Rep. Mary Mascher of Iowa City announced on Monday she will not run for reelection next year. Mascher, a leader among progressive Democrats in the Iowa House of Representatives, was first elected to her seat in 1994. “I want to thank the people of Johnson County for their love and support over the last 28 […]
Election Coverage
‘It’s time to rotate the crops’: Sen. Joe Bolkcom says he won’t seek reelection
Joe Bolkcom, who has represented Iowa City in the state Senate since 1999, announced on Thursday morning he will not run for reelection next year. “It’s time to rotate the crops,” he said in a video posted online. That was a phrase used by Tom Vilsack during the 1998 election that sent Bolkcom to the […]
Watch: Get to know the four candidates for Iowa City Council
As Tuesday’s election approaches, voters have a chance to familiarize themselves with the candidates for the Iowa City Council through video statements on City Channel 4’s “Meet the Candidates” series. There are three seats on this year’s ballot. Two are at-large seats and the other is in District B, and all voters in Iowa City […]
‘There’s Q shit everywhere!’: ‘The Daily Show’ spotlights Iowa Trump supporters at Des Moines rally
Iowa was again the subject of a Daily Show segment most residents of the state would consider to be embarrassing. But while Iowans are used to being portrayed as folksy and a bit out of touch during caucus season, the piece aired Monday night showed a more cringey and conspiratorial slice of Iowa. The Daily […]
Retired Admiral Mike Franken becomes the fifth Democrat to launch a campaign for U.S. Senate
Retired Admiral Mike Franken made it official on Thursday: he’s running for the 2022 Democratic nomination for the U.S. Senate. Franken is the fifth Democratic to enter the race to take on seven-term incumbent Sen. Chuck Grassley. Franken made his announcement in an interview with the Des Moines Register that was published at 6 a.m. […]
Where and how to vote early, and what has changed since Gov. Reynolds signed new voting restrictions into law
Early voting for the Nov. 2 election began on Wednesday, as county auditors started mailing out absentee ballots requested by voters, and opened their offices for in-person early voting. This is the first election since Gov. Kim Reynolds signed new restrictions on voting into law in March. Iowa was one of 19 Republican-controlled states to […]
Donald Trump lies, stokes xenophobia and endorses Chuck Grassley in speech at Iowa State Fairgrounds
When Donald Trump finally began speaking at the Iowa State Fairgrounds on Saturday night, it took him less than two minutes to get to his central message: “The election was rigged.” He was lying, but about an hour into his speech, the former president did say something true about the 2020 election. “I never conceded. […]
Democrat Bob Krause, who served in the Iowa House in the ’70s, is running for U.S. Senate
Bob Krause, who represented Burlington in the Iowa House in the 1970s, announced on Thursday he is running for the Democratic nomination for the U.S. Senate to challenge seven-term incumbent Sen. Chuck Grassley in next year’s election. “Win or lose, I will elevate the battle of ideas,” Krause said, standing near the Mississippi River as […]
Democrat Liz Bennett kicks off campaign for state Senate, reflecting on the less-divided Iowa of decades past
“I’m running for state senate to make sure that every single Iowan gets a fair shot in Iowa,” Liz Bennett told the people crowded into a room at The Bohemian in Cedar Rapids on Tuesday night for her campaign kick-off event. The Cedar Rapids Democrat is in her fourth term representing Cedar Rapids in the […]
Chuck Grassley, in elected office since 1959, is running again
Chuck Grassley, who has spent his career presenting himself as a regular Iowa farmer and not a politician, has decided six decades in elected office is not enough. On Friday, one week after his 88th birthday, Iowa’s senior senator announced he is running for an eighth six-year term in the U.S. Senate. “I’m running for […]
The map whisperer: A conversation with Cory McCartan, winner of the 2021 Iowa redistricting challenge
Every 10 years, the political commentator Dave Wasserman holds an “Iowa redistricting challenge.” The goal of the challenge is to use new census data to draw a congressional map of Iowa distributing the population as equally as possible into districts. This year, the challenge was won by Cory McCartan, a Grinnell College graduate currently pursuing […]
Democrat Christina Bohannan is running for Miller-Meeks’ seat in Congress
State Rep. Christina Bohannan announced on Tuesday she is running for U.S. Congress. Bohannan, who represents Iowa City in the Iowa House, is the first Democrat to announce a challenge to Rep. Mariannette Miller-Meeks, the Republican who won the seat in Iowa’s 2nd Congressional District by six votes in 2020. “I really think that we […]

