Zachary Oren Smith joins Iowa Starting Line. He'll lead our coverage of Iowa politics. He says he's excited to join our crusade against cynicism across the state.
During Tuesday’s vice presidential debate, Tim Walz highlighted the importance of building more affordable homes for families and holding accountable Wall Street investors who buy up housing and treat it as a commodity, while JD Vance continued to demonize undocumented immigrants and blame them for the nation’s housing shortage.
Heather Sievers wasn’t planning to run for office, but then Republicans in the Iowa Legislature ignored the pleas and experiences of thousands of Iowans and changed how Iowa’s Area Education Agencies are run. The agency helps many families with students with special needs.
Harris wants to expand the $35 monthly cap on insulin costs and a $2,000 annual cap on out-of-pocket drug costs so that they apply to all Americans, not just seniors on Medicare.
Harris has proposed capping families’ child care costs to 7% of their income and offering families of newborns up to $6,000 in the first year of the child's life. Trump, on the other hand, has focused on tariffs as a solution to the child care crisis, despite evidence showing they would only raise costs for families.
The Senate filibuster rule requires a 60-vote threshold for most legislation to pass, making it virtually impossible to pass abortion rights legislation due to Republican opposition. Without the filibuster, a law restoring Roe v. Wade could pass with a simple majority, or 51 Senate votes.
Kamala Harris has said that she will call on Congress to pass a federal ban on price gouging and give the federal government more authority to prevent consolidation in the food industry, if elected. Donald Trump, on the other hand, wants to impose tariffs and reduce food imports, a plan that would cause food prices to increase.
For Tiara Mays-Sims, the recent changes to public education in Iowa from the Republican-controlled legislature—especially with Area Education Agencies—are deeply personal. A mother of twins,...
When Matt Blake moved to Urbandale, he got involved in the community almost immediately and volunteered to help with the annual 4th of July parade. Within a few months, he’d been appointed the...
Harris has vowed to provide significant federal funding to support rural communities across the United States, expand small business financing for entrepreneurs in rural America, and invest in rural technical and higher education programs.
