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Senator Amy Klobuchar had a good week following her performance on Tuesday’s debate stage. She raised more than $1.5 million in just 36 hours — in comparison to the $4.8 million she raised all of the third quarter — and her team collected a record amount of commit to...
A diverse group of progressive candidates from across Iowa are seeking spots on city councils and school boards this year. At least one wants to make history. If 20-year-old Rachel Junck in Ames is elected, she will be the youngest woman elected to any office in Iowa....
Elizabeth Warren will return to Iowa later this weekend to a new raft of prominent endorsers, including former Lt. Governor Sally Pederson. Twenty-four leaders from across Iowa announced their support for Warren today, adding to her growing list of endorsements in the...
The third and final reading of the new, controversial Des Moines zoning code was approved Wednesday by the Des Moines City Council while a few focus surrounding a potential housing project surfaced Monday at a Council meeting. The code, which sparked debate over...
As we inch closer to the end of 2019, campaigns for the U.S. House and Senate are coming into focus. Since Starting Line last reported on fundraising numbers, more candidates were added to the races against Sen. Joni Ernst and Congressman Steve King, and for an open...
In the middle of the night, at a gas station in rural Iowa, an employee recognized a little-known presidential candidate approaching the cash register. "You're Bennet," the woman said. The "Bennet" she recognized was Michael Bennet, a U.S. senator from Colorado and...
Scroll through past Iowa Caucus result maps, and you'll often find a peculiar outlier in the southeast corner of the state. There lies Jefferson County, home to Fairfield, a small town once described by Oprah Winfrey as "America's most unusual town," well-known in...
Fifty-three years ago, I was a high school kid in southern Iowa who knew what I wanted to do with the rest of my life: I wanted to be a journalist. The first step on that journey occurred when I walked into the offices of the Bloomfield Democrat and introduced myself...
Guest piece from Des Moines School Board Member Dionna Langford. Students and families are under huge pressure today, in Des Moines and across the country. Wages are not keeping up with the costs of basic everyday needs — housing, childcare, health care,...
Bill Gerhard, President of the Iowa State Building and Construction Trades Council, announced his endorsement of Joe Biden for President today. “Born into a working class family in Scranton, Joe Biden will always stand with labor because at his core, he’s one of us,”...
While nearly all 2020 Democratic presidential candidates have released climate plans, and some frame their policies in the context of social equity, Elizabeth Warren today released a separate plan specifically about environmental justice. The Massachusetts Senator...
Republican Sen. Joni Ernst said Thursday she couldn’t link Iowa’s heavy, continued flooding this year with climate change. During a town hall in Carroll County, Ernst was asked by a voter to make the connection between the heavy spring rains and the record flooding...
While most candidates were consumed with end-of-quarter fundraising in September, U.S. Senate candidate Kimberly Graham volunteered her time to help a young asylum seeker prepare for his immigration hearing. Graham, a children's rights attorney from Indianola, spent...
Today, the Iowa district court for Polk County issued a ruling on a case challenging Iowa’s 2017 election law. The result was mixed when it comes to voting rights in Iowa. Most important, the part that requires voter ID was upheld. However, a few other provisions that...
Nearly a fifth of Iowan households do not make enough to live without public assistance, a new Iowa Policy Project report has found, due to factors like rising housing costs. According to the Cost of Living in Iowa report, released last Tuesday, family budget costs...
Pete Brownell, a former president of the National Rifle Association and an Iowa native, was implicated today in a damning 18-month investigation by Democrats on the Senate Finance Committee into how the gun rights group was used by Russia to influence the 2016...
Riding off of a strong performance at last weekend's Steak Fry in Des Moines, Beto O'Rourke is announcing a new round of Iowa endorsers today. Nine new caucus activists and elected officials are publicly throwing their support behind the former congressman. They...
It's been a consequential month for youth dedicated to tackling climate change. Before Swedish 16-year-old activist Greta Thunberg on Monday scolded the U.N. Climate Action Summit audience asking, "How dare you?", students across Iowa organized and promoted a number...
Newly-eligible Iowan voters who attended the Polk County Steak Fry are ready to be politically active and ready to demand their needs. Attendees aged 16 to 20 were abundant Saturday at Water Works Park and heard from 17 presidential candidates. While some young voters...
Elizabeth Warren in motion stays in motion. The senator hosted a town hall in front of nearly 2,000 on Thursday night at the largest stand-alone event the Democratic hopeful has had in Iowa this far, her campaign said. The event, held at the University of Iowa’s...
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,...
Protecting the right to vote in next year’s presidential election is key to maintaining American democracy, and already groups are recognizing that and mobilizing. Fair Fight 2020, founded by Stacey Abrams, who rose to national prominence during her 2018 run for...
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...
With the newly announced support of six former state legislators, Minnesota Sen. Amy Klobuchar brings her Iowa endorsement list total to 24 ahead of this weekend's Steak Fry. It follows one of her best polling showings in Iowa from this morning, where she was at fifth...
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...
As Cedar Rapids city councilman Dale Todd took a lap around his bustling district on a recent Friday afternoon, he paused before reaching a neighborhood tavern, Parlor City, which stands adjacent to the sprawling NewBo City Market. “This was where community members...
Montana Gov. Steve Bullock may not have been on the debate stage yesterday night, but he was at the next-best thing: a room filled with Iowa caucus-goers. "There’s probably only one place I’d rather be than Clive tonight," Bullock joked to the Iowans at his event at...
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...
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...
Pictured, from left to right: Matt Blake, Erin Cubit, Bridget Carberry Montgomery. They're young. They're progressive. And they're coming to a city council near you. Most municipal races aren't partisan in Iowa, but several younger Democrats will vie for municipal and...
