A new poll by Public Policy Polling (PPP) finds Sen. Joni Ernst struggling against the four Democrats running for Senate in head-to-head matchups. The North Carolina-based polling firm surveyed 572 Iowa voters from Aug. 18 to Aug. 19. Sixty-nine percent of respondents were surveyed via texted questions, while the remaining 31 percent responded to questions […]
U.S. Senate election
Posted inCommunity/News
J.D. Scholten drops out of the Senate race, endorses Josh Turek
Eleven weeks after entering the 2026 race for U.S. Senate, J.D. Scholten has ended his bid for the Democratic nomination. Scholten, who represents Sioux City in the Iowa House, endorsed fellow western Iowa lawmaker Josh Turek in his announcement on Monday. “I’m ending my campaign because I believe it’s the right thing to do,” Scholten […]
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Zach Wahls is running for U.S. Senate with plans to ‘challenge the establishment’ in both parties
Iowa Sen. Zach Wahls entered the race for Joni Ernst’s U.S. Senate seat on Wednesday. Wahls, who is in his second term in the Iowa Senate representing Coralville, North Liberty and other parts of Johnson County, is one of the state’s better-known Democrats and has often been mentioned as a potential candidate for U.S. House, […]
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Jim Carlin, hardcore Trump supporter and 2022 Grassley challenger, announces run against Ernst: ‘Joni has joined The Swamp’
Jim Carlin is running for the Senate again. The Sergeant Bluff Republican ran against Sen. Chuck Grassley three years ago. Grassley defeated Carlin in the 2022 Republican primary, winning 73 percent of the vote and carrying all 99 of Iowa’s counties. This time, Carlin is challenging Sen. Joni Ernst. “Joni Ernst said she would go […]
Posted inStatewide
Western Iowa Democrat J.D. Scholten is running for U.S. Senate
“Here’s my pitch,” J.D. Scholten said in a video posted online Monday, in which he announced he’s running for U.S. Senate. “I’m a baseball-playing, monopoly-busting, beer-drinking, Bible-reading, working-class proud prairie populist, who is sixth-generation Iowan from right here in Sioux City. And I fundamentally believe that we deserve more than a GoFundMe broken healthcare system, […]
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‘I want clean water. I want clean air’: Democrat Nathan Sage brings Senate campaign to Iowa City
“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 […]
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‘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 […]
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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 […]
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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,” […]
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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 […]
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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 […]
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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 […]
