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.

Iowa’s 2026 ballot access controversies lacked the drama of the last midterm election cycle, when one statewide official almost missed the Democratic primary ballot, and a leading candidate for U.S. Senate had to go to the Iowa Supreme Court to keep her candidacy alive.

Still, four candidates failed to qualify for this year’s June 2 primary ballot. Two others had close calls before the State Objection Panel determined they (barely) met the legal standard.

Future candidates, staff, and volunteers can learn from the mistakes that tripped up Julie Stauch, Xavier Carrigan, Jared Gadson, and Eric Pearson, and nearly ended the campaigns of Eddie Andrews and Mike Bousselot.

Xavier Carrigan is a Democratic candidate in Iowa’s third Congressional district. The State Objection Panel will consider a challenge to his nominating papers on March 24.

Tomorrow morning, a decision will be made about whether I will appear on the ballot for Iowa’s third Congressional District.

A formal challenge has been filed against the petition signatures we submitted. The Secretary of State’s office initially indicated that we had met the required threshold of 1,726 signatures based on a preliminary review. After a more detailed examination, the objection asserts that the valid total is closer to approximately 1,640.

We will respect whatever decision is made.

But before that happens, it’s important to be clear about what this campaign was and what it was not.

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

Picture a hostage tied to the tracks. The train is coming. The kidnappers demand a ransom, and the so-called heroes in Washington hand them the keys to the vault.

That’s what happened this fall. After 43 days of a federal government shutdown, Congress reopened the government but left millions of working Americans still bound to the rails. The funding bill keeps programs like SNAP food assistance running, restores federal pay, and prevents layoffs. Those things matter. But what didn’t make it into the deal will hurt far longer than any shutdown: the failure to extend the enhanced premium tax credits under the Affordable Care Act.

Xavier Carrigan is a Democratic candidate in Iowa’s third Congressional district. He delivered these remarks at the Iowa Insurance Division’s August 19 public hearing on proposed increases in health insurance premiums for policies sold on Iowa’s Affordable Care Act exchange. Although he is not directly impacted by these potential price increases, he felt that sharing his own experience from recent years was important to add to the context of the unaffordability of health care in the U.S., as part of his fight for Medicare for All.

My name is Xavier Carrigan, and while I am running for the U.S. House, I am here today as a citizen who has been forced to navigate the ACA marketplace when I had no other insurance options.

I know what it’s like to lose your insurance and be thrown into a system where every choice is a bad choice. When you’re uninsured and dealing with a chronic condition, the marketplace becomes a cruel joke disguised as help.