - and can be years out - despite these Iowans needing services today. We need to revisit what’s covered under traditional Medicaid so that Iowans have access to the care they need to thrive in their communities. Rules regarding employed people with disability should be updated to ensure employment doesn’t risk jeopardizing these critical healthcare services.

• Solve Iowa’s healthcare workforce shortage. Iowa’s rural counties have lost nearly 10 percent of their primary care physicians, and the wait to see a specialist in many parts of our state is now measured in months. We are not going to fix Iowa’s healthcare access problem without fixing the people problem behind it. I will fight to expand federal loan forgiveness for doctors, nurses, and behavioral health providers who commit to serving rural and underserved communities; expand the number of Medicare-funded residency slots so we can train more physicians and keep more of them in Iowa; and invest in the nursing schools, community colleges, and apprenticeship programs that are training the next generation of Iowa healthcare workers.

• Protect and expand telehealth. In a state as rural as ours, telehealth isn’t a luxury — it’s a lifeline. A farmer in Pocahontas County shouldn’t have to take half a day off to drive to Des Moines for a 15-minute appointment. I will fight to make permanent the telehealth expansions that proved their value during COVID, and to expand reimbursement for rural providers so telehealth is a real option, not a half-measure.

• Hold privatized Medicaid systems accountable. In Iowa, the privatization of our Medicaid program has led to an almost 1000% increase in denials of care prescribed by medical professionals, and has failed to demonstrate meaningful cost savings while insurance companies profit millions every year from tax-payer funding. The federal government should provide resources to help states transition to direct fee-for-service models that provide better access to healthcare, and provide higher scrutiny to Managed Care Organization (MCO) models that profit from denying needed care.

• Keep Artificial Intelligence out of insurance denials. Simply put: we cannot allow health insurance companies to delegate decisions over whether an Iowan is denied medically prescribed healthcare to artificial intelligence platforms. If insurance companies are going to deny care, it should be done by a licensed professional trained to evaluate the facts and record, not by a calculated coded machine. The stakes are too high. We should end the Medicare pilot program that seeks to integrate AI into Medicare claims. Insurance companies should also not be allowed to use AI to reduce provider reimbursements (down-coding) without human review.

• Defend the VA from privatization and stand with the veterans who served. My mom Jackie has spent her career as a union nurse at the VA in Coralville, caring for the veterans who served this country. The VA is not perfect, but the people who work there are some of the most dedicated healthcare professionals in America, and the care veterans get there is in many cases better than what the private sector provides. There is a coordinated effort underway in Washington to privatize the VA — to siphon veterans into the private healthcare system, hand the contracts to corporate middlemen, and gut the VA workforce in the process. I will fight to stop it. I will defend VA staffing, expand mental healthcare and suicide prevention services for veterans, address the toxic exposure crises that have harmed Iowa veterans for decades, and make sure that no veteran in this state has to fight their own government to get the care they earned through their service.

3. Fight Iowa’s Cancer Crisis

Iowa has the second-highest cancer rate in the country. We are one of the only states in America where the rate is still climbing. This is a public health emergency, and our state’s political leaders have been treating it like background noise. That has to change.

In Marshalltown, I heard from a woman going through cancer treatment, who has to go to six different providers to get the comprehensive care she needs. We need to do better on both cancer prevention and care for Iowans..

I will fight to:

• Invest in cancer research, detection, and prevention. Iowa families deserve a federal partner in fighting this crisis. I will push for major federal investment in cancer research, with a focus on the cancers hitting Iowans hardest. I will fight to expand early detection and screening programs, especially in rural communities where access to mammograms, colonoscopies, and other preventive care is limited or nonexistent.

• Address the environmental drivers. We cannot have a serious conversation about Iowa’s cancer rate without talking about what’s in our water and what’s on our land. Agricultural runoff, nitrate contamination, and water quality issues are affecting what Iowans drink, what we eat, and ultimately what is making us sick. I will support tougher federal standards, real funding for water quality research and remediation, and a federal commitment to identifying and addressing the environmental contributors to Iowa’s cancer crisis.

• Take on the agricultural chemical companies poisoning Iowa. Iowa uses more pesticides per acre than almost any state in the country, and the scientific evidence linking certain agricultural chemicals to cancer, Parkinson’s disease, and developmental harm in children has grown substantially over the past decade. I will fight to strengthen EPA review of the most dangerous pesticides, including paraquat, which is banned in more than 60 countries and linked to Parkinson’s disease, close the loopholes that let chemical companies keep products on the market for decades after safer alternatives exist, and invest in independent research on agricultural chemical exposure that isn’t funded by the companies selling the chemicals. And I will fight any effort by Bayer-Monsanto and the chemical industry to strip Iowans of their right to sue when these products cause harm. The companies making billions off these chemicals can afford to make them safer.

• Pass the Protecting Patient Access to Cancer and Complex Therapies Act. The Inflation Reduction Act’s drug price negotiation provisions — which I support — contain a structural flaw: they lower drug costs by cutting the add-on payment to physicians who administer those drugs, not by requiring manufacturers to rebate the savings. That means independent oncology practices — the ones closest to Iowa patients — absorb the financial hit. Avalere Health analysis projects oncologists could see a nearly 50 percent reduction in the payments that fund infusion, pharmacy staff, and care coordination. H.R. 4299 fixes this by requiring drug manufacturers to provide rebates directly to Medicare, so we get the savings without dismantling the delivery system. This is a bipartisan fix, and I will push to get it done.

• Fix the Stark Law loophole that forces Iowa cancer patients into more expensive care settings. Current federal law restricts physicians from dispensing specialty medications directly from their practices — a holdover rule designed to prevent self-referral that has had the unintended effect of forcing patients into hospital outpatient settings that cost 53 percent more for the same cancer treatment. Hospital outpatient chemotherapy is more expensive for Medicare and for patients out of pocket. The Seniors’ Access to Critical Medications Act, bipartisan legislation that has already cleared committee, would fix this through 2030. I will fight to pass it and to make the fix permanent.

• Stop the private equity consolidation of Iowa’s oncology practices. When independent practices close, private equity steps in — not to deliver better care, but to extract margin. The consolidation of cancer care into corporate-owned networks and hospital systems drives prices up, limits patient choice, and puts profit ahead of treatment decisions. I will fight to give the DOJ and FTC the tools and the mandate to stop it.

Iowans shouldn’t have to choose between farming and clean water. We can do both, but it requires a senator who will actually fight for it.

4. Expand Mental Health and Substance Use Disorder Services

In rural Iowa, the wait for a mental health appointment can stretch for months. For a family in crisis, that might as well be forever. We have a mental health workforce shortage, an opioid crisis that has hit small-town Iowa especially hard, and an insurance system that still treats mental health like a second-class concern.

I will fight to:

• Make real investments in mental healthcare. I will fight for serious federal investment in mental health services — including expanding the mental health workforce in rural Iowa, increasing funding for community mental health centers, and supporting school-based mental health programs so Iowa kids can get help before a crisis becomes a tragedy.

• Enforce true mental health parity. Insurance companies have been gaming mental health parity laws for decades — covering physical health one way and mental health another. That ends now. I will support tough enforcement of mental health parity requirements so insurers cannot deny, delay, or limit mental healthcare on a different standard than they apply to physical health.

• Expand substance use disorder treatment. The opioid crisis and alcohol addiction continue to hit rural communities hard. I will fight to expand access to substance use disorder treatment, recovery services, and medication-assisted treatment with a particular focus on the small-town Iowa communities that have been hit hardest and have the fewest resources to fight back.

The Bottom Line

Ashley Hinson made her choice. She voted for the largest Medicaid cut in American history. She voted to let ACA premiums double. She watched rural hospitals in her own district lay off workers and close their doors, and she did nothing. She works for the corporate special interests that bankroll her campaign. She doesn’t work for you.

Iowa families are paying more for prescriptions, more for premiums, more for hospital bills, more for nursing home care, not because the market randomly decided to raise prices, but because the politicians writing the rules in Washington have been bought and paid for. That’s the connection between corruption and costs. And in healthcare, more than anywhere else, Iowans are the ones paying the price.

My Promise to Iowa

I grew up in a family that has lived with a chronic illness, with a union nurse on the front lines of our healthcare system, and with a healthy fear of what an unexpected medical bill can do to a working family. I am raising my own family in Iowa now, and I think about my mom Terry and my mom Jackie every time I talk about this fight.

I refuse corporate PAC money. I will not take a check from the insurance companies, the drug manufacturers, the hospital chains, or the corporate middlemen whose business model depends on overcharging Iowa families. Iowans need a Senator who will work to lower the cost of healthcare, save our rural hospitals, defend the VA, take on Big Pharma and the insurance companies, and put Iowans first — every single time.

This is what Iowans Over Insiders means.

On my honor, I will be that senator.

My mom Terry is a fifth-generation Iowa farm girl from Clayton County. Our family farm, 200 beautiful, albeit hilly, acres just north of Elkader nestled in the heart of the Driftless Area, was where she grew up. My Grandpa John was an Army veteran who came home, married my Grandma Lois and bought the land that became our family farm.

They would be shocked by the consolidation of agribusiness, the depopulation of our rural counties, the decline of Iowa’s public schools, our water quality crisis, and the fact that Iowa is leading the country in rising cancer rates.

None of this had to happen – it was a choice made by people in Washington. People who have been giving farm states like Iowa a bad deal for fifty years and counting. People who don’t care about anything other than squeezing another bushel out of an acre of increasingly depleted soil. People who don’t care about our farms, don’t care about our towns, don’t care about our future.

I do. And so do Iowans who are tired of being told that what happened to our state was inevitable. None of it was inevitable.

Together, we can build a better future.

The Diagnosis: Fifty Years of a Bad Deal

The New Deal approach to federal farm policy was built on a simple idea: stabilize prices, manage supply, keep family farms on the land. From the New Deal through the early 1970s, that’s how it worked. It wasn’t perfect, but it worked.

The architect of that policy was an Iowan. Henry A. Wallace, born on a farm in Adair County, served as FDR’s Secretary of Agriculture and built the New Deal farm programs from the ground up. Wallace’s framework wasn’t perfect, but it kept Iowa farmers on the land for forty years.

Then in 1973, President Nixon’s Agriculture Secretary, Dr. Earl Butz, tore the model up. He told American farmers to “plant fencerow to fencerow” and “get big or get out.” Farmers in Iowa and across the country listened. The results have been brutal.

Since 1973, the United States has lost 943,260 farm operations. That’s the equivalent of stripping every farm out of 39 states. In Iowa, we’ve watched families leave and schools consolidate. Hospitals and clinics are closing — and even more now because of Ashley Hinson’s vote to cut $800 billion cut to Medicaid.

This didn’t have to happen. It’s the direct result of a federal farm policy that hollowed out the Midwest. While farm families have been squeezed, the corporations that sell to the farm and buy from the farm have done just fine. The Big Four meatpackers controlled 36 percent of the U.S. beef market in 1980. They control 85 percent today. The farmer’s share of the beef dollar has fallen from over 60 cents in the 1970s to under 30 cents now. And Iowans are the ones who are paying the price.

Eighty-five percent of all farm income now goes to the largest 10 percent of farms. Eighty-eight percent of Iowa farm families work off the farm to make ends meet. The farmer’s share of the food dollar has fallen from 40 cents in the 1970s to 14 cents today.

It’s time for a better deal for our farms, our towns, and our future.

Honoring What Rural Iowa Has Given

Before I go any further, I want to say something Democrats have not said often enough or loudly enough for a long time.

To the farm families who have held on through fifty years of policies designed to push you off your land: thank you. Thank you for sticking it out. For feeding our country and feeding the world. For sending your sons and daughters to serve in the military at rates higher than anywhere else in America. For keeping our small towns and rural communities alive while Washington and Wall Street have been doing their best to shut you down.

You’ve been told for two generations that your way of life doesn’t matter — that if you can’t out-compete a multinational corporation, Wall Street, or a sovereign wealth fund, that’s just the free market and tough luck. You’ve watched your kids leave because the opportunities left first.

The farmers who went big did what Washington told them to do in order to survive. That choice isn’t their fault. The fault belongs to the Washington insiders in both parties who wrote those policies, and the corporations and their lobbyists that wrote the checks.

You deserve a senator who will fight for a different future. You deserve a senator who believes the small town and rural way of life is worth fighting for, and who is willing to make that better future a reality. That’s what I believe, and that’s exactly what I’ll fight for as your senator.

Part One: Our Farms

The economics of the family farm have to work, or none of the rest of this matters. That means more ways for the farm to earn a paycheck. A real Farm Bill that supports hard working farm families instead of fueling consolidation. And breaking up the monopolies that have massively tipped the scales against Iowa farmers.

1. Farm Policy that Works for Family Farms

Washington can’t even get a Farm Bill done. We’re two-and-a-half years overdue and counting. Last year’s “Big Beautiful Bill” included some farm bill language, but threatened the very fabric of the Farm Bill coalition that for decades has matched investment in food assistance with investment in American farming. It’s a perfect example of putting party politics ahead of what’s best for Iowa. And the farm policy that does exist has been bent to benefit the largest operations and the corporations that supply them. The “Big Beautiful Bill” raised the subsidy caps even higher and opened new loopholes for the biggest operators. Today, the top 10 percent of farms pull in 70 percent of all farm income, and the top 1 percent of farm program recipients get 25 percent of all payments.

Iowa needs farm policy that guarantees fair prices, covers production costs, and secures a dignified livelihood.

We need to:

• End the Trump-Hinson tariff chaos that has cost Iowa farmers billions in lost exports and driven up the price of fertilizer, equipment, and feed. Farmers are being squeezed on both sides of the ledger, and this failed approach has to end.

• Use every trade tool available, including at the WTO, to stop other countries from dumping subsidized agricultural products into our markets, and to negotiate trade rules that prioritize American family farms over multinational commodity traders.

• Institute income caps that prioritize family farms over massive operators. When Washington hands out nearly $900 million to Iowa corn and soy farmers with no income caps and no conservation requirements, it rewards the largest operators for doing nothing and leaves small and mid-sized farms behind. Any farm aid program going forward should have meaningful income caps and should be tied to real stewardship of the land.

• Reform commodity payments to support working farm families. Loopholes let a single operation stack subsidies by adding cousins, nieces, nephews, and shell-entity “managers” who never set foot on the farm. The top 10 percent of farms already pull in 70 percent of all farm income, and the top 1 percent of farm program recipients collect 25 percent of all payments. The “Big Beautiful Bill” made it worse by raising the caps even higher and further benefiting the biggest operators. Federal farm dollars should support working family farms — not subsidize the consolidation that’s killing them.

• Require transparent, fair contracts for contract farmers and protect them from retaliation when they speak up. Iowa’s hog and poultry growers often invest hundreds of thousands of dollars in barns and equipment to meet the specifications of a single integrator, then find themselves locked into one-sided contracts with no real ability to negotiate, to shop their poultry or hogs to a competitor, or to speak publicly about the terms. We should require plain-language contract disclosures before a farmer signs, ban the mandatory arbitration clauses that strip farmers of their day in court, and put real teeth behind the Packers and Stockyards Act so a farmer who organizes or complains can’t be quietly cut off at contract renewal. More on this in the next section.

• Reform crop insurance to encourage stewardship and climate resilience. Federal crop insurance is the single largest federal investment in American agriculture, and it ought to reward the farmers who are reducing risk for the rest of us. More on this in Part 3.

• Crack down on Wall Street investment funds buying up farmland purely as a financial asset. More on this in Part 3.

2. Break the Corporate Squeeze on Iowa Farms

In 1888, Iowa passed the first antitrust law in American history because Iowa farmers were being squeezed by railroad barons, monopoly grain elevators, and bank lenders who treated rural America as a colony to be looted. In 2026, Iowa farmers face markets that are even more concentrated, and Washington politicians in both parties have spent decades looking the other way.

Two corporations control more than three-quarters of the corn seed market. Four companies — Cargill, ADM, Bunge, and Louis Dreyfus — control 90 percent of the global grain trade. Four companies control 85 percent of the meat market, and two of those four are owned by foreign corporations from China and Brazil. Four companies control 75 percent of the nitrogen fertilizer market, and the fertilizer giants have used that grip to make a killing.

This isn’t a free market. It’s a rigged one. Farmers face record-high input costs and depressed prices for what they grow because a handful of corporations have a hand on both ends of the deal.

We need to:

• Restore and aggressively enforce the Packers and Stockyards Act so meatpackers can’t retaliate against farmers who speak up, organize, or shop their livestock to a competitor. This is the most important anti-retaliation protection livestock farmers have in federal law, and it’s been allowed to wither.

• Stand up a real, fully-staffed antitrust office inside USDA to police consolidation in agriculture year-round, instead of leaving it to a skeleton crew the corporations outnumber a hundred to one.

• Impose a moratorium on future agriculture and grocery mergers until the antitrust cops catch up with the corporate lawyers, and direct the DOJ and FTC to investigate, and where appropriate unwind, the mergers that never should have been approved in the first place.

• Guarantee farmers the Right to Repair their own equipment through the Freedom for Agricultural Repair and Maintenance Act (FARM Act). If you bought it, you own it. John Deere made $10.1 billion in net income in 2023 — more in a single year than the net farm income of every farmer in Iowa combined. Farmers should have the service information, the diagnostic tools, and the affordable replacement parts they need to fix their own machines, the same way you can take your car to whatever mechanic you want.

• Protect farmer ownership of farm data. 77 percent of American farmers are worried about data privacy, and they should be. Every modern combine, planter, and sprayer is a rolling data-collection machine, and equipment manufacturers and ag technology providers like John Deere and Climate Corp have written their contracts so farmers can use their own data but don’t actually own it. Federal policy should guarantee that farmers own the data their equipment produces, control who it’s shared with, and can take it with them to another service provider.

• Fund public seed and livestock breeding research through the Seeds and Breeds for the Future Act. Decades of consolidation have left American farmers dependent on a handful of multinational seed and chemical companies for the genetics they plant every spring. USDA research grants for new, publicly-available plant cultivars and animal breeds are a direct investment in farmer independence and in the biodiversity that makes our food system resilient.

• Establish a Strategic Fertilizer Reserve modeled on the Strategic Petroleum Reserve, so American farmers aren’t held hostage by a handful of fertilizer companies — most of them foreign-owned — when planting season hits.

3. Grow and Diversify Family Farm Incomes

If the last fifty years were about telling farmers to “get big or get out,” the next fifty need to be about helping every farm earn more than one paycheck off the same acres.

We need to:

• Pay farmers for climate-smart practices. Finalize 45Z rules that recognize the carbon-reducing impact of cover crops, reduced tillage, nutrient management, and other regenerative practices, and pay farmers directly for the environmental improvements they deliver. New revenue, on the same ground.

• Turn manure into income. Federal investment in on-farm and co-op anaerobic digesters, renewable natural gas projects, and other manure-to-energy systems that add value to existing farm practices, create new revenue, reduce nitrate runoff, and lower methane emissions. Livestock producers don’t have to choose between being good neighbors and making a living.

• Grow on-farm renewable energy. Iowa already leads the nation in the share of electricity generated from wind, and many Iowa farmers already use on-farm solar arrays. There’s room for a lot more — community solar with grazing underneath, on-farm battery storage, farmer-owned wind or solar cooperatives partnering with rural electric co-ops. Federal policy should make these a priority and structure every dollar so the check goes to the farmer, not to an out-of-state investor.

• Get biodiesel out of policy purgatory. Iowa is the nation’s top biodiesel producer, and biodiesel cuts lifecycle emissions by 40 to 86 percent compared to petroleum diesel — with the biggest gains from waste feedstocks like used cooking oil, animal fats, and distillers corn oil. It’s one of the few realistic options for cleaning up heavy-duty trucking, rail, and farm equipment. Congress should restore the blenders tax credit, finalize 45Z rules with a fair carbon score for Iowa biodiesel, and set Renewable Fuel Standard volumes that match real production capacity.

• Pass nationwide year-round E15. We can expand the market for Iowa ethanol and fix the underlying problem: how the corn is grown, no matter what it’s used for. The fix is sweeping conservation reforms and tying federal support to real stewardship. Done right, ethanol becomes part of the climate solution, not part of the problem. And in the meantime, while passenger vehicles transition over the coming decades, the alternative to ethanol isn’t a cleaner fuel — it’s more gasoline, more emissions, and more dollars flowing to oil companies instead of Iowa farmers.

• Unlock Iowa’s place in the sustainable aviation fuel market. Aviation is one of the hardest sectors on earth to decarbonize. You can’t run a 737 on a battery. The realistic options for cutting aviation emissions over the next two decades come down to a small number of liquid fuels, and corn ethanol — produced under modern conservation practices — is one of the best options on the table. It cuts lifecycle emissions by about half compared to conventional jet fuel, and unlike a lot of climate solutions that are still on the drawing board, the production capacity already exists in Iowa.

• Make sure 45Z dollars actually buy decarbonization. The whole point of the federal SAF credit is to lower the carbon score of aviation fuel. But some companies want to use sequestered carbon to force more oil out of the ground. That’s not decarbonization. Federal law should disqualify any project from claiming a low-carbon score under 45Z if the captured carbon ends up being used to produce more oil and gas. Sequestering carbon for SAF can be an important tool, but we need some common sense.

• Open the international marine market to Iowa ethanol. Shipping fuel is a 70-to-80 billion-gallon global market, and as international regulators force the industry to clean up, Iowa ethanol is one of the cleanest replacement fuels available. Federal policy should support the engine certifications, port infrastructure, and trade agreements that let Iowa compete for it.

Part Two: Our Towns

The farm doesn’t exist in a vacuum. It exists in a community, with a school down the road, a hospital in the county seat, a grocery store on Main Street, a family pharmacy, and a meat locker. When the farm economy gets squeezed, all of that goes too. Rebuilding rural Iowa means rebuilding the infrastructure that connects the farm to the town and the town to the country.

1. Restore and Modernize USDA Rural Development

Iowa used to have its own packers, its own processors, its own seed companies, its own grain mills, and its own grocery stores in nearly every town. Then came “get big or get out” and decades of consolidation. Now a handful of mega-plants in a handful of states control nearly the entire food system. When the Tyson plant in Waterloo went offline during COVID, it nearly broke the country’s pork supply. To make matters worse, Elon Musk and DOGE took a chainsaw to USDA, gutting the very agency that has some of the best tools available to invest in our small towns and rural communities.

USDA Rural Development helps power economic development in small towns. The Trump administration has gutted the agency. Rural Development has lost 36 percent of its staff to DOGE-driven buyouts and forced resignations, and the FY26 budget proposes another $721 million in program cuts on top of that. We’ll reverse the staff cuts, restore the program funding, and modernize the agency for the rural America that actually exists in 2026.

A modernized USDA Rural Development would move at the speed rural America actually needs. Former Ag Secretary Tom Vilsack once told me about a regulatory approval process that took longer than a president’s full term, and how he pushed to streamline it without compromising safety. That’s the kind of common-sense reform that’s possible when an agency has the right vision and the right support: faster decisions on rural broadband and water infrastructure, plain-language applications a small-town mayor can fill out without hiring a consultant, and a culture that treats rural communities as partners instead of supplicants. The Trump administration’s answer is to take a chainsaw to the agency. Mine is to make it work.

2. Rebuild Local Food Infrastructure

The corporate consolidation of the food system has been great for corporate profits and bad for everyone else. Higher prices, less competition, fewer opportunities in states like Iowa. The fix is to rebuild the local and regional food infrastructure we used to have.

We need to:

• Pass mandatory Country-of-Origin Labeling on meat through the American Beef Labeling Act, reintroduced in this Congress on a bipartisan basis by Senate Majority Leader John Thune and Senator Cory Booker. The four multinational meatpackers that dominate American beef have spent years importing cheaper foreign product and selling it at American prices while American consumers had no way to tell the difference. This bill would end that.

• Invest in small and mid-sized livestock processing. Iowa ranchers shouldn’t have to truck animals hundreds of miles to a corporate slaughterhouse, and farmers selling direct-to-consumer shouldn’t have to wait a year to get an animal into a USDA-inspected facility. Pass the LOCAL Foods Act to base the federal personal-use exemption on ownership and give the 27 states with on-farm slaughter laws permanent legal footing. And change federal law to allow direct-to-consumer and retail sales from custom facilities already operating safely under federal regulation, so Iowans who want local meat don’t have to buy a whole animal up front to get it.

• Build the local food economy that Iowa farmers and Iowa families both want. Expand the Local Agricultural Market Program (LAMP) — the 2018 Farm Bill program funding direct-to-consumer marketing, regional food markets, and value-added agricultural enterprises. Increase its funding, cut the matching requirements that keep small farmers from participating, and restructure it to build the local food infrastructure Iowa actually needs. Restore and expand the Local Food Purchasing Assistance and Local Food for Schools programs that the Trump administration killed — small programs, about $20 million for Iowa, that put fresh, locally-grown food in school lunches and food banks while putting guaranteed income in farmers’ pockets. And support farmer-owned cooperatives in processing, distribution, and marketing so Iowa farmers can capture more of the value they create.

3. Stop the Corporate Takeover From Farm to Grocery Shelf

It isn’t just the meatpackers. The grocery side of the food system has consolidated almost as aggressively, and the result is the same: independent stores squeezed out, suppliers squeezed down, and the local economy losing the dollars that used to circulate through Main Street.

We need to:

• Enforce the Robinson-Patman Act to stop big-box chains from using their size to extract lower prices from suppliers and undercut the local grocery stores that small towns depend on.

• Prohibit retail grocery chains from vertically integrating into meatpacking. When Walmart owns the beef plant and Costco owns the chicken plant, farmers get squeezed on prices, workers get squeezed on wages, and independent grocers get squeezed out of business because the same corporation controls both ends of the supply chain. I introduced legislation in the Iowa Senate this year to ban vertical integration between grocery retailers and meatpackers, and the same fix needs to happen at the federal level.

4. Common Sense Reforms for Rural Iowa

Some of the most important fixes for rural Iowa aren’t big or expensive. They’re just common sense, and Washington has been too busy doing the bidding of the corporate lobby to get them done.

We need to:

• Invest in Main Street. In my economic agenda released last week, I included a full agenda on ensuring that we invest in places like Iowa.

• Pass real immigration reform that secures the border and fairly treats the hardworking immigrants who power Iowa agriculture, our livestock processing, and many other industries. Mass deportation chaos and out of control ICE isn’t an acceptable policy. Repealing temporary protected status for immigrants who are here and working legally isn’t an acceptable policy. Open borders isn’t an acceptable policy. We need legal, orderly pathways for the workers Iowa needs — including reforms to H-2A and other guest worker programs — and humane treatment for the families already here making our communities stronger.

• Rein in the pharmacy benefit managers (PBMs) driving Iowa’s rural pharmacies out of business. The same monopoly logic that’s killing independent grocers is killing independent pharmacies. PBMs, three of which now control about 80 percent of the U.S. prescription drug market, are corporate middlemen that decide how much your local pharmacist gets paid, and they’ve been routinely paying Iowa pharmacies less than the cost of the drug. Iowa has lost more than 200 pharmacies since 2014, with 31 closing in 2024 alone. In a county with one pharmacy, that closure means seniors and farmers drive an extra 30 miles for a prescription. I voted for Iowa’s PBM reform law in 2025, and the federal version of that fight needs to happen too.

Part Three: Our Future

What kind of Iowa we hand to the next generation depends on four things: who gets to farm the land, the quality of the soil and water when they get it, the climate they have to farm in, and whether the land itself is still in Iowa hands.

1. Support the Next Generation of Farmers

When I was first running for the Iowa State Senate in 2018, my district included rural Johnson, Cedar, and Muscatine counties, and I knocked on a lot of farmhouse doors on dirt roads. One afternoon while knocking in Graham township, I met a farmer named Steve.Steve got his start farming in the 1980s, amid the Farm Crisis. It was not an easy time to start out, but Steve worked hard, maintained a lean operation, and got a few lucky breaks. Today, he’s in his early seventies, the farm he owns and operates has grown to nearly 2,000 acres, and he’s starting to think about what comes next. The problem is, because of decisions made in Washington, he doesn’t have many good options.

Roughly two-thirds of Iowa’s 30 million acres of farmland is owned by people, like Steve, who are 65 or older. Over the next two decades that land will change hands in what may be the largest wealth transfer in Iowa history. But with Iowa land prices at $11,000 an acre on average, virtually none of that land is affordable to the next generation. Only the biggest operators and the wealthiest investors can afford to buy it.

When the next generation can’t afford to buy, the land ends up owned by absentee landlords and corporations, and the farm income leaves our state. Outside ownership means less incentive to adopt the conservation practices that protect our soil and water — which affects all of us downstream. And when the family farms go, the small towns are first to suffer. Town squares lose businesses. Schools consolidate. Hospitals close.

This is what the “get big or get out” approach has done to our state. Building a better future for our farms and our towns demands a fundamentally new approach to land access in our state and in our country, changes to our broken tax code, and meaningful steps to keep Iowa farmland in Iowa hands.

We need a federal Family Farm Authority that is empowered to do the following:

• Buy land from aging farmers at fair market rates and favorable tax treatment, giving aging landowners and their estates the retirement security they’ve earned. The Authority will focus on land that can support viable farming operations for the next generation, and will work with families who want their land to stay in agriculture even when the heirs can’t afford to farm it themselves.

• Build multiple pathways for young farmers. Lease-to-own programs let beginning farmers lease with an option to purchase over 15 to 20 years on affordable terms. Shared-equity partnerships provide down-payment assistance of 20 to 30 percent in exchange for a share of appreciation when the land is sold. Federal loan guarantees of 90 to 95 percent for beginning farmers under 35, with below-market interest rates and extended repayment terms.

• Tie land access incentives to conservation results. Most young and future farmers already have a deeper understanding of conservation practices than their parents or grandparents. Additional land access incentives should be tied to measurable practices — cover crops, buffer strips, no till, wetland restoration on marginal acres — with lease or loan payments that decline as the conservation improvements bear fruit. Participating farmers will get priority access to emerging carbon and ecosystem-service markets.

The Family Farm Authority should be funded through a mix of Congressional appropriation, new capital gains tax revenue, revolving loan funds, and federal bond authority — the same approach that built rural electrification and the interstate highway system.

2. Fix Our Broken Tax Code

For aging farmers like Steve, we have to fix the tax code that’s locking up Iowa farmland. The federal tax code has a quiet, perverse incentive built into it: if a retiring farmer sells their land to a young farmer, they owe capital gains tax, often hundreds of thousands of dollars, on decades of appreciation. But if they hold that land until death, their heirs get a “stepped-up basis” and the gain is never taxed at all. So the rational thing for an aging farmer to do is hold the land, no matter how much they’d like to sell it to a promising young farmer down the road. The result is exactly what we see across rural Iowa: older farmers getting older, beginning farmers locked out, and fewer acres remaining in Iowa hands.

Congress should provide a substantial exemption for capital gains tax from farmland when it’s sold to a qualifying beginning farmer who is working with the Authority. They key point is that the Treasury isn’t losing revenue — that gain was going to be stepped up at death anyway. What we gain is land moving to the next generation while the seller is still around to mentor them and more capital gains tax revenue than if no sale ever occurred.

3. Keep Iowa Farmland in Iowa Hands

A century of Iowa farm policy was built on a simple idea: the people who own the land should be the people who work it, and the wealth the land generates should stay in the communities that grow it. That model has completely broken down. Today, 55 percent of Iowa farmland is owned by someone who doesn’t farm it. One in five Iowa acres is owned by someone who doesn’t even live in Iowa — a figure that’s climbed by over 50% in the past decade. This cannot continue.

We need to:

• Ban foreign governments and foreign-controlled corporations from purchasing American farmland. Food security is national security. No country should be allowed to put its hand on America’s food supply by buying up the ground it grows on.

• Require all foreign agriculture mergers to be reviewed by the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States, with food security treated as a national security concern. If that standard had been applied a decade ago, Smithfield never would have been sold to a Chinese conglomerate, and JBS, a Brazilian-controlled company with a history of bribery convictions, never would have been allowed to buy up American meatpackers and dominate U.S. beef and pork processing.

• Crack down on Wall Street investment funds buying up farmland purely as a financial asset. Bill Gates is the largest private farmland owner in America. Pension funds, hedge funds, and asset managers like TIAA and John Hancock have been steadily buying up Midwestern acres as an alternative to bonds. Iowa farmland shouldn’t be a portfolio diversifier for a Manhattan investment firm. The land should be in the hands of the people who farm it.

• Create strong tax preferences for in-state, owner-operator ownership. Farmland that is owned and operated by an Iowan deserves a different tax treatment than farmland owned by an absentee, out-of-state landlord. Federal policy should reward the family farmer who lives on the land, or even within our state — and pay closer attention to the speculator who doesn’t.

Iowa farmland in Iowa hands isn’t a slogan. It’s the foundation of every other promise in this agenda. You can’t have a thriving family farm sector if the land is owned by Wall Street or a foreign corporation. You can’t have rural communities that work if the wealth those communities generate is being sent to investors in cities that have never stepped foot in Iowa.

4. Protect Iowa’s Soil and Water for the Next Generation

Iowa has some of the best soil on earth, a gift from the glaciers, the prairies, and generations of farm families who took care of it. But today, we’re losing it faster than we can replace it. Iowa’s own top soil scientists estimate that at current rates of erosion, Western Iowa runs out of topsoil in about 35 years. North Central Iowa has about 100. We’ve already lost more than half our original topsoil and half the organic carbon in what’s left. Iowa now ranks second in the country for cancer rates, driven in significant part by nitrates, pesticides, and other contaminants running off our fields into our wells and our drinking water.

We need to:

• Modernize Conservation Compliance. The Conservation Compliance framework written into the 1985 Farm Bill was a major success in its time, but it hasn’t kept up with climate change, erosion, or modern soil science. The “tolerable” rate of soil loss baked into current rules, five tons per acre per year, is ten times higher than the rate at which Iowa soil actually regenerates. We should update the threshold to reflect real regeneration rates, phase it in over time, and use technologies like LIDAR to better evaluate gully erosion that current rules ignore.

• Target conservation dollars where they deliver results. The Conservation Reserve Program was never meant to be a whole-farm ten-year contract program. Reform CRP to prioritize targeted, long-term or permanent easements on the most erodible and ecologically sensitive acres, riparian buffers, wetland corridors, highly erodible hillsides, rather than locking up entire farms. Redirect Environmental Quality Incentive Program (EQIP) dollars away from confinement operations and back toward the perennial pasture, diversified cropping, and soil health investments EQIP was built for in the first place.

• Fund the programs that work. The Conservation Stewardship Program, working-lands EQIP, and cover-crop cost-share programs all have multi-year waiting lists of Iowa farmers who want to do the right thing for soil and water and can’t get federal support. Fully fund these programs to meet the existing demand. Every farmer stuck on a waiting list is another year of topsoil going down the Mississippi.

• Incentivize cover crops when liquid manure is applied. Iowa livestock operations generate billions of gallons of liquid manure every year, which is a value-add for many Iowa producers, and most of it ends up on row-crop fields. Without cover, this manure can run off the field and straight into Iowa’s creeks and rivers. Cover crops keep the nutrients where they belong, in the soil, nourishing the next crop. Federal policy should incentivize cover crops on any field receiving liquid manure applications.

• Make polluters pay. In 2024, the Nishnabotna Fertilizer Spill happened in Red Oak, Senator Joni Ernst’s hometown. Over 265,000 gallons of liquid nitrogen was released into the East Nishnabotna River, killing 750,000 fish as far as 60 miles downstream. The initial fine was $10,000, and the company got a sweetheart deal that cost only $100,000 — even though the cost of the fish kill was well over $200,000. That isn’t a deterrent. It’s a permission slip. Federal water quality penalties against agricultural operators who break the law have to be big enough to change behavior.

• Bring back real water monitoring. We can’t fix what we refuse to measure. Federal support should be available to states and watersheds for comprehensive water quality monitoring, so science, not lobbyists, drives what comes next. I’ve pushed for this funding in the Iowa Senate, and I’ll continue to push for it in the U.S. Senate as well.

• Defend against pesticide immunity. For years, chemical companies like Bayer Monsanto have been trying to strip Iowans of the ability to bring health-related lawsuits when their products cause harm. I’ve consistently voted against that legislation in the Iowa Senate, and 89 percent of Iowa voters oppose it, but Bayer has spent millions trying to pass it anyway, and they’ll be back next year and the year after that. I’ll vote against any federal pesticide immunity legislation, fight any effort to preempt state-level liability protections, and work to strengthen the legal tools Iowa families have to hold corporate polluters accountable.

• Invest in precision agriculture. We also need federal investment in the research and tools that reduce pesticide exposure in the first place: integrated pest management and biological alternatives where they’re available, precision spraying systems that cut use, drift, and resistance, and stronger federal safety standards with real penalties when corporations cut corners on worker and community safety.

• Modernize Iowa’s drainage districts and pair tile upgrades with wetlands. Iowa has thousands of drainage districts, and many of them are running on tile mains that were installed in the early 1900s. Those undersized mains are flooding fields, washing away topsoil, and sending excess nitrogen straight to the Mississippi River and on to the Gulf of Mexico’s dead zone. Upgrading them is both a conservation issue and a productivity issue because better drainage increases crop yields and amplifies the effectiveness of every other conservation practice farmers are doing on the same land, from no-till to cover crops to split-application fertilizer. The catch is that under current rules, a drainage district that wants to upgrade a main can trigger “swampbuster” compliance for every connected farmer with a wetland on their property — slowing or stopping projects that would deliver real conservation gains. The fix is straightforward: when a tile-main upgrade would (A) not negatively impact existing wetlands and (B) be paired with a new, properly sited wetland at the mouth of that drainage district, NRCS should ease swampbuster restrictions, because the upgrade plus the wetland delivers a net conservation gain.

• New wetland projects at strategically vital points can make a massive difference. Iowa’s Conservation Reserve Enhancement Program, built on more than two decades of Iowa State University research, has demonstrated that strategically sited wetlands at just 0.5 to 2 percent of the watershed area can remove 40 to 90 percent of the nitrate from cropland tile drainage, plus over 90 percent of herbicides. Federal policy should fund a serious expansion of CREP and similar programs, with cost-share that actually makes wetland construction worth a farmer’s time and the regulatory flexibility, including the Swampbuster waiver above, that will get these projects built as fast as possible.

5. Build Iowa Agriculture to Withstand a Changing Climate

Iowa farmers don’t need anyone in Washington to tell them the weather is changing. They’ve been living with it for years. The rains come harder and faster. Three-inch storms used to be rare, now we get five, seven, or more in a single event. Fields that never flooded in my grandparents’ generation are underwater twice a decade. Crop diseases like Southern Rust are moving north. Heat waves are stressing livestock. Drought years and flood years are trading places, and sometimes happening in the same growing season.

None of this is abstract. It shows up on the balance sheet at the end of the year, and it shows up in the crop insurance claims taxpayers are writing bigger and bigger checks to cover. Iowa farmers are on the front lines of a changing climate whether they want to be or not, and the federal government has not given them the tools to deal with it.

We need to:

• Modernize crop insurance for the weather we have. Federal crop insurance is the single largest federal investment in American agriculture, around $1.5 billion a year in Iowa alone. Right now it pays out regardless of whether a field should ever have been planted in the first place. Subsidizing crop insurance on acres being planted in a two-year floodplain, where failure is a near-certainty under modern weather, doesn’t make sense. Neither does subsidized insurance on slopes of 10 percent or more where erosion is inevitable. Discount premiums for farmers using cover crops, diversified rotations, and other practices that reduce loss exposure. These conservation practices aren’t just good for soil and water quality — they’re insurance against extreme weather, and they ought to be priced that way.

• Reform federal disaster response. When a derecho, flood, or drought hits Iowa, farm families shouldn’t have to wait months for federal aid while bureaucrats argue over whether it qualifies. We need faster, more predictable disaster assistance, with clear triggers and clear timelines, and protections against the political horse-trading that too often determines whose disaster gets covered and whose doesn’t.

• Build rural infrastructure for a changing climate. Rural and small town Iowa needs federal investment in the infrastructure a changing climate demands: watershed-scale flood protection, rural water system resilience, cooling centers and heat protection for outdoor workers and seniors, grid hardening for the rural electric co-ops that keep the lights on when storms roll through. None of this is a luxury. It’s the basics of keeping rural communities safe in the weather we now have.

• Keep working lands working. Climate resilience doesn’t mean taking Iowa farmland out of production. It means making the land that stays in production tougher and more diversified, while taking the most marginal, most flood-prone acres out of row crops and into cover that protects soil, filters water, and still pays the landowner.

• Fund the agricultural research Iowa needs. The public research pipeline that produced decades of yield gains in Iowa corn and soybeans has been hollowed out. We need real federal investment in land-grant research on drought-tolerant varieties, disease resistance for emerging threats like Southern Rust, diversified rotations that reduce climate risk, and small-grain and forage crops that can anchor a more resilient Iowa cropping system.

The Bottom Line

For fifty years, the people who grow our food have been told they don’t matter. Their towns don’t matter. That if they can’t out-compete a corporation backed by Wall Street, a hedge fund in Manhattan, or a sovereign wealth fund in Beijing, that’s just the free market and they should accept it.

It’s a lie. There’s nothing free about a market where four companies control 85 percent of the meat. There’s nothing free about a system where the farmer’s share of the food dollar has fallen from 40 cents to 14 while the grocery bill keeps climbing. And there’s nothing free about Washington politicians taking money from the corporations doing the squeezing and writing the policies that let it continue.

Iowans don’t need pity from Washington. We need a fair shake. We need federal policy that recognizes our contributions, honors our way of life, and gives the next generation of Iowa farm families a real shot at the future. We need a senator willing to take on the people who’ve been rigging the game, in both parties.

On my honor, I will be that senator.

And right now, it doesn’t. Iowa ranked dead last in economic growth in 2025. It’s not because Iowans aren’t working hard enough. It’s because the system has been rigged by corporate monopolies that squeeze out competition, by a tax code that rewards wealth over work, by trade deals shaped by foreign lobbyists instead of Iowa farmers, and by politicians who take money from the same big corporations that are driving up costs for the rest of us.

That’s what Part One of our Iowans Over Insiders agenda was about: ending the rigged system. Part Two is about building something better in its place. Because cleaning up the corruption only gets us halfway there. The other half is building an economy that actually works for working Iowans. One where a full-time job pays the bills, where families can afford a home and childcare, where Iowa’s family farmers can compete on a level playing field, and where the next generation can build a future right here in Iowa without having to leave to find it.

Why This Fight Is Personal

I grew up in a hard working family. My mom Jackie has spent her career as a union nurse, at the University of Iowa Hospital and at the VA in Coralville, caring for veterans. Her union contract is the reason our family had health insurance after she got laid off during the Great Recession. I watched firsthand what it means to have a union fighting in your corner — and what it means when workers don’t. When my mom Terry was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis (MS) I watched her fight every day to slow her physical decline and to eventually battle her way out of her wheelchair.

My wife Chloe and I have a two-year-old son. When we enrolled him in daycare, we were stunned that our childcare cost as much as our mortgage. For far too many young Iowans, the size of their family is being determined not by how many kids they want to have, but instead by how many kids they can afford to have. Some young couples aren’t having kids at all because they just can’t afford to pay their rent or mortgage and afford childcare. Women particularly bear the long term repercussions when forced to leave the labor market due to lack of access to child care.

I know what it feels like to do everything right and still feel the squeeze, and I’ve heard from Iowans in big cities, small towns, and rural communities who are sick of empty promises from politicians on both sides of the aisle.

My Plan: Lower Costs and Build an Economy that Works for Iowans

An economy that works for working people doesn’t happen on its own. It takes deliberate choices: investing in workers, breaking up the monopolies that rig the market, protecting small farms, and making sure the rules reward hard work, not wealth. That’s how we lower costs and put more money in Iowans’ pockets. Every proposal in this plan starts from the same place — Iowa deserves a Senator who fights for working families, not for the corporations and billionaires who’ve been calling the shots for too long.

This economic agenda has ten pillars, each targets a specific way the system has been rigged against hardworking Iowans, and offers a concrete plan to fix it.

1. Raise Wages and Rebuild the Middle Class

2. Make the Wealthy Pay Their Fair Share

3. Make Childcare Affordable for Iowa Families

4. Make Homeownership Possible Again

5. Break Up Monopolies and Restore Competition

6. Keep the Promise: Protect Social Security and Retirement

7. Protect Iowa Workers in the Age of AI

8. Support Iowa’s Entrepreneurs and Invest in Main Street

9. Build Iowa’s Clean Energy Economy

10. Fight for Iowa on Trade

1. Raise Wages and Rebuild the Middle Class

Here’s the thing: American workers produce more per hour than at any point in history. And yet, in inflation-adjusted terms, the typical worker’s paycheck buys less today than it did fifty years ago. CEOs make hundreds of times what their workers earn. Shareholders pocket record profits. And the workers who made all of it possible are told to be grateful for what they’ve got.

That is not a fair market outcome. That is a system that has been deliberately tilted, through decades of policy choices, to move money from the people who do the work to the people who own the company. And fixing it is going to require deliberate choices in the other direction.

My plan to raise wages and rebuild Iowa’s middle class works from every direction: strengthening workers’ power to negotiate, making sure that Iowa families keep more of what they earn, and ensuring that the workers who built these companies actually own a piece of them.

I will fight to:

• Pass the PRO Act to restore workers’ right to organize and bargain collectively without fear of retaliation or intimidation. Unions are the single most effective tool workers have ever had to raise wages — not just for their own members, but for everyone in the communities where they work.

• Raise the federal minimum wage — the floor has been frozen at $7.25 an hour since 2009, the longest stretch in history. That is a policy choice, and it is a bad one. We should raise it to at least $15, then index it to inflation, so it never falls this far behind again.

• Guarantee paid family and medical leave for every worker. No Iowan should have to choose between keeping their job and caring for a newborn or a sick parent. The United States is one of the only developed countries in the world that doesn’t guarantee this. That has to change.

• Crack down on wage theft, which costs American workers more each year than all property crimes combined, and which falls hardest on the workers with the least power to fight back.

• End federal road swaps that let contractors cheat Iowa construction workers out of prevailing wages on public infrastructure projects that Iowa taxpayers are funding.

I will fight to ensure that workers share in the productivity gains they create. American workers’ productivity has soared while their wages have stagnated, and the difference has flowed to executives and shareholders. That is not how a fair economy works. I will fight to restore the fundamental bargain: when the company does well because of its workers, the workers do well too.

• Pass the American Ownership and Resilience Act, bipartisan legislation that makes it easier for Iowa workers to buy the companies they’ve spent their careers building. Right now, over 30 percent of U.S. corporate stock is owned by foreign investors — and as Iowa’s baby boom generation of business owners retires, a historic wave of company sales is coming.

• This legislation would channel those sales toward the employees who know those businesses best, rather than to Wall Street or foreign buyers. Employee-owned companies are more productive, more resilient, pay higher wages, and stay rooted in their communities.

The workers of Iowa built this economy. They deserve to share in what they’ve built. That means a paycheck that keeps up, a stake in the companies that depend on their labor, and a tax code and a government that works for them. I will fight for all of it.

2. Make the Wealthy Pay Their Fair Share

The economy isn’t working for most Iowans. It is working spectacularly for billionaires. The 938 billionaires in America are together worth more than $8 trillion. Elon Musk spent $291 million influencing the 2024 elections, and his net worth has increased by $579 billion since. Meanwhile, Iowa families are stretching every dollar further just to stay in place.

Part of the reason costs are so high for ordinary Iowans is that the tax code has been written to reward wealth over work. Someone who makes a billion dollars from investment profits pays a lower tax rate (or sometimes, no tax at all) than the nurse or the farmer or the factory worker who earns their living. That’s not a market outcome. That’s a policy choice. And it’s time to choose differently.

I will fight to:

• Support the Make Billionaires Pay Their Fair Share Act, which imposes a 5 percent annual tax on the 938 billionaires in America — not a penny more on anyone worth less than $1 billion. The revenue would provide $3,000 in direct payments to every person in a household earning under $150,000. That’s $12,000 for a family of four. It will fund investments in health care, childcare, housing, and public education. Iowa families are struggling. Billionaires are not.

• Close the loopholes that let billionaires pay a lower tax rate than the workers who make their companies run. The carried interest loophole lets hedge fund managers pay a lower rate than the nurses and teachers who make their communities run. The step-up in basis lets billionaires pass inherited wealth to their children completely untaxed. It’s a perk designed for the ultra-wealthy, not for working families. Family farms and family-owned small businesses passed to the next generation would be fully exempt because this is about making sure the wealthy pay their fair share, not about penalizing the Iowans who spent a lifetime building something real.

The wealthiest people in this country didn’t build their fortunes in a vacuum. They built them on the roads Iowans paid for, the workers Iowans raised, and the markets Iowans built. It is not radical to ask them to pay their fair share.

3. Make Childcare Affordable for Iowa Families

Chloe and I pay more for our son’s daycare than we do for our mortgage. We are not alone. The cost of child care increased 263% between 1990 and 2024. For many Iowa families, childcare is now the single largest household expense — bigger than rent, bigger than groceries, bigger than a car payment. And unlike a mortgage, childcare doesn’t build equity.

That math doesn’t add up for a lot of Iowa families. Many parents, especially moms, are being forced to leave the workforce entirely because the cost of childcare wipes out the income from a second job. That tradeoff has long-term implications for lifetime earnings, and pulls qualified workers out of the labor market. Other families are stretching budgets past the breaking point. Two thirds of families with children under 18 are living paycheck to paycheck. Meanwhile, childcare workers doing this critical work are among the most undercompensated people in our entire economy.

This is not a personal failing. It is a policy failure. And I will fix it.

I will fight to:

• Make major federal investments to bring down the cost of childcare for Iowa families — so that parents can afford to work, children get quality care, and providers can afford to stay in business.

• Expand access to high-quality pre-K for every Iowa child, regardless of their zip code or their parents’ income. The evidence is overwhelming: investments in early childhood education pay dividends for decades.

• Increase pay for childcare workers, some of the most undervalued workers in our economy, who are responsible for the development of our youngest Iowans.

If we want Iowa families to get ahead, we have to make the basics affordable. We can do that by making the wealthiest pay their fair share. There is no bigger economic barrier for young Iowa families right now than the cost of childcare, and I will fight like hell to fix it.

4. Make Homeownership Possible Again

For generations, homeownership was the foundation of the Iowa middle class. You worked hard, you saved up, you bought a home. That promise is increasingly out of reach for young Iowa families — not because they’re not working hard enough, but because Wall Street figured out how to corner the market on single-family homes. In 2025, the median age for a first time home buyer hit an all time high of 40 years old.

In recent years, large investment firms have been buying up single-family homes across Iowa and across the country, outbidding first-time buyers with all-cash offers and turning neighborhoods into rental portfolios. Every home a Wall Street firm buys is a home a young Iowa family can’t afford to purchase. That is a direct, government-policy-enabled transfer of wealth from working families to hedge funds, and it has to stop.

Trump’s chaotic tariff policy is only making things worse. Tariffs have driven up the cost of building new homes at exactly the moment Iowa needs more housing supply. Lumber, steel, and other building materials have gotten more expensive — adding tens of thousands of dollars to the cost of a new home before a family ever makes a mortgage payment. You can’t solve a housing shortage by making it more expensive to build.

I will fight to:

• Stop Wall Street investment firms from buying up Iowa’s single-family homes and pricing families out of homeownership. Our neighborhoods are not Wall Street investment vehicles.

• Support first-time homebuyers through expanded access to down payment assistance, favorable financing, and protections against the predatory practices that have pushed so many Iowans out of the market.

• Remove the barriers and build more housing. Outdated regulations, bureaucratic red tape, and financing gaps that delay housing construction and keep Iowa’s housing supply from keeping pace with demand.

• Reform the Low-Income Housing Tax Credit to expand affordable rental production in rural and small-town Iowa, where the private development economics are hardest to make work.

• Crack down on algorithmic rent price-fixing. Corporate landlords have been using platforms like RealPage to coordinate rent increases across markets driving up costs for Iowa renters the same way surveillance pricing drives up costs at the grocery store. If it’s illegal for companies to fix prices in a back room, it should be illegal to do it through an algorithm.

• Protect manufactured and mobile home residents. Over half of Iowa’s mobile home parks are owned by large, out-of-state investment firms. When private equity buys the park and raises the lot rent, they have nowhere to go. I fought for these families in the Iowa Senate, and I will fight for them in Washington including passing federal protections and a right of first refusal so residents have the chance to purchase their community before it gets sold out from under them.

Owning a home is not a luxury. It is how Iowa families build wealth and stability. I will fight to keep that door open for the next generation of Iowans.

5. Break Up Monopolies and Restore Real Competition

Iowa ranked dead last in economic activity in 2025. The reason is not that Iowans stopped working hard. The reason is that a handful of giant corporations gobbled up the competition in agriculture, in meatpacking, in healthcare, in housing, and then used their market power to raise prices, cut wages, and squeeze out the small businesses that used to be the backbone of Iowa’s economy.

Last fall, at a community roundtable in Atlantic, I heard about what this looks like in real life. The price of a new fire engine has more than tripled in a decade — from roughly $300,000 to over $1 million today, not because of inflation, but because a private equity firm systematically bought up competitors, closed plants, and now controls a third of the specialty vehicle market. Fire departments across Iowa are waiting years for trucks they can barely afford, and property taxpayers are footing the bill. That is not a market outcome. That’s monopoly power at work. And it shows up everywhere, in what Iowa farmers get paid for their grain, in what Iowa families pay for health insurance, in what Iowa small businesses pay to fix their equipment.

I will fight to:

• Enforce antitrust laws aggressively. The federal government has looked the other way for decades while corporations bought up competitors, raised prices, and eliminated competition. From Ticketmaster to firetruck manufacturing, we’ve all been getting screwed. That ends now.

• Break up monopolies in meatpacking, agriculture, healthcare, and housing that are driving up costs for Iowa families and squeezing out the small businesses and family farms that made Iowa’s economy strong.

• Pass right to repair legislation so Iowa farmers and small business owners can fix their own equipment without paying a dealer’s ransom to the same manufacturer who sold it to them.

• Ban surveillance pricing at the grocery store. Iowans are already getting squeezed at the checkout, and the last thing they need is big retailers using personal data to quietly jack up the price on the shelf just for them based on their shopping habits, their neighborhood, or what the algorithm thinks they’ll pay. I introduced legislation in the Iowa Senate to ban this practice, and I will bring that fight to Washington. We must act now to protect Iowa consumers before this predatory practice becomes the norm.

• Support small business access to capital, especially in rural communities where banks have consolidated and credit has dried up.

Competition is what makes capitalism work for working people. Right now, we don’t have competition, we have captured markets. I will fight to change that.

6. Keep the Promise: Protect Social Security and Retirement

More than 680,000 Iowans have earned their Social Security benefits. They paid into this system their whole working lives — through every paycheck, in good times and bad. It’s not a handout. It’s a promise. And right now, that promise is under attack by politicians like Ashley Hinson who has said she’s open to raising the retirement age and has voted to gut Social Security funding.

With Hinson’s support, DOGE has taken a chainsaw to the Social Security Administration. Wait times are up. Offices are understaffed. Payments are at risk. And the people driving those cuts have the audacity to call it “efficiency.” There is nothing efficient about a 78-year-old widow in Dubuque months for a benefits decision because the office that used to serve her is understaffed. Social Security isn’t broken. It’s under attack. And I will fight like hell to defend it.

The payroll tax that funds Social Security stops applying above $168,000 in income. That means a nurse paying into the system on every dollar she earns is contributing at a higher effective rate than a millionaire who hits the cap in February. That is not fair, and it is not necessary. Scrapping that cap is how we extend Social Security’s solvency for generations without cutting a single benefit.

I will fight to:

• Pass my Social Security plan: the Keep the Promise Act.

  • Scrap the payroll tax cap. Wealthy Americans should pay into Social Security on every dollar they earn, just like working Iowans do. Right now, someone making $50,000 pays Social Security taxes on every dollar. Someone making $5 million stops paying after the first $168,000. Closing that loophole extends Social Security’s solvency for generations and does not cut a single benefit for anyone who has earned it.

  • Reverse the DOGE cuts to the Social Security Administration on day one. Restore the agency’s budget so that benefits are paid on time, offices are staffed, and the 680,000 Iowans who depend on this system get the service they have earned.

  • Require a full-time Social Security commissioner whose only job is making sure benefits are paid on time, not someone moonlighting across multiple agencies while Iowans wait months for answers.

• No benefit cuts. No raising the retirement age. Iowans worked their whole lives to earn these benefits. We are not moving the finish line on them.

• Protect Medicare and Medicaid with the same intensity. The same forces attacking Social Security are coming for both, and I will fight them just as hard.

• Protect workers’ pensions. Iowa workers have spent their careers building toward a retirement they were promised. Many of them rely on multiemployer pension plans that were devastated by the 2008 financial crash. I will fight to defend those pension plans, protect the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation from cuts, and ensure that no Iowa worker sees the retirement they earned evaporate because of corporate mismanagement or Wall Street greed. You kept your end of the bargain. Washington should keep its end too.

• Crack down on elder abuse and nursing home fraud. This fraud drains the savings of Iowa seniors and their families who have worked their whole lives to build something. Every Iowan who has spent decades contributing to this economy deserves dignity and protection in retirement, not to be exploited by a fraudulent operator cutting corners on their care.

The people who built Iowa’s economy deserve to retire with dignity. I will never stop fighting to make sure that promise is kept.

7. Protect Iowa Workers in the Age of AI

Iowa has seen this movie before. When manufacturing left, the workers bore the cost, not the executives, not the shareholders, not the politicians who took their donations and looked the other way. AI is the next chapter of that same story, and we cannot afford to make the same mistake again.

The companies building the most powerful AI systems in the world have every financial incentive to move fast and deploy first. The workers whose jobs are on the line, the families whose communities depend on those jobs, and the consumers whose data is being used to train these systems don’t have a seat at the table. That has to change.

My vision is simple: AI should help Iowans become more productive, earn more, and have a better quality of life. The economic gains from this technology need to be broadly shared, not hoarded by a handful of tech companies and their investors while working families are left behind.

I will fight to:

• Give workers a real voice in AI adoption in their workplaces. When a company wants to deploy AI that will change how work gets done, workers deserve advance notice, a seat at the table, and real bargaining rights over how those changes are implemented. No Iowa worker should come in one day to find their job has been automated without any say in how that transition happened.

• Ensure companies profiting from AI automation pay their fair share into the safety net that makes transitions possible. When a company replaces workers with machines and captures all of that productivity gain for its shareholders, workers and communities shouldn’t be left holding the bill.

• Protect Iowa farmers’ data. Iowa farmers generate enormous quantities of valuable data through precision agriculture tools, and they should own it. No seed company, equipment manufacturer, or AI platform should be able to claim rights to a farmer’s yield data, soil data, or operational records without explicit, informed consent.

• Require mandatory pre-deployment safety testing for high-risk AI systems, conducted by independent third parties, not the companies themselves. We require car seat manufacturers to prove their products are safe before they go on shelves. AI companies shouldn’t get to skip that step.

• Protect AI whistleblowers. The people who know the most about the risks of these systems are the ones building them. If a researcher or engineer sees something dangerous and speaks up, the law should protect them from retaliation.

• Prevent Iowa ratepayers from footing the bill for data center energy costs. Iowa is becoming a hub for AI data centers. That investment should work for Iowa families, not drive up utility rates to subsidize some of the most profitable companies in the world.

• Mandatory water usage studies prior to construction and continuing monitoring for large data centers, with enforceable limits that protect local communities and water supplies.

The models powering this technology were built on the collective output of human knowledge and creativity — including the work of Iowans. The wealth it generates should be shared broadly. This plan builds on the pro-Democracy reforms in Part One of the Iowans Over Insiders Agenda. If we get this right, AI means more time with our families, safer jobs, better healthcare, and a stronger Iowa economy. If we get it wrong, it means the biggest transfer of wealth in human history to the people who already have the most. Elected leaders have failed to keep up with the dangers of rapidly advancing technology. We’re building the most comprehensive plan to fix that.

8. Support Iowa’s Entrepreneurs and Invest in Main Street

Look, Iowa’s economy doesn’t run on Wall Street. It runs on Main Street. It runs on the family that opens a hardware store in their hometown because they know what farmers need, the veteran who comes home and starts a business because they have the discipline and the drive to make something work, and the young Iowan who has an idea and the guts to bet on themselves.

Right now, the system makes it too hard for those Iowans to succeed, and the people in power are making it worse. Starting a business is expensive. Getting credit in rural Iowa is harder than ever as big banks consolidate. And the Trump administration is actively cutting the programs that give new entrepreneurs the training and support they need to get off the ground.

That’s not how you build an economy for working families. That’s how you build one for people who already have money.

My plan puts Iowa’s entrepreneurs and small business owners first.

I will fight to:

• Pass the Tax Relief for New Businesses Act to dramatically reduce the cost of starting a business in Iowa. Right now, entrepreneurs can only deduct $5,000 in startup costs in the first year, but the average small business owner spends $40,000 just to get off the ground. That gap is a barrier that keeps out anyone who doesn’t have a trust fund or family money to fall back on. This legislation raises the startup deduction to $50,000, expands the types of expenses that qualify, and stretches the phase-out threshold so more growing businesses can benefit. Our tax code should be opening doors for Iowa’s next generation of entrepreneurs, not slamming them shut.

• Restore and expand SBA entrepreneurial development programs that the Trump administration is gutting. These programs, Small Business Development Centers, Women’s Business Centers, SCORE, and Veterans Business Outreach Centers, provide free or low-cost counseling and training to Iowa’s small business owners and aspiring entrepreneurs. In FY2024 alone, these programs counseled more than 744,000 small businesses nationwide, supported the creation of 33,240 new businesses, and supported over one million jobs. President Trump’s FY2026 budget cuts $167 million from these programs and calls for eliminating most of them entirely. I will fight to restore every dollar and expand these programs, because the Iowa farmer’s kid who wants to start a business deserves the same shot as the one who grew up with connections and capital.

• Pass the American Access to Banking Act to rebuild the community banking infrastructure that rural Iowa has lost. Big bank consolidation has left too many Iowa communities without a local bank or credit union, which means small business owners can’t get loans, and new entrepreneurs can’t get started. This bipartisan legislation streamlines the process for creating new community banks and credit unions, establishes mentorship programs for emerging institutions, and removes the regulatory barriers that have made it nearly impossible to open a new community financial institution in decades. Iowa’s Main Streets deserve access to the credit that makes new businesses possible.

• Support small business access to capital, especially in rural communities where traditional financing has dried up, by expanding the Small Business Investment Company (SBIC) program to prioritize underserved and rural areas, and by fighting for federal contracting opportunities that give Iowa’s small businesses a fair shot.

The people who start businesses in Iowa’s small towns aren’t doing it for a quick profit. They’re doing it because they believe in their communities and want to build something that lasts. I will fight every day to make sure Washington has their backs.

9. Build Iowa’s Clean Energy Economy

Iowa leads the nation in wind energy. More than 60 percent of our electricity comes from wind, and we rank among the top states in the nation for wind and solar development. That didn’t happen by accident, it happened because Iowa invested, because Iowa farmers and landowners partnered with developers, and because the market for clean energy created thousands of good-paying jobs right here in Iowa.

Now those investments are under threat. The Trump administration and Iowa’s own Ashley Hinson voted for a bill that rolled back the clean energy tax credits and utility investments that Iowa families and Iowa’s economy depend on. Utility costs are going up, jobs are at risk, and Iowa’s clean energy leadership is being undermined by people who care more about the oil and gas companies funding their campaigns than the Iowa workers building our clean energy future.

I will fight to:

• Defend Iowa’s clean energy leadership. Protect the federal tax credits and clean energy investments that have made Iowa a national model for wind and solar and created thousands of good-paying Iowa jobs.

• Restore the clean energy investments cut by the Trump/Hinson Big Beautiful Bill that have driven up utility costs for Iowa families and undermined the investments Iowa communities have made.

• Invest in grid modernization and energy storage so Iowa’s renewable energy can power communities reliably and Iowa’s clean energy advantage translates into a long-term economic edge.

• Build the clean energy supply chain in Iowa. Wind turbine components, solar panels, clean energy manufacturing. Iowa shouldn’t just produce the energy; Iowa should build the equipment that produces it.

• Support wind and solar lease income for Iowa farm families. Clean energy development on farmland is supplemental income for Iowa farm families, and I will fight to protect and expand that opportunity.

Iowa’s clean energy economy is a real competitive advantage and a source of real jobs. I will fight every day to protect and grow it.

10. Fight for Iowa on Trade

One in five Iowa jobs is tied to international trade. Iowa farmers feed the world — soybeans, corn, pork, and dairy. Our entire agricultural economy depends on open markets and stable trade relationships. And right now, those markets are in chaos.

The blanket tariffs imposed by the Trump administration have hit Iowa’s biggest export categories hardest. China, our largest agricultural customer, has retaliated directly against Iowa’s farmers. The result is lower prices at the farm gate, higher prices at the grocery store, and a trade war that Iowa farmers didn’t start and can’t afford.

The foreign lobbying ban I proposed in Part One of this agenda exists for exactly this reason, because the trade deals that have hurt Iowa farmers weren’t decided by Iowans. They were shaped by foreign governments with paid lobbyists in Washington, pushing policies that serve their interests, not ours. An Iowa Senator should fight for Iowa at the trade table, not for whoever can hire the best Washington firm.

I will fight to:

• End the tariff chaos and fight for a trade policy that opens global markets for Iowa’s farmers and workers — not one that starts trade wars Iowa has to pay for.

• Fight for fair trade deals that are negotiated with Iowa’s farmers and workers at the table, not cut in back rooms by industries whose interests conflict with Iowa’s.

• Enforce trade rules against countries that cheat. End currency manipulation, dumping, state subsidies that undercut Iowa’s producers. Fair trade means the rules apply to everyone.

• Reject blanket tariffs that raise costs for Iowa families and hurt Iowa’s export markets. Tariffs are a tax on Iowa families, and using them as a blunt instrument without a strategy causes real harm to real Iowans.

• Rebuild America’s global relationships. Our trading partners are also our customers. Iowa farmers need those markets open, and that requires American credibility abroad. Burning those relationships costs Iowa farmers every time.

Iowa’s economy is connected to the world. Our foreign policy is our farm policy. I will fight to make sure that connection works for Iowa, not against us.

What’s at Stake

The politicians who have let this happen, who have taken the checks from the monopolies and the corporate PACs and the trade lobbyists, and then written the rules in their favor, will tell you that this is just how the economy works. That the market has spoken. That there’s nothing to be done.

That is not true. Every one of the conditions that is making life harder for Iowa’s working families is the result of a policy choice. And every one of those policy choices can be made differently.

The economy isn’t broken by accident. It’s broken by design. And we can redesign it.

My Promise to Iowa

I grew up in Iowa. I am raising my family in Iowa. I have spent eight years in the Iowa Senate fighting for working families, for mobile home residents who owned their homes but not the ground beneath them, for workers whose wages were stolen, for farmers who got squeezed by corporations that knew they had no choice but to sell. Those fights haven’t all been easy, and I haven’t won them all, but I have never backed down. And my promise to you is that I will bring that same fight to Washington.

I refuse corporate PAC money. I will abide by my own term-limit pledge. I will not take a check from the corporations whose market power is crushing Iowa’s families and Iowa’s farmers. And every single day I am in the United States Senate, I will work to build an economy that rewards hard work, not inherited wealth — an economy that works for Iowans, not insiders.

On my honor, I will be that senator.

While we were out across Iowa talking to voters about ending corruption, the Chuck Schumer–aligned Super PAC bankrolling Josh Turek’s campaign crossed $3.25 million in spending on this race.

That’s Washington insiders pouring dark money into Iowa to buy themselves a vote for the status quo in the U.S. Senate. And it’s the exact same system we’re running to end.

We’re not going to out-spend them. But we can out-organize them — if you’re with us.

Chip in $10, $25, or whatever you can to help us fight back against this dark money.

Now. Let me tell you about the week we just had.

Marshalltown and Iowa City showed up.

Monday night, we filled the Veterans Memorial Coliseum in Marshalltown for the first stop of the Iowans Over Insiders tour. Democrats. Republicans. Independents. All in the same room, fired up about the same thing.

I was asked about how we fix our education system, how we bring down costs and invest in communities like Marshalltown, and how I call on my faith to keep me steady in this tough political climate. There is so much that is possible if we elect a leader that is focused on making Iowans lives better, rather than serving their corporate donors and party insiders.

We can confirm a Secretary of Education who knows the difference between AI and A1 (yes, the steak sauce). We can invest in rural businesses and pass a farm bill that works for farmers, not the giant corporations instead of slashing funding to finance endless war.

Evans McWilliam, a Marshalltown resident, told our team he “very much loved” what we’ve laid out in my anti-corruption plan. He wasn’t alone. Joel Greer, former Marshalltown Mayor, said, “Zach’s plan to tackle corruption in Washington is exactly what Iowa needs. It’s time we put everyday Iowans first, and I’m fully behind Zach’s campaign to make that happen.”

Iowa City showed up the same way. The room was full, the questions kept coming, and you could just feel it: people are ready for change.

Here’s the thing: this isn’t a partisan moment. Democrats are fed up. Republicans are fed up. And Independents are checked out because they are sick of both sides. The only people who think the system isn’t rigged are the ones doing the rigging.

The press noticed too. The Times-Republican, the Daily Iowan, the Des Moines Register, and the Cedar Rapids Gazette all covered the tour launch.

Why they’re showing up.

Billionaires buy politicians, politicians write the rules, Iowans pay the price. I’ve rolled out a ten-point anti-corruption plan to end that.

Let me share one story that explains the whole thing.

Candi Evans lives in North Liberty. Her mobile home community was hit with a massive rent hike after an out-of-state corporation came and bought the land underneath their homes. During my first year in the State Senate, I passed a bill in the Iowa Senate to protect them. It passed 48 to 0.

Then Ashley Hinson and the special interests got to work. I sat in the room as Ashley Hinson, then a state representative, killed the bill. It never got a vote in the Iowa House. I later learned that Hinson received $1500 from the organization and lobbyist representing those out-of-state companies.

One thousand five hundred dollars. That’s what it cost to kill a bill that passed unanimously in the state senate. Iowa residents saw their rents skyrocket because of this contribution to Hinson’s campaign. That’s the corruption problem. And the corruption problem is the cost problem.

So here’s what we’re going to do:

1. Overturn Citizens United and Get Dark Money Out of Politics
2. End the Tyranny of Big Money in Our Elections
3. Common Sense Term Limits and Filibuster Reform
4. Ban Politicians from Insider Trading
5. End the Revolving Door and Rebuild the Civil Service
6. Mandatory Tax Return Disclosure
7. Ethics Reform for the Supreme Court and Federal Judiciary
8. Hold the President Accountable
9. Ban Foreign Lobbying
10. AI Transparency and Accountability in Our Elections

I said this in Marshalltown, and I’ll say it again: on my honor, I will be that senator.

The contrast couldn’t be clearer.

Look at what’s happening on both sides of this race. Republicans have already reserved nearly $30 million in dark money ads to prop up Ashley Hinson. And the Chuck Schumer–aligned Super PAC supporting Josh Turek has already crossed $3.25 million in spending — and counting.

Both parties. Both candidates.

Here’s the thing: that’s not a coincidence. That’s the system working exactly as designed. Party bosses and outside groups pick their candidates, flood the airwaves with cash, and Iowa voters get handed a candidate beholden to the Washington swamp, regardless of which party wins.

We’re running to end that system. Not tinker around the edges of it. End it.

This seat belongs to Iowa not to Washington insiders, not to Super PACs, not to party bosses on either side of the aisle.

Here’s how you help us keep it that way.

After the birth of my son two years ago, I have a whole new appreciation for the famous quote, “Politicians are like diapers. They both need to be changed often and for the same reason.”

I’m running to be the change.

I’m not taking a dime of corporate PAC money. I believe our next Senator should answer to the people of this state, not to party bosses and dark money Super PACs.

If you agree, then I need your help. Please chip in and help me get this message out to voters in every corner of Iowa.

Iowa is ready. I hope you’re with us.

— Zach

This week, I released the first part of our Iowans Over Insiders agenda: a ten-point anti-corruption plan to end the rigged system in Washington. The Cedar Rapids Gazette covered our plan in depth, describing it as “a sweeping [...] series of reforms aimed at curbing the influence of money in politics.” Our plan was shared by Senator Elizabeth Warren, who endorsed my campaign last month and messaged me on Tuesday about how much she liked the plan. I was also excited to participate in the End Citizens United candidate forum on Wednesday, where I made the case for why getting money out of politics isn’t just a good-government reform, it’s the single most important step we can take to lower costs for Iowa families and build an economy that works for us.

At that forum, I was also direct about how big money from the DC Establishment is getting involved in our race. A super PAC closely aligned with Senator Chuck Schumer called “Vote Vets” is flooding Iowa with dark money to attempt to influence who Iowa Democrats choose as our nominee.

Why? Because when I launched this campaign last June, I had the courage to say that it was time for new leadership for national Democrats and I would not support Chuck Schumer. That was months before my Democratic opponent, Representative Josh Turek, launched his campaign. And when he was asked the same question, he deflected. After Senate Democrats folded during the shutdown debacle last year, I called on Senator Schumer to step down from his leadership role. Rep. Turek stayed silent. And now, this Schumer-linked Super PAC is spending millions of dollars to ensure that Schumer’s failed leadership can continue.

The reason that we can win in November is because of my independence from the corrupt political establishment. MAGA Representative Ashley Hinson has been a rubber stamp for an agenda from the Trump White House that has been devastating for Iowa. Time and time and time again, Rep. Hinson has put her party and her politics above our people — she has voted to increase your utility bills, your healthcare costs, your grocery bill, the price of gas, and so much more. All because that’s what party bosses in DC told her to do.

This is going to be the core contrast in the general election — and that argument is going to be a hell of a lot easier to make if you are willing to be candid about the failures of our own national party leadership. I have done so, repeatedly, and I will continue to do so. Rep. Turek has not, and it is a major, major liability for him in a general election.

Fundamentally, Iowa voters deserve to make the choice about who will be our nominee, not Washington insiders. I made it clear that I will work for you in the US Senate, not Chuck Schumer, not Donald Trump, not the billionaires, and not the big corporations. NBC News covered the forum, and the Iowa Capital Dispatch covered the differences between the candidates as well.

Here’s what I keep coming back to, and what I want to say directly: the corruption problem and the cost problem are the same problem. This isn’t abstract, you can follow the line from campaign contributions to the impact on your wallet on issue after issue. One of the many examples is Ashley Hinson taking millions from the pharmaceutical and insurance industries and then voting twice against capping insulin costs and against letting Medicare negotiate drug prices.

A private equity firm called Rev Group systematically bought up competitors in the fire truck market, and now controls roughly a third of that industry. Now, fire departments across Iowa are paying more for trucks and waiting years for trucks they can barely afford, and your property tax bill goes up as a result.

MercyOne just laid off more than 140 workers across Mason City, Des Moines, and Ottumwa because of Republican Medicaid cuts — cuts Hinson voted for and said she was “proud” of. Now Iowans have to wait longer, drive further, and pay more for their health care.

When I was first elected to the legislature, an out-of-state corporation bought up mobile home communities across Iowa, jacked up rents by 50 to 70 percent overnight, and when I passed a bipartisan bill 48-0 to protect those families, Hinson killed my bipartisan bill in the House after taking $1,500 in contributions from the industry’s PAC and leadership – and promises of future support.

The money and the votes go together, every single time. That’s not a coincidence. That’s corruption. And it’s costing Iowans real money, every single day.

The only way to actually lower costs and make life more affordable is to first fix the system that keeps rigging the economy against working families. That’s what our plan does, and that’s what this entire campaign is about. And it’s no surprise that Chuck Schumer and the DC establishment are nervous. But I’m not worried about them. I’m worried about Iowans.

On Monday, I’m hitting the road to take this fight statewide. We’re kicking off the Iowans Over Insiders Tour in Marshalltown, my 50th town hall of this campaign, and I’d love for you to be there. Over the coming weeks, we’ll be rolling out new policy pillars at stops across Iowa: on lowering costs for families, making health care more affordable and accessible, building an economy that actually works for working people, and protecting our democracy.

If you’re in the Marshalltown area Monday, April 13th at 5:30 PM, come join us. RSVP right here: https://www.mobilize.us/zachwahls/event/930934/

This is what Iowans over insiders looks like, and I hope to see you soon.

— ZW

The system is rigged by design, and we have to end it. Corporations and billionaires figured out a long time ago that it’s a lot cheaper to buy a politician than to compete in a fair marketplace. Elon Musk spent over $291 million in the 2024 elections, and his net worth has increased by $579 billion since then. The billionaires buy the politicians, the politicians write the rules, and hardworking Iowans pay the price.

Since I was first elected to the Iowa State Senate in 2018, I have fought to protect my constituents against that system. I’m running for the U.S. Senate because Iowa deserves a Senator who works for Iowans, not insiders, and because the corruption in Washington is costing Iowa families real money.

My anti-corruption plan — Iowans Over Insiders: End the Rigged System — takes direct aim at the rigged system with concrete reforms to make sure our government works for us, not the insiders, the wealthy, and the well-connected.

Why This Fight Is Personal

When I first got to the Iowa State Senate, I found out fast that the powerful and well-connected come first, and it’s everyday Iowans who are left behind.

Take Candi Evans. Candi lives in a mobile home community in North Liberty in a home her late husband purchased for her to live out her retirement. In 2019, after I was first elected to the State Senate, an out-of-state corporation bought the land that Candi’s home sat on. Then they jacked up rents overnight — 58 percent increases that families had no warning for, just notices posted on their doors. Candi and her neighbors were not asking for a handout. They owned their homes. They just didn’t own the ground underneath them, and a greedy corporation figured out how to exploit that.

I wrote a bill to protect Iowans like Candi. And even in the minority, I built a bipartisan coalition that passed it through the Iowa State Senate 48 to 0. Not something that happens every day in our divided legislature.

But then the bill got to the Iowa State House where then-State Representative Ashley Hinson killed it. What I didn’t know at the time was that Hinson had received a $1,500 campaign contribution from the PAC and association representing those big corporations. The bill that passed 48-0 in the Senate never even got a vote in the House. Eight years later, Candi Evans and her neighbors are still fighting for the most basic protections. When everyday Iowans needed someone to fight for them, I was there, and it was Ashley Hinson who sold them out.

That is what political corruption looks like in the real world. It does not always look like a straightforward bribe. Sometimes it looks like a campaign contribution and a bill that never gets a vote. Sometimes it looks like a broken legislature that is no longer capable of meeting the needs of our people. But no matter what it looks like, this corruption is why our economy is stacked against us. This corruption is why everyday Iowans pay higher costs. Not because of the market, not because of bad luck, but because the person who was supposed to protect them cared more about their donors than their constituents. That is the connection between corruption and costs. And that is exactly what this plan is designed to stop.

My Plan: End the Rigged System

The corruption that stopped Candi Evans’ bill didn’t stay in one room. It runs through our campaign finance laws, through insider trading by members of Congress from both parties, through well-paid lobbyists who influence politicians with big campaign checks, through courtrooms, through the Oval Office — and increasingly, through algorithms and artificial intelligence models that many voters don’t even know exist. Every one of these factors rigs the system against hard working Iowans, which is why everything feels so broken. The first step to fixing our economy is cleaning up the corruption — and this plan tackles that corruption head-on.

This anti-corruption agenda has ten pillars, each targeting a specific piece of the rigged system we have the power to end, if we work together.

1. Overturn Citizens United and Get Dark Money Out of Politics

2. End the Tyranny of Big Money in Our Elections

3. Common Sense Term Limits and Filibuster Reform

4. Ban Politicians from Insider Trading

5. End the Revolving Door and Rebuild the Civil Service

6. Mandatory Tax Return Disclosure

7. Ethics Reform for the Supreme Court and Federal Judiciary

8. Hold the President Accountable

9. Ban Foreign Lobbying

10. AI Transparency and Accountability in Our Elections

Here’s what that looks like in practice.

1. Overturn Citizens United and Get Dark Money Out of Politics

In 2010, five Supreme Court justices decided that corporations have the same free speech rights as people, and that spending unlimited money to influence elections counts as speech. That decision — Citizens United v. FEC — broke American politics. It opened the floodgates to unlimited, often anonymous spending by billionaires and big corporations in our elections.

I will fight to:

• Pass a constitutional amendment to overturn Citizens United and restore Congress’s authority to limit campaign spending by corporations, outside groups, and the ultra-wealthy. This won’t happen overnight, but it is the only permanent fix, and I will be a lead champion for it in the Senate.

• Pass the DISCLOSE Act, which requires Super PACs and other outside groups to publicly disclose their donors. Voters have a right to know who is trying to influence their vote. Secret money is corrupt money, and the American people deserve to see exactly who is paying for the ads flooding their airwaves.

As a college student, I remember watching segments of The Colbert Report satirizing the absurdity of Citizens United and the corrosive impacts of anonymous campaign contributions. Now, as a state legislator and as a candidate for the U.S. Senate, I understand more clearly than ever just how damaging this decision has been to the fabric of our democracy and the health of our economy.

2. End the Tyranny of Big Money in Our Elections

Money has hollowed out our democracy. The more dollars you can flood into an election, the more you can drown out the voices of everyday voters. But the answer isn’t just capping what billionaires can spend. We have to build a system that allows candidates to run and win on the strength of their neighbors’ support, not just wealthy campaign donors.

That’s the idea behind the small dollar public financing system in the For the People Act, and it’s a model I will champion in the Senate, with one critical improvement.

Here’s how the program works:

• Reject big checks. Candidates who agree to reject donations over $1,000 and demonstrate grassroots support can qualify for a federal matching program that amplifies small dollar donations.

• Funded by the wealthy. The money comes not from taxpayers, but from a Freedom From Influence Fund financed by fines and penalties paid by corporate lawbreakers and wealthy tax cheats. The people who broke the system are the ones who should pay to fix it.

The For the People Act is a strong foundation. But I’d go further on one point that matters deeply to Iowans: matching funds should only amplify the voices of the people you’re actually going to represent.

Under the current bill, a $100 donation from an Iowa farmer and a $100 donation from a Wall Street donor carry the same weight in the matching program. That’s not accountability — that’s just a different pool of out-of-state influence. I will push to strengthen this proposal in two ways:

• Match Iowa donors only. Matching funds should apply exclusively to contributions from people who live in the state the candidate is running in. An Iowa Senator answers to Iowa. The public financing system should reflect that. Every matched dollar should come from someone who lives with the consequences of the votes cast in their name. This is not a technical detail — it is the whole point.

• Match at 8-to-1 on donations under $100. A higher match ratio on a tighter threshold does more to amplify everyday voices than a moderate ratio on larger checks. Under this model, a $50 donation from a nurse in Dubuque becomes $450. A $25 contribution from a student in Ames becomes $225. The smaller the donation, the more the program does to level the playing field — because those are the Iowans who have been shut out the longest.

The effect of this system is straightforward. Right now, candidates who refuse corporate PAC money start every race at a structural disadvantage. They spend their time calling the same small pool of wealthy donors because that’s what the math demands. An 8-to-1 match on Iowa small dollars flips that math entirely. Suddenly the candidate with ten thousand Iowa neighbors giving $50 is better funded than the one with a handful of lobbyists or corporate bundlers writing big checks. Grassroots support becomes a competitive advantage, not a handicap.

I know what it looks like to run this way. I have refused corporate PAC money in this race, and I have made the small dollar fundraising model work. What we need is a federal system that makes that path available to every candidate in every race and ensures that the candidates who take it are accountable to their constituents, not to national donor networks. Iowa voices. Iowa match. Iowa Senator.

3. Common Sense Term Limits and Filibuster Reform

In Iowa, we know that rotating crops is good for the soil. The same principle applies to our government. Career politicians who have been in Washington for thirty years aren’t there because they’re the best people for the job — they’re there because the system rewards incumbency, and incumbency rewards the people who fund campaigns. Term limits break that cycle.

I support:

• Two 6-year terms for members of the U.S. Senate (12 years total)

• Six 2-year terms for members of the U.S. House of Representatives (12 years total)

• 18-year terms for Supreme Court Justices, after which they rotate to a lower federal court. This ends lifetime appointments to the nation’s highest court, reduces the partisan stakes of each nomination fight, and ensures the Court reflects the country it serves.

Right now, Congress is full of people who have spent more time in Washington than most Iowans spend at any job in their lives. Fresh voices and new perspectives aren’t just healthy, they’re essential. I’ve seen firsthand what happens when good people in stay in office too long. And let me tell you, it is much, much worse when bad people stay in office too long.

Finally, I’ll tell you this. As the father of a two-year-old, I have a newfound appreciation for Mark Twain’s classic observation that politicians and diapers should both be changed regularly… and for the exact same reason.

Filibuster Reform

But term limits only matter if the people we send to Washington can actually govern. And right now, the Senate filibuster allows a minority of senators to block popular reforms without ever standing up to defend that position publicly. If senators want to block progress, they should have to stand up on the Senate floor and explain themselves to the American people — not hide behind backroom procedures. Iowans want results, not excuses about Senate rules. I will fight to reform the filibuster as Senator Harkin championed, bringing back the talking filibuster, and ensuring that any majority willing to stand behind its convictions can ultimately act on behalf of the people who sent them there.

4. Ban Politicians from Insider Trading

Here is a fact that should make every Iowan furious: members of Congress, in both parties, routinely trade stocks in companies they are simultaneously writing laws to regulate. They sit on committees, receive classified briefings, and then buy and sell based on what they know. It is legal. It should not be.

We already tried the honor system. The STOCK Act of 2012 required members of Congress to disclose their trades, but paired that requirement with a $200 fine and essentially no enforcement. Predictably, the disclosures pile up and nothing happens. A law without consequences is not reform. It is a permission slip.

My plan bans insider trading for everyone who holds federal power — with real teeth.

• Members of Congress, their immediate family members, and their staff would be prohibited from trading individual stocks while serving in office. Those who want to hold investments must place them in a blind trust, broadly diversified index funds, or U.S. government bonds.

• The President, members of the executive branch, their immediate family members, and their staff would face the same prohibition.

• Violations would require wrongdoers to pay back every dollar of profit made on an illegal trade, plus fines up to three times the amount gained, and automatic referral to the Department of Justice for criminal prosecution, including mandatory time in prison if convicted.

This ban extends to prediction markets. Prediction markets are platforms where users place bets on real-world events: elections, wars, government decisions. They have become a vehicle for people with access to classified intelligence to turn state secrets into anonymous profit. At the center of this scandal is a company called Polymarket.

It probably won’t surprise you that Donald Trump Jr. serves as a paid adviser to Polymarket and his venture capital firm has invested in it. The Trump administration already dropped two federal investigations into the company. Polymarket operates largely offshore, beyond U.S. regulatory reach — meaning those who use inside knowledge of American military decisions to profit anonymously face essentially no legal risk.

My plan closes that gap:

• Ban members of Congress, their families, and executive branch officials from trading on prediction market platforms while in office.

• Prohibit bets on government actions, military operations, and elections by anyone with access to non-public government information.

• Require that anyone who broke the public’s trust to place an illegal bet pay back every dollar of profit plus criminal penalties.

• Close the offshore loophole by extending U.S. jurisdiction to any prediction market accessible to American users, regardless of where it is incorporated.

Whether someone with access to classified briefings profits by trading defense stocks or placing anonymous bets on a prediction market, the betrayal is the same: using public power for private gain, at the public’s expense. My proposed ban covers all of it.

5. End the Revolving Door and Rebuild the Civil Service

The revolving door between government and K Street lobbyists is one of the most corrosive features of Washington’s culture. Legislators spend years in Washington, learning the rules and gaining access, and then cash it all in the moment they leave office. They become lobbyists for the same industries they were regulating, using the access their public service gave them to benefit private clients. It is legal corruption, and it has to end.

I will fight to:

• Ban members of Congress from becoming lobbyists for 5 years after leaving office. Public service should not be a credential for private enrichment.

• Extend the 5-year ban to senior Congressional staff and executive branch officials. The revolving door doesn’t turn only on members — it runs just as fast through the senior aides and agency heads who built those relationships on the public’s dime. Cabinet secretaries currently face just a 1-year cooling-off period. That is not enough.

• Close the shadow lobbying loophole. Former officials who call themselves “strategic consultants” while doing the exact same work as registered lobbyists are cheating the system. My plan bans any paid work designed to influence the federal government during the cooling-off period, regardless of what it’s called.

Washington’s workforce also faces a threat from a different direction. There are active efforts to hollow out the career civil service and replace experienced, merit-based federal employees with political loyalists. Additionally, the pay of federal workers is too often used as leverage in high-stakes negotiations, making it increasingly challenging to recruit or keep talent in the federal government. I will:

• Restore and strengthen civil service protections for federal employees, ensuring that the people who run our government agencies — the experts, the scientists, the veterans’ service workers, the food inspectors — are hired and retained based on merit, not based on their political loyalty to whoever happens to be in power.

• Pass the True Shutdown Fairness Act to ensure federal employees are able to do their jobs and provide for their families even when our legislative leaders are fighting.

My mom Jackie spent her career as a federal employee serving veterans. She earned her position because she was good at her job, not because she was politically connected. That is how the civil service is supposed to work. I will fight to keep it that way.

6. Mandatory Tax Return Disclosure

The revolving door and the insider trading ban work only if the public can see what’s behind them. That requires transparency — and right now, the most basic financial transparency is voluntary and routinely ignored.

For decades, presidential candidates and major office-seekers voluntarily released their tax returns, not because the law required it, but because voters had a right to see whether their leaders had conflicts of interest.

That norm has been broken, and I will fight to restore it by law and ensure that all federal elected officials and political appointees would be required to disclose their past 5 years of tax returns. Period.

Voters cannot hold their representatives accountable if they cannot see who those representatives are financially entangled with. If you want to hold public power, you give up some privacy. That’s the deal.

7. Ethics Reform for the Supreme Court and Federal Judiciary

We need a strong and enforceable code of ethics for Supreme Court Justices and all members of the Federal Judiciary. It is well documented that Justices have accepted lavish gifts, luxury travel, and undisclosed financial relationships with wealthy benefactors who have active interests in cases before the Court.

This is exactly the kind of corruption that ordinary Iowans find infuriating about Washington. The rules that apply to everyone else apparently do not apply to the people at the top.

I will push to establish a binding code of ethics for all federal judges, including Supreme Court justices. That code will:

• Ban gifts to federal judges from any party with a financial interest in matters that could come before their court.

• Require mandatory recusal when a judge has a financial, personal, or professional conflict of interest in a case.

• Mandate full financial disclosure for all federal judges, not just periodic filings — so the public can see in real time whether a judge’s personal financial relationships create a conflict with the cases on their docket.

The judiciary’s independence and legitimacy depend on the public’s trust. Right now, that trust is being squandered. Iowans deserve courts that play by the same rules they do.

8. Hold the President by Accountable

The ethics rules that apply to members of Congress and federal judges mean nothing if the person at the top of the executive branch is exempt from all of them. Right now, he effectively is. Donald Trump wasn’t wrong when he said that we need to “Drain the Swamp” in Washington. The problem is that he’s not draining the swamp at all — he’s swimming in it.

A conservative estimate shows that Donald Trump has used the office of the presidency to make at least $1.4 billion for himself. That money doesn’t come out of thin air — it comes out of your pockets. Whether he is running flagrant cryptocurrency schemes or shaking down American companies with the threat of regulatory retaliation, anybody can see that President Trump is using his office to enrich himself, his family, and his associates. He is profiting from being president while more and more Iowans are struggling to make ends meet. Our government should be of, by, and for the people — not for one man’s profit.

I will fight to:

• Require presidents and vice presidents to divest from or place assets in a blind trust upon taking office.

• Pass a law enforcing the Constitution’s emoluments clause with explicit civil and criminal penalties.

• Prohibit federal agencies from awarding contracts to businesses owned by the President or immediate family.

9. Ban Foreign Lobbying

American elections should be decided by Americans. American policy should be shaped by American interests. But right now, foreign governments and foreign corporations can legally pay American lobbyists to influence Congress on their behalf, shaping legislation that affects U.S. foreign policy, trade, national security, and the daily lives of working families.

Iowa farmers and workers are already living with the consequences of trade and foreign policy decisions that seem designed to benefit everyone except them. When foreign governments have paid lobbyists pushing their agendas, that is the exact opposite of America first. American workers and farmers end up on the losing end of deals that should have been made in their favor.

I will ban lobbying on behalf of foreign governments and foreign entities. The United States Senate should answer to the people of Iowa and the people of this country — not to whoever can afford to hire the right Washington firm. This is not a partisan issue. It is a basic matter of national sovereignty and democratic accountability.

10. AI Transparency and Accountability in Our Elections

The tools of corruption are evolving, and artificial intelligence or AI is one of the fastest changing technologies ever developed. The same forces that have used dark money and foreign lobbying to rig the system in their favor are now using AI to do it faster, cheaper, and with less accountability than ever before.

AI can generate a realistic video of a candidate saying something they never said. It can produce thousands of fake constituent letters, fabricate grassroots movements that don’t exist, and micro-target voters with personalized disinformation so precise that two neighbors can be shown completely different — and contradictory — versions of reality. None of this is adequately regulated. Most of it is invisible to the people being manipulated.

This is the next frontier of the rigged system. And if we don’t act now, we will reach a point where voters can no longer trust what they see, what they hear, or what they believe their neighbors think — because all of it can be manufactured at scale by the same billionaires and special interests that have already bought too much of our politics.

I will fight to:

• Require clear, mandatory disclosure on all AI-generated political advertising and campaign content. If a voter is watching a political ad, they have a right to know if what they’re seeing is real.

• Ban deepfakes — AI-generated synthetic audio or video — of candidates and public officials in political advertising. Fabricating a candidate’s words to influence an election is fraud, and the law should treat it that way.

• Close the AI astroturfing loophole by prohibiting the use of AI to generate fake constituent communications, manufactured public comments, or simulated grassroots campaigns designed to deceive elected officials about public opinion.

Dark money has always worked by hiding who is speaking and why. AI allows that concealment to operate at a scale no human network could match. The same transparency principles that apply to campaign donors apply here: voters deserve to know who is talking to them, whether they’re human, and what interests they serve.

What’s at Stake

These are not abstract reforms. They connect directly to the costs Iowans face every single day.

Last fall, at a community roundtable in Atlantic, Iowa, I heard what this looks like on the ground. The price of a new fire engine has more than doubled in a decade — from roughly $500,000 to over $1 million today — not because of inflation, but because a private equity firm called Rev Group systematically bought up competitors and now controls roughly a third of the specialty vehicle market. They closed plants while demand grew, and fire departments across Iowa are waiting years for trucks they can barely afford. The same consolidation has driven up the cost of street sweepers, sewer vacs, and other equipment that local governments depend on. The regulatory system that should have stopped this consolidation was weakened by the same industry that benefited from it. A bipartisan Senate investigation is now examining these practices. But the damage is already done — and when Iowans wonder why their property tax bills keep going up, part of the answer is that their local governments are being squeezed by corporations whose market power was bought and protected in Washington.

Ashley Hinson has taken millions of dollars from corporate executives, lobbyists, and PACs — from pharmaceutical companies, from insurance companies, and from the financial industry. And then she voted against letting Medicare negotiate drug prices. She voted against capping insulin costs. She voted for tax cuts that overwhelmingly benefited billionaires and big corporations. The money and the votes go together. Our rigged economy is the result. This is not a coincidence.

Iowa families are paying more for prescriptions, more for groceries, more for childcare, more for health insurance, more for housing, more for nursing home care — not because the market randomly decided to raise prices, but because the people writing the rules have been bought and paid for.

The corruption problem and the cost problem are the same problem.

The choice in this race — in the primary and in November — is whether Iowa sends someone to Washington who is free to fight this fight, or someone who owes their seat to the same system we’re trying to fix.

In order to build an economy that works for us, we need a government that listens to us and works for us.

My Promise to Iowa

Candi Evans still doesn’t have the protection she deserves. Eight years after that bill passed 48 to 0, she and her neighbors are still fighting for basic protections under the law — because one politician, backed by one PAC, decided that Candi and her neighbors were less important than campaign contributions. This corruption is exactly what this plan is designed to stop. Not just in mobile home communities in North Liberty, but everywhere the system has been rigged against hardworking people who played by the rules and just wanted a better future for their families.

I grew up in Iowa. I am raising my family in Iowa. I have spent eight years in the Iowa Senate fighting for people who couldn’t afford fancy lobbyists or make big campaign contributions. These fights haven’t been easy. And I haven’t won them all — but I have never backed down. And my promise to you is that I will never back down. I know what it means to hold my two-year-old son in my arms and wonder if the people in Washington are fighting for him and families like mine — or for the corporations that fund their campaigns.

I have made it clear: I refuse corporate PAC money. I will abide by my own term-limit pledge. Leadership begins by example.

If elected to the United States Senate, I will bring the same fight to Washington that I brought to the Iowa Senate, and I will not stop because it gets hard or because it hurts my political career. Iowans deserve a Senator who works for us, not the insiders.

And on my honor, I will be that senator.

I’ve seen it firsthand in the Iowa legislature, and we can all see it happening in DC. This corruption has real consequences. Costs are too high. Wages are too low. Good-paying jobs keep leaving Iowa. And the people in charge aren’t doing anything to solve our problems.

I’ve had enough of it. And I think you have too.

That’s why I’m taking our message directly to the voters. No out-of-state Super PACs bankrolling my campaign. Just me, hitting the road, and driving across Iowa to talk to people, and that’s what this campaign has always been about. We’ve already done hundreds of campaign events, and I’m so excited for this next leg of the journey.

I’m the only candidate in this race building a genuinely grassroots campaign. You may have seen ads for my primary opponent funded by millions of dollars from a DC Super PAC linked to establishment Democrats like Chuck Schumer. Ashley Hinson has spent years taking corporate PAC money and voting exactly the way you’d expect of someone who owes favors all over Washington.

The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over and over and expecting different results. Iowa desperately needs a new approach, and that’s what this tour is all about.

You can learn more and RSVP for these events on our mobilize page here.

Here’s the deal: Donald Trump wants Ashley Hinson. Chuck Schumer wants Josh Turek. I’m the only candidate that the establishment of both parties is afraid of.

And that’s exactly why our message is resonating, it’s why we’re leading in polls for the Democratic primary, and it’s why we’re already within the margin of error for November. And my promise to you is that our approach will never change.

The vision for our future isn’t going to come from Washington insiders or party bosses. It’s going to come from the people — one conversation, one town, one county, and one event at a time, all the way to the Democratic primary on June 2, and then on to November.

Since launching this campaign last year, we’ve already traveled over 20,000 miles and participated in nearly 300 campaign events. And everywhere we go, no matter whether we’re in a big city, small town, or rural community, I meet Iowans who share worries about our present, hopes for our future, and the courage to step up and get to work. I am more convinced than ever that there is nothing wrong with Iowa that can’t be fixed by what is right with Iowa, and what’s right with Iowa is people like you.

I hope to see you soon. Let’s get to work.

-ZW

From the Golden Hopper in Belmond to a Republican named Curt in Osage, here are some of those stories and my takeaway.

We started in Belmond, where I toured the Belmond Community Hospital with Robyn Hardman, their Business Development Director — and Gary, who sits on the hospital foundation board and helped set up the visit. Fun fact: Gary was our 99th county donor.

Now, if you’re not a political junkie, “99-county donor” probably doesn’t mean much. It’s one of those benchmarks campaigns and reporters track — getting at least one grassroots donor from every county in Iowa. On paper, it’s a sign of strength. But really, it’s so much more than just another metric. We’ve got real people in all 99 counties — people like Gary — who chipped in $1, $5, $10 because they know we can do better. It’s not just a stat. It’s a sign that people all across Iowa are showing up, and they’re with us. Gary is a Vietnam veteran, a retired small town lawyer, a registered Republican — and one of those folks who shares my belief that there is nothing wrong with our state that can’t be fixed by what is right with our state.

I was particularly excited to tour Iowa Specialty Hospital, because it is a great example of what is right with our state — partnering with its neighboring facility in Clarion to deliver over 700 babies a year, offering robust mental health and substance abuse treatment programs, and working hard to recruit, retain, and invest in local healthcare staff. But they’re up against serious challenges: multiple hospitals nearby have already shut down, and more are at risk. That’s exactly why we can’t afford the kind of Medicaid cuts Joni Ernst voted for — they make these closures more likely, not less.

At the hospital, I met Vanessa, a nurse leader who’s seen firsthand how rural staffing shortages are putting a strain on patient care. With not enough beds or personnel, hospitals are being forced to make impossible choices. Robyn told me they’re not just trying to offer jobs, they’re trying to build a life for people in Wright County. They’ve created internships for local high school and community college students, hoping they’ll stay and serve their community. But the path isn’t easy, especially when so many patients are underinsured and far too many are drowning in medical debt.

Inside the hospital, I heard directly from people on the front lines, from former law enforcement officers to educators and healthcare workers. They asked about our public schools and about drug prices, about why it’s so hard for working people to afford the care they need.

After that, we stopped for lunch at The Corner Lounge, a local favorite, with a wall of beers and a warm, small-town energy. We swung by the Belmond Independent to chat with the local paper and took a quick tour of Main Street. Belmond is exactly the kind of small town Iowa community that’s easy to fall in love with.

Later that afternoon, I held a meet and greet at the Osage Library, where I met Curt, another registered Republican. Curt told me he doesn’t recognize his party anymore. He said Senator Joni Ernst has lost her way and that he and other Republicans are looking for a different kind of leadership. Someone who will fight for rural Iowa, not for corporate donors in Washington.

We wrapped up the day at Laredo Bar & Grill in Mason City, where I heard from a teacher who’s deeply worried about what federal cuts to the Department of Education will mean for her students. She's afraid entire programs (the kind that keep vulnerable kids fed and supported) will disappear. That’s not just bad policy. It’s a betrayal of our values.

Iowa is worth fighting for.

These towns, these hospitals, these schools — they deserve more than to be left behind by politicians in Washington. The people I met this week don’t want handouts. They want a fair shot and a level playing field. A healthcare system that works. Schools that are funded. A government that works for them, not against them. I’m in this race because I believe rural Iowa is the heart of our state, and it’s time our leaders started acting like it.

Thanks to everyone who showed up, shared your story, or just shook my hand. And thank you, Gary — for your service, your support, and your belief that we can build a better future, together.

– Zach

Chloe and I are so grateful to every single person who made a donation, who reached out to their own networks, or sent words of encouragement to us. We really, really appreciate you.

If you didn’t catch our launch video, you can watch it here — we also released a fun “blooper” reel that captured some of the levity (and absurdity) of filming a video like this. And stay tuned… we’ll have our next video out soon. 🥓

The first week was spent mostly on making early phone calls to supporters and friends and family in my network to make sure that we have the resources that are going to be necessary to run the kind of campaign that we want to run. We are also hiring the early members of our staff who are going to play pivotal roles in making sure we have the right team in place. (We aren’t able to do this without the generous support of people like you, so if you haven’t already made a contribution or would like to give again, every gift helps!) The first 72 hours were a whirlwind, but Chloe and I were able to sneak away for date night on Friday, which was a wonderful way to end the week.

On Saturday, unfortunately, we woke up to the tragic news out of Minnesota about the brazen, politically-motivated assassination of Minnesota Speaker Emerita Melissa Hortman and her husband Mark, and the attempt on the life of Minnesota Senator John Hoffman and his wife Yvette. Both Hortman and Hoffman have ties to Iowa Democrats and were well-known by many of my colleagues. Chloe and I have been keeping both of their families in our thoughts and prayers, and we are grateful that the authorities have already apprehended the suspected gunman. Political violence has no place in our country, and I was glad to see leaders from across the partisan spectrum quickly condemn these vicious attacks.

Saturday was also Flag Day, and like millions of Americans across the country, I joined a local “No Kings” rally to stand up for the fundamental values we all share, especially liberty and justice for all. The rally in Iowa City that I attended began with a beautiful rendition of the Star Spangled Banner, and there were more American flags than I could count. It was great seeing so many friends there, and I appreciated all the enthusiastic support and excitement for our campaign.

Then, I got to take Father’s Day off — my first day off in some time — and hosted my second annual “Dads Being Dudes” party. Between cigars, beer, Halo 2, wings, and great conversation with the guys, and a wonderful gift from Chloe, I couldn’t have asked for a better way to celebrate the day or feel appreciated.

Starting on Monday, we were right back at it. Unfortunately, the Labor Rally we were planning to attend Monday evening got rained out. But Wednesday, I joined constituents of mine who are members of the Iowa Manufactured Home Residents’ Network and the newly-formed Johnson County Residents United to support their demands for better treatment from the private companies that own the communities. You can read more about their demands here.

This is an issue that I have been working on for over six years, since these out-of-state companies first came into Iowa and began squeezing my constituents back in 2019. I’ve discussed this struggle at length elsewhere, including in this long form piece, but today I was simply there in solidarity to support the residents who are sticking together and fighting back.

The experience of these Iowans is a crystal clear example of the economic problems that are facing our state. While many of the challenges facing Iowa are complex, this one is not. It is a very simple story of corporate greed and political corruption on the one hand and the courage and resolve of everyday people to band together and fight back on the other. I know whose side I’m on.

Finally, I spent Wednesday evening working on my post-legislative session newsletter to my constituents. Each week, in addition to recapping that week or month’s legislative action, I write a “From the Desk of Senator Wahls” portion to introduce that newsletter. I thought I’d end this post with what I wrote for this newsletter:

With the dust of the legislative session finally settling behind us, we’re taking a final review on the outcomes — both good and bad — from this year’s legislative session in this week’s newsletter.

As you may have seen in the last week, I have also launched my campaign for the U.S. Senate. While a statewide campaign requires an enormous amount of time, energy, and work, I remain committed to continuing to serve my constituents effectively in the state senate. I’ll ask for your grace and patience in responding to inquiries, but my team and I will continue to do our best to ensure you are receiving the high-quality responsiveness you deserve from your state senator.

In the meantime, if you’d like to follow along with the campaign, the best way is to do so by visiting my new campaign website at: www.zachwahls.com

Before I dive into all of the year-end action below, I’d like to take a moment to say thank you. Deciding to launch a campaign for the U.S. Senate was one of the most challenging decisions of my adult life, and it was something that my wife and I wrestled with for months. And while there was no single factor that put us over the edge, I can confidently say that the work I have done on your behalf in the state senate, and all the lessons I have learned along the way, prepared me to take this next step. Your trust in my leadership in our state legislature, your engagement, your questions, your advice, your encouragement — all of it — have helped to prepare me for this next campaign. Without you, I would not have been ready.

I can’t be sure of where this campaign will lead us, but I am sure of this: Iowans, and most Americans, are sick of the kind of politics that involve dragging each other down and beating each other up. We are facing too many problems in our state, our country, and our world. Too many Iowans are working too hard without getting ahead for us to accept the way things are. We need new leaders who are going to bring new energy and new ideas to the problems we are facing. There’s an old saying I heard recently: “Any jackass can kick down a barn. It takes a carpenter to build one.” I like that expression, and our need for new carpenters is why I’m running. If you want to read more, I hope you’ll check out our campaign website here or read my “Build the Barn” essay I published on launch day.

Representing you in the Iowa Senate is an honor, a privilege, and a joy — and I am grateful beyond words for the trust you have placed in me.

Onward.

ZW

And in Iowa, we don't just raise barns, we raise our families. We want to give our kids every opportunity we can, and when they're ready to raise our grandkids, we want them right next door, or just down the block, because they also see Iowa as the best place for kids to have community, grow, and succeed. That's what my parents wanted for me, and it’s what my wife Chloe and I want for our son Elijah — even more opportunities than we had growing up.

Why I'm Running

I'm Zach Wahls, and I'm running for the United States Senate, because I’m sick of watching my constituents get screwed over by decisions made in Washington D.C. by politicians like Senator Joni Ernst. Our economy has been rigged by the few at the expense of the many, and we all see it every day: at the grocery store, at the daycare center, at the doctor’s office or pharmacy, and when we pay our rent or our mortgage. Senator Ernst and her colleagues in Washington have failed in their most important duty: to lead our state in solving the problems facing Iowa families. And I'm running because it's time for a new generation of leaders who are ready to get to work and do the job the way it’s supposed to be done.

You may remember me from 2011, when I stood before the Iowa Legislature when I was only 19 years old to defend the freedom to marry for all Iowans, including families like mine with two moms: “We’re Iowans. We don’t expect anyone to solve our problems for us, we’ll fight our own battles, we just hope for equal and fair treatment from our government.”

I didn't speak up because I was unafraid. I spoke up because I had to, because I learned that “a Scout is Brave,” and that it’s important to stand up for what’s right, especially when it’s hard.

Learn More and Support My Campaign

On my way to becoming an Eagle Scout, I learned that our actions speak louder than our words, so rather than just making campaign promises about how I'll lead, this campaign will show you how I'll lead as a next generation leader in the U.S. Senate. As a two-term state senator, I've led by example, taking on predatory out-of-state corporations that were exploiting Iowa families living in mobile home parks, fighting to protect some of our most vulnerable neighbors from being gouged by landlords who saw them as easy targets. And I’m not going to stop now. We're rolling up our sleeves and getting to work building a new coalition for Iowa right now, because we can't wait for Senator Ernst to get around to it.

I’m running for the U.S. Senate because it is unacceptable for Iowa to be 48th in income and 49th in GDP while we're number one in rising cancer rates. It’s unacceptable that our rural counties have lost dozens of labor and delivery units and nearly 10% of their primary care physicians. It’s unacceptable that hundreds of thousands of Iowa households and businesses pay hundreds more per year for energy than they need to. And it’s unacceptable that Iowa's public schools have fallen behind Nebraska, Wisconsin — and even Illinois.

And most importantly, I’m running for the U.S. Senate because I know there is nothing wrong with our state that we can't fix. Scripture tells us that “Where there is no vision, the people perish.” I’m running because Iowa needs a new vision — not just complaints about what's broken, but a clear blueprint for what is possible when we are able and willing to build together.

Our Vision for Iowa

My vision for Iowa is clear: a state where if you work hard, you can provide for your family and retire with dignity. Where workers have the right to organize and bargain collectively for fair wages, safe working conditions, and good benefits. Where our ag economy is strong and farmers have fair prices. Where healthcare is accessible and affordable. Where our schools are once again the envy of the nation. Where our water and air are clean. Where owning a home is attainable, not impossible. Where starting a family is about how many kids you want, not how many kids you can afford.

This vision isn't radical — to the contrary, it is our birthright as Iowans. But that birthright has been stolen from too many of us. The state our parents and grandparents built together is showing its age, and instead of making repairs, too many politicians like Joni Ernst have watched it weaken as special interests and corporate monopolies and other “economic termites” have eaten away at the foundation of our economy and our state.

Joni Ernst is a perfect example of what happens to politicians who don't have the courage to stand up for what's right. She went to Washington to “make ‘em squeal,” promising to serve only two terms. But twelve years later, what does she have to show besides breaking that promise? We can all see for ourselves that Joni Ernst didn’t change Washington. Washington changed Joni Ernst.

She’s gone from “let’s make ‘em squeal,” to voting for Pete Hegseth and quipping “well, everybody is going to die,” in defense of an indefensible budget bill being pushed by her party leadership. Of course we’re all going to die, but it’s not supposed to be our senators who are killing us. We need a senator who will fight for us, instead of rolling over for the party bosses, no matter who is in charge. I’ve stood up to my own party before, I’ve got the scars to show for it, and I’ll never hesitate to do it again when that’s what Iowa needs. We need a Senator who has the courage to fight for Iowa families, but Joni Ernst is all squeal, no bacon.

Learn More

The Work Ahead

Let me address the donkey in the room. Many people are frustrated with the Democratic Party, including me. The party I grew up in has been taken in the wrong direction by special interests who create more problems than they solve and who are so out of touch, they have to spend $20M to relearn how to talk to young men.

The hard truth is that far too many Democratic leaders have lost sight of what it takes to win in places like Iowa. They're more concerned with appeasing corporate PACs and ideological activists in safe blue districts rather than with building coalitions that deliver results for middle-class and working families who are barely scraping by. When you are beholden to campaign checks from corporate PACs or represent a safe seat where the biggest threat is a primary challenge from the left, you are pressured to cater to someone other than the Americans you’re supposed to represent. And that leaves those of us fighting in more competitive states like Iowa out to dry.

This is both a generational problem and a structural problem. Too many of today’s Democratic leaders have held onto power for far too long. And because of rampant gerrymandering across our country, the extremes in both parties have too much influence. The status quo isn’t working in Iowa, and it isn’t working for most of America. We need a new generation of leaders who understand that lasting change requires building broad coalitions, not checking ideological boxes. We must recommit ourselves to our core mission of fighting for economic security and civil rights, the twin pillars that built the Democratic Party since the New Deal. That means standing with organized labor, our most important partner in protecting workers' rights and strengthening the middle class that built Iowa, and I’m proud to be the only candidate in this race with a perfect lifetime voting record from the Iowa State Federation of Labor. Nobody ever wants to strike, but I have walked picket lines with Iowa workers fighting for better contracts, and I’ll never hesitate to do it again as a U.S. Senator.

Here's something else Democrats need to understand: politics is about building power, and policy is about solving problems. For decades, we've allowed the federal government to be hamstrung by regulations and bureaucratic processes that make it nearly impossible to actually deliver for the people. When Iowans see a government that can't fix a pothole, can't process veterans benefits efficiently, or can't respond quickly to crises, they lose faith in our government altogether. This broad frustration was a huge part of President Trump's appeal and why he has won Iowa in three straight elections. Most Democrats believe our government can be a force for good — it's why we created Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid and passed laws like the Civil Rights Act, the Voting Rights Act, and the Respect for Marriage Act. But our government has to actually work to earn people's trust. We need leaders willing to reform how the government operates, not just what it does. That's exactly what I've been doing by introducing legislation in Iowa to ban insider trading by elected officials and to implement term limits that are overwhelmingly popular across party lines.

That’s precisely why I won't run a "standard" campaign — our to-do list is far too long. This campaign will bring people together to solve problems. I will be shadowing workers to develop a first-hand understanding of the challenges facing Iowa industry. I will host town halls in all 99 counties to hear about your community's challenges. There will be no problem too big or too small. We are going to build a coalition spanning the political spectrum — Republicans, Independents, and Democrats — ready for leadership focused on addressing Iowa's problems.

Join the Campaign

Our Values in Action

When I was on my journey to becoming an Eagle Scout, I learned it's our responsibility to leave campsites better than we found them — and that’s true of our state, too. We're building this coalition to solve problems, serve our communities, and leave a better state for our kids.

I've heard from Iowans that our challenges feel overwhelming. When your town's factory announces layoffs, when you can't find affordable childcare, when your grandmother's nursing home cuts staff while raising rates — these aren't just statistics. They're real crises that make ordinary Iowans feel helpless against forces beyond our individual control. But together and with hard work, we can overcome these challenges.

My mom Terry is a fifth-generation Iowa farm girl from Clayton County, where the Wahls family homestead has passed down through five generations. She passed those farm values down to me, the same way I will with my son Elijah. My parents taught me that in Iowa, we don't just complain. We get to work, one problem at a time. They taught me that family comes from the commitment we make to each other to work through the hard times so we can enjoy the good ones. That's what makes a family. Those are Iowa values.

Iowans know that every barn needs a strong foundation. These values are the foundation on which we seek to build this campaign for the U.S. Senate and through which we hope to build a better future for Iowa.

STAND UP FOR HARD-WORKING IOWANS — We have the strength to challenge powerful interests and political insiders — including from our own party — when they leave Iowa families behind. We need a senator who is willing to work as hard as the people he represents. We believe courage is contagious and this is a moment that is asking for courage from all of us.

TRUST — You deserve honest leadership and a government that works for you. We'll work to earn your trust by telling the truth about our challenges and by trusting you with real responsibility for our success.

DELIVER RESULTS — We measure success by whether we're making life better for Iowans, not by whether we've avoided difficult conversations or tough votes. You deserve a Senator who will represent you to our government, instead of representing our government to you. Rebuilding trust in government is best done by deserving that trust.

RESPECT — We meet people where they are, not where we think they should be. We listen instead of waiting for our turn to talk. Every Iowan's voice and experience matters to this campaign. If you want to make our state a better place to call home, you are welcome on this team.

SOLVE PROBLEMS — We focus on practical solutions that improve the lives of Iowans over ideology. We prioritize effectiveness first, and we dig into details to get things right. We roll up our sleeves and get our hands dirty, because you deserve a government that works for the many, not the few. If our coalition can help you solve a problem in your community, there is no problem too big or too small.

SERVE TOGETHER — We are building a movement of Iowans committed to improving our state's future. Empowering our fellow Iowans — people like you — to lead and serve in their communities is a core mission of this campaign. Those values remind us that together, we should never feel small, and with hard work, we can accomplish anything. We look out for each other and understand the wisdom of the Scripture that calls us "to do justice, to love kindness, and to walk humbly with our God.”

These are the values of this campaign, and they are the values that bring us together — when we come together to save a rural hospital, to help a neighbor through a crisis, or to rebuild after a flood, we remember who we really are. I've seen this firsthand — filling sandbags as the floodwaters rose in 2008, chainsawing debris after the derecho hit in 2020 — and you probably have, too.

In moments like these, we are guided by hope. Not hope as wishful thinking, but hope as a choice — the choice to believe that tomorrow can be better than today if we're willing to do the work. And in moments like these, we are saved by grace — grace for our neighbors who see and experience the world differently, grace for ourselves when we fall short, and grace for the long, hard work of building something better together.

And most importantly, in moments like these, we remember that what unites us as Iowans is far stronger than what divides us.

This is the promise I am making with this campaign, and it is the promise I will keep in the U.S. Senate. Iowans deserve leaders who keep their promises. Our state needs new leadership, and I am asking for your vote and your participation in this campaign so we can build this new foundation together.

Join Us

The "Build the Barn" ethos embodies this campaign’s approach to leadership, and how I will lead in this state as your next U.S. Senator. As I launch this campaign, I'm not asking what Iowa can do for us — I'm asking what we can do for Iowa.

The American Dream isn't a promise — it's a challenge. It challenges us to work hard, look out for our neighbors, and build something better for the next generation. The Dream challenges us to believe that through our collective effort, we can create opportunities that didn't exist before. That's what our parents and grandparents did when they built the Iowa we inherited. Now it's our turn to accept that challenge and pay it forward for the next generation.

When you build the barn right, it can weather storms and last for generations. It's hard work, but it's worth doing, because we all know people who have left our state because our current leaders are failing us. We won’t accept that failure. We can't accept that failure. We must instead embrace the work of building something better.

Start Building

I'm asking for your vote, and more importantly, I'm asking you to pick up a hammer and join this barn-raising. Sign up to volunteer at www.zachwahls.com — host a house party in your community. Talk to your neighbors about the Iowa we're building together. This coalition isn't just about politics. It's about building a state strong enough to weather any storm, with foundations deep enough to support our hopes, our dreams, and our children's futures for generations to come.

Let's build it together.

ZW