John Gilbert farms with a brother, a son, and their wives along South Fork, a tributary of the Iowa River. In addition to non-GMO row crops, they raise small grains, forages, cattle, and antibiotic free pigs they sell to Niman Ranch. John is a volunteer with the Southfork Watershed Alliance, and is active in Practical Farmers of Iowa and the Iowa Farmers Union. Their farm has been recognized for its work toward sustainability. 

I’m certain I’m not the only one voting like my life depends on it. Quite literally, here in Iowa it does.

Iowa’s degraded water and record high cancer rates are impossible to ignore, meaning we have reason to live in fear. Water quality and cancer are not specifically on the ballot, but the choices we make will determine if Iowa has any chance of beginning the long battle to cleaner water and a healthier future. 

No item on the ballot has a more direct impact on water quality and cancer than the constitutional amendment (Amendment 1) requiring a two-thirds super majority of the legislature to approve any income tax increases. If Iowans approve this amendment, we’re guaranteed nothing will change, except more of us will die needlessly.

A “NO” vote is a vote for better water quality, for keeping thousands of Iowans from suffering with cancer, and for having a future that doesn’t include a bottom-of-the-barrel economy.

Molly Buck is a public school teacher, Democratic candidate for House District 41, and former Iowa state representative.

I’ve been a teacher for more than 30 years, and I can tell you that teaching in Iowa today looks very different from when I first arrived.

When I started teaching, I thought I’d found an educator’s dream. Iowa’s schools were among the best in the country. We had well-funded classrooms and an Area Education Agency system that provided incredible support for teachers and students. If I had a child who needed additional help, I could reach out in the morning and sometimes have a specialist in my classroom by noon.

That’s the Iowa I remember. And it’s the Iowa I believe we can be again.

But today, teachers are being asked to do more with less, and I’m worried about what that means for our kids.

Bruce Lear lives in Sioux City and has been connected to Iowa’s public schools for 38 years. He taught for eleven years and represented educators as an Iowa State Education Association regional director for 27 years until retiring. He can be reached at BruceLear2419@gmail.com 

My mom warned, if the Fuller Brush man comes knocking, lock the door.

Back then, fast-talking Fuller Brush salesmen literally would stick a foot in the door to make a sale. Mom knew that once they came inside, it was hard to resist their smooth pitch and even harder to push them out.

The modern equivalent of the Fuller Brush man is the slick-talking career politician who never defines what he’s selling, refuses to admit who he really is, and never explains how he’ll pay for his shiny new ideas.

Zach Lahn, Republican candidate for governor, has his foot in Iowa’s door trying to sell his ill-defined ideas. In his latest TV ad, he claims he’s not a politician. Instead, he pretends to be a farmer, or sometimes an educator—but with zero classroom experience or college education classes.

I love Halloween, but Lahn is trying to trick us by pretending to be something he’s not. That won’t be a treat for Iowa public schools.

Jacob Welper is a lifelong North Iowan and is running for House District 59.

For a farm family, a foreclosure notice can put far more than a business at risk. It can threaten a home, a livelihood and land that holds generations of family history.

In North Iowa, the consequences extend beyond the farm gate. Local businesses, schools and communities depend on the families who work the land.

When financial trouble reaches that point, farmers deserve clear information and practical support. They also deserve to know that asking for help is nothing to be ashamed of.

The first step is to act promptly. Open every letter from your lender, keep copies and write down the deadlines. If you receive court papers, get legal help immediately. A conversation with the bank does not replace a response required by the court.

Amy Tagliareni is a former member of the Ankeny school board and the Democratic candidate for House District 42.

Ankeny is a community known for its growing neighborhoods, strong schools and families who work hard to build a good life. But there is another reality that deserves our attention: some of our neighbors are struggling to put food on the table.

According to the Des Moines Area Religious Council, its food pantry network assisted 3,705 Ankeny residents in fiscal year 2024. Nearly 45 percent of those receiving assistance were new to the network.

Those numbers challenge the assumption that food insecurity is a problem confined to other communities.

Dan Guild is a lawyer and project manager who lives in New Hampshire. In addition to writing for Bleeding Heartland, he has written for CNN and Sabato’s Crystal Ball. He also contributed to the Washington Post’s 2020 primary simulations. Follow him on X @dcg1114.

“Money is the mother’s milk of politics” – Jesse Unruh

Modern politics is governed by one rule: TV advertising is effective and determines who wins elections.

But against this irresistible force rests an immovable object: President Donald Trump’s approval rating. This table represents the shocking shift in public opinion in the battleground U.S. Senate seats. Data on Trump’s 2024 vote share and approval come from my polling database; approval is based on the average of all polls ended between August 1 and October 23, 2026.

Gerald Ott of Ankeny was a high school English teacher and for 30 years a school improvement consultant for the Iowa State Education Association. This post first appeared on Substack.

On October 27, I watched the debate between Democratic challenger Sarah Trone Garriott and Republican incumbent Zach Nunn, who are competing to represent Iowa’s third Congressional District. 

Moderators Amanda Rooker and Jodi Long, both journalists at KCCI-TV, acquitted themselves as the professionals they are. In fact, their skills rival any team of moderators the networks might assign for a presidential debate, so congratulations to Amanda and Jodi. Job well done. 

If I have a bone to pick, it might be that centering the debate on the participants’ past voting records was of little importance to me. Nunn sits in the majority party in the U.S. House of Representatives, and Trone Garriott is from the minority party in the state Senate where Republicans hold a huge majority. Apples and oranges. 

I have seen some conflicting takes about Iowa’s early voting trends this year. So let’s take stock of where things stand.

This post draws on the latest figures released by the Iowa Secretary of State’s office, reflecting ballots received by county auditors through Saturday, October 24. That’s halfway through Iowa’s 20-day window for voting before election day.

I am comparing today’s numbers to the official figures from October 31, 2022—the same point before the last midterm election.

My main takeaway: don’t believe any predictions about who will win on November 3 based on which Iowans have already voted.

Continuing a Bleeding Heartland tradition, I am posting Iowa’s absentee ballot numbers, statewide and for each Congressional district, updated every day the Iowa Secretary of State’s office releases new figures.

You can compare this year’s numbers to daily charts from the last seven election cycles by clicking through to Bleeding Heartland’s archive of absentee ballot totals from 2024, 2022, 2020, 2018, 2016, 2014, and 2012. But use caution when comparing, because Iowans could vote early for 40 days through 2016, and for 29 days in 2018 and 2020. Republicans shortened the early voting period to the current 20 days as part of a wide-ranging effort to suppress early voting in 2021.

In addition, many Iowans (especially Democrats) are more wary of voting by mail this year than in the past. That’s partly because President Donald Trump has tried to interfere with U.S. Postal Service delivery of ballots, and partly because the 2021 law required all ballots to arrive at county auditors’ offices by 8:00 pm on election day. (Late-arriving ballots used to be counted if they were postmarked before election day.)

The upshot is that lower totals for mailed ballots do not necessarily reflect less interest in voting early.

Early voting began on October 14 this year, and the first report from the Iowa Secretary of State’s office appeared on October 15. The office changed the format of its daily absentee ballot reports on October 20. Since the new tables are much more comprehensive than previous incarnations, I am posting those below, rather than creating my own tables, as I’ve done in past years.

Mike Tupper is the former Marshalltown police chief and the Democratic candidate for Iowa House District 52.

I spent 32 years in law enforcement, including more than thirteen years as Marshalltown’s police chief. I loved my career, and I learned a great deal about public safety, managing budgets, and solving problems with limited resources.

Those are lessons I want to bring to the Iowa legislature.

One thing I learned as police chief is that there’s a difference between talking about supporting law enforcement and actually giving officers the resources they need to do their jobs.

Herb Strentz was dean of the Drake School of Journalism from 1975 to 1988 and professor there until retirement in 2004. He was executive secretary of the Iowa Freedom of Information Council from its founding in 1976 to 2000.

Try as one might, I defy you to find a better concise description of what’s at stake in the upcoming election than Trump v. United States—the U.S. Supreme Court ruling decided by a 6-3 majority on July 1, 2024. Think about it: The President vs. the United States of America.

Our short-term future might be in 3-D: Daily Doses of Disaster, or Democracy’s Doses of Despair.

So what’s wrong with Trump v. United States? In a word, everything. However, my focus today is on the hypocrisy inherent in claiming to be both bipartisan and pro-Trump.

Bruce Lear lives in Sioux City and has been connected to Iowa’s public schools for 38 years. He taught for eleven years and represented educators as an Iowa State Education Association regional director for 27 years until retiring. He can be reached at BruceLear2419@gmail.com 

When I think about Amendment 1 on Iowa’s general election ballot, I’m reminded of the classic children’s book, Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day. Alexander wakes up with gum stuck in his hair, he doesn’t get a toy in his cereal, doesn’t get the window seat in the carpool, gets scolded by his teacher, and there’s no dessert at lunch.

There isn’t a happy ending, because the central theme of the book is that bad days happen to everyone, and it’s just a normal part of life.

But when there’s a terrible, horrible, no good, very bad idea on the ballot, it doesn’t have to become part of our lives.

Phil Montag is a Des Moines area activist and serves on the board of the Iowa Unity Coalition.

Listening to Zach Lahn on the Iowa gubernatorial campaign trail for the past year has been quite a show. To his credit, from the beginning he has put ecology, sustainable agriculture, and water quality front and center in ways that I wish politicians would do more often. 

After watching Randy Feenstra and Adam Steen trying to out-Trump each other and race to the bottom of banal human depravity and white grievance, part of me was happy to see Lahn win the Republican primary. 

Zach Lahn celebrates with supporters on primary election night (photo first published on his campaign’s Facebook page)

Iowans will decide this November whether to allow three Iowa Court of Appeals judges and 85 trial court judges to remain on the bench. Since our state adopted the current judicial selection system in 1962, each judge must periodically go on the ballot—every eight years for Iowa Supreme Court justices, every six years for those serving on other courts. (None of the seven Iowa Supreme Court justices is up for retention this year.)

Iowa voters have retained almost all judges over the past six decades. But any jurist who receives more “no” than “yes” votes in November—as happened with three Iowa Supreme Court justices in 2010—will be out of a job. The next governor would fill any vacancies in early 2027, after receiving a list of finalists from the State Judicial Nominating Commission (for the Iowa Court of Appeals) or its district-level counterpart (for District Court judges).

While some people routinely approve or reject every judge as a matter of principle, voters who want to make informed choices often find it difficult to learn anything about the judges listed on the back of the ballot.

This post highlights the appellate and district court judges who received the highest and lowest ratings in the Iowa State Bar Association’s 2026 Judicial Performance Review, the main public source of information about Iowa’s judges.

By John Forbes is a former state representative and candidate for Polk County Board of Supervisors

Polk County belongs to all of us. That’s the idea at the heart of Heather Jones-Brown’s campaign for Supervisor in District 4, and it’s why I’m proud to support her.

As a fellow candidate for the Board of Supervisors, I’ve spent this campaign thinking hard about what it takes to do this job well. The county decides things that touch every family’s life: the water we drink, the roads we drive, the mental health services our neighbors depend on. Those decisions deserve leaders who listen first. Heather is that kind of leader.

Heather is rooted in the community she wants to serve. She grew up on Des Moines’ Eastside and in Pleasant Hill, graduated from East High, and currently lives with her husband on the Southeast side. She comes from a family of firefighters, Marines, PTA volunteers and union members, people who taught her to show up and take responsibility for her neighbors. Volunteers in District 4 will tell you Heather “always shows up,” and her campaign is a continuation of that record, not a false promise.

Early voting in Iowa starts on Wednesday, October 14 this year. So it’s a good time to run through how Iowans can cast their ballot before November 3.

I’m a strong advocate for voting early. You never know when some family emergency, illness, or work obligation might prevent you from getting to the polls on election day. If you’ve banked your vote ahead of time, last-minute problems won’t keep you from exercising your right.

Voting early can also reduce unsolicited phone calls or knocks at the door as the election approaches. Once you’ve turned in your ballot, there’s no reason for campaigns or political action committees to target you for GOTV.

Who should vote by mail?

Ed Tibbetts, a longtime reporter and editor in the Quad-Cities, is the publisher of the Along the Mississippi newsletter, where this post first appeared. Find more of his work at edtibbetts.substack.com.

Suddenly, Ashley Hinson is trying to convince us she’s OK with Democrats; that she’s working with them to lower costs.

This is quite a change for Iowa’s wannabe senator. A year ago, she accused Democrats of trying to create a “crazy liberal dystopia.”

She said “radical left lunacy” had ruined states run by Democrats.

She accused Democrats of trying to push the U.S. “past the brink,” and she pledged her unending loyalty to Donald Trump, who regularly calls members of the Democratic Party “radical left dumocrats.”

“I will not let you down,” Hinson adoringly promised the president last year.

But now Hinson is trying to tell us she’s not so much MAGA as moderate; that she’s “working with people in both parties” to lower costs.

Nick Covington is an Iowa parent who taught high school social studies for ten years.

The culture war battles we fight over our public schools are fundamentally disagreements about American values: what does it mean to be an American, and in whose image do we build our public schools?

“When Americans start fighting over their schools, you can be fairly sure of one thing: it probably isn’t really about school.”

— Jennifer Berkshire & Jack Schneider,

The Education Wars: A Citizen’s Guide and Defense Manual

From working as Assistant Secretary of Education in the George H.W. Bush administration to laying the foundation of the modern conservative education reform movement, Diane Ravitch—a one-time champion of No Child Left Behind—spent most of her life as a Republican with conservative values. The story of her life, as told in her 2025 memoir, is the story of the American Century. As today’s culture war on “wokeness” and “leftist indoctrination” targets diversity, equity, and inclusion in schools, Ravitch’s memoir makes a powerful case study for teaching these core American values.

Jay Brown is a retired physician in Ames.

The enemy of authoritarianism is community. Our country needs more community. Now there’s a simple way to resurrect childhood friendships in the battle against President Donald Trump and his efforts to ruin our beloved country.   

Hallways.vote is a free website that uses public voter and public donation data crossed with high school yearbooks. The result allows the user to effortlessly find former classmates who share their convictions.

Kathie Obradovich is editor in chief of Iowa Capital Dispatch, which first published this article.

A coalition of Iowa organizations launched a campaign on September 9 opposing the November 3 ballot issue that will ask Iowa voters whether to amend the state constitution to require a two-thirds majority vote of lawmakers to raise state personal and corporate income taxes.

Fair Taxes for Iowa’s Future, which includes labor unions, progressive nonprofits and others, is planning an informational campaign opposing Amendment 1.

Anne Discher, executive director of Common Good Iowa, said people’s first impression of a law making it harder raise taxes tends to be favorable. But, she said, “When you actually talk to people about the tradeoffs that are required, the equation gets a lot more complicated. The more we talk to people about this amendment, the less people like it.”

Dave Miglin serves as treasurer on the Broadlawns Board of Trustees.

Polk County voters have an important choice to make for Broadlawns Medical Center, our county’s public hospital and one of the region’s most essential community institutions. At a time when health care is changing quickly and public hospitals face increasing pressure, Broadlawns needs steady, experienced, community-minded leadership. That is why voters should vote to return Emily Webb and Emily Westergaard to the Broadlawns Board of Trustees (labeled on the ballot as “County Hospital Trustee”).

Hospital trustees do not make headlines every day, and that is exactly why their work matters so much. They are responsible for asking hard questions, protecting the hospital’s mission, supporting safe and high-quality care, and ensuring that decisions are made with the long-term health of the community in mind. The best trustees bring judgment, preparation, independence, and a deep respect for the people who rely on the hospital in moments of vulnerability.

Chip Albright is a lifelong Midwesterner with rural Kansas roots and urban Iowa branches, an independent singer-songwriter, storyteller, and strategist seeking beauty and truth in this wild & wonderful world. Visit chipalbrightmusic.com for music and more.

Since I wrote “If It’s Turek, That’s Terrific!” earlier this year, I have witnessed Josh Turek up close and personal on many occasions. The more I see and hear him in action, the more I believe he is the resilient leader and pragmatic policymaker we so desperately need representing the people of Iowa in Washington, D.C.

My first personal interaction with Josh Turek was when an unknown number with a “712” area code rang my phone back in April. It didn’t say “potential spam,” so I went ahead and answered it. Josh was on the line— he heard the song I wrote about his candidacy and wanted to personally thank me for my efforts and support. He was in the midst of a heated race with Zach Wahls for the Democratic nomination but he made time for me — a single constituent with a simple folk song. We chatted for a spell; the whole experience was quite genuine.

Bruce Lear lives in Sioux City and has been connected to Iowa’s public schools for 38 years. He taught for eleven years and represented educators as an Iowa State Education Association regional director for 27 years until retiring. He can be reached at BruceLear2419@gmail.com 

It’s 36 counties covering 21,546 square miles across northern and western Iowa. It’s the state’s largest Congressional district, but often overlooked, neglected, and forgotten by politicians and pundits.

Iowa’s fourth district is treated as fly-over country—except by the 801,546 people who call it home. I’m one of those people, and I vote.

Why is this huge area ignored?

Charles Bruner is a former Democratic Iowa legislator (1978-1990), was the founding director of Iowa Child and Family Policy Center (1990-2015, now Common Good Iowa), and is national director of the InCK Marks Initiative’s Child Health Equity Leadership Group.

I am pretty certain all of this year’s Iowa Democratic candidates for the U.S. House and Senate would have voted for the Affordable Care Act in 2010, the American Rescue Plan Act of 2021, and the Build Back Better Infrastructure Act of 2021. I am pretty certain they all would have voted against the Tax Cut and Jobs Act of 2017 and the One Big Beautiful Bill Act of 2025.

I am also sure all Republicans running for Congress in Iowa this year would have done the exact opposite. (Representatives Ashley Hinson, Marianette Miller-Meeks, and Zach Nunn did vote that way on the bills that coincided with their tenure in Congress.)

I am sure of it because all of those votes were on strict party lines. The Tax Cut and Jobs Act and One Big Beautiful Bill Act did not even seek any bipartisan support, as Republicans approved them through the budget reconciliation process.

When U.S. Representative Ashley Hinson was gearing up to run for Senate last year, her primary objectives appeared to be pleasing the “audience of one” in the White House and clearing the Republican field. Within days of her campaign launch, she had locked down support from President Donald Trump and most of the GOP establishment.

That should have been enough in a state where Democrats haven’t won a U.S. Senate race since 2008, and Republicans enjoy a large voter registration advantage.

Things haven’t gone according to plan.

Whether you consider Iowa’s U.S. Senate race a toss-up (like the Cook Political Report, the Silver Bulletin, and Fox News), tilting Republican (Inside Elections) or still leaning in Hinson’s direction (Sabato’s Crystal Ball), one fact is undeniable: Hinson and her allies are trying to change the dynamic of the campaign.

Their twofold strategy is to tear down the Democratic nominee, State Representative Josh Turek, while shoring up Hinson’s support with conservatives. And they have good reasons to worry.

Ed Tibbetts, a longtime reporter and editor in the Quad-Cities, is the publisher of the Along the Mississippi newsletter, where this post first appeared. Find more of his work at edtibbetts.substack.com.

Three weeks ago, I wrote that Iowa’s future might look like Missouri’s.

Let’s hope this is the case. At least in one respect: this month, Missouri voters overwhelmingly rejected a plan to eliminate state income taxes and authorize higher sales taxes to replace the lost revenues.

Voters in Missouri clearly disliked the idea. Roughly 83 percent (yes, 83 percent!) rejected the plan, which had been supported by the state’s Republican leadership and well-heeled donors, who spent millions of dollars to try to pass the scheme. The opposition was so broad, the measure lost in every county.

As I noted last month, the Missouri plan, called Amendment 5, has many similarities to the effort now being supported by Republicans and the special interests in Iowa to pass a new constitutional amendment that would eventually lead to a higher sales tax here.

Bruce Lear lives in Sioux City and has been connected to Iowa’s public schools for 38 years. He taught for eleven years and represented educators as an Iowa State Education Association regional director for 27 years until retiring. He can be reached at BruceLear2419@gmail.com 

I was a few weeks from college graduation, on my way to my first teaching job interview. I was driving a jacked-up, dented 1967 Ford. As I reached town, I started to coast feathering the gas pedal only when necessary. I didn’t want a bad muffler announcing my arrival. 

I was wearing a borrowed tie and a too tight sport coat courtesy of the dreaded freshman 15, still lingering after three years. Sweat trickled down my back as I stepped out.

The principal asked questions about classroom management, curriculum and where I saw myself in five years. The questions were challenging, but I thought I handled most of them.

Then came the hardest question.

A new poll conducted for Chris Jones’ campaign shows the Democratic challenger is “within striking distance” of Republican Secretary of Agriculture Mike Naig and leads the incumbent after respondents read information about both candidates.

Change Research conducted the poll on behalf of Jones’ campaign from July 28 to August 1 and published key findings in a memo provided to Bleeding Heartland.

Naig led Jones by 42 percent to 40 percent in the first ballot test, before respondents heard biographies of either candidate. That’s within the margin of error (+/- 3.1 percentage points) for the survey of 1,071 likely general election voters. Some 16 percent said they were unsure.

After respondents read background information about both contenders, Jones led Naig by 46 percent to 40 percent, with 13 percent unsure.

Jones told me the poll backs up what he’s seen on the campaign trail: “Iowans are fed up with the status quo and ready for change.”

Naig’s campaign has not released any internal polling. But several signs point to Republican anxiety about the secretary of agriculture race.

Since the demise of the Des Moines Register’s Iowa Poll, we have rarely seen snapshots of Iowa voters not connected to any campaign or group planning to spend heavily on behalf of one candidate.

So it’s worth digging into the numbers Emerson College Polling/Nexstar Media released on August 6 after surveying 712 “likely voters” from August 2 through August 4. The toplines show Democrat Rob Sand leading the governor’s race and Republican Ashley Hinson slightly ahead (but within the poll’s margin of error) in the U.S. Senate race. Let’s look under the hood.

Ed Tibbetts, a longtime reporter and editor in the Quad-Cities, is the publisher of the Along the Mississippi newsletter, where this post first appeared. Find more of his work at edtibbetts.substack.com.

The campaign to change the rules on how the state of Iowa raises tax revenues kicked off last month, and the message from the special interests is clear: Don’t resist. You can’t win.

Iowans for Tax Relief convened reporters to pitch the plan to amend the state constitution to lock in recent Republican tax policies. In the process, the group touted a new poll that reportedly shows 74 percent of likely voters would approve the amendment.

Don’t believe it. Look at the poll closely. It asks whether people would support requiring a two-thirds supermajority in the legislature for “any tax increase.” But that’s not what the amendment says. Amendment 1, as it’s being called, would require a supermajority to raise just some taxes, specifically the kind that affect the wealthy the most: individual and corporate income tax rates.

State Representative Derek Wulf has experienced a remarkable reversal of fortune since becoming the Republican candidate for lieutenant governor in June. A month ago, he was facing possible foreclosure and default judgments for multiple creditors seeking repayment of six-figure debts.

Iowa court filings indicate that since GOP gubernatorial nominee Zach Lahn chose his running mate, Wulf received a bridge loan, which allowed him to repay at least one major debt, and possibly more. In addition, an unnamed lender may be willing to refinance the obligations that prompted Wulf’s bank to file a foreclosure petition in May.

Neither Wulf’s attorney nor a spokesperson for Lahn’s campaign has responded to detailed questions about who has provided bridge financing, offered collateral to secure a new loan, or agreed to guarantee new loans. At this writing, it’s unclear whether those offering Wulf a financial lifeline include Lahn, any member of Lahn’s family, any donor to Lahn’s campaign, or anyone Iowa law would prohibit from making a gift to state legislators and candidates.

Noah Gratias is a seventh generation Iowan from Waukee. 

In April 1903, on the steps of Iowa’s state capitol building, President Teddy Roosevelt said, “I am glad to say that Iowa can teach rather than learn the lesson of good citizenship.” More than a century later, Iowans are still known for their decency and civic virtue.

Yet many would agree that “Iowa Nice” has been strained by the toxicity of national politics. As the 2026 elections draw closer, Iowans have an opportunity to radiate some of the healing our country desperately needs. 

Douglas Burns is a fourth-generation Iowa journalist. He is the co-founder of the Western Iowa Journalism Foundation and a member of the Iowa Writers’ Collaborative, where this article first appeared on The Iowa Mercury newsletter. His family operated the Carroll Times Herald for 93 years in Carroll, Iowa where Burns resides.

Greene County Attorney Thomas Laehn, the only Libertarian Party candidate ever elected in a partisan contest in Iowa, intends to use the Constitution to break the Democrat-Republican stranglehold on the nation’s government in his race for the U.S. Senate, he said in a wide-ranging, hour-long interview last week in Jefferson.

Laehn, who says the American Republic is now an elective monarchy with oligarchic influences, is a fierce critic of the government use of eminent domain for private-interest carbon-capture pipelines. He thinks abortion should be decided fully at the state level, although Laehn describes himself as “radically” anti-abortion, who if elected at the state level, would support a total abortion ban.

He supports decriminalization of marijuana possession and use, which he says is the first bill he’d introduce in the Senate.

Bruce Lear lives in Sioux City and has been connected to Iowa’s public schools for 38 years. He taught for eleven years and represented educators as an Iowa State Education Association regional director for 27 years until retiring. He can be reached at BruceLear2419@gmail.com 

I’m a proud Andy Griffith Show nerd. I know the next line in the dialogue, and even after the twentieth time watching, I cackle like it’s the first. I’ve visited Mount Airy, North Carolina, the real Mayberry for the Andy Griffith Festival, rode in the squad car, played with the siren, and visited the courthouse. 

When I was working after a stressful day, I’d watch a couple episodes, and it calmed me down. It was better than any pill.

One of my top ten favorite episodes is “Aunt Bee’s Medicine Man.” Colonel Harvey, a traveling salesman, arrives in Mayberry and charms the town ladies into buying his tonic he claims, “purges the body and lifts the spirit.” But it’s 85 percent alcohol. Mayberry is a dry county.

President Donald Trump now says he wasn’t “given the proper information” before he endorsed U.S. Representative Randy Feenstra for governor, days before Iowa’s primary election.

Speaking to reporters in the Oval Office on June 11, Trump bragged about his “amazing track record” in GOP primaries, claiming, “Every time I endorse, they win.”

A journalist followed up to ask whether the president regretted backing Feenstra in Iowa.

Keith Schneider, a former New York Times national correspondent, is senior editor for Circle of Blue, where this column was first published. He has reported on the contest for energy, food, and water in the era of climate change from six continents. 

Expect the unexpected.

That’s the only certainty of planting season across the Corn Belt. Heat. Frost. Insects. Too much rain, or none at all. Now add the distress the Trump administration has cursed farmers with: Broken markets. Tariffs. Rising fuel costs.

Never, though, has the unexpected included this spring’s surprise: serious consideration of the harm from industrial crop and animal production. Farming’s mammoth water pollution and its consequences for public health are on the ballot in Iowa, where the primary election occurs today.

Candidates of both parties for governor and secretary of agriculture have included among their campaign priorities Iowa’s rising cancer incidence and the nitrate water contamination that may well be responsible. For the first time, the health and environmental damage from farming has moved from the margins to the center of political priorities in Iowa, an agriculture colossus that is the nation’s largest grain and pork producer.

State Senator Molly Donahue represents Iowa Senate district 37, covering part of Cedar Rapids and Marion.

At a time when Iowa faces real challenges—health care access, mental health services, education funding, and the rising cost of living—voters are looking for leadership rooted in lived experience and a genuine commitment to public service. In this Democratic primary for U.S. Senate, Josh Turek offers exactly that.

Turek’s story reflects resilience, service, and results. As a Paralympian, he represented the United States on the world stage, demonstrating discipline, focus, and determination at the highest level. But what makes him uniquely qualified for public office is how he has carried those qualities into his work here in Iowa. In the state legislature, Turek has earned a reputation as a thoughtful and pragmatic leader—someone who listens carefully, builds relationships, and acts with purpose.

David Russell is a retired teacher. He can be reached at russellisu@gmail.com. This essay first appeared in his Substack newsletter, The Front Burner and the Back.

We’ve been living with the Big Lie for the last five and a half years. And now we are living with the Big Cheat as well. Iowa MAGAs are going all in for rigging the midterms and 2026.

Because Iowa, for the first time in a decade, has a good chance to flip the governorship, a Senate seat, and at least two U.S. House districts, among others, this is the worst possible time to let down on defense or hesitate to go all out on offense to stop the steal.

Yes, I know Stop the Steal is a MAGA phrase. But the midterms will be another “projection election,” where Republicans scream that others are cheating to hide their own cheating. And it’s still an Orwellian world where their hypocritical calls for election integrity really mean election rigging.

Sami Scheetz is a Linn County Supervisor and formerly served as a state legislator.

Before State Representative Josh Turek was sworn in with me to the Iowa House in January 2023, there was no ramp leading to the well of the chamber. In the 179 years since Iowa became a state, no member of the legislature had ever needed one. Josh did. So a ramp was built.

A few months later, I watched a group of kids in wheelchairs roll down it and sit on the floor of the people’s house. It is still one of the most vivid and meaningful memories I have from my time in the legislature.

President Donald Trump got the ball rolling when he demanded that Texas adopt a new map creating five more Republican-held U.S. House seats. The U.S. Supreme Court escalated the redistricting “arms race” by blowing up what remains of the Voting Rights Act.

Since the summer of 2025, nine GOP-controlled states and two states with Democratic trifectas have either adopted new political maps or begun the redistricting process, seeking to give their party an advantage in this year’s Congressional races.

More states will likely draw new maps next year, including New York (where Democrats could net several U.S. House seats) and Indiana (where Trump-backed challengers just defeated most of the Republican legislators who declined to redistrict this cycle).

One red state that won’t join the gerrymandering stampede is Iowa, where legislators have completed their work for the year. Even if Republicans lose one or more Congressional races this November, they could not easily draw friendlier maps before 2028. And even if the majority party overhauled Iowa’s redistricting statute—which lays out the nonpartisan process—our state constitution makes it difficult to create four reliably red U.S. House districts.