JD Vance has nixed a planned Iowa visit this week, rescheduling his campaign stop with Rep. Zach Nunn to May 4.
Vice President JD Vance will not be in Iowa this week. His planned visit has been canceled, with one event rescheduled and another scrapped entirely.
Vance was set to appear Thursday, April 30, at a campaign event alongside US Rep. Zach Nunn followed by a Turning Point USA event on the Iowa State University campus. Erika Kirk, the widow of Turning Point USA co-founder Charlie Kirk, was also scheduled to attend the ISU event.
The campaign rally with Nunn has been moved to Tuesday, May 4. Nunn said he expects to be needed in Washington for a House vote Wednesday and wrote on X that he is “fighting for the farm bill this week.”
The Turning Point USA event at ISU will not be rescheduled this semester. The national organization wrote in a release that Iowa State was unable to accommodate a new date as students will soon begin their preparations for finals.
Turning Point USA said the cancellation was due to a scheduling conflict and was not related to security concerns. Over the weekend, Secret Service agents subdued a gunman trying to enter the White House Correspondents’ Association’s annual dinner in Washington, DC. President Donald Trump, Vance, and other senior officials had to be evacuated from the Washington Hilton.
This week’s visit would have been one of Vance’s few significant trips to Iowa, where he is considered a likely 2028 presidential contender.
Nunn returns to DC for farm bill vote
The scheduling hiccup is all about the farm bill. This week, Congress is trying to pass the Farm, Food and National Security Act of 2026. The legislation traditionally comes to the floor with bipartisan support in a horse trade between funding for food assistance and farm subsidies, among many other components.
House Democrats are largely opposed to the bill as it does not reverse the massive SNAP cuts from last year’s Republican megabill. GOP leaders need every vote they can get so Nunn’s reelection work has to wait.
And it’s not just Democrats who take issue with the bill. Republican infighting between the agricultural interests and the MAHA coalition is threatening its passage, with intraparty disagreements over provisions related to year-round ethanol sales, pesticide manufacturer protections, and state livestock welfare laws. Politico reported House GOP staff have warned that the farm bill could be “in big trouble” on the floor due to these divides.
For Iowa, maybe the most important hangup in the farm bill—and likely the reason for Nunn’s quick change of plans—concerns ethanol. Nunn has promised to get year-round sale of E15, a gasoline containing up to 15% ethanol. Already, the bill has been amended, but it faces strong opposition from the House Freedom Caucus, which argues that year-round E15 sales raise prices for consumers.
The bill’s so-called “pesticide loophole” limiting the liability for large manufacturers of herbicides like glyphosate for health impacts caused by exposure has also drawn protests from Democrats and MAHA-aligned Republicans.
Glyphosate, Roundup’s active ingredient, has been classified as probably carcinogenic by the World Health Organization, and has been linked to non-Hodgkin lymphoma.
“South Carolina farmers, families, and communities deserve better,” Rep. Nancy Mace, a MAHA-aligned Republican from South Carolina, posted on social media after introducing an amendment to strip out the loophole, which some House Republicans are pushing to protect. .
Just this week, the US Supreme Court was hearing arguments on a case about shielding pesticide companies from cancer lawsuits. While the court decides, President Trump has backed Bayer, the company that manufactures weed killer Roundup.
The bill also includes provisions that would overturn state farm animal welfare laws. Groups like ASPCA and Animal Legal Defense Fund have criticized these provisions. Among other provisions, it includes the Save Our Bacon Act which would eliminate states’ ability to regulate agriculture and overturn popular animal protection laws, including bans on cruel farming practices. It would also prevent states from passing new animal welfare protections.
“Instead of continuing to prop up systems that perpetuate cruelty to animals, we urge Congress to reject the dangerous language in the House bill and take this critical opportunity to ensure that the final Farm Bill upholds state farm animal protection laws, protects dogs in puppy mills and ends horse slaughter for good,” said Nancy Perry, the senior vice president of government relations for the ASPCA.
