“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.

“WE NEED TO TALK ABOUT KITCHEN TABLE ISSUES”

You can watch Meyer’s first Q&A with statehouse reporters here:

Asked about his pitch to caucus members in the leadership race against State Representative Lindsay James (his predecessor as minority whip), Meyer said, “The pitch was very simple. And it was that we need to have conversations with Iowans. We need to go to the voters and we need to talk about kitchen table issues. People are living paycheck to paycheck, there’s no relief in sight, and we need to address those things moving forward as to how as a caucus, we are going to say to Iowans, we are the better option when you go to vote in November of 2026.”

To pick up seats, Meyer said he would focus on some of Iowa’s smaller cities and industrial towns like Marshalltown and Newton, where Democrats have lost House races in recent years. “And I think we are going to have a message that’s going to resonate with people,” he predicted. Over the next couple of years, Democrats will talk more directly with Iowans “about economic issues, and not social issues.”

Abortion rights featured prominently in paid advertising for several unsuccessful Iowa House Democratic candidates in 2024.

Since Democrats did not field a candidate in Fort Dodge—a longtime stronghold for the party—last year, I asked whether Meyer was confident the party would have someone on the ballot there in 2026. “Absolutely,” he said, adding that Iowans in smaller cities are hurting.

Starting this weekend, Meyer and State Representative Sean Bagniewski will hit the road to work on recruiting candidates for 2026.

Other top Iowa Democrats echoed the focus on kitchen table issues in written statements congratulating the new House minority leader. Iowa Senate Minority Leader Janice Weiner said, “I look forward to working closely with Leader Brian Meyer as our caucuses continue to work together to move Iowa forward and focus on lowering costs for all Iowans.”

Iowa Democratic Party state chair Rita Hart said, “I look forward to working with Brian and his team to push back against the Republican legislative agenda that has left Iowa’s economic growth at 49th in the country. Brian Meyer will work hard to lead his colleagues in the House in order to save Iowans’ money and get our economy on a better track.”

“WE ARE GOING TO OFFER AN ALTERNATIVE”

Meyer indicated that going forward, the House Democratic leadership team “would be more decentralized,” so as to utilize everyone’s strengths. For example, State Representative Tracy Ehlert is an expert in early childhood education, and Meyer plans to let her take the lead on that issue with journalists and on social media. Ditto for State Representative Dave Jacoby, the ranking Democrat on the House Ways and Means Committee, when property taxes are in the news.

An attorney and former Des Moines City Council member, Meyer has represented part of Des Moines in the state House since 2013, making him one of the longest-serving members in his caucus. His experience at the statehouse goes back further: he worked for the House Democratic caucus staff for seven years starting in 2006. During the four years the party controlled the chamber (2007 through 2010), Meyer was chief of staff for then Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy. That’s how he got to know Iowa House Speaker Pat Grassley and Majority Leader Matt Windschitl—both were first elected to the House in 2006.

Meyer continued to work for McCarthy (by then the House minority leader) from 2011 to 2013, and won the special election to succeed his boss when McCarthy left to take a position in the Iowa Attorney General’s office.

Speaking to reporters, Meyer commented that he was on staff when Democrats held 56 of the Iowa House seats in 2009 and 2010: “I remember what that was like, and what you have to do to get there.”

That experience will shape how Democrats approach floor debates under his leadership, Meyer said. Democrats “will make our voice heard” and be “a little more aggressive” with offering amendments.

I’ve been around a long time. I know the ins and outs. I know the procedural things we can do. And I will tell you this: we’re not going to stand by and just let them run bills and amendments, and bills and amendments. We are going to offer an alternative. That is going to be new. We are going to offer an alternative to what they are proposing on most of these big bills.

Obviously, most Iowans don’t watch footage from legislative debates. Even so, offering amendments can be an effective way for Democrats to get Republicans on the record about proposals that couldn’t get a subcommittee hearing. It can generate news coverage, or clips Democrats can share on their social media feeds.

I see no downside to putting more popular ideas on the House floor. Let the majority party vote them down or use procedural tricks (“not germane”) to weasel out of a vote.

Near the end of his comments to reporters, Meyer characterized the governing Republican trifecta as a “disaster.” “They can’t agree on anything,” and session is already more than a week past the scheduled adjournment date. He previewed part of his 2026 campaign message: “Iowans have to decide: do you want to just continue giving tax cuts to millionaires, and giving away tax dollars to private schools? No property tax relief? We have these alternatives, and we will be proposing them as we move forward.”

A HISTORY OF SHARP QUESTIONS DURING FLOOR DEBATE

Meyer is not shy about speaking during House debates. He has often tried to pin down the Republican floor manager on questions that could come up in litigation. I’m sharing a few clips to give readers a sense of what we’ll see more of in 2026.

Here’s Meyer in attorney mode, pressing State Representative Steven Holt when House members considered a wide-ranging transgender discrimination bill in February of this year. He was trying to get Holt to say whether the bill implicates fundamental rights, and therefore would trigger “strict scrutiny” in court, or whether the state even has a “rational basis” (a lower bar) to green-light discrimination against trans people in housing or employment.

Earlier in the debate on the anti-trans bill, Meyer questioned Holt about his past conversations with unnamed Iowa Supreme Court justices about civil rights law and whether protected classes have “elevated status.”

Meyer and State Representative Shannon Lundgren have tangled several times while Lundgren floor-managed anti-abortion bills. After the House first approved a near-total abortion ban in 2018, a Des Moines Register photo of the two lawmakers made the front page of the New York Times.

During the 2023 special legislative session to pass a virtually identical abortion ban, Meyer grilled Lundgren about whether the bill is consistent with federal law on medical privacy, known as HIPAA. He also quizzed her on the meaning of the “rape” exception. That term is not defined anywhere in Iowa Code, which refers to varying degrees of sexual abuse.

When House members debated a firearms bill in 2023, Meyer tried to get Holt to explain why an amendment removed certain provisions that business lobby groups opposed. That debate showcased another tactic Meyer occasionally uses: questioning a Democratic colleague (in this case Rick Olson) to shine a light on problematic language in a Republican bill.

I will be curious to see whether Iowa House debates run longer in 2026 than they generally have done this year.

NEW LEADER HAS WEAK FUNDRAISING HISTORY

Fundraising is a huge and ongoing challenge for Iowa House and Senate Democrats. Republican stances on certain issues give the GOP a natural boost with wealthy individuals and corporate PACs. Their historically large majorities in the Iowa legislature add to that disparity.

As a result, Republicans can and do spend hundreds of thousands of dollars in almost every battleground Iowa legislative race. Since I’ve closely followed these elections, Republicans have outspent Democratic candidates in most of the top House and Senate targets every cycle except for 2020. Democrats were at a financial disadvantage in most of the competitive 2024 Iowa House races.

At the incoming leader’s first Q&A with reporters, I asked Meyer how he would approach fundraising, an area where he has little experience. He said the plan is “very simple”: “all hands on deck. Everybody in the caucus is going to be, to the best of their ability, fundraising, including myself. And that’s not going to be a problem.”

I reached out again later on May 8, after I couldn’t find a page for Meyer on ActBlue, the leading site for online Democratic fundraising. He told me he has an ActBlue and was working on getting it set up. He added that he will be “working with political staff to raise money.”

An enormous task lies ahead.

Over the past decade, the vast majority of Meyer’s campaign contributions have come from PACs. Legislators often don’t need to ask for those donations—certain PACs routinely donate to numerous Iowa lawmakers.

Having always represented a safe seat covering part of Des Moines, Meyer has never needed to raise much money to win elections. Consequently, he has never cultivated a broad base of individual donors. That will need to change once he is primarily responsible for making sure Democrats are well-positioned for the 2026 elections. (For decades, Iowa legislative leaders have typically donated most of what they raise to the state party. The Iowa Democratic Party and Iowa GOP then make in-kind expenditures to cover advertising, direct mail, and other expenses in targeted districts.)

I created the table below using Meyer’s campaign finance disclosures going back to 2016, the earliest reports available on the Iowa Ethics and Campaign Disclosure Board’s searchable website.

The columns reflect data from each calendar year: how much Meyer’s campaign brought in from PACs, how much he raised from individual donors, and how much his campaign contributed to the Iowa Democratic Party. I put an asterisk by 2016 because the report covering the first several months of that year was not online.

year	raised from PACs	raised from individuals	gave to IDP
2016*	$14,500	$1,150	$7,000
2017	$5,200	$1,450	$2,400
2018	$25,750	$1,475	$31,000
2019	$6,950	$525	0
2020	$31,800	$3,925	$43,000
2021	$1,100	0	0
2022	$19,350	0	0
2023	$1,550	0	0
2024	$15,200	$100	$28,000
Total	$121,400	$8,625	$111,400

By way of comparison, filings show Konfrst’s campaign committee donated $60,000 to the Iowa Democratic Party in 2023 and $1,040,000 to the party in 2024. Even with that level of fundraising by the minority leader, Democratic challengers couldn’t match GOP spending in many important races.

No doubt, PACs will donate much more to Meyer’s campaign going forward, simply because he will be the Democratic leader. But ramping up fundraising from individuals (both major and small-dollar donors) will take a lot of work. You can’t instantly generate a large social media following or relationships with those who can write big checks.

While an “all hands on deck” approach is logical, I wonder whether it is realistic. I have observed a longstanding culture of Iowa Democratic incumbents in safe seats raising little money to help fund challengers in pickup opportunities.

Meyer may struggle to convince colleagues—especially those who preferred Lindsay James for minority leader—to put much effort into fundraising when he hasn’t consistently been a rain-maker for the House Truman Fund.

On the flip side, a “little more aggressive” approach to legislative work could help House Democrats expand their base of donors and volunteers. Rank and file activists are desperate to see their party’s leaders take the fight to Republicans. Meyer’s message might be just what they’re looking for.

Any relevant comments are welcome in this thread.