Catherine Ross is a pseudonym for one of the authors of this post. Bleeding Heartland is keeping the authors’ names confidential, as well as the location in Iowa where these detentions occurred.

June 16, 2025 began like any other morning for two hardworking men in an Iowa community. As dawn broke, the first—a restaurant employee driving to work—was boxed in by two unmarked cars. Masked figures jumped out, ordered him from his vehicle, and whisked him away.

Three friends, trailing behind, watched in horror, as it appeared their fellow worker was being kidnapped. One friend ran to move the abandoned car off the street, unaware that other masked men lurked nearby. He, too, was seized and driven away. Only two witnesses in the second car remained to tell the tale.

Friends and families did not learn these men’s whereabouts for thirteen hours, when their names were found on ICE’s (Immigration and Customs Enforcement, part of the US Homeland Security) detainee roster at Polk County Jail—a facility paid by ICE for housing ICE detainees. After 48 hours there, they were transferred to Pine Prairie Correctional Facility in rural Louisiana for four more days.

“You understand what too many of our fellow Americans have forgotten: that democracy is not on automatic pilot,” U.S. Senator Chris Van Hollen told hundreds of Democrats in Des Moines on September 13. “Its survival, its very survival, depends on us.”

In his keynote address at the Polk County Democrats’ annual Steak Fry fundraiser, the senior senator from Maryland repeatedly urged Democrats to fight back against President Donald Trump’s lawless regime. He also faulted members of his own party, who don’t always stand up for core principles.

It’s been a wildly successful week for U.S. Representative Ashley Hinson.

Three days after U.S. Senator Joni Ernst confirmed she won’t seek re-election, the three-term member of Congress all but wrapped up the Republican nomination for Iowa’s Senate seat. President Donald Trump’s “Complete and Total Endorsement” shut the door on any realistic chance Hinson could lose the June 2026 primary.

But Hinson’s embrace of the Washington establishment could alienate a segment of Republicans she will need after the primary. And her slavish allegiance to Trump could become a liability for the likely nominee in the general election campaign.

greg wickenkamp is a lifelong Iowan.

More than 250 people from throughout Iowa gathered in Iowa City on August 23 to help save state history. Attendees demanded the state reverse its decision to close the State Historical Society of Iowa (SHSI) archives in Iowa City.

Rally-goers also called on state officials to reverse their decision discontinuing the only peer-reviewed state history journal, The Annals of Iowa. Without inviting adequate public comment, and after refusing to cover the basic costs of maintaining the historical archives, state officials unilaterally pushed to end these public serving institutions. Since the Iowa City rally, more than 6,000 people have signed a petition to reverse the state’s decision.

In the end, it wasn’t even close.

Democrat Catelin Drey defeated Republican Christopher Prosch by 4,208 votes to 3,411 (55.2 percent to 44.7 percent) in Iowa Senate district 1, covering much of Sioux City and some rural areas in Woodbury County. Donald Trump carried this district by 11 points in the 2024 presidential election, winning more votes than Kamala Harris in fifteen of the 22 precincts. Yet Drey carried nineteen of the 22 precincts and improved on Harris’ vote share in every precinct.

It was the second Iowa Senate seat Democrats flipped in 2025, and the fourth straight special election in Iowa where the Democratic nominee overperformed by more than 20 points, compared to the November 2024 presidential results. Drey’s win also means Republicans will no longer have a two-thirds supermajority in the Iowa Senate when the legislature convenes in January.

While not every tactic from a special election campaign translates into a higher-turnout midterm environment, Democrats can learn a lot from what Drey and her team did right as they prepare for 2026 races for down-ballot offices. In addition, these lessons could help many progressives running in Iowa’s nonpartisan city and school board elections this November.

Senator-elect Drey and Iowa Senate Minority Leader Janice Weiner joined Iowa Starting Line’s Zachary Oren Smith and me on August 27 to discuss how they overcame the odds. You can watch our whole conversation here.

I also sought insight from Julie Stauch, who has worked on many Democratic campaigns and helped guide a successful 2023 special election campaign for Warren County auditor.

Promising to fight for public schools, workers’ rights, safe drinking water, and quality health care, former Democratic State Senator Nate Boulton announced on August 29 that he will run for the Iowa House in 2026. The previous day, longtime Democratic State Representative Rick Olson confirmed he won’t seek another term in Iowa House district 39.

That seat covers part of the east side of Des Moines and Pleasant Hill in eastern Polk County, making up half the Senate district Boulton represented through 2024. Like many similar working-class areas, it was a Democratic stronghold for decades and has shifted toward Republicans during the Trump era.

Boulton, an employment lawyer for many workers and labor unions, served two terms in the Iowa Senate. He initially represented a safe seat for Democrats. Despite sexual harassment allegations that ended his 2018 campaign for governor, he did not face a Democratic primary challenger or a Republican opponent in 2020.

After redistricting removed some heavily Democratic neighborhoods from his territory and added GOP-leaning precincts in eastern Polk County, Boulton lost his 2024 re-election bid by less than 0.2 percent (44 votes out of more than 31,000 ballots cast). Republicans spent more than $750,000 on that Iowa Senate race, and Democrats spent about $500,000.

But Boulton significantly outperformed the Democratic baseline in his Senate district as a whole, and in the precincts where he will run for the state House next year. Bleeding Heartland’s analysis of the 2024 precinct-level results from House district 39, which can be viewed here, show Donald Trump edged out Kamala Harris in the area (49.6 percent to 48.9 percent). In contrast, Boulton received more of the votes cast for state Senate (51.4 percent to 48.3 percent for Republican Mike Pike). He received a higher vote share than Harris in all twelve precincts and more raw votes than his party’s presidential nominee in eight of them.

UPDATE: Drey won the election by 4,208 votes to 3,411 (55.2 percent to 44.7 percent), according to unofficial results. A forthcoming post will analyze the precinct level results. Original post follows.

The stakes are unusually high for the August 26 special election in Iowa Senate district 1. If Republican Christopher Prosch wins the race to succeed former State Senator Rocky De Witt, who died of cancer in June, the GOP will hold 34 of the 50 Iowa Senate seats for next year’s legislative session. That would give Republicans the two-thirds majority they need to confirm Governor Kim Reynolds’ nominees with no Democratic support.

If Democrat Catelin Drey flips the seat, the Republican majority in the chamber will shrink to 33-17, allowing Senate Democrats to block some of the governor’s worst appointees.

Equally important, a win in red-trending Woodbury County could help Democrats recruit more challengers for the 2026 legislative races, and could inspire more progressives to run in this November’s nonpartisan elections for city offices and school boards.

Although Donald Trump comfortably carried Senate district 1 in the 2024 presidential election, Democrats have grounds to be optimistic going into Tuesday’s election.

U.S. Senator Chuck Grassley dodged a journalist’s question this week about his plans for the 2028 campaign.

During the latest edition of Grassley’s “Capitol Hill Report,” released on August 20, Marion County Express publisher Steve Woodhouse asked whether the senator planned to seek re-election again. Grassley replied, “This is the summer of my third year. So you need to ask that question in about two years.”

Grassley will turn 92 years old next month and would be 95 when his current term ends. I doubt he will seek another six-year term in 2028; his campaign’s fundraising totals (less than $100,000 per quarter since 2022) are much lower than what one would expect from a senator planning another re-election bid. But it’s notable that he is not ready to rule out the prospect.

“A lot of you all know who I am because I experienced the worst day of my life on national TV,” former Capitol Police officer Harry Dunn told around 350 Democrats in Clear Lake on August 14.

The keynote speaker typically rallies the crowd at the Iowa Democratic Wing Ding, an annual fundraiser for county party organizations across northern Iowa. Dunn held the room’s attention for more than 30 minutes, drawing plenty of applause—as well as laughs with zingers about President Donald Trump, U.S. Senators Joni Ernst and Chuck Grassley, and Republicans in general.

But Dunn warned his audience early on, “I’m not here to give some rah rah speech.” He delivered some of his most powerful lines in a subdued voice.

By speaking candidly about his own struggles and doubts, Dunn offered a path forward—not only for Democrats who are ready to fight back, but for those still trying to pick themselves up off the floor.

When I saw former State Representative Joe Mitchell’s guest column in the Des Moines Register in late June, my first thought was, “What federal government job is he angling for?” His op-ed was an embarrassing piece of hagiography about Donald Trump—or as Mitchell put it, “the most consequential president ever.”

I got my answer on July 23, when the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development announced that Mitchell will serve as the agency’s regional administrator for the Great Plains, covering Iowa, Kansas, Missouri, and Nebraska.

Mitchell is a rising star again at the age of 28, when many ambitious politicos haven’t begun climbing the ladder. At every stage, he’s had help from the GOP establishment.

His comeback story shows how over-the-top public praise for Trump has become normal and expected behavior for even the most well-connected Republicans.

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.

Governor Kim Reynolds and Attorney General Brenna Bird have chosen their next target.

Fresh off an embarrassing defeat to Winneshiek County Sheriff Dan Marx, the state’s chief enforcers of Iowa RightThink have decided to take on someone they undoubtedly believe is more vulnerable.

The governor has filed a complaint concerning a University of Iowa employee who had the misfortune of being captured on hidden camera disparaging the anti-Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Gospel of the Republican Party.

In a secretly recorded video that Fox News aired this week, an employee who has been identified in news reports as Andrea Tinoco, assistant director of Leadership and Student Organization Development, said that despite being ordered to remove “DEI” from their websites, “we are essentially finding ways to operate around it. … “We were like, ‘oh, OK, we can’t use that word. OK, ‘civic engagement.’ I think that’s a lot of what we’re doing.”

Tom Foley is an intern reporter for Iowa Capital Dispatch, where this article first appeared.

West Liberty resident Pascual Pedro Pedro, whose deportation has sparked protests across eastern Iowa, told his story by phone from Guatemala during a July 30 news conference.

The call took place one day after around 200 Iowans, including ten pastors, marched on the federal courthouse in Cedar Rapids on July 29 to advocate for the return of Pedro to West Liberty and to free detained Muscatine resident Noel Lopez.

Pedro, 20, was detained on July 1 at an annual U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement check-in and deported less than a week later. 

Matthew P. Thornburg is an associate professor at Misericordia University who studies elections. His mother’s side of the family hails from Greene and O’Brien counties, and he maintains close ties to Iowa and its politics.

The use of eminent domain to build carbon capture pipelines is a uniquely controversial issue in Iowa politics. Unlike most issues in the state, which fit neatly into the red vs. blue paradigm of modern U.S. politics, CO₂ pipelines put Iowa’s Republican establishment on the wrong side of most voters in the state and divide the Republican Party base. The issue remains salient in Des Moines as potentially competitive primary and general election contests loom for governor of Iowa in 2026.

Among recent developments in the governor’s race, U.S. Representative Randy Feenstra (IA-04) has reportedly raised millions of dollars for his bid for the nomination, and has rolled out a slew of endorsements from other Iowa GOP elected officials. Feenstra is no stranger to the pipeline issue. The Summit Carbon Solutions pipeline most heavily affects his district in northern and western Iowa. His 2024 opponents all emphasized the issue: Kevin Virgil in the Republican primary and Democrat Ryan Melton and Libertarian Charles Aldrich in the general election.

Feenstra’s perceived indifference on the CO₂ pipeline offers an opening for rivals in the upcoming Republican primary for governor.

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 there’s one thing politicians know, it’s this: If you want to bury unflattering news, release it on a Friday afternoon.

Which is when Iowa Attorney General Brenna Bird broke the news she was dropping her lawsuit against Winneshiek County Sheriff Dan Marx. Her announcement landed in my inbox at 3:24 p.m. on Friday, July 18.

In a brief news release explaining her decision to drop the suit accusing Marx of violating state law by discouraging immigration enforcement, Bird made no mention of the loyalty oath she previously demanded he take in order to avoid court action.

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.

A Capitol Police officer who stood the ground between hundreds of members of Congress and insurrectionists during the January 6 attack is scheduled to be the keynote speaker at a Council Bluffs, Iowa political event Sunday, July 27.

Harry Dunn, a now-departed United States Capitol Police officer who testified before Congress about the attack on the capitol, became a high-profile representative of the experience for other peace officers — many who were injured, some who died.

Dunn said the prospect of a full-scale slaughter of elected officials, some of the nation’s top leaders in both parties, was within literal feet, an instant here or there, in the run of events, from happening.

“Members of Congress were being told to take their pins off because they didn’t know if people would recognize that,” Dunn said in a phone interview with The Iowa Mercury. “We were a couple of right turns, and wrong turns by the insurrectionists, away from it being a bloodbath.”

When the Iowa House and Senate approve a bill unanimously, you might assume it was easy to get the measure to the governor’s desk. But appearances can be deceiving. Sometimes, a unanimous vote for final passage obscures years of hard work to pull a bill over the finish line.

So it was with House File 472, which took effect on July 1. The law will make it easier for Iowans to defend themselves when facing meritless lawsuits filed in order to chill speech. Such cases are often called “strategic lawsuits against public participation,” because the plaintiffs have no realistic chance to win in court. Rather, they are suing as a means to silence or retaliate against critics.

Iowa was the 38th state to adopt an “anti-SLAPP” law, according to the Washington, DC-based Institute for Free Speech, which advocates for such legal protections across the country.

If not for one state senator’s determined opposition, Iowa might have joined that club years earlier.

The long-running effort to pass Iowa’s anti-SLAPP bill illustrates how one lawmaker can block a measure that has overwhelming bipartisan support and no meaningful opposition from lobby groups.

Politico set off another round of speculation about U.S. Senator Joni Ernst’s future this week. Jordain Carney and Rachael Bade reported on July 10 that Ernst “is the next GOP senator on retirement watch,” with U.S. Representative Ashley Hinson (IA-02) “waiting in the wings” if the incumbent opts not to seek a third term.

Hinson brushed off the rumors, telling WHO Radio host Simon Conway she’s “100 percent on Team Joni” and hopes Ernst will run again. She added, “The DC media loves to obsess over things.” Notably, Hinson didn’t clarify whether she would run for Senate next year if the seat were open—nor did Conway ask her.

I’ve long believed Hinson is laying the groundwork to run for Senate as soon as Iowa has an open seat—presumably in 2028, when Senator Chuck Grassley’s eighth term will end.

So while I still expect Ernst to seek re-election, the latest coverage got me thinking: who would be the tougher opponent for the Democratic nominee in 2026? It’s usually harder to defeat an incumbent than to flip an open seat. But this race might be the exception that proves the rule.

When President Donald Trump gave Senator Chuck Grassley his “complete and total endorsement” during an October 2021 rally at the Iowa State Fairgrounds, he said one undeniably truthful thing about Iowa’s senior senator: “When I’ve needed him for help he was always there. […] He was with us all the way, every time I needed something.”

At the latest Trump rally in Des Moines, Grassley showed once again that the president’s assessment was on the money.

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.

It hit me in the heat of the evening.

President Donald Trump models his stage style after none other than Frank Sinatra.

The swagger, the rhythm of the humor, the observations about women. (I heard Trump thank a female voter once at another event. He called her “doll.”)

A Trump speech like the one in Des Moines on July 3 takes cues from the famous Sinatra album/CD “Sinatra At the Sands,” in which the crooner ad libs in a swinging way, baby, between songs.

The Sinatra influence on Trump is uncanny — similar to what you see with Bill Maher’s opening monologues on “Real Time,” clearly inspired by Johnny Carson.

Trump came to Iowa to kick off the America 250 celebration: a slate of events scheduled for nation’s 250th anniversary in 2026.

The president addressed thousands at the sun-swept, scorched Iowa State Fairgrounds.

Here are ten takeaways from the event, which Iowa Mercury covered in person.

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.

In February, House Speaker Mike Johnson of Louisiana justified the looming cuts to Medicaid by complaining the program wasn’t designed to cover a bunch of “29-year-old males sitting on their couches playing video games.”

Give Johnson credit: that is a powerful image.

Nobody wants their tax dollars going to pay for government health insurance for some dude who just hangs around his parents’ basement gaming while the rest of us have to haul ourselves out of bed each morning to go to work. Which is why Republicans have been focusing so much on the Medicaid work requirements in Donald Trump’s big, ugly tax bill.

They won’t admit the money they save by taking health insurance away from millions of poor Americans will go to finance tax cuts for some of the wealthiest families in the country. So, they falsely claim these cuts will protect the most vulnerable, who also are covered by Medicaid.

The last time Donald Trump was president, Iowa Democrats had a pretty good midterm election. The party’s candidates defeated two Republican members of Congress, came surprisingly close to beating U.S. Representative Steve King, had a net gain of five Iowa House seats (and almost a sixth), and came within 3 points of winning the governor’s race.

Many Democrats like their chances of improving on that tally in 2026.

But before they get too excited, they need to understand the terrain is now much more favorable to Iowa Republicans than it was during the 2018 election cycle.

A huge GOP voter registration advantage, combined with consistently higher turnout for Republicans in midterm years, make it hard to construct a winning scenario for Democrats in Iowa’s 2026 statewide elections.

To overcome those long odds, Democrats will need not only strong GOTV and good messaging, but also a better voter registration effort over the coming year than the party has seen in decades.

Dr. Greg Cohen has practiced medicine in Chariton since 1994 and is president-elect of the American College of Osteopathic Family Physicians. He was named the Rural Health Champion by the Iowa Rural Health Association in 2014 and was awarded the Living Doc Hollywood Award for National Rural Health day in 2015. He was named a Distinguished Fellow by the American College of Osteopathic Family Physicians as well as Physician of the Year by the Iowa Osteopathic Medical Association in 2019.

I was hoping I would never have to write this, but measles has come back to Iowa. Although the last measles case in Iowa was was recorded in 2019, it has been more than a generation since the last significant outbreak. It has been 25 years since the United States was declared measles free—meaning there was no longer year-round spread.

We are now at a 30-year high in cases and still rising. Since the start of this year’s outbreak in Texas, there have now been more than 1,168 cases in at least 35 states, 137 hospitalizations, and three confirmed deaths. 95 percent of those diagnosed with measles this year have been unvaccinated, and all of the deaths have been unvaccinated. The Iowa Department of Health and Human Services announced on June 11 the third confirmed measles case in our state: an unvaccinated child “who was exposed during international travel.”

Clark Kauffman is deputy editor at Iowa Capital Dispatch, where this article first appeared.

Iowa Attorney General Brenna Bird is continuing to pursue a lawsuit against Winneshiek County and its sheriff, Dan Marx, for allegedly violating Iowa law by discouraging law enforcement from cooperating with federal immigration officials.

In her latest court filings, Bird has criticized Marx, alleging the sheriff has, in essence, asserted that “federal immigration officials should not be trusted.”

Bird has also signaled that even if Marx were to comply with her demand that he disavow his past statements, the state is still obligated to strip Winneshiek County of funding, at least temporarily, based on those previous statements.

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.

Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice focused on manners and goodness, two virtues sometimes forgotten today.

Shortly before the novel was published, our Founding Fathers settled on the free exchange of ideas as one of the fundamental concepts they wanted to guarantee in the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution.

But in 2025, an uncomfortable tug-of-war is occurring over pride and prejudice, expression and oppression.

“People are excited, and I think so far what we’re seeing is hunger for something different,” State Auditor Rob Sand told me on the day he announced he’s running for governor in 2026.

“The real theme across my work is I’m a problem solver,” Julie Stauch told me shortly before her campaign launch.

I interviewed both candidates about their top priorities and the case they will make to Iowa voters over the coming year. Toward the end, I discuss the biggest challenge facing each contender at this early stage.

Iowa’s 2026 U.S. Senate race had its first viral moment on May 30, when an unscripted comment from Senator Joni Ernst generated massive coverage across Iowa and national news outlets.

The words Ernst blurted out in frustration at that town hall meeting may or may not have staying power in the next Senate campaign.

But we’ll definitely keep hearing what the senator said before and after making that gaffe. Republicans around the country, including Iowa’s U.S. House members, have used the same false claims in defense of the budget reconciliation bill now pending in the Senate.

Those statements were among more than a dozen messages about Medicaid and the federal food assistance program known as SNAP that Republicans tested this spring in telephone polls. I was a respondent for one of the surveys in early May and have transcribed the questionnaire at the end of this post.

I don’t know which GOP-aligned entity paid for the robo-poll I received, but it’s clear the memo on how to spin deep Medicaid and SNAP cuts has gone out to all Republicans in Congress.

Two Iowa jurists have signed on to an amicus brief calling for a federal court to dismiss the indictment against Milwaukee County Circuit Court Judge Hannah Dugan. Federal prosecutors charged the judge with concealing a person from arrest and obstructing an official proceeding after she allegedly helped a defendant in her courtroom avoid immigration law enforcement. She has pleaded not guilty and moved to dismiss the charges.

Former U.S. District Court Judge Mark W. Bennett and former Iowa Supreme Court Chief Justice Marsha Ternus were among the 138 retired judges who signed the brief, filed on May 30 in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Wisconsin. The signatories served on courts in 24 different states or were appointed to the federal bench by Presidents Jimmy Carter, Ronald Reagan, Bill Clinton, and George H.W. Bush. Their brief argued, “The government’s indictment of Judge Dugan represents an extraordinary and direct assault on the independence of the entire judicial system.”

In early May, Judge Bennett and Justice Ternus signed an open letter to U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi, which condemned the Trump administration’s various attempts to “intimidate and threaten the judiciary.”

Geoff Horsfield is policy director and Anne Schechinger is Midwest director at the Environmental Working Group. This post first appeared on the EWG’s website.

Farm subsidies already favor the largest farms. But the budget reconciliation bill the U.S. House approved on May 22 is packed with farm subsidy loopholes that would make the problem worse. 

These provisions could add tens of billions to the federal deficit and further tilt the playing field against small family farmers. 

Here are some of the worst farm subsidy loopholes and giveaways in the bill: 

President Donald Trump marked Memorial Day on May 26 with an all-caps rant about “scum” who allegedly “spent the last four years trying to destroy our country,” and “USA hating judges” he characterized as “monsters who want our country to go to hell.” It’s becoming a regular thing for Trump to use this day as another excuse to settle scores with political opponents.

Most people in public life understand that the holiday originally known as Decoration Day is intended to honor Americans who died during military service.

The Iowa National Guard posted a video on May 26 to illustrate the training that goes into offering military funeral honors at approximately 1,400 services in Iowa each year. Sgt. Lorenzo Lopez of the Iowa Army National Guard’s Military Funeral Honors team explained the various roles and steps, and how team members focus on being “precise” with their movements.

“President Trump was right about everything—build the wall, end catch-and-release, and stand with law enforcement,” wrote Attorney General Brenna Bird in a May 21 post on her campaign Facebook page. She was near the U.S. border with Mexico, at a press conference organized by the Republican Attorneys General Association.

The Iowa Attorney General’s office didn’t release a statement about the trip before or afterwards, and didn’t post about it on Bird’s official Facebook or X/Twitter feeds.

That makes sense, because Bird didn’t go to Arizona to perform any official duties. The trip was the latest sign that she is desperate to secure President Donald Trump’s endorsement as she considers whether to run for governor in 2026.

All four Iowans in the U.S. House voted on May 22 to pass a federal budget reconciliation package combining massive tax cuts with deep spending cuts on health care and food assistance.

The early morning vote on the “One Big Beautiful Act” (adopting President Donald Trump’s preferred phrase) followed an all-night debate. House leaders rushed the vote before the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office (CBO) could analyze a manager’s amendment released on the evening of May 21, which made many substantive changes to tax provisions and deepened the planned Medicaid cuts.

House members approved the measure by 215 votes to 214, with two Republicans joining all Democrats to vote no, and one Republican voting “present.” The one-vote margin means U.S. Representatives Mariannette Miller-Meeks (IA-01), Ashley Hinson (IA-02), Zach Nunn (IA-03), and Randy Feenstra (IA-04) each can claim to have cast the deciding vote to cut taxes. They did it without waiting for a nonpartisan analysis of the costs and impacts for their constituents.

This vote will likely become a central theme for Democratic candidates in Iowa’s 2026 Congressional campaigns—and the governor’s race, if Feenstra becomes the GOP nominee. Within hours, Congressional challengers Travis Terrell (IA-01), Sarah Trone Garriott (IA-03), and Jennifer Konfrst (IA-03) blasted the vote in social media posts and fundraising emails. A video of Miller-Meeks running away from Social Security Works executive director Alex Lawson as he presses her about Medicaid cuts has gone viral on several social media platforms and will surely be seen in television commercials.

Tens of thousands of Iowans will lose their health insurance, food assistance, or both if the “big, beautiful bill” becomes law. Meanwhile, the package would raise the debt ceiling by $4 trillion and add at least $2.3 trillion to the deficit (or perhaps $3.2 trillion) over the next ten years.

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.

The Iowa Supreme Court gave citizen engagement and accessibility to public meetings a much-needed boost on May 16 when ruling on an appeal of a lawsuit against the Iowa City Community School District.

The district’s practice of posting full videos of school board meetings on the internet for on-demand public viewing was at the heart of the case.

Robin Opsahl covers the state legislature and politics for Iowa Capital Dispatch, where this article first appeared. Brooklyn Draisey, Cami Koons, and Clark Kauffman contributed to this report.

Republicans’ supermajorities in both chambers of the Iowa Legislature allowed them to push several high-profile bills to the governor throughout the legislative session – but many of the thousands of bills discussed this session failed to advance.

Lawmakers adjourned for the 2025 legislative session early on May 15 after a night of debate and closed-door caucus meetings and nearly two weeks after the session was scheduled to end. Republicans were able to reach agreements on May 14 to pass several of the policy bills that had failed to advance earlier in the session, including Governor Kim Reynolds’ bills providing paid parental leave for state employees and reducing the state’s unemployment insurance taxes on employers.

Earlier in the year, the Republican-controlled chambers moved quickly to pass a bill removing gender identity from the Iowa Civil Rights Act. Other measures passed through with less coordination—legislation on eminent domain use in carbon sequestration pipelines only made it to a vote on May 12, following a concerted effort by twelve GOP senators who said they would not support any budget bills until the pipeline bill was brought to the floor.

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.

You may be experiencing whiplash this spring just trying to track the Iowa legislature’s zigzag movements. It comes from what some might charitably call a lack of consistency on a key theme.

A set of bills from the Republican majority at the capitol illustrates this inconsistency.

Two Democrats launched campaigns this past week in Iowa’s third Congressional district, one of the party’s top 2026 pickup opportunities in the U.S. House. Republican Representative Zach Nunn held off challenger Lanon Baccam in 2024, winning by roughly the same four-point margin by which Donald Trump carried the district. But in the last midterm election while Trump was president, Democratic challenger Cindy Axne defeated another two-term GOP incumbent in the Congressional district anchored by the Des Moines metro area.

The Cook Political Report and Inside Elections with Nathan Gonzales see IA-03 as a “lean Republican” district for 2026, while Sabato’s Crystal Ball views this race as a toss-up.

I interviewed State Senator Sarah Trone Garriott and State Representative Jennifer Konfrst about their priorities and the case they will make to Democrats as they compete for the chance to face Nunn in November.

I’m not aware of any other Democrats seriously considering this race. State Representative Austin Baeth, who said earlier this year he might run for Congress, confirmed to me on May 8 that he will seek a third term in Iowa House district 36. Though there is plenty of time for others to join the field, they would struggle to compete against Trone Garriott and Konfrst, who are experienced candidates and fundraisers with the capacity to run strong district-wide campaigns.

“We have to take our message to the voters,” State Representative Brian Meyer told reporters on May 8, soon after his Democratic colleagues elected him to be the chamber’s next minority leader.

State Representative Jennifer Konfrst has led Iowa House Democrats since June 2021 but is stepping down from that role once the legislature adjourns for the year. She announced on May 8 that she’s running for Congress in Iowa’s third district.

Meyer will lead the smallest Democratic contingent in the Iowa House in 55 years (the chamber now has 67 Republicans and 33 Democrats). As he seeks to build back, he intends to highlight economic issues and target seats in mid-sized cities that were once Democratic strongholds. Toward that end, Meyer plans to take a “little more aggressive” approach during floor debates, and showcase a wider range of House Democrats when communicating with the public.

Raising enough money for the 2026 election cycle will likely be his biggest challenge.

Two Iowa jurists are among more than 150 former state and federal judges who wrote to U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi this week “to condemn the Trump Administration’s attacks on the judiciary,” including the April 25 arrest of Milwaukee County Circuit Court Judge Hannah Dugan.

Former U.S. District Court Judge Mark W. Bennett served in the Northern District of Iowa from 1994 to 2019, when he retired. Former Iowa Supreme Court Chief Justice Marsha Ternus served on Iowa’s highest court from 1993 through 2010, the last four years as chief justice. She left the bench after Iowa voters did not retain her and two other justices in the aftermath of the court’s unanimous Varnum v Brien ruling on marriage equality.

Brooklyn Draisey is a Report for America corps member covering higher education for Iowa Capital Dispatch, where this article first appeared.

A group of Jewish faculty, staff, students, and alumni from colleges and universities across Iowa have penned a letter condemning actions taken against public higher education in the name of fighting antisemitism and protecting the Jewish community.

University of Iowa professor Lisa Heineman said her institution has not faced direct attacks on academic freedom due to accusations of antisemitism, for which she is happy, but hits to other universities are felt on the UI campus.

Heineman said she drafted the letter because of drastic funding cuts to universities and revocation of international student visas—all under the guise of protecting Jews on college campuses.

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.

At least one member of the Iowa House appears to live by the mantra “Do as I say, not as I do” as he demands access to sensitive personal information and commands silence as he trolls for documents.

The audacity of State Representative Charley Thomson’s recent demands to a nonprofit organization should offend all, regardless of where you land on the political spectrum.

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

It usually takes a while for specific changes by the federal government to work their way down to the local level. But after about 100 days of President Donald Trump’s second term, executive orders have begun to directly tighten the screws in Greene County.

Three examples: