Amie here. Did you attend a No Kings event in Iowa?

More than 8 million people did at 3,300 events across the US this Saturday. The largest cities saw millions march, but even in Iowa, plenty turned out for the 60+ events:

• An estimated 10,000 were in Des Moines, 
• 3,000 came out in Dubuque,
• Thousands were in Cedar Rapids,
• Easily a thousand came to Waterloo from my estimate, with great speakers,
• Zachary Oren Smith says hundreds were in Iowa City (got more photos from a reader, scroll down!)
• Hundreds came out in Sioux City,
• And dozens more came out in small towns from Red Oak to Mason City.

What’s next? Here’s one possibility.

Did you take a photo of any interesting signs? Send them my way!

In this issue: Candidate events and rallies, this week’s viral post, and reader soundoff.

Meet a candidate:

US Senate candidate Zach Wahls:

• 6 p.m. Thursday, Des Moines
• 4 p.m. Saturday, Johnston

US House District 1 candidate Christina Bohannan:

• 5:30 p.m. Wednesday, DeWitt

Iowa Governor candidate Zach Lahn:

• 6 p.m. Tuesday, Sioux City
• 5 p.m. Wednesday, Atkins
• 2 p.m. Thursday, West Des Moines
• 5 p.m. Thursday, Grimes

Iowa Secretary of State candidate Ryan Peterman:

• 9 a.m. Tuesday, April 7, Lamoni
• 11:30 a.m. Tuesday, April 7, Creston
• 1:30 p.m. Tuesday, April 7, Mount Ayr
• 3:30 p.m. Tuesday, April 7, Bedford
• 6 p.m. Tuesday, April 7, Atlantic

Iowa House District 99 candidate Jennifer Kirkman:

• 5:30 p.m. Wednesday, Burlington Public Library

Featured protests and rallies:

Iowa Rep. Jeff Shipley called a Cedar Falls resident slurs after he confronted Shipley about a bill to make Ivermectin available over the counter.

This is the same guy who said COVID-19 wasn’t killing anyone, compared being transgender to having cancer, said teachers who accepted LGBTQ+ students were grooming them, and insinuated a Fairfield teacher was murdered because the student accused of killing her was denied a school voucher.

Join the discussion on

• YouTube
• Facebook
• Instagram
• TikTok

Bonus: A reader told us they reached out to Shipley as well:

“I thought you might be interested to know Mr. Shipley still believes his
apology is sincere. See below.” — Tauri P.

Readers are invited to add to the conversation by emailing responses@iowastartingline.com. Please include your first name and last initial. You may also want to include your city, but that’s up to you. I may edit your content for conciseness or to correct typos.

Women compensated differently than men:

• “Retired now, but when I worked at Iowa State, I routinely made less than my male counterparts in IT. Granted, most of my work was on the user side, not on the encoder side, but the IT folks could not have made the progress they made without my participation, intervention, testing, and implementing new systems.” — Clare L.

• “On women being paid less than men in Iowa: It’s disappointing to see that it continues many years after I first encountered it.

   

  When I was appropriations chairman in the Iowa House back in ’77-’78, I tried—but failed—to pass a ‘cost-of-living adjustment’ that approached the matter differently. My bill—which failed to gain the support of even a majority of my party—would have divided the total amount and distributed it equally to all state workers, meaning that the lower-paid (mostly women) would receive a greater percentage—although an equal dollar amount—than the higher-paid. ‘Twas one of my little attempts to introduce democratic socialism into Iowa.

   

  Then, about ten years later when I arrived at IPERS, I discovered that my benefits unit—consisting of 50 persons, most of whom were women—received a salary considerably less than that of the investments unit, which was composed of entirely men. So, over the years I was there (17 in all) I steadily worked to bring the people in my unit up faster than other units in IPERS, mostly by creating new positions—with greater responsibility and requiring more knowledge than ‘merely’ clerical positions, which allowed those persons—again, mostly women—both to earn more and play a greater role in directing the future course of the benefits unit. …

   

  Our society still has a long way to go in treating each person as the unique person they are, and in awarding the highest pay to persons who deal with money, armaments, and war more than people who care for other creatures, human and otherwise.” — Greg C.

No Kings feedback:

• “You’re an idiot.” — Terry A.
• “[Kamala Harris] would have been a queen; no one chose her—they slipped her lying ass in! She cared about the American people as much as she cared about the guy she left on death row because she hid the evidence proving his innocence. TAKE ME OFF YOUR LIST BECAUSE WHAT I HAVE SEEN FROM DEMOCRATS IN THE LAST 16 YEARS I WILL DIE BEFORE I EVER SUPPORT ANOTHER ONE. Stop spreading lies and hate because you are simply pathetic with this crap! I hope you have the life you deserve!” — LalasStuff71

• “While I am no fan of Trump and his dragging us into another of Israel’s wars, I find the term ‘No Kings’ somewhat inaccurate. Trump was elected. If you remember when the Democratic primaries were held, the Democratic party mandated that all votes, no matter who they were for, would go to Biden. And then when Joe Biden was forced out as the candidate, Kamala Harris was installed without a single vote. Wouldn’t that be a more accurate description of a ‘king?’” — Jim H.

General feedback:

• “You are SUPERB in the way you answer questions designed to rile you: providing factual responses with radiating calm! Bravo, good woman, bravo! This is the ONLY way to respond to the far right (and those who have been roped into supporting them).” — Greg C.

• “Really appreciate the in-depth coverage of Iowa issues. How do you decide which local stories get the most attention?”— Jeremy W.

  (NOTE: Zachary and I are given specific topics by our editors—state politics for him, state labor and worker issues for me—but we also have general freedom to report what interests us, which can also be influenced by what our readers like you are interested in.)

• “I just wanted to say that I value your work highly and I hope you are compensated appropriately (but I doubt that is the case). I’m a 73-year-old Iowan living on Social Security and can’t contribute to you income. But I sure can refer Iowa Starting Line to those I correspond with.

  You write of issues that should get wider attention and more outrage than they do. With things as they are, my outrage factor—and my outrage fatigue factor—are off the charts, and I wish I could offer you more than encouragement. Thanks again for what you do.” — Bill O.

Which Senate candidate to support?

• “What do you know about the candidates on the Democratic side for the US Senate? I’ve been supporting both Josh [Turek] and Zach [Wahls], but there comes a time to fish or cut bait. …

  I tend to think I want to go with Zach because he is endorsed by Elizabeth Warren and not vote for Josh because he is more in the camp of the more conventional Democrats. …

  Recently, a person involved in Iowa Democratic politics said they were supporting Josh and I asked why, and the person said that Zach as President of the Iowa Senate Democrats caucus took some—what do you call it?—unilateral leadership, and on his own fired two of the caucus staff members, and then he was replaced. Of course, I don’t like people that just stubbornly do things on their own. But on the other hand, it may have been that Zach realizes there need to be changes.

  I am currently donating to both both Zach and Josh.” — Helen G., Ames (NOTE: I’ll let readers weigh in!)
  

Jeff Shipley:

• “I’ve had a couple of encounters with Shipley and this is totally who he is. Once about repro rights majority and once about our ‘dangerous’ libraries. When they tell you who they are, believe it.” — Patsy M.

What you’re reading:

• “Federal rural health funding could trigger service cuts” — Doug N. 

• “The Pork Oligarchs of Iowa Have Local Politicians in Their Pockets“— Greg C.

No Kings protests:

• “Iowa City’s No Kings march was crowded with lots of good signs and speeches.  People fill Iowa Avenue between Clinton and Dubuque streets.” — Marc W.

(Courtesy Marc Wold)

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