An Iowa lobbyist was caught offering $100 cash payments—plus referral bonuses—to pack JD Vance’s Des Moines rally this week.
Just hours before Vice President JD Vance took the stage in Des Moines, an ethanol lobbyist with deep connections in the Reynolds administration offered money to contacts willing to attend the rally.
“Gentlemen, Jake Swanson here,” he wrote in a text message. “I wanted to invite you to join me in seeing Vice President JD Vance this afternoon in Des Moines. I do some work for an ethanol company and so if you’re able to join, I will give you $100, and for anyone that you recruit, an additional $25. No limit on referrals, so if someone recruits a group of 20 to show up, that’s $500.”
Iowa Starting Line obtained the screenshot of the text message which was sent at 1:11 p.m. on May 5, just before a chartered bus was scheduled to depart for the Vance’s event. Iowa Starting Line confirmed its authenticity with one of its recipients.
Swanson is a registered lobbyist in Iowa and is the founder of High Yield Strategies. According to his own bio, he has nearly a decade of experience in state government, including a stint as lead agriculture and energy policy adviser to Gov. Kim Reynolds, whose glowing recommendation is featured prominently on the firm’s website:
“Jake Swanson was incredible in making sure we got the biofuels bill across the finish line. He put a lot of work into it, and I was grateful for his efforts in helping get that done.”
Iowa Starting Line reached out to Swanson with questions about his recruitment effort and which ethanol company was funding it. He declined to answer those questions and sent this statement instead:
“I love ethanol and what it does for our state. So I was happy to bring some Iowa State kids to the rally to celebrate all the things Trump-Vance have done for biofuels and I think there’s opportunity for so much more. This is what I like to do in my own personal spare time,” Swanson wrote.
A review of his lobbying declarations showed that only one client, Great Plains Institute, has a direct connection to ethanol advocacy. The Minneapolis-based nonprofit policy organization advocates for increasing ethanol’s role in the American fuel supply, as part of the Midwestern Clean Fuels Policy Initiative. The initiative supports expanding E15 access and promoting carbon capture at ethanol plants—precisely the policy terrain Vance addressed from the stage.
Great Plains Institute told Iowa Starting Line that Swanson was under contract, but not for ethanol advocacy. He was instead working on legislation related to authorizing electric transmission lines on highway rights-of-way, which got Reynolds’ signature in April.
“Our folks that work with Jake (Swanson) don’t have any knowledge about his involvement or activities related to the event with the Vice President,” said Drew Henry, communications director for Great Plains Institute.
In an interview, Henry emphasized that GPI supports ethanol as part of a mix of technologies and policies to reduce carbon emissions. The nonprofit, he said, does not advocate specifically for ethanol or renewable fuels, but it does support broader access to E15, the higher-ethanol fuel blend that Vance made a centerpiece of his remarks at Tuesday’s rally.
“Zach (Nunn) is fighting to make sure for the benefit of Iowa—but frankly for the benefit of the whole country—that we get more E15 into the market all over the United States of America,” Vance said at his rally Tuesday.
US Rep. Zach Nunn pushed his initial event with Vance to this week after Congress tried to secure the farm bill last week. Nunn and other farm-state lawmakers failed to get year-round US sales of E15 into the farm bill last week. Nunn told Agri-Pulse that there will be a separate vote on E15 on May 13 when House lawmakers return from recess.
Iowa Starting Line reached out to Nunn’s campaign which did not respond by press time.
The rally itself drew a crowd of several hundred to the Ex-Guard Industries warehouse floor, with lines forming ahead of the 4:30 p.m. program. Vance’s appearance with Nunn comes as part of a midterm-year push to shore up the Republican incumbent’s competitive seat.
Paying people to attend a political event is unusual and potentially raises legal questions depending on how the money flowed. If the funds originated with a corporate or nonprofit client and were directed toward boosting attendance at an event headlined by a sitting vice president, the arrangement could draw scrutiny under Iowa campaign finance law or federal election rules — particularly if any coordination with the campaign or event organizers occurred.
