State Representative Aime Wichtendahl represents Iowa House district 80.

In the lead up to the 2025 election the consultant class decided to release a 58-page document called deciding ‘Deciding to Win’ a supposed blueprint for how Democrats could win in 2026.

The report was authored by a trio of consultants—David Axelrod, James Carville, and David Plouffe—a group of politicos who haven’t been successful since Avengers was new on DVD.

The document focused on a prescriptive policy agenda for the 2026 elections: emphasize some kitchen table issues, like minimum wage or prescription drugs, and focus less on “some identity and cultural issues.”

Which is consultant-speak for chuck trans people under the bus…just a little bit. After all, they still need the queer community to be uninspired enough to still pull the lever for their “lesser of two evils” candidates ad infinitum.

And really? They needed a million dollars to publish a white paper suggesting that maybe, just maybe the economy isn’t working for the overwhelming majority of Americans. At a time when two-thirds of Americans are living paycheck to paycheck, inflation eats that up at checkout counter, and health, rent, and education costs continue to spiral out of control.  

Weren’t these the same consultants who talked Kamala Harris down off a platform of economic populism to suggest that maybe some billionaires aren’t so bad?

So, I have a better idea for electoral success: Fire the consultants.

The 2025 elections disproved their play-it-safe strategy. Virginia Republicans spent millions of dollars running anti-trans ads to back their gubernatorial candidate Winsome Earle-Sears and they failed. Miserably.

Because here’s the thing: the GOP believes anti-trans issues are their “get out of jail free card.” They believe they can key jingle culture war bait and anti-trans legislation and that voters will forget that Republicans can get away with supporting unpopular legislation like the Big Bankrupting Bill that Congress approved in July, which enriched their billionaire donors at the expense of literally everyone else.

You already see it happening in Iowa. In his video introducing his campaign for governor, Randy Feenstra hit not one, but two anti-trans talking points hoping that voters will forget that he hasn’t done a single in person town hall, goes out of his way to not answer questions about eminent domain, or that he actively looks the other way as everything the Trump Administration does from tariffs, immigration raids, to bailing out Argentina is crushing Iowa’s agricultural economy.

When I ran for the Iowa House in 2024, I was told I should only target certain groups of voters and only talk about specific issues and trust that it would work.

I threw that advice in the trash.

Because I’m going to talk to the people of my district. I’m going to talk to voters about the issues they care about, and I am always going to be open and transparent about who I am.

Through it all, I still showed up and fought for the trans community against each anti-trans bill the GOP pushed in the 2024 legislative session.

And I heard the whispers from the consultant class: “It’s great that Aime is running but there’s no way she can that she can win because she’s trans. We need someone safer to hold that seat.” Forgetting that I had in fact won three elections to the Hiawatha City Council.

And it wasn’t just me who threw conventional wisdom on its ear in 2024.

In Montana, Democrats successfully turned the GOP’s weird and gross obsession with transpeople and turned it around on Republicans. Democrats won ten state House seats and broke the Republican supermajority.

Here’s one thing that is obvious to everyone but the consultant class: Voters don’t want focus-tested candidates with poll-tested messages.

Voters value authenticity. Voters want to know what you’re going to do for them. They are more likely to give you a chance—even if they disagree with you—compared to candidates who just pander, and they have no time for politicians who won’t stand for anything.  

So, for 2026 give me candidates who:

• Are rough around the edges
• Will knock doors and talk to voters who haven’t been engaged in decades
• Speak truth to power
• Aren’t afraid to stand against a broken system that has repeated failed the American people, and
• understand that “liberty and justice for all” isn’t optional.

2026 is going to be a change election. Democrats can win—but only if they stop listening to the consultants.