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The Iowa endorsements continue to roll in for Pete Buttigieg ahead of tomorrow's big Steak Fry event in Des Moines. Twelve more Iowa activists and elected officials are publicly backing the South Bend mayor, including several leaders in women's rights organizations,...
Democrats' latest entrant in the race to unseat Republican U.S. Sen. Joni Ernst today rolled out his first list of Iowa endorsements. Michael Franken, a retired Navy admiral from Northwest Iowa, spent the bulk of his military career traveling the world and anchored in...
Iowa Sen. Joni Ernst has taken heat in recent weeks for her comments on Social Security reform, suggesting lawmakers need to hash out a fix to the retirement system in private in order to avoid public scrutiny for changing the popular program. Her latest remarks are...
Tom Steyer has a message for Iowa farmers: Donald Trump screwed you. That's how his new TV ad in the lead-off caucus state opens, with a clip from Sen. Chuck Grassley on Iowa Press saying, "They screwed us." The quip from Iowa's senior senator in August was in...
Iowa Sen. Joni Ernst last made the headlines of the gun control debate in August when she was confronted in Johnston by a teacher distraught over active shooter drills practiced in the wake of mass shootings in Texas and Ohio. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell...
Just a few years ago, Jefferson, Iowa was like most other rural communities: aging, declining in population, struggling to attract workers. Young people were moving away to start their careers. Even nine months ago, there were no technical training programs in the...
While there are strong protections for religious freedom in America, arguments about how religious freedom mixes with legislation has been a contentious topic for as long as the country has existed. When candidates make it to office, striking a balance between the two...
Elizabeth Warren's campaign is rolling out their first big batch of endorsers following last night's Democratic debate. Fifteen well-known Iowa activists are publicly throwing their support behind Warren for the Iowa Caucus, hailing from cities and small towns alike....
It may be getting crowded in the Iowa Starting Line office these days, but we are very excited to share with you our second major expansion of the year. With these new additions, Starting Line now has more full-time political reporters than any other news outlet in...
Iowans gathered at debate watch parties throughout the state to watch the ten leading Democratic candidates square off at the latest debate. As always, your Starting Line team was out at many debate watch parties across Central Iowa, from a Drake University gathering...
Iowa Sen. Joni Ernst's idea to make changes to Social Security haunted her first election campaign in 2014. In 2020, the issue has come back to challenge her re-election bid. In 2014, then-candidate Ernst considered using Social Security payroll taxes to create...
Shortly after Donald Trump's inauguration in January 2017, the Iowa Capitol grounds filled with a sea of women newly engaged in politics, ready to take action at the state's first Women's March. But could they keep that enthusiasm up all the way through the election,...
Cost-burdened Iowans who rent housing may see tax benefits if certain Democratic hopefuls make it to the White House in 2020. Nearly a third of Iowans rent their homes, of which 40% are "cost-burdened" — paying more than 30% of their income on rent, experts say. Among...
Presidential candidates currently command the spotlight in Iowa politics, but this summer also proved interesting for politicians eyeing the Statehouse. Since Republicans took control of the Iowa House, Senate and governorship in the 2016 election, Democrats have been...
A new Des Moines zoning code was pushed forward by the city council despite pleas by local developers and housing advocates to make the changes more flexible for lower-cost building. Council chambers overflowed Monday evening as its members unanimously approved the...
Michael Franken, a retired Navy admiral, Monday morning rolled out a list of staff and advisers for his bid for the U.S. Senate. Franken, originally of Sioux Center, in Northwest Iowa, is one of four Democrats challenging Republican Sen. Joni Ernst in 2020. This is...
Photo: Julian Castro touring a trailer park in Waukee where rents spiked with local activists in June. Affordable housing as a political issue is taking the stage nationally during the 2020 Democratic presidential primary in a way it never has before. Experts say this...
Joe Biden is ramping up his Iowa ground game as the caucus race enters the final months and as his top Democratic opponents narrow the gap in the polls. The Biden campaign plans to have about 110 total staff in Iowa by the end of September, over 80 of which will be on...
Bullying doesn’t look like kids being shoved into lockers or calling each other names anymore, and intervention isn’t about just about standing up to bullies in the hallway. Iowa Safe Schools knows that. Organizers there also know that children who identify as LGBTQ,...
A featured guest at one of Elizabeth Warren's very first campaign events in Iowa is now endorsing the senator in the Iowa Caucus. Amber Gustafson, the former Iowa chapter leader of Moms Demand Action, made her choice public today. "Elizabeth Warren doesn’t just talk...
Much like Jay Inslee became the preeminent voice in the Democratic Party on climate change, Michael Bennet of Colorado has presented himself as the leading expert on public education. He spent yesterday in Iowa at a series of education-related roundtables and policy...
Tax March Iowa and its supporters protested Senator Joni Ernst and the 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act in front of the Neal Smith Federal Building in Des Moines at noon Thursday. Before the protest, Tax March Iowa Director Sue Dinsdale edited a letter Ernst had sent her...
This year’s Iowa State Fair received spotlight attention from coast to coast, thanks in large measure to the presence of just about everyone with an itch to be the next United States president. The Iowa Tourism Office could never afford all of the glowing imagery of...
Letter to the editor from Eliseo Flores of Des Moines, a recent graduate from Grandview University and summer intern for Julián Castro. Photo of Flores and his grandmother. "There is no substitute for hard work." I remember these words ringing in my head throughout my...
Former state Rep. Phil Miller launched his candidacy Wednesday morning for a second chance to represent southeast Iowa's House District 82. Miller, a veterinarian and small business owner from Fairfield, was ousted in 2018 after serving less than a full term. In a...
Abby Finkenauer took her public service career to Washington, D.C., with her election to Congress in 2018, but she hasn't forgotten her roots in the Iowa Legislature. Her second term in the Iowa House saw the 2017 and 2018 legislation sessions entirely guided by a...
The Polk County Board of Supervisors voted Tuesday morning to designate the month of September as "Labor Union Appreciation Month." "Whereas, hard working men and women across the state of Iowa prove that our community is filled with the most creative, dynamic, and...
A union family helped propel Minnesota senator and 2020 Democratic presidential candidate Amy Klobuchar from the Minneapolis suburb of Plymouth, Minnesota, to Yale University and Chicago Law School. Union members helped make her the Hennepin County Attorney and a...
"Frustration" was the word Congresswoman Abby Finkenauer often used to describe the mood of her agricultural constituents during a trip throughout her district last week. On Wednesday, Finkenauer met with multiple groups of concerned farmers, manufacturers and ethanol...
Workers will be able to join a union if the want to under 2020 Democratic Presidential Candidate Beto O’Rourke’s six-point labor plan that he recently released while in Iowa. According to O’Rourke’s 21st Century Labor Contract that he will enact between workers,...
