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With college students home from school and a primary election around the corner, Iowa State University student Grace Johnson is working with Students Demand Action to register voters and encourage support for candidates that favor "common sense gun laws." "The Iowa...
With a weighty stack of papers in hand, baring the names of 45,000 people, Lilly Steil visited Sen. Joni Ernst's Des Moines office to tell her why she supported the reauthorization of the Violence Against Women Act. The pile of signatures was so large they made an...
A major piece of legislation remains unresolved as U.S. lawmakers prepare for the second session of the 116th Congress, in large part due to Iowa Sen. Joni Ernst. The Violence Against Women Act has lapsed and must be re-authorized in order to keep funds flowing to...
Three Democrats participated Tuesday in the first multi-candidate event of Iowa's U.S. Senate race, introducing themselves to Siouxland voters. Siouxland Progressive Women hosted the forum in Sioux City with Eddie Mauro, a businessman and former educator from Des...
The Working Families Party is endorsing Cathy Glasson in her bid for Iowa governor today, adding to Glasson's coalition of national progressive organizations to help her close strong in the primary. They hope that will serve as one more sign to Democrats' left-leaning...
With just 18 days left until the June 5 primary, there's more developments from the campaign trail every day than we have to time to write about. Like our story last Friday, here's our end-of-week roundup piece for all the campaign news we didn't do full stories on....
Two separate polls have been going around the 3rd District in the past few weeks. Both appear to be your standard message-testing polls, in which campaigns gauge various messages for their candidate and others to see which might be the most convincing. They usually...
On the day I am writing this there is 203 days to go before the fall elections. On that day Iowans will pick a new governor, determine which party is in control of both the House and Senate in Iowa, participate in determining what the Congress will look like and elect...
At 4:15 am on Friday, March 23, my wife and I drove over and picked up my granddaughter Zoe, 22, and got her to the Des Moines airport for a 6:00 am direct flight to Washington DC to attend the March For Our Lives scheduled for that day. She was accompanied by her...
Today’s special congressional election in Pennsylvania is incredibly important to both Democrats and Republicans. It gives Democrats another early test of their future success in the 2018 midterms. This congressional district’s voters chose Trump by 20 points in 2016,...
The nation is coming to terms today with yet another horrific mass shooting at a school, this time in Parkland, Florida. Will anything substantive on gun laws change now that we've had our 18th mass shooting in just the first month and a half of 2018? As long as Iowa...
“There will be time for that later,” Governor Kim Reynolds said yesterday when asked if Iowa will pursue any new gun control legislation in the aftermath of the worst mass shooting in American history. She was lying. There will never be a real discussion about...
Part one in a six-part series looking at the female Democratic candidates running for legislative office in Polk County Maridith Morris is on a mission to save the world. At least that is what you feel when you listen to her discuss the issues that affect everyday...
For well over a decade Democratic politicians have been hesitant to take on the NRA, burned too many times by electoral losses in swing districts and states caused in part by the gun rights organization's influence among rural white voters. But after years of non-stop...
If the stresses of dealing with tightening polling numbers, Joe Biden's potential run, the looming Benghazi hearings or the never-ending email server story was starting to get to Hillary Clinton, you wouldn't know it from her demeanor on her trips through Eastern Iowa...
Looking to nab some deer or ducks to stock your meat freezer this year? Here are the 2025 hunting seasons in Iowa, divided by animal for ease of use.
My dad raised us to work hard and do good for our families, but he was also going to make damn sure we didn’t step on anyone else along the way.
“I absolutely do not think that Lutheran Services (of Iowa) is a money laundering organization.”
Gov. Kim Reynolds took some heat last week after getting asked if she agreed with billionaire Elon Musk that Lutheran Family Services and its member organizations were laundering money. In a press conference, she blamed it on being taken out of context.
It took Raygun all of 24 hours to get this on up.
On this episode of Cornhole Champions, hosts Zachary Oren Smith and Amie Rivers play back the tape. Also here about a glowing profile in the Des Moines Register of Speaker of the House Pat Grassley. As well as a rally held against a bill that would limit lawsuits over pesticide-related illness.
Finally, many listeners had followup questions about last week’s discussion of Trump’s lawsuit against the Iowa Poll. We get some real insight from a national expert in defamation.
Links:
1. Lutherans decry Reynolds’ ‘failure to defend’ Lutheran Services of Iowa (Iowa Starting Line): https://iowastartingline.com/2025/02/07/lutherans-decry-reynolds/
2. How Pat Grassley keeps the Iowa House’s sprawling GOP majority united. It’s not always easy (Des Moines Register): https://www.desmoinesregister.com/story/news/politics/2025/02/10/pat-grassley-iowa-house-gop-majority-has-grown-heres-how/77493945007/
3. Iowa senators advance Bayer bill to limit lawsuits over pesticide-related illness (Iowa Public Radio): https://www.iowapublicradio.org/state-government-news/2025-02-06/iowa-senators-advance-bayer-bill-limit-cancer-pesticide-roundup-lawsuits
Guest:
Samantha Barbas is a legal historian and the author of Actual Malice: Civil Rights and Freedom of the Press in New York Times v. Sullivan. She is a professor of law and the Aliber Family Chair in Law at the University of Iowa College of Law.
In 2024, Republican Rep. Mariannette Miller-Meeks encored her razor-thin margin from 2020. Despite winning, she’s calling foul and blaming a poll that didn’t mention her name. No one is more aware of her elections’ tight margins than US Rep. Mariannette Miller-Meeks....
Incumbent Rep. Eddie Andrews, a Republican from Johnston, will return to the Iowa House of Representatives in January.
Here’s who RFK’s “health and wellness” political campaign is trying to reach, and why.
Brad Zaun has been in office for decades, but while his district has moved to the center and the left, Zan has become one of Iowa’s most far-right representatives
Tim Walz returned to his home state, and a district which could help decide the 2024 election. Voters welcomed him with open arms. Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, the Democratic nominee for vice president, spent one of the last Saturdays of the 2024 presidential campaign...
While many people throughout Iowa State Rep. Eddie Andrews’ suburban district say they’ve heard the legislator present himself as more of a moderate Republican, his voting record tells a different story.
Across the country, local election directors are beefing up their security in advance of Election Day on Nov. 5 to keep their workers and polling places safe while also ensuring that ballots and voting procedures won’t be tampered with.
As governor of Minnesota, Walz has made school lunches free for all students, created a paid family and medical leave program, increased public school funding, legalized recreational marijuana, and made abortion a fundamental right under state law.
During her first speech as the Democratic Party’s presumptive presidential nominee, Kamala Harris said she’d fight to make child care more affordable, pass paid family leave, and restore reproductive freedom.
From her time as a prosecutor to her term as vice president, Harris has been a strong advocate for reproductive rights and gun safety laws, pursued justice for victims of crime, and has sought to push back on growing right-wing extremism.
During her time as vice president, Harris has helped pass laws that lowered healthcare costs, invested in childcare and housing, and advanced efforts to fight climate change.
The US Supreme Court has, shall we say, made news this year. Here’s an approachable explainer to some of their top rulings of the term, and how they impact clean air, workplace safety, health insurance, and the general quality of life for all Americans.
