Noah Gratias is a seventh generation Iowan from Waukee.

As the United States approaches its 250th birthday, the distance between the founding ideals and modern realities often feels vast. The language of the founders is frequently invoked, yet sometimes it feels distant or abstract. In Iowa, however, one phrase has endured with clarity since the state’s founding: our state motto.

Things designed by committee are rarely remembered for their foresight. Yet a committee of three Iowa state senators selected a creed in 1847 that still inspires 180 years on: “Our liberties we prize, our rights we will maintain.” It strikes at the core of why our union was founded: for the love of liberty and the protection of inalienable rights. Folks across the political spectrum have invoked the motto since its adoption, because it captures the core principles of our country and its people.

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.

How fitting and ironic it is that—as we mark the 250^th anniversary of the July 4^th celebration of the birth of our nation—we also will mark the 250^th anniversary of the opening lines of Thomas Paine’s rallying cry: “These are the times that try men’s souls.”

The reality in “these…times” of 2026 is that we can no longer have decent classroom, living room, or barroom discussions about who was, is or shall be the worst president in the nation’s history.

Donald J. Trump sweeps the field.

Sue Dinsdale is the Executive Director of Iowa Citizen Action Network and the State Lead for Health Care for America NOW.

This Mother’s Day, Senator Joni Ernst and her Republican colleagues are playing a sleight of hand when it comes to supporting families and children. Their rhetoric might sound like a corny greeting card, but their actions tell an ugly truth about their real intentions. Their agenda shifts resources away from the moms and kids who need them to advance a plan that further enriches the wealthy and corporations.

As a mother and a grandmother, it’s really hard to take when Vice President JD Vance wants Americans to have more children, and Ernst gives lip service to the importance of supporting growing families. Especially while virtually every action the GOP has taken since being in the majority makes parenthood harder by raising costs, cutting jobs and taking away health care.

Rick Morain is the former publisher and owner of the Jefferson Herald, for which he writes a regular column. This essay first appeared on Substack.

“Thou shalt not steal.” – Eighth Commandment
—God, as reported by Moses

Americans have rarely faced the facts about the role of national theft in the history of their nation. From the time of the first Europeans’ arrival in North America, the newcomers employed theft to secure their well-being. Europeans stole land and resources from native Americans for centuries. They stole free labor from imported African slaves and their descendants for 250 years.

Those facts are undeniable and thoroughly documented. They contributed mightily to securing the wealth and power of the United States as we know it today.

It’s an uncomfortable truth, but without those thefts from indigenous Americans and Black people, the United States would not have reached the level of prosperity that has enabled it to achieve all it has for Americans and others around the world.

Jill Shudak is mayor of Council Bluffs.

Every election cycle, the same thing happens. Washington insiders look at Iowa from 1,100 miles away, pick the candidate who looks best on paper to them, and tell the rest of us who can and can’t win. And every cycle, Iowans are reminded that the people who’ve spent the least time in this state somehow believe they understand it best.

It’s happening again in the 2026 Democratic primary for U.S. Senate. Josh Turek, the pick of the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee and Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, has built his entire campaign on a single argument: that he’s the most electable Democrat to take on Ashley Hinson. It’s a clean pitch. It’s also wrong.

The actual data tells a different story.

Wayne Ford is the executive director of Wayne Ford Equity Impact Institute and co-Director of the Brown and Black Forums of America. He is a former member of the Iowa legislature (1997 through 2010) and the founder and former executive director of Urban Dreams.

A marathon session—and a moment to reflect

The Iowa legislature’s 2026 session concluded on May 3 after more than 36 hours of debate, negotiation, and decision-making in its final stretch. Lawmakers pushed through a marathon finish before adjourning for the year.

It is a familiar scene in legislatures across America: long nights, complex bills, and final votes made under pressure.

Many legislators acknowledged they were exhausted. Journalists noted some sleeping in the chamber or other signs of fatigue.

And yet, within those final hours, lawmakers were making some of their most important decisions of the year, affecting property rights, taxes, and community stability.

This is not a criticism of the individuals involved. It is a reflection on the system itself.

Because when we step back and look at it plainly, a simple question emerges: Would we accept this in any other field?

A question of standards

Would you allow a surgeon to operate on you after being awake for more than 36 hours?

Would you trust a pilot to make life-and-death decisions under those same conditions?

In most professions, the answer is clear. We would not accept it. The stakes are too high.

Yet in public policy making, we do.

At the very moment when decisions become most critical—when bills must be finalized, compromises reached, and votes taken—the process often demands that lawmakers operate under extreme fatigue.

Research on sleep deprivation has shown that extended wakefulness reduces attention, slows reaction time, and impairs judgment. After roughly 24 hours without sleep, cognitive performance can resemble impairment levels associated with alcohol intoxication.

Again, my point is not to criticize legislators. It is to recognize that the system places them in conditions where decision-making becomes more difficult.

The real issue: not effort, but impact

The end of the latest legislative session in Iowa also revealed something else. Even with all that effort and time, some issues remained unresolved, like restrictions on eminent domain for pipelines.

At the same time, property tax reform generated was debated in both chambers, with lawmakers grappling with long-term consequences for cities, counties, and taxpayers.

These are not simple issues. They involve complex trade-offs:

• Financial sustainability
• Property rights
• Economic development
• Community impact

When those decisions are made under fatigue, with large amounts of information but limited clarity, the challenge becomes even greater.

The problem is not a lack of effort or a lack of information.

The problem is a lack of clear, structured impact.

Iowa’s lesson: When impact is visible, decisions improve

Iowa took a step in 2008 that would later prove to be nationally significant. By requiring a racial impact analysis for certain criminal justice legislation, the state ensured that lawmakers had a clearer understanding of who would be affected before making decisions.

This was not about politics. It was about clarity.

We saw a real-time example this past weekend. House Republicans’ bill on enhanced criminal sentencing, which became House File 2542, initially called for significantly longer mandatory minimums, and included a wide range of offenses in the formula. structures. As lawmakers examined the potential fiscal impact—costs to the prison system, population effects, and long-term consequences—the conversation evolved. Senate and House Republicans negotiated over changes.

What began as a proposal with sentences approaching twenty years shifted toward a framework closer to seven years, with acknowledgment that alternatives could also be considered.
That shift happened because people had more information—clearer information about impact.

Organizations such as the Pew Charitable Trusts and the Urban Institute have documented similar outcomes nationwide when legislators considered impact statements.

Property taxes: Decisions that shape communities

The debate over property taxes illustrates the broader challenge. The issue is often framed simply—whether taxes should go up or down. But the real question is more complex.

What happens to cities and counties if revenue is reduced?
 How are essential services maintained?
 What happens to infrastructure, public safety, and long-term stability?

These are impact questions.

The Congressional Budget Office provides fiscal analysis to help answer such questions about pending federal legislation. But cost alone does not capture the full picture.

Still searching for clarity on eminent domain

Iowa lawmakers adjourned without any Senate floor vote on eminent domain during the 2026 session. That is telling.

Without clear impact analysis, these debates can become difficult to resolve. Positions harden. Perspectives differ. And decisions become harder to reach.

But with clearer understanding—who is affected, what the alternatives are, and what the long-term consequences will be—the path forward becomes more visible.

Impact does not eliminate disagreement. It improves the quality of the discussion.

A lesson from TIF: When policy evolves without impact review

We have seen similar challenges in economic development through the use of Tax Increment Financing (TIF). Originally designed to support disadvantaged communities (often called “slum and blighted areas,” TIF has expanded in Iowa, to be used for greenfield development in areas with stronger and growing tax bases.

In lower-income communities, the challenge often remains that the tax base is not sufficient to fully leverage the tool. In higher-growth areas, that same tool can generate significant resources.

The issue is not whether TIF is right or wrong.

The issue is whether we fully understood how its use would evolve over time. (Editor’s note from Laura Belin: The last-minute property tax agreement included some new limits on TIF, and local policy makers are currently evaluating the consequences.)

From confusion to clarity

Too often, public policy debates resemble the classic “Who’s on First?” routine by Abbott and Costello—everyone is talking, but confusion reigns.

Impact analysis provides a way forward. It helps answer the fundamental questions: who is affected, what it will cost, and what will happen next.

Across the country, there is growing recognition that policy making must move beyond information to impact. The National Conference of State Legislatures has documented increased use of tools designed to help lawmakers understand policy consequences before implementation.

But these efforts remain uneven.

Better conditions lead to better decisions

The lesson from the Iowa legislature’s 2026 session is clear. When impact is not fully understood, decisions become more difficult.

When impact is visible, decisions improve.

Even after long hours—more than 36 hours without a break—the quality of decisions can improve if the quality of information improves.

Because this is not about how long we stay awake.

It is about how well we understand the impact of the decisions we make.

And that is the lesson for the next 250 years of American lawmaking.

Gerald Ott of Ankeny was a high school English teacher and for 30 years a school improvement consultant for the Iowa State Education Association.

Iowa Governor Kim Reynolds has won the culture war.

In so-doing, Reynolds has dug the state into a deep, deep hole largely by rallying voters to reject allegedly naughty books and keeping them (us) embroiled in one-after-another pieces of nonsense legislation.

And by gifting a minority of parents, her allies, with the unquestioned right to enroll their kids, at taxpayer’s expense, in any church-affiliated school, academy, or charter of their choice. And, in the face of all these new budget-busting costs, cutting taxes and swaying otherwise public minded voters to doubt the effectiveness of their kids’ local schools. It’s plain sinful.

Mary Riche is a lifelong feminist, past president of Planned Parenthood in Iowa, founding officer of the 501(c)(3) Iowa Coalition for Reproductive Freedom, speaker about women leaders not included in our history books or education curriculum, and an advocate for reproductive freedom and abortion rights. You can reach her via email at maryriche@gmail.com.

Josh Turek isn’t just a strong candidate—he is the Democrat who can win back Iowa’s U.S. Senate seat. Josh brings the disciplined work ethic, grit, and proven ability to win at a time when Iowans need results for their problems, not political talking points.

I enthusiastically support Josh Turek because he has shown he’s a winner in a tough district, and can connect with voters across political lines. He was re-elected by a five-point margin in the “reddest” seat held by a Democrat in all of Iowa—at the same time President Donald Trump carried the state by double digits. 

Josh has built his record by listening to Iowans first—and working across differences to get results that matter locally. His likely Republican opponent, U.S. Representative Ashley Hinson, offers a clear contrast. In Washington, she is a partisan politician who votes with her party’s leadership for the president’s national agenda.

Iowa’s longest-serving member of Congress forgot that every mic is potentially a hot mic.

What Senator Chuck Grassley blurted out during a Judiciary Committee hearing this week highlighted an unwritten rule for Republicans: they must humor President Donald Trump’s lies and delusions.

Dave Leshtz is the editor of The Prairie Progressive.

I’ve written about and gotten to know several members of Iowa’s Satanic Temple. 

They are young and intelligent. They come mostly from small towns in Iowa, where their families still live. They have a sense of humor and like to dress in black. They consider the poet John Milton’s Paradise Lost their foundational text – their Bible, so to speak.

Most of all, they are sincere in their belief that government shouldn’t favor one religion over another, that public services or benefits to religious groups should not be denied because officials disagree with their beliefs.

I don’t personally know any members of the Assemblies of God, a Pentecostal denomination for which Iowa gubernatorial candidate Adam Steen is a credentialed minister. It is an Evangelical church which reported in 2022 a worldwide membership of 69 million. The Satanic Temple claims approximately 700,000 members, according to Wikipedia. Its numbers in the state of Iowa are, well, considerably less.

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.

Lately, you haven’t been able to turn on the TV without hearing how great Representative Mariannette Miller-Meeks is.

The American Action Network, a special interest group with ties to the U.S. House Republican leadership, has been blanketing area TV stations and online outlets with ads that claim Miller-Meeks, the member of Congress for Iowa’s first district, “led the charge for high-quality, less expensive health care, especially for rural Iowans.” Then they say that we should “thank her for delivering for all of us.”

Less expensive health care?

In what world?

Adam Shriver is Director of Wellness and Nutrition at the Harkin Institute for Public Policy and Citizen Engagement. This essay was first published on his Substack newsletter, Canary in a Cornfield.

Iowa’s high cancer rates are understandably generating a lot of headlines. And for better or worse, a lot of groups are working overtime to offer their own “interpretations” of some of the various reports on the cancer crisis that have come out. Since there are many opportunities to misunderstand these reports, I thought it might be valuable to clarify a few things in response to some of the claims I’ve been seeing.

One of the most egregious “misunderstandings” (I’m putting this in quotes because I think it’s an extremely charitable way of describing it) was the National Pork Producers Council’s response to a recent Yale University study.

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 

Dad was a master carpenter. He didn’t graduate from vocational school, wasn’t an apprentice, and he didn’t have a framed certificate announcing his skill. He learned by doing.

For him, “Measure twice and cut once” wasn’t an old platitude. It’s what he lived by, and it made him a master of his trade. He believed consequential planning avoids unintended consequences, and jobs that look simple often aren’t.

Now it appears the U.S. is being led by people who don’t even measure once.

Josh Mandelbaum represents Ward 3 on the Des Moines City Council.

Iowa has the 2^nd highest cancer rate of any state in the country, and our cancer rates are increasing. Iowa’s cancer rates have been going up while the United States on the whole is experiencing declining cancer rates. This makes Iowa an outlier.

The question is what makes Iowa an outlier, and what can we do about it?

The Iowa Environmental Council (IEC) and the Harkin Institute attempt to answer that question with their new report “Environmental Risk Factors and Iowa’s Cancer Crisis.” The report looked at peer-reviewed research and found that environmental exposures to nitrate, pesticides, radon and PFAs are all associated with increased cancer risks. The executive summary noted that:

Rick Morain is the former publisher and owner of the Jefferson Herald, for which he writes a regular column.

I had a commentary on foreign policy on my mind for this week. I still do. But it can wait. The attempted attack at the White House Correspondents Dinner in Washington last Saturday can’t.

It’s sadly ironic that the terrifying disruption of the dinner, just as it was getting underway, took place at an event designed to honor the First Amendment. Violence is the antithesis of free speech. It seeks to erase and replace open dialogue and the exchange of ideas, silencing them instead.

But it’s not really a surprise in the U.S. these days. Our country harbors a growing number of individuals who see violence as the answer to their hopes, concerns, and challenges. If that involves diverting or eradicating other people’s freedoms and rights, so be it.

Randy Evans is executive director of the Iowa Freedom of Information Council, a nonpartisan, nonprofit organization that promotes openness and transparency in Iowa’s state and local governments. He can be reached at DMRevans2810@gmail.com. This essay first appeared on his Substack newsletter, Stray Thoughts. 

Come July, Iowa employers may want to add an ominous warning on their job application forms: tell a lie and you could go to jail.

That’s right — no more puffing the resume with false degrees from the University of Okoboji or Faber College. 

And do not claim to have chauffeur’s license when you lack the permit needed to drive a truck.

Ralph Rosenberg is a retired attorney, state legislator, and non-profit executive. He has followed Iowa environmental, energy, and agricultural policy for decades. He worked in Washington, D.C. for Public Citizen, while opposing the international export of nuclear fuels and materials. 

On April 15, the Iowa House handed NextEra Energy a sales tax exemption worth tens of millions of dollars to restart the Duane Arnold Energy Center near Palo. House File 2757 passed by 94 votes to 1, with Democratic State Representative Beth Wessel-Kroeschell the only dissenter.

Supporters are calling the proposal visionary. I’ve heard that word before. In fact, I’ve been reading about its use from the 1950s and heard it directly since the 1970s.

I’ve learned that powerful interests dress up a corporate subsidy in the language of clean energy and national security. Iowans should ask their legislators to take a very pronounced pause on what they’re doing.

As a longtime skeptic about nuclear power’s promises, I can tell this bill is bad policy dressed up in shiny clothes.

Gordie Felger is a volunteer member of two LGBTQ+ organizations (CR Pride and Free Mom Hugs) and a One Iowa volunteer activist. He is a friend of many LGBTQ+ folks and an ally to the community. He also writes about the state of Iowa politics at “WFT Iowa?”, where this post first appeared.

Republican State Senator Sandy Salmon introduced Senate File 2037 during the 2024 legislative session. The bill prohibits “counties and cities from regulating certain behavioral health and human services.” These services include so-called “conversion therapy.” If enacted in the future, the law would prohibit local governments from banning conversion therapy. 

Conversion therapy tries to “convert” LGBTQ+ individuals. Supporters believe counseling can “correct” a person’s “confused” sexual orientation and/or gender identity. Critics call the widely discredited practice quack therapy that seeks to “pray the gay away.”

But what does conversion therapy entail? And why is it discredited?

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 

A few years ago, we visited Northern Ireland. During our trip, we repeatedly heard the Biblical phrase “The time of trouble,” describing the Protestants/Catholic war. This descriptor needed little elaboration, because those who said it lived it.

While our last couple snowbird months in Florida this year don’t compare to 30 years of brutal violence, they did introduce us to the seventh circle of Hell: health care and insurance coverage in the U.S.

It was “Our time of trouble.”

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.

For more than two centuries, economists have understood the economy through three essential elements: land, labor, and capital. From Adam Smith to David Ricardo, this framework helped explain how wealth is created—and how it is shared.

But something fundamental has changed.

Today, land is no longer just a passive input. It is strained—by climate change, resource depletion, and environmental degradation, concerns long emphasized by ecological economists such as Herman Daly.

Daron Acemoglu and Simon Johnson demonstrate that technological change is increasingly shaped in ways that replace rather than augment workers. Capital—through automation, artificial intelligence, and digital platforms—has become powerful enough to produce growth while using less and less labor.

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

If only Iowa’s school librarians possessed the wisdom of a trio of judges on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit.

The judges overturned a preliminary injunction against Iowa’s three-year-old book ban law on April and abruptly dispensed with the idea it was vague and difficult to apply.

Such contentions, the judges said, were “unavailing.” Which seems strange. Especially since one of the defendants in the case before them actually admitted there was confusion.

Al Charlson is a North Central Iowa farm kid, lifelong Iowan, and retired bank trust officer.

I sympathize with Iowa Republican legislative leaders as they wrestle with the realities of trying to reform property taxes. House Appropriations Committee Chair Gary Mohr’s comments from December 2025 tell the story: “What we learned last year is it’s a whack-a-mole game, which we didn’t all know – meaning if you do this with property taxes, it has an effect over here we didn’t think about.”

Guess what – the moles are still popping up! This is nothing new – the property tax system is complicated to begin with, and our history of trying to “reform” it has added layer upon layer of complexity.

Adam Shriver is Director of Wellness and Nutrition at the Harkin Institute for Public Policy and Citizen Engagement. This essay was first published on his Substack newsletter, Canary in a Cornfield.

Earlier in the year, I wrote a response to some of Republican State Senator Ken Rozenboom’s comments in the Senate Agriculture Committee where he made some interesting claims based on his recent trip to the Netherlands. I pointed out that, contrary to his claims, nitrates have been a very serious issue in the Netherlands for decades and that the European Union had a different way of representing nitrate concentration in water, which was the only plausible explanation I could think of for his claim that nitrates levels in Amsterdam were far higher than what we saw in Iowa last summer.

On April 1, Rozenboom delivered some remarks on the Senate floor that indicated more confusion about the science around nitrates. (He may have been triggered by Democratic State Senator Janet Petersen’s comments the previous day; she asked Rozenboom if a bill allowing boats to display blue lights would be the water safety bill the Senate will consider this year.)

Rozenboom claimed the connection between nitrates and cancer is a “myth,” suggested Republicans had been making great progress on Iowa’s water problems since 2017, and said that if you are really worried about nitrates, you should look at the amount of nitrates in spinach.

You can find the full video of his comments and the responses at this link but I’ve pulled out the relevant sections. Here’s the first relevant clip:

Tiffany Allison is the founder of the Soaring Hearts Foundation. A survivor of domestic violence, victim advocate, and public speaker, she has received multiple awards for her leadership including a Congressional Medal of Merit and Guardian of Victim Victims’ Rights Award.

With domestic violence at an all-time high in Iowa, why is the Senate tabling a bill that would help protect victims and their pets?

It’s been three weeks since Majority Leader Mike Klimesh placed Senate File 2099 on the unfinished business calendar. The Iowa House unanimously passed the companion bill on felony animal cruelty in early March, but still no vote by the Senate. Under current Iowa law, acts of animal torture are still treated as misdemeanors, making Iowa the only state that has not elevated animal torture to a felony.

Felony level accountability matters because it can create earlier intervention points before violence escalates to human victims. It also strengthens prosecution in cases involving stalking, assault, and domestic violence. When we fail to take animal abuse seriously, we fail victims and survivors. When we act early, when we hold offenders fully accountable, we create opportunities to interrupt cycles of violence before they become fatal. Animal torture is violence. Protecting animals is protecting people. Full stop.

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.

A contrast between President Harry Truman and our would-be King Donald Trump is relevant and overdue because of the need to hold Trump accountable by the courts and the voters — given the failure of Congress to rein Trump in. For that, thanks go in part to Iowa’s U.S. senators and representatives, who support the reign of Trump whenever push comes to shove and promote his endorsement if seeking election.

So here is a contrast that leads to a look at our situation in the U.S.-Israeli war against Iran.

I find a lot of reasons to admire Harry Truman — almost as many as I find to loathe Donald Trump. On the one hand, maybe it’s because of time spent in research at the Truman library in Independence, Missouri. Reading hundreds of letters to and from Truman during his years in office and having access to resources that tell you about the man. Perhaps the key impression for me is how Truman distinguished between the Office of the President, which merited respect, just shy of worship, and the person in the office, who was fair political game.

Former Des Moines Register assistant sports editor Ira Lacher writes about the games and business of sports for various newspapers and magazines.

More than two decades ago, Jerry Seinfield laid it on the line for sports fans.

“Loyalty is kind of a hard thing to justify in the end,” the comedian, referring to professional athletes moving from team to team, told David Letterman in 1994. “Every year, it’s different guys, right? … You’re rooting for clothes, when you get right down to it. I’m rooting for an outfit. That’s what it’s come down to. I want my team’s clothes to beat the clothes from another city. Laundry. We’re screaming about laundry here.”

By that definition, regardless of how the NCAA refers to “student-athletes” at March Madness sites, too many Division I basketball players are merely paid professionals, shuttling from team to team via the transfer portal like passengers changing flights at hub airports. According to the online college basketball stats service SRCBB, just short of a third of players on this season’s men’s Elite Eight rosters – 38 out of 120 – had transferred at least once. 

Wayne Ford is the executive director of Wayne Ford Equity Impact Institute and co-Director of the Brown and Black Forums of America. He is a former member of the Iowa legislature (1997 through 2010) and the founder and former executive director of Urban Dreams.

There are moments when an issue that has existed for years suddenly becomes visible to everyone at once.

Not because it is new—but because it can no longer be ignored.

Conversations begin to happen in public, decisions begin to affect daily life, and attention turns quickly toward what appears to be the immediate cause.

But what we are seeing is often not where the problem begins.

Jason Benell lives in West Des Moines with his wife and two children. He is a combat veteran, Dallas County supervisor candidate, and president of Iowa Atheists and Freethinkers. This essay first appeared on his Substack newsletter, The Odd Man Out.

“Democracy cannot succeed unless those who express their choice are prepared to choose wisely. The real safeguard of democracy, therefore, is education.” – Franklin Delano Roosevelt

The battle over schools is not something we should take lightly or view as a blip in a partisan battle. This is a generational challenge, which threatens the very existence of our state and our country.

The arguments between public and private schools with voucher programs has taken up a lot of space in Iowa’s political discourse, and for good reason. With hundreds of millions of taxpayer dollars going to private religious institutions and years of underfunding public education, we are seeing an attack on the very institutions that have made the United States and places like Iowa even possible.

Xavier Carrigan is a Democratic candidate in Iowa’s third Congressional district.

I appreciate Bleeding Heartland’s analysis of ballot access challenges in Iowa’s 2026 cycle. There are real lessons there for candidates, especially around timing, margins, and understanding the rules.

I want to be clear on one point up front: I understood the rules.

I spent significant time making calls, asking questions, and working through the requirements to ensure I was operating correctly. Like many candidates, I also had to navigate inconsistent or unclear guidance at times, and I worked through that as responsibly as I could.

Where my campaign differs is not in whether I understood the process, but in how I chose to approach it.

Bill from White Plains is an Iowa lawyer and political observer with a keen interest in promoting candidates with the character required by the positions they seek.

Alexander Pope mocked literary critics of his day with his comment, “For Fools rush in where angels fear to tread.” The literary references in his 1709 piece, “An essay on criticism,” are lost to time and the short attention span of most people in modern life, but that line endures.

Putting aside the hideous 1997 romantic comedy starring Matthew Perry, the line endures because stupid people are no less stupid in 2026.

Last week, State Representative Eddie Andrews stepped up to become the latest in a long line of idiots, hoping to become the leader of his party and this state. He is helping to pave the way for a brainless stiff from northwest Iowa to win the Republican party’s gubernatorial primary in June.

Adam Zabner represents Iowa House district 90, covering part of Iowa City.

Last May, when Iowa Republicans passed the health and human services budget for the current fiscal year, I asked the bill’s floor manager, State Representative Ann Meyer, a simple question. What would happen when U.S. Representatives Mariannette Miller-Meeks, Randy Feenstra, Zach Nunn, and Ashley Hinson voted to cut federal health care funding?

Iowa Capital Dispatch reported at the time:

Randy Evans is executive director of the Iowa Freedom of Information Council, a nonpartisan, nonprofit organization that promotes openness and transparency in Iowa’s state and local governments. He can be reached at DMRevans2810@gmail.com. This essay first appeared on his Substack newsletter, Stray Thoughts. 

City leaders in Des Moines are making it difficult to understand why they selected the current police chief, considering how they have imposed a code of silence about their recent $975,000 payout to one of the candidates who did not get the job.

The payout and, even worse, the sealed lips are just another example of how common sense and good government suffer whenever public officials refuse to detail how and why they spend taxpayer money.

This textbook example of misplaced priorities began in 2024 when Des Moines Police Chief Dana Wingert announced his retirement after nearly a decade leading the department.

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 

Everyone at one time or another has been driven crazy by a backseat driver, sometimes sitting in the front. “There’s a stop sign.” “You’re too close to the curb.” “That car is turning.” “Slow down.” 

There are three general reactions, and none are productive. The driver may nod and ignore, begin to second-guess themselves, or explode, making the remainder of the ride resemble a “red wedding” from “Game of Thrones.”

Second-guessers like to make sure other people are doing things the same way they would do it. When that happens, everyone wants to shout, “If you’re so good at it, why didn’t you do it yourself?”

Ben Nizzi is President of Ironworkers Local 67 in Des Moines.

In more than fourteen years as a member of Ironworkers Local 67, I have never seen our union make an elected official a dues-paying member. Not once. Until now.

A few weeks ago, Ironworkers Local 67 welcomed Iowa State Senator Zach Wahls into our union. This is the first time in our history we have extended this honor to an elected official. I want to explain why, because it speaks to Zach’s character and why Iowa workers need him in the U.S. Senate.

Steve Peterson is a former teacher from rural Winneshiek County.

Decorah has a long tradition of strong public schools. But budget shortfalls have eroded what our school can provide for our students and our community. In our case, fewer elementary teachers already mean larger class sizes for our youngest students. But I fear the worst is yet to come. 

Districts across the state are grappling with how to deal with a decade of underfunding and a more than $300 million a year voucher program that siphons off public money to fill the balance sheets of private schools. 

Cuts don’t discriminate–rural, urban, or suburban. Our public schools are in trouble. And the pain is being felt across the board. Once again, the Iowa legislature failed our public schools this session, approving yet another meager 2 percent increase in state funding per pupil, which fails to keep up with rising costs. The shortfalls that follow have forced a record 200 districts–or two-thirds of Iowa’s schools–onto a “budget guarantee” that ensures school districts with declining enrollment will see only a 1 percent increase in yearly funding, even as costs rise well beyond that figure.

It’s that time of year: days are getting longer, the weather is getting warmer, and transparency advocates are celebrating open government and freedom of information.

To mark Sunshine Week, I decided to examine how open the Iowa House and Senate are to the public and the news media. I’ll compare how each chamber handles access to proceedings, with some tips on how to follow meetings or debates at every stage of the process.

While the internet has generally made it easier to track the legislature’s work, there’s room to let much more sunshine in. The House and Senate have each adopted some practices the other should follow, and could take inspiration from other states to get Iowans more engaged with lawmakers’ work.

Jason Benell lives in West Des Moines with his wife and two children. He is a combat veteran, Dallas County supervisor candidate, and president of Iowa Atheists and Freethinkers.

The latest slate of legislative attacks on diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) and education betray the seriously myopic view of Iowa Republicans. They might as well amend the state motto or flag to include the phrase “flyover country.”

This isn’t simply a matter of disagreement or a partisan grievance against particular things we may like or dislike. The facts and historical record show diversity has made the United States and states like Iowa strong and a good place to live. This extends beyond cultural touchstones and witty phrases and goes right into the heart of the Iowan economy and social interactions.

Al Charlson is a North Central Iowa farm kid, lifelong Iowan, and retired bank trust officer.

This week the U.S. Senate has been debating the SAVE America Act, which the House approved on February 11. The SAVE America Act is one snowflake in the blizzard of legislation President Donald Trump and Congressional Republicans are desperately pushing to protect us from the imagined threat of hordes of non-citizens overwhelming our elections.

The SAVE America Act “builds on the framework” from last year’s SAVE Act; Issue One explained the differences between the two bills here. That post also covers the “Make Elections Great Again” or MEGA bill, which House Republicans introduced in late January. Representative Mariannette Miller-Meeks of Iowa’s first Congressional district was one of the original co-sponsors.

I’ll admit that bill’s name reminds me of going to the store with toilet paper on the shopping list. How can there possibly be that many variations of toilet paper? MEGA is one of the newer choices adding to the confusion. Anyway, let’s talk about voting.

Despite Iowa’s rightward shift over the past decade, our state is shaping up to be an important 2026 battleground. For the first time since 1968, we have open races for governor and U.S. Senate in the same year. Two of the four U.S. House districts are among the top Democratic targets nationwide. President Donald Trump’s approval rating may be underwater in Iowa, and Democrats are poised to nominate well-funded candidates for state and federal offices.

History tells us that midterm elections often favor the party out of power. Nevertheless, the Iowa landscape is much better for Republicans now than it was during the 2018 election cycle, when Fred Hubbell came within 3 points of winning the governor’s race and Democrats won three U.S. House seats.

It’s time to revisit a topic I explored last June. The GOP’s massive voter registration advantage still makes it hard to construct a winning scenario for Democrats in Iowa’s statewide races—even if Trump’s many failures drive down Republican turnout.

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

From the Shriners’ Iowa Corn Song to Grant Wood’s American Gothic, Iowa has long been characterized (and caricatured) to the world by our greatest domestic output—and I’m not talking about corn, soybeans, or eggs. I’m talking monoculture.

It’s rare to find the cultivation or domination of a single species, a monoculture, in natural ecosystems. Visit any of Iowa’s state parks and you’ll find their beauty is in direct proportion to their biodiversity, monoculture’s opposite. Biodiversity tends toward balance, resilience, and sustainability as interdependent species of flora and fauna protect each other from diseases, pests, and overcompetition. It’s a messy and imperfect process that often requires a human touch, but when a lack of biodiversity undermines mutual resilience, the ensuing ecological collapse can lead to devastating consequences.

Triggered by blight which rotted a monocultural food source, for example, thousands of Irish families fled the Potato Famine and settled across Iowa and the Midwest. Decades later their descendants watched dark clouds of topsoil blow away during the Dust Bowl, caused in part by overfarming wheat, a monoculture that replaced what were once thousands of miles of hardy Great Plains.

Today, from waving rows of golden corn tassels to the golden dome of the statehouse, Iowa’s political monoculture threatens the ecological, economic, and social diversity of our state, undermining our interdependence and resilience. And it’s killing us.