2024 Elections
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Zachary Oren Smith joins Starting Line
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.
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Legislators came after her child’s specialized school, so Heather Sievers is running for office
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.
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Harris seeks to lower drug costs for Iowans, building on recent progress
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.
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Harris wants to cap child care costs and expand the child tax credit. Trump’s solution? Tariffs.
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…
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Kamala Harris wants to end the Senate filibuster to restore national abortion rights
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.
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Harris wants to lower grocery prices by taking on price gouging. Trump’s plan would increase prices.
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…
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Tiara Mays-Sims’ passion for public education spurred by her family
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, Mays-Sims noticed early-on that her son wasn’t meeting developmental milestones, so she moved to a town and school district where she knew he could get the help he needed. The…
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Driven by public service, Matt Blake aims for education, reproductive rights reset in Iowa Senate race
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 leader of the organization. A few years later, he was inspired to run for Urbandale City Council. “I’m a big believer that…
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Kamala Harris unveils plan to support rural America
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.
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Election officials prepare for threats with panic buttons, bulletproof glass
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.
