While only a small handful of Iowa Senate races seem like pure toss-ups at this point, there's nearly a dozen Iowa House campaigns that could easily go either way. An unusually large number of incumbent Republican retirements, suburban swing districts possibly...
The best way to activate young voters is through a bigger focus on issues rather than candidates, believes Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack, who returned to Iowa this week to speak at a millennial voters event in Des Moines. The former Iowa governor...
Rene Gadelha's campaign to unseat popular Democratic State Senator Liz Mathis is not going so well. In the span of just one week Gadelha's attack ads have gotten two negative fact checks from two of the district's biggest media outlets. First came a column from...
Voters in Davenport will be stepping over unwrapped Christmas presents on their way out the door to vote for State Senator Joe Seng's successor, thanks to Governor Terry Branstad's scheduling of the special election. In an official proclamation yesterday, Branstad...
The Iowa Secretary of State's office released the number of absentee ballots requested by voters so far today, and the overall absentee request numbers are down from 2012. The timing of absentee mailers, however, may have impacted that and the numbers could soon...
A lot of attention has focused on the Democrats’ difficulties with young voters – typically their best voting bloc – this year, but Republicans are dealing with a similar – if smaller – rebellion among their youthful backers. Donald Trump’s candidacy has many young...
State Senator Joe Seng of Davenport passed away today, several sources confirmed to Starting Line this evening. He was 70 years old. Seng was diagnosed with brain cancer in September of 2014, but fought through it and returned to the Senate the follow session, only...
I am announcing today that I, Pat Rynard, am challenging Republican Speaker of the Iowa House Linda Upmeyer to one million debates between now and Election Day. Although I have not informed Speaker Upmeyer of this ahead of time, I will premptively call her out for...
A guest post from Stacey Walker As a black man watching the 2008 presidential campaign, I knew the significance of what then-Senator Obama was doing. He was threading a very fine needle. In order to win, he had to convince a white political establishment that he...
At times during Jill Stein's Des Moines rally yesterday, you could have closed your eyes and imagined you were right back at a Bernie Sanders caucus event. All the old hallmarks were there: income inequality, marijuana laws and oil pipelines were the big themes of...
