Videos
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WATCH: Iowa Republicans in lockstep
Who is responsible for Iowa Republicans being in lockstep?
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WATCH: What exactly is Trump suing the Des Moines Register for?
Legal historian and defamation law expert Samantha Barbas breaks down Miller-Meeks and Trump’s lawsuit against the Iowa Poll. Toss some bags with us.
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WATCH: Rural voters are key for Democratic wins
Blue Missouri’s Jess Piper tells the Cornhole Champions crew that winning the top of the ticket starts down ballot. And rural voters are key.
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Cornhole Champions #12: Forget grassroots, forget the top of the ticket (with Jess Piper)
You don’t win races you don’t run in. And because we’ve made getting involved such a slog, no one wants to run. On this episode of Cornhole Champions, hosts Zachary Oren Smith speaks with Blue Missouri’s Jess Piper about what happens when a party decides not to compete in our rural states. In 2022, over…
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Cornhole Champions #11: The Lutheran crime syndicate (with Samantha Barbas)
“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…
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WATCH: Rep. Miller-Meeks piles onto Trump’s suit against Register pollster
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.
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Cornhole Champions #10: Is education really our priority? (with Cindy Yelick)
In 2020, Rep. Mariannette Miller-Meeks won her seat by one of the closest margins in US history. This past year, she repeated, winning by less than point two percentage points. Leading Iowa political writer Laura Belin to say “there may be no luckier person in Iowa politics” than Miller-Meeks. But apparently getting lucky isn’t enough…
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Cornhole Champions #9: ‘How do I save my mom?’ (with Maria Gonzalez and Maria Acosta)
Maria Gonzalez was high school student when a neighbor called. US Immigration and Customs Enforcement was conducting a raid at the meat packer her mom worked at. The neighbor said her mom, an undocumented immigrant, got caught in the roundup. “It hit me. Oh my God. How do I protect my mom?’ “Gonzalez said. “I…
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Cornhole Champions #8: Best seats for billionaires (with J.D. Scholten, Zach Wahls & Austin Frerick)
It’s week one of the Trump presidency. If the fat reem of executive orders didn’t bother you, than the 11 trillion dollars dressed as people on the inauguration stage should. These are the people with the president’s ear and the rest of us can’t even get inside to watch the inauguration. On this episode of…
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Cornhole Champions #7: Gov. Reynolds’ 2025 Condition of the State
Once again, Reynolds has been mum about her priorities for the Legislature. The rough strokes of her plan finally got a public recounting Tuesday with the Condition of the State address. To a packed Iowa House floor and repeated standing ovations, Gov. Kim Reynolds rattled through childcare and energy, Medicaid regulations and cancer research. On…
























