Kamala Harris has proposed increasing the corporate tax rate, expanding the child tax credit, and cutting taxes for more than 100 million working and middle class Americans. Donald Trump, meanwhile, said he wants to permanently extend tax breaks that primarily benefited the ultra-wealthy and corporations.
Political analysts are beginning to reflect what organizers on the ground have known for months. Two congressional races in Iowa are tight. Democratic challengers Christina Bohannan and Lanon Baccam have seen an updraft of volunteers and money as they take on incumbent Republicans Mariannette Miller-Meeks and Zach Nunn.
During election season, Republican Rep. Mariannette Miller-Meeks, representing Iowa’s First Congressional District, claims she’s the middle-of-the-road candidate when it comes to abortion policy.
But when she’s actually voting in office, Miller-Meeks has supported strict abortion bans for years. She has an A+ rating from a major nationwide anti-abortion group because of her work against abortion rights in Congress.
Just like he did in 2020, when he began attacking mail-in voting months before Election Day, Donald Trump appears to be laying the groundwork to once again challenge any election results he doesn’t like.
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.
