“At the end of the day, we’re all pissed off and we’re tired of what’s going on and we need a change,” Nathan Sage told the packed room at Big Grove Brewery and Taproom in Iowa City on Monday night. A steady drizzle of rain that grew into a booming thunderstorm didn’t discourage people from […]
U.S. Senate election
‘We are entering a new Gilded Age — and it’s time to fight back’: Democrat Nathan Sage launches a run for Joni Ernst’s Senate seat
“I’m Nathan Sage, dad, mechanic, sports radio host, vet, child of a trailer park in Iowa,” the first Iowa Democrat to enter the 2026 U.S. Senate race says in a video posted online Wednesday morning. “And I’m going to kick corporate Republican Joni Ernst’s ass next November.” Sage, the executive director of the Knoxville Chamber […]
New Iowa Poll finds Franken almost tied with Grassley, Reynolds still far ahead of DeJear
Over the weekend, the Des Moines Register published the results of a new Iowa Poll on the two big races in the Nov. 8 general election. The reported results show the Republican incumbents still lead their Democratic challengers, but in the case Iowa’s longest-serving senator, that lead continues to get smaller. Mike Franken is now […]
Former Rep. Jim Leach breaks with the Republican Party, endorses Bohannan for House and Franken for Senate
Jim Leach, who represented Johnson County and much of southeastern Iowa in Congress for 30 years as a Republican, changed his party registration to Democrat ahead of the June 7 primary, the Quad City Times reported on Wednesday. “Today, the Republican Party that I spent so many years with has really let the country down,” […]
Iowa Supreme Court to decide by Friday if Abby Finkenauer will be on the primary ballot
“If you strip away the noise and the admittedly high stakes, this is ultimately a narrow question of statutory interpretation,” Assistant Solicitor General Sam Langholz said at the beginning of oral arguments before the Iowa Supreme Court on Wednesday afternoon. “Does a signature on a nominating petition missing a date get to be counted?” The […]
Judge removes Abby Finkenauer from Democratic primary ballot, after Republicans challenge three signatures on nominating petition
Late Sunday night, a Polk County judge ordered Abby Finkenauer’s name “not be included on the primary ballot for the Democratic Primary for U.S. Senate.” Judge Scott Beattie ruled that three people who signed Finkenauer’s nomination petition had not properly filled in the date when they added their signatures, and the lack of those three […]
Dave Muhlbauer ends his run for U.S. Senate, following a death in his family
Dave Muhlbauer, who was the first Iowa Democrat to launch a run for the U.S. Senate in the 2022 election, ended his campaign on Tuesday. In a statement published on social media, Muhlbauer said his decision came after “a period of reflection with family and close friends” following the death of his 4-year-old nephew in […]
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. […]
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 […]
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 […]
Retired Admiral Michael Franken says he will run for Senate
Retired Navy Admiral Michael Franken told the Carroll Times Herald on Monday he will run for the U.S. Senate. Franken is the fourth Democrat to declare as a candidate for the seat currently held by Sen. Chuck Grassley. “I think it’s very clear looking across the national scope of things that the nation has a […]
‘We deserve Medicare for All’: Glenn Hurst announces he’s running for U.S. Senate
On Thursday, Glenn Hurst, a doctor and the chair of the Iowa Democratic Party’s Rural Caucus, became the third Democrat to enter the 2022 race for the U.S. Senate seat Chuck Grassley has held for four decades. “Iowa’s senior senator is stuck in a vision of our past when what we need is a vision […]

