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We kicked off the post-election episode still running on fumes after a night that felt like a blue tsunami nationally and a mini one in Iowa. Laura said she knew something big was happening when Polk County came in with a 75,000-vote margin for Rob Sand, far past her expectations. Eric pinned part of the blame on Joni Ernst’s vote for Pete Hegseth and the affordability fallout from the war in Iran, while Laura wondered how many Republicans crossed over and how much ten years of a GOP trifecta wore on voters. We also talked through Iowa’s new all-freshman congressional delegation, what divided government could mean for Rob Sand and Chris McGowan, and the tax-limiting constitutional amendment that could squeeze Sand’s budget before 2030. We closed with Chuck Grassley’s insistence that he isn’t retiring, plus a little Grassley biography trivia from Eric. We’re taking next week off and expect to be back the weekend of the 20th and 21st. Thanks for sticking with us through this long campaign. If you are able to contribute financially you can click on the button above, or click on the button below for a one-time donation of any amount. We really appreciate it! Auto-generated transcript below: Kathie Obradovich: Hello, and welcome to the Iowa Down Ballot podcast. I’m Kathie Obradovich, here with Laura Belin and Eric Woolson, and we are all well-rested, bright-eyed, and bushy-tailed after Tuesday’s election, right? Everybody got caught up on sleep? Laura Belin: Absolutely. Kathie: More or less, right? Eric Woolson: To say that I am running on fumes would be an understatement, Kathie. Laura: Yeah, it usually gets me a couple days later. You have the adrenaline of doing all the mop-up work the day after the election on three hours of sleep, so it pushes the collapse later in the week. Kathie: We’ve been building up to this all year. Super interesting election night. A blue tsunami throughout the country, maybe a mini tsunami in Iowa. I don’t know how you want to describe it. Laura, why don’t you take us through the top headline as far as you’re concerned? The Polk County moment Laura: The top headline, of course, is Rob Sand and Josh Turek winning. But the moment I realized this really was going to be some kind of a wave was when the Polk County results came in on Tuesday night. Polk County is usually one of the first to report. I had looked at the results from 2018, and I knew Cindy Axne came out of Polk County with a margin of about 33,000. Fred Hubbell had about 38,000, which wasn’t enough for Hubbell, but it was enough for Axne. So I had in my mind that Rob Sand would be looking for a margin of maybe 50,000. Then Polk County reported, and his margin was in the range of 75,000. Sarah Trone Garriott’s margin in the congressional race was around 46,000, and I thought immediately that Zach Nunn would never be able to make up that difference in the rest of the district. As it turned out, he didn’t even win Dallas County. That was so far beyond anything I expected. And Nate Willems, the attorney general candidate, had a margin of over 50,000 votes. That’s when I started thinking he had a real shot at beating Brenna Bird. Kathie: Which he did. Laura: Yeah. Kathie: If you look down the ballot, Democrats did better in Iowa than most of us expected. What do you think, Eric? Whose fault was it? Eric: I take a bigger-picture look at it. There’s the old saying, I think from Stanisław Lec, that no snowflake in an avalanche ever feels responsible. Losing candidates often blame something else, and there’s always something they did. But I have a different take. Not only was this a referendum on Donald Trump, who said “pretend I’m on the ballot,” and voters did, hence the blue tsunami. I also blame Joni Ernst, frankly, not just for Hinson’s loss or the congressional district loss in Iowa, but for losses nationally. People ask why. Affordability was the issue. Gas, diesel, and fertilizer prices were up because of the war in Iran. It was Pete Hegseth who talked Trump into going to war in Iran and how easy it would be to defeat Iran, and Joni Ernst was the deciding vote for Pete Hegseth. She could have stopped him, and she didn’t. A lot of Iowa Republicans probably aren’t going to like this perspective, but I lay a lot of this defeat nationwide at her feet. Kathie: That’s really interesting. In Iowa, having that vacancy at the top of the ticket, along with Kim Reynolds, I think made a lot of this possible. I’ve been saying for months that this is a generational opportunity for change for Democrats because of those vacancies. We know how Iowans love to reelect their incumbents. Hence Chuck Grassley still in office, and our former governor, Terry Branstad, being the longest-serving governor in the history of the country. Incumbency has a really heavy sway in Iowa. Those two seats at the top of the ticket cascaded down, with the openings in the congressional districts, and so on. So you add that national blue tsunami to those openings in Iowa, and Joni Ernst, of course, was part of that. Laura: I would argue that Ashley Hinson was in some ways a tougher candidate for Democrats to face than Joni Ernst. In retrospect, when Kim Reynolds announced she wasn’t running for re-election, I wrote a post called “A Great Day for Rob Sand,” because I thought he clearly had a much better chance in an open race than against Kim Reynolds. But looking at what happened around the country, especially Greg Abbott losing in Texas, I think even if Kim Reynolds had run for another term, she might have lost. And I wonder how much voter fatigue with ten years of Republican trifecta in Iowa affected the outcome. When the turnout reports come out, I’m going to be curious to see whether Republican turnout was down significantly, or whether it was high and a lot of Republicans voted for some Democrats this year. Rob Sand couldn’t come out of Polk County with a margin of 75,000 unless quite a lot of Republicans voted for him. Kathie: Did you all read J.D. Vance’s social media post yesterday? The vice president said he was talking to pollsters, saying “our people are going to get out to vote,” and the pollster told him, “Yeah, but they’re not going to vote for you. They’re mad at you.” So at least nationally, I think the feeling was that MAGA Republicans did go out and vote, but they didn’t vote for Republicans. Eric: To build off your comments on the down-ballot races, Kathie, and Laura’s thoughts too: I look at Dallas County and the county Republican officials who lost. I think voters went into the polls and voted against every single Republican on the ballot in some cases. A lot of the voters I saw here in Dallas County, I wondered if they had even voted before. As we talked about before, when you’re mad, you vote. I think a lot of voters came in mad, and I frankly think many probably didn’t know any of the county officials at all. They were voting against, not voting for. This wasn’t an election for the Democrats. It was an election against the Republicans. Laura: Democrats won four out of five county supervisor seats in Dallas County, and the fifth one they didn’t win was uncontested. That was not on anybody’s radar, I don’t think. Turnout Kathie: Speaking of turnout, we’re recording this on Friday morning, by the way. Secretary of State Paul Pate held a news conference on Thursday saying this midterm turnout set a record. Numerically, it was a record: the most voters ever turned out. Percentage-wise, it wasn’t quite what 2018 was. So more people generally turned out than in 2018, but the percentage of the electorate was higher in 2018. I don’t know what to make of that, except that any time you set a record in a midterm, it says people were engaged, and certainly we could see that talking to people all year long. Iowa’s new congressional delegation Kathie: Let’s talk about the congressional races. We now have three Democrats and one Republican representing Iowa in Congress. Iowa will have three members in the majority, because the… Get full access to Iowa Down Ballot at iowawriterscollaborative.substack.com/subscribe

Happy Halloween! We started with President Trump’s shifting Sunday schedule. After canceling in favor of a tele-rally, he’s apparently coming to Iowa in person after all, though the location is still unclear. We agreed Dubuque makes the most sense given the toss-up race in the Second District between Joe Mitchell and Lindsey James, and that Zach Nunn probably doesn’t want him anywhere near Des Moines. We also covered the week’s debates. Nunn and Sarah Trone Garriott both got their messages out in the only televised Third District debate. The third governor’s debate between Rob Sand and Zach Lahn was less fiery than the first, and we still want to hear more from Sand on the constitutional amendment and no-bid contracts. On closing arguments, we got into the dueling bird ads in the attorney general’s race, where Brenna Bird and Nate Willems are now rated a toss-up. The Secretary of State’s race got the same rating. Laura pointed to the CO2 pipeline as a problem for Bird in rural Iowa. On turnout, early voting is surging, with Democrats leading, but the big question mark is Republican turnout. We’ll be watching Polk County’s margin, Sioux County, and the Mississippi River counties of Des Moines, Muscatine, and Clinton. Laura expects the governor’s race to land within five points, with Democrats flipping at least two congressional seats. Eric wisely declined to predict, and we wouldn’t be surprised by record midterm turnout. Please turn your ballot over to vote on the constitutional amendment and the judges. If you still have a mail ballot, hand deliver it to your county auditor by 8 p.m. Tuesday. Thanks for going along the ride to the midterms, we’ll be back next week to dissect the results. If you’d like to become a free or paid subscriber please click the button above. Make a one-time donation of any amount by clicking the button below. Be safe this weekend, and VOTE! Auto-generated transcript below: Kathie: Hello, and thanks for joining us on the Iowa Down Ballot podcast. I’m Kathie Obradovich, your underpaid and overqualified host. No, I think it’s probably the other way around, overpaid and underqualified host again this week while our handsome and charming leader, Dave Price, is on assignment. With me is Laura Belin of Bleeding Heartland and longtime political consultant, advisor, and equally charming and handsome, Eric Woolson. Laura: Hello, friends. Eric: Great to be here. Laura: Good to see you. Kathie: Last show before Election Day, can you believe it? We’re going to give you the lay of the land as we know it from our perch here on Friday morning, with the proviso that things can move and change pretty quickly before the ballots are counted. And speaking of things moving quickly, President Donald Trump was scheduled to be in Iowa on Sunday, and then he canceled last night and said they were going to do a tele-rally instead. Now, as of this morning, we are hearing the latest that he is still going to appear in person in Kansas and in Iowa on Sunday. We don’t know yet what the location is going to be, whether the time is different, etc. Laura, what do you think is going on here? Laura: I don’t know. I mean, his travel schedule has been really intense. I would find it challenging to keep up that schedule. And what they said yesterday was that he was so in demand that they could reach more people doing these tele-rallies. But I’m not sure what’s going on. I don’t know if the polling has them concerned. He was supposed to be in Dubuque, which could potentially help Joe Mitchell, or maybe in Northeast Iowa. But now it sounds like we don’t know where he’s going to be. And I think if he comes to Central Iowa, that’s not necessarily going to be helpful for the Republican candidates. Kathie: Yeah, they’re talking about potentially back-to-back Kansas and Iowa rallies. He was supposed to be in Kansas on Saturday and then come to Iowa on Sunday. And it sounds to me like these schedules are still being nailed down. Eric, you worked on a lot of campaigns. How big of a headache is this for candidates who are trying to set their final schedules to get out around the state? Eric: Great question. Logistically, an amazing amount of work goes into moving any candidate around, but a president especially is super difficult. The Secret Service, probably at this point, is trying to figure out where they’re going to go and what security they need to do. I’m surprised they’re not going back to Dubuque, frankly. As far as reasons, it might be that they’ve decided they don’t need to do some of these tele-town hall rallies in other states. Might be they’ve decided those aren’t going to be helpful. Could be that they’ve decided he needs to be here in Iowa and he needs to be here in Kansas. They may be looking at some numbers that say it’s more important for him to be here after all. As you said, things change so much in the last 72 hours of a campaign. Hard to really know. Or, Trump being Trump, it could just be that he wants a live audience. He may have changed his mind and said, “Gosh, I’m going to override the staff and I’m going to go out and do my usual routine in front of an adoring audience.” So there could be a number of reasons. But again, back to your original point, it’s going to be a lot of work for a lot of campaign people over the next 24 hours or so, and been there, done that, wish them luck. Kathie: Yeah, when you talk about moving people around, it’s a hassle for me to tell a reporter, “Okay, you’re going to Dubuque on Sunday. Wait, no, no, now you’re not going to Dubuque. Let’s go here instead. Oh, wait. Now we’ve got a Sunday and we don’t know when it is, we don’t know where it is. It could be in Dubuque, we don’t know.” So that is going to be an interesting thing. Plus, all the other campaigns plan their messaging. The Democrats plan their messaging to counter what’s going on with Trump, if he’s going to be here. So there’s a lot of logistics that have to change. But Eric, Trump was just here. He was in Sioux City last week. Do we think his appearance moved the needle in any way? Did he help Republican voter turnout? Is there any way to know that? Eric: Yeah, I have to assume, not necessarily from empirical evidence but anecdotally, that it helps Northwest Iowa, obviously. Only 25% of the vote, or 25% of the population, as we’ve talked about before, but a heavy, heavy Republican area. And not just Sioux City. It really affected that Nebraska market, too, where there’s a thought that maybe that congressional district, Don Bacon’s district, is going to go Democratic, and that the Senate candidate, Ricketts, needs some help. So Sioux City was helpful for turnout, both in Nebraska and in Iowa. Dubuque is a long way away from Sioux City, as both of you know from covering both. A lot of driving involved there. So it’s a long reach, and I think it makes sense for him to be over in that Second District, where, frankly, there have been some rumblings that it’s obviously going to be a close race, a toss-up race, and the question is who’s going to win that one. Kathie: Yeah, our D.C. bureau reported yesterday that the Second District race between Joe Mitchell and Lindsey James, who represents Dubuque in the statehouse, is one of the 16 toss-up races in the country. We’ve got three competitive congressional races in Iowa, two of which are now rated as lean Democrat. So that does make Dubuque a kind of pivotal spot if the president is going to come to Iowa. Logistically it might make sense for them to go back to Dubuque, but it seems to me there’s some political advantage to that as well. Laura, there was also some question about whether the president would come to Des Moines. Would that be helpful for Zach Nunn, do you think? Laura: Boy, if I’m Zach Nunn, I do not want him in Des Moines. I mean, he was already in the Des Moines area. He did a rally in Clive. The vice president was here in the Des Moines suburbs in May. And I just don’t think that would be helpful for Zach Nunn. His messa… Get full access to Iowa Down Ballot at iowawriterscollaborative.substack.com/subscribe

Please help spread the word about this podcast by sharing it with your friends on social media. Kathie and Laura welcomed back conservative blogger and commentator Shane Vander Hart. We opened by sending our best wishes to First Gentleman Kevin Reynolds as he recovers from surgery. We then turned to President Trump’s Sioux City rally and his return trip to Dubuque on November 1st. We debated whether big rallies actually drive turnout, how awkward his off-message remarks were for Ashley Hinson, and what the Dubuque stop means for the Second District race between Joe Mitchell and Lindsey James. We also talked about why forecasters now see that race as a toss-up. From there, we broke down this week’s First District debate between Mariannette Miller-Meeks and Christina Bohannon, including the case for including independent Michael Bridgford and the steel mill claim that went unchallenged. We wrapped up with record-setting governor’s race fundraising, a look at Rob Sand’s and Zach Lahn’s money, the radio ad gap, and early voting. Long lines are showing up in Polk and Dallas counties, so plan ahead. We appreciate all of our subscribers. If you value our work enough, please become a paid subscriber by clicking the button above. To make a one-time donation of any amount the button below is the one for you. Thanks! Auto-generated transcript below: Kathie: Hello, and welcome to the Iowa Down Ballot podcast. We’re recording on Saturday morning this week, and our guests are Shane Vander Hart, a longtime conservative blogger and commentator, and Laura Belin, publisher of Bleeding Heartland and a longtime Iowa reporter and commentator. Glad you both could be here. I’m Kathie Obradovich. I still sound like Lauren Bacall after three weeks of having the crud, but we’ll get through this. Dave Price, our regular host, continues to be on assignment, and we hope to see him back. First, on behalf of the group, I want to send our best wishes to First Gentleman Kevin Reynolds. It was announced that he has had a recurrence of his cancer and is recovering from surgery to remove a brain tumor. We want to extend our best wishes for a speedy recovery. Does either of you want to add anything? Shane: It’s unfortunate to hear. I’ve definitely been praying for him and his family. Cancer sucks, and I hate hearing that. Laura: It’s terrible. The governor’s statement on Monday said he’s going to begin radiation therapy. She said they’ve been married 44 years and have faced a lot of ups and downs, and that they appreciate the strength and support of others and the prayers being sent. Kathie: That’s so important. I’m glad Governor Reynolds will have more time to focus on that, as well as on caring for her own elderly parents. Keep the thoughts and prayers coming for the family. Trump’s Iowa visits Kathie: On to politics. We’re now inside two weeks until Election Day, believe it or not. Trump was in Sioux City this week for an evening rally, and he’ll be back November 1st, two days before the election, in Dubuque on the opposite side of the state. None of us were surprised he went to the Fourth District first. Turnout there is super important to the statewide candidates, who need to run up the score and get every Republican out to vote. Shane, did Trump succeed in that mission? Shane: It’s hard to say. I think the people in the Fourth District who are motivated to vote are going to vote. I don’t think the president coming does much for turnout. I think it’s more of an ego stroke for him: “Look at this big rally I’ve got going.” That’s nice, but how many of those people even live in the district? Laura: I’ve never been impressed by big rallies. I don’t think they do much to drive turnout, frankly. Kathie: Laura, the president’s remarks were similar to what he’s been saying around the country, and he’s been going to a lot more red states than swing states. Iowa has the U.S. Senate race, and now you could argue three of the four congressional races are toss-ups or leaning Democratic, so it’s much more contested than many places he’s visited. But the remarks that differed from what he says elsewhere were about races in Minnesota and Ohio. What did you make of that? Laura: First, I think his late rallies here in 2018 and 2022 were genuinely helpful to Republicans. I’m not sure it will be as helpful this year, because by all the polling evidence his popularity is much lower now, even in those red areas. I was struck by how much time he spent. He spoke well over an hour, and a lot of it was a long diatribe about Ilhan Omar in Minnesota and about Vivek Ramaswamy in Ohio. I thought that was particularly awkward for Ashley Hinson. Earlier in the day she had told a reporter that the ad Ramaswamy’s campaign is running in Ohio, the one featuring Democratic candidate Amy Acton’s mother, was ridiculous and should come down. Then Trump went on and on about what a great ad it was, and said Vivek called him and asked what to do, and he told him to keep running it. So it wasn’t really on message, though he did circle back to his usual comments about “radical left lunatics.” All the messages we’re hearing, not just from Trump but in most Republican ads, are focused on mobilizing the base. They aren’t persuasion messages for swing voters, at least not that I perceive. Kathie: We were speculating last week about whether this is good or bad for Ashley Hinson, who has been trying to distance herself from the Trump campaign on policy. She’s said the Iran war should end, even though she voted for all the war resolutions. She distanced herself on the Amy Acton ad, which has drawn bipartisan censure. She’s also said she would tell the president not to make the deal with Russia on buying diesel fuel. But she got up and spoke at the rally. Does this help her? Go ahead, Shane. Shane: Anytime she gets to talk to voters it helps her, and she gets national coverage. She just needs to keep bringing up where she differs with the Trump campaign. That’s the only thing that will really resonate with independents who are sitting on the fence. It’s also hard for a Senate candidate not to show up when the president visits. I’d like to think people understand that when you’re the same party, you’re going to attend that rally. You just kind of have to. I don’t think his comments were helpful, but Trump getting off message is hardly shocking. I don’t know why he came to Iowa to talk about Ohio and Minnesota. But I thought it was interesting that he talked about E15 and diesel exports, things that would affect our agricultural economy, whether or not they’re effective in the short term. You’re not going to get a policy-rich speech out of Donald Trump. That’s just not going to happen. Laura: What Hinson got out of the rally was Trump repeatedly saying it’s important to elect Ashley Hinson. She has some unique problems in Northwest Iowa, because a lot of people are still upset about the proposed carbon dioxide pipeline. She hasn’t spoken out in support of landowners trying to protect their land from eminent domain, and she’s taken campaign contributions from Bruce Rastetter and others who support the pipeline. There’s also a Libertarian, Thomas Lane, on the Senate ballot. So it’s very important for her to rack up big numbers in Northwest Iowa and not lose them to the Libertarian. A lot of conservatives who care about private property rights might not vote for a Democrat like Josh Turek, but they might vote for a Libertarian. So on balance, it was probably helpful for her to have Trump there. But some of what he said is going to get awkward, and I assume reporters will follow up with her on things like his comments about the Ramaswamy ad. Dubuque and the Second District Kathie: Now he’s coming back to the opposite side of the state, Dubuque, which is in the district Hinson has represented in Congress, where she’s arguably best known. The Second District race is also in play, with Joe Mitchell running against Lindsey James, who is from Dubuque. What do you m… Get full access to Iowa Down Ballot at iowawriterscollaborative.substack.com/subscribe

With less than three weeks until Election Day and early voting already underway, we dug into a busy debate week. We started with President Trump’s two planned Iowa visits, Sioux City on October 22nd and again on November 1st, and why the 4th District matters for turnout. We also talked about the risks for Ashley Hinson of sharing a stage with him. Then we broke down the second governor’s debate between Rob Sand and Zach Lane, the Hinson and Josh Turek Senate debate, and the 4th District matchup. We covered the fight over Turek’s missed votes, Hinson’s explanation of her family’s stock holdings, and Turek’s immigration tightrope. We closed with a look at the newly scheduled 3rd District debate between Zach Nunn and Sarah Trone Garriott on October 27th on KCCI, and why late debates may be less risky than they seem. Thanks to you all for helping support us whether it’s subscribing, liking, sharing, it all helps us grow! You can become a paid subscriber by clicking the button above, or make a one-time donation of any amount by clicking the button below. Auto-generated transcript below: Kathie: Hello, and thanks for joining us on the Iowa Down Ballot podcast. I’m Kathie Obradovich, your temporary host again this week while our stalwart leader, Dave Price, is on assignment. Thanks to those of you who reached out after my TB-worthy performance on last week’s show. Rest assured, I’m still alive, if not entirely well, but maybe I can get through this week without hacking up a lung. With me to help are Laura Belin of Bleeding Heartland and longtime political consultant, advisor and man about town, Eric Woolson. Eric: Great to be here. Laura: Good to be here with you. Trump returns to Iowa Kathie: It’s now less than three weeks before Election Day. We’re recording on Friday afternoon, and Iowans are already voting. One development this week is the announcement that President Trump is coming back to Iowa, not once but twice before the election. The first visit is next week, October 22nd, in Sioux City, and then he’ll be back on November 1st. Eric, Sioux City is in the 4th District, which is already red. Why go there? Eric: Obviously, Chris McGowan, the congressional candidate up there, doesn’t need him, but it really helps with turnout. Remember the governor’s race between Kim Reynolds and Fred Hubbell. Hubbell led much of the night until we got to western Iowa, and that’s where the Republicans began to run up the total. Midterms are as much decided by which voters participate as by moving undecideds. Trump has made the point that he’s not on the ballot and his support tends to fall off, so he needs to motivate those voters to turn out. There are an awful lot of them in the 4th District. Kathie: His approval rating is underwater in Iowa, as in other states. Talk about the risk as well as the reward for Republicans, Laura. Laura: If he’s coming at all, it has to be the 4th District. That’s where he can do the most good. The statewide polls show his approval is underwater, but it’s very likely still positive in that district, so I think it can only help Republicans overall. It could be risky for Ashley Hinson to campaign with him, though. If you’re on a statewide ballot and there are lots of places where Trump isn’t popular, she may not want those visuals. And you never know what he’ll say at one of these rallies. He doesn’t stay on script, and she could be standing right there when he says something that makes national news in a negative way. For Zach Nunn and Mariannette Miller-Meeks, it’s easier to have an excuse not to go all the way to Sioux City. They’re busy campaigning in their own districts, and I’d say that’s a wise move. Joe Mitchell, I don’t really know. He has campaigned using the Trump name more than some other Republicans, so he might go even though it’s far from the 2nd District. Kathie: Do you think Hinson will be on stage with Trump next week? Laura: I think she will. She hasn’t broken with the president on the Iran war, and she said this week that she’d welcome Trump coming to campaign, so she’s not pushing him away with both hands. She didn’t go to J.D. Vance’s event in Council Bluffs a few weeks ago, but she doesn’t have a good excuse this time. I also think Zach Lane, the candidate for governor, needs to be there. He needs that sky-high turnout in the 4th District, as Eric said. That’s what saved Kim Reynolds in 2018. Governor’s race: second debate Kathie: We have several debates to hash over. First, we want to send our condolences to Rob Sand and his family after the death of his brother-in-law, Walter Lauridsen. That’s a terrible, sad event for any family, and our hearts go out to them. The candidates for governor met in their second debate, this one on KTIV in Sioux City. Laura, did you notice any changes from the first debate, any change in temperature? Laura: Definitely. The moderators helped guide it early by asking a viewer question: are you going to stop with the personal attacks? That got both of them on the record. Eric, what did you see? Eric: I’d like to see every debate start with that question. It was a compelling way to begin and it put the candidates on notice. I’d also extend my condolences to Rob Sand and the family. It underscores something people don’t realize, just how dangerous and demanding campaigning can be. You’re on the road late at night and early in the morning, you’re tired from campaign events, and you’re often out late in areas that aren’t well traveled. Frankly, it’s surprising at times that we don’t see this happen more. Kathie: Do you think the debate moved the needle for Zach Lane? Eric: It’s so hard to tell with debates. You have a small audience. Some air statewide, some don’t, and even when they do, I don’t think the audience is tremendously large. A lot of people tune in just so they can say, my guy won, or my woman won. So I don’t think it moves the needle much. But it’s important for Lane because more voters got to see him beyond the campaign commercials. It’s really an introduction. The same is true for Sand. If you asked people on the street who the state auditor is, I’m not sure what the numbers would be. So this was a debate the voters won, but it was probably a wash in terms of which candidate can claim victory. Laura: Both sides got social media clips they could pull, but there were no game-changing moments and no big gaffes. Lane is the one most in need of something that changes the dynamic, because he’s still trailing in the polls. He didn’t make any mistakes, but I don’t know if he did enough, and Sand didn’t make a mistake that would help him in any significant way. I thought it was a substantive discussion on the state budget: how do you fund your priorities, given that the revenue estimating conference met this morning to talk about where the state budget is headed? There was also a good exchange on how to fund education, given decisions already made about the size of incoming revenues. These debates typically live online afterward, too. This one aired at 9 p.m., which is after my bedtime. Eric: I’m a night owl. I’m just getting started at night. Kathie: It also aired at the same time as another debate, the 4th District one or the Senate one, I lose track. Two debates were broadcast simultaneously this week, so I had to split my time. On education, Rob Sand is proposing a 5% increase in state aid, while Zach Lane is proposing to eliminate property taxes on primary residences. Both will need to explain how they’d pay for those proposals, and perhaps we’ll hear more in the next two weeks. Laura: Interestingly, Sand said he could only promise the 5% increase in the first year, and after that it depends on the state budget. He’s talked about legalizing and taxing marijuana to raise money, but he can’t do that on his own. He’s also talked about restructuring special education, which could be really expensive. Senate race: Hinson vs. Turek Kathie: The second debate I want to talk about is Ashley Hinson and Josh Turek, al… Get full access to Iowa Down Ballot at iowawriterscollaborative.substack.com/subscribe

In the governor’s debate, Rob Sand and Zach Lahn shared a stage for the first time. With no time limits, we felt the moderators lost control early, and Lahn ended up talking roughly seven minutes longer. Republicans loved his aggressive style, while Democrats thought the interrupting came across badly. We don’t see a clear winner, and three more debates are still ahead. In the U.S. Senate race, Josh Turek held his own against the more TV-seasoned Ashley Hinson. She kept hitting him on missed votes, and we explained why a missed vote doesn’t always mean a missed day at work. Turek got her on the record about Iran and Medicaid cuts, and her comments about millennials and savings drew plenty of social media reaction. In the 2nd District, Joe Mitchell and Lindsay James had a more orderly second debate. We also talked through the steel plant incentives and whether tariffs are really behind the project. On the horse race, Cook moved the 1st and 3rd Districts from toss-up to lean Democrat, and the 2nd District from lean Republican to toss-up. The polls disagree. Suffolk had Sand up 55 to 43 and Turek up 48 to 44, while Emerson had Sand up just 49 to 45 and Hinson ahead 47 to 45. We caution against trusting any single poll, since each makes different assumptions about who will turn out in a midterm. Dave Price is quite busy with his day jobs. We hope to have him back at some point, but we are committed to continuing informing our listeners, viewers, and readers. Kathie and Laura are two of the best political reporters in the state (if not the country). If you would like to support our work financially please become a paid subscriber by clicking the button above. To make a one-time donation of any size please click the button below. Thanks for listening, and if you can, please like and share. Auto-generated transcript below: Kathie: Hello and welcome to the Iowa Down Ballot podcast. It’s debate season and we have a lot to talk about, with candidates for governor, U.S. Senate, Congress, and more sharing the stage, some for the first time. There’s also new polling in the top races and some shifts in the political forecast for Iowa’s races. I’m Kathie Obradovich, and with me today is Laura Belin. Hi, Laura. Laura: Good to see you, Kathie. Kathie: We’re a smaller crew today. Dave is working on other projects and our conservative friends were otherwise engaged, but we can carry it, right? Laura: Yeah, absolutely. Kathie: I still sort of have the crud. If you heard me last week, you’ll know I’m a lot better, but I’ll apologize right now for any Marco Rubio-esque water swigging or cough drop crunching as we go. And I know you’ve been a little under the weather too, Laura. Laura: I’m feeling a lot better. Kathie: Just the walking wounded here. The governor’s debate: Rob Sand vs. Zach Lahn Kathie: Let’s start with the governor’s debate, which was all the way back on Monday. We’re recording this on Friday. It was in Davenport, hosted by KWQC-TV on the campus of St. Ambrose University. It was the first time on the debate stage for Rob Sand and Zach Lahn. What do you think? Laura: They didn’t have time limits, and honestly I feel like that debate was a case for having them. I didn’t total up the minutes myself, but I saw some analysis that Zach Lahn ended up speaking about seven minutes longer than Rob Sand. That seems pretty out of balance. I felt the moderators lost control of the debate early and never really got it back. Kathie: I’ve done both kinds of debates, timed and super formal, and the untimed kind that’s supposed to be more of a conversation. I agree with you, they probably should have timed the answers for this one. If you’re not going to time the answers, the moderators need to step in really early and make it very clear that they won’t let one candidate talk over another, and that they’ll cut in if you abuse the time. They really didn’t start trying to do that until way too late. It was interesting how Rob Sand responded. You could tell he was kind of annoyed, but he did not reciprocate. You didn’t see him heat up to match Zach Lahn and start talking over him, which not all candidates would do. And I think there was a risk for Lahn in talking over Sand like that. Laura: The Republican comments I saw online said Lahn absolutely dominated the discussion and got in a lot of zingers. On the Democratic side, people felt it came across very badly, all the interrupting and going on for a long time. It was interesting to me that near the end, when the moderator was trying to get things back on track, Zach Lahn said something like, “I can go if it’s four on one, I can take on...” He was almost implying the moderators were on Rob Sand’s side, when I felt they had been kind of lenient toward the Republicans. We’ll see. They have three more debates coming up, and that may be partly why Rob Sand was able to just hang back and wait. I’m curious to see whether the moderators are a little more active in next week’s clash. Kathie: A couple of things about the content. This is the first time we’ve seen these candidates together, so we saw some rehash of the attack ads we’re seeing incessantly on TV. One that stood out for me was Zach Lahn claiming that Sand’s campaign rhetoric about his time in Kansas was an attack on his kids. That’s the claim that he didn’t move to Iowa until two years before he ran for governor, and that he frequently returns to Kansas. Lahn portrayed it as an attack on his kids because he’s going to Kansas to visit his kids in a blended family. I think it’s a stretch to call it an attack on his kids, but I’m not sure where else he was going to go in trying to defend that. Laura: Rob Sand said the reason you’re in Kansas doesn’t matter, what matters is that you’re not in Iowa all the time. Lahn’s campaign has never really explained how this is going to work. He said that’s private, they have a blended family, and they’ll work it out like blended families do. But if his kids are being raised and going to school primarily in another state, it does seem like something he’ll need to contend with. Kathie: Lahn also pressed attacks on Rob Sand’s family wealth. He has repeatedly called Sand a billionaire in his ads. I didn’t think Sand engaged with that very much or tried to rebut it. He talked about family and mansions in other states and spending time there, but I didn’t think he rebutted much. Laura: The main thing he pushed back on was the nitrate fertilizer claim. He said his wife’s third-generation family company doesn’t produce nitrate fertilizer, that they produce other things from byproducts. Kathie: Maybe that was the most important thing, considering water quality is a big concern to voters. At the bottom line, unless there are giant gaps or big things that turn into campaign commercials and rhetoric through the rest of the campaign, I usually don’t see debates moving the needle much. They reinforce what people already think about the candidates. But did you think there was a winner here? Laura: I don’t think so. It depends on whether you care a lot about demeanor. But I think it fired up Zach Lahn’s supporters. In that sense he can feel it was successful, because he showed he was being very aggressive. I don’t know who was watching, or whether swing voters are watching these debates. And it’s different since this is the first of four rather than the only debate they’re having, so I want to reserve judgment until after they’re all over. But the Republicans seemed extremely pleased with the performance. Kathie: It’s a good point about who’s watching. A lot of times the effect of a debate isn’t the night of, it’s the media, and especially the social media, that rolls out afterward. We see that over and over. With this debate I didn’t see anything like that, but time will tell. Laura: What I saw from Rob Sand and other Democratic accounts was that they were sharing clips of things Sand said. They weren’t sharing anything Lahn said as a gaffe, but more like Sand’s line that you’re… Get full access to Iowa Down Ballot at iowawriterscollaborative.substack.com/subscribe

This week we recorded on Saturday, a day late, to cover Friday’s special legislative session on the proposed $15 billion steel plant in Lee County. Lawmakers approved roughly $1.5 billion in incentives, about 10% of the project’s estimated cost and the largest commitment Iowa taxpayers have ever made. Here’s what we dug into: * A done deal that wasn’t. Monday’s Oval Office announcement was billed as finished, with talk of no state incentives needed. We heard from Economic Development Authority director Debi Durham that the contract, utility work, and board approval are all still ahead. There’s also been no land purchase yet. * The Senate was the hard part. Republican Senator Dan Dawson, who chairs Ways and Means, voted against the bill and used his floor speech to question the rushed process and the governor’s negotiating. The bill still passed 28 to 19, and we talked about how those cushion votes get lined up. * Democrats were split. About half of House Democrats voted yes, with labor ties and union jobs pulling some members toward support, and we wondered whether the party made the most of the moment. * Politics over policy? We floated the theory that the rush was driven by the election calendar, and whether a presidential visit might follow. We also talked about the 4th District debate in Sioux City, where Chris McGowan walked a careful line on tariffs and Dave Dawson kept pressing on the war in Iran. We closed with the news that the 3rd District debate between Zach Nunn and Sarah Trone Garriott appears to be dead, and why TV debates are getting harder to schedule. If you are a free subscriber and are able to become a paid subscriber to help us cover costs of production you can click the link above. To make a one-time donation please click the link below. Any donation is welcome and we appreciate all of you that do. Thanks for listening we’ll see ya next week! Auto-generated transcript below: Dave Price: Hi, everyone. Welcome back to the Iowa Down Ballot podcast coming to you on Saturday. Usually we record on Friday. This week we have to go on Saturday because of that special legislative session that took place Friday. So much to talk about. From that, I want to bring in our panel this week. Eric Woolson, longtime journalist, longtime Republican strategist, catnip farmer. Welcome. Eric Woolson: Great to be here as always. This is sunset on Lucky Badger Farms, but it looks like sunrise. Dave Price: Yes. For those of you watching on video, you can see Eric’s incredible background. And then the two true stars of this week’s conversation who are rallying. Bad hamstrings. Shoulder cramps, whatever it is, they are out here. They’re both fighting through some stuff this week. Laura Belin and Kathy Obradovich, thank you both for powering through. We’ll see if your voices hold out. Laura Belin: It’s good to be here. Dave Price: In game time, the whistle goes and these two are right there. And Kathy, for those of you watching on video, proudly showing off her Iowa State shirt. Kathie Obradovich: Where are you, Ed Taylor, when I’m wearing my cyclone outfit? Laura Belin: Exactly. Dave Price: All right, everybody. So let’s turn back the clock, shall we? On Monday, there’s this press conference in the Oval Office with President Donald Trump, some of his administration. Attorney General Brennenburg, still not sure why she was there. She was right on his left side, I think. Standing there about this huge economic development deal, we had Ashley Hinson, we had Governor Reynolds, we had Senator Ernst, I think that’s all the Iowa folks, right? Marianne Miller-Meeks, sorry, Congresswoman, she was there as well. All right, so there… for the first time, releasing some of the details of this proposed $15 billion steel plant that would go somewhere in Lee County. We still actually don’t know exactly where this would be. So they lay this thing out. This would be the biggest, potentially, in our country, one of the biggest in the world. 6,000 construction jobs, 1,750 or so permanent jobs. In this location, and it partners, essentially, with the Esser Group. This would be the big company here. They have a Minnesota operation, so they have the iron ore there. Mine it there, bring it down through rail down to Lee County. You make the steel, and then you send it on down the Mississippi River, or so. Alright, so that comes out on Monday. On Friday, Governor Reynolds had called everybody back for this special legislative session. There are so many developments, it’s difficult to know where to start with this. How about we jump ball this at the beginning about the thing that stood out to you most about how this week… and for those of you who haven’t followed what happened this weekend, the legislature, to no surprise. Past incentives on this, it’s about a billion and a half. Which is roughly 10% of the… of the estimated price of this project. So the biggest commitment by the state of Iowa taxpayers that they have ever made before, there was a lot of ins and outs and drama and… meetings and all kinds of stuff that we’re going to get through this week, but Laura, the headline… what’s, like, the thing that stands out from you? Because there’s so much to dig into this, I couldn’t actually wait until we all assembled to talk about this, but what sticks out to you most about what happened? Laura Belin: The biggest thing for me yesterday is we had this role reversal for the last maybe five, six years. The Iowa Senate Republicans are usually lockstep in with the governor. And if she has trouble getting anything through the legislature, her problem is with the House Republicans. And yesterday, it was the Senate Republicans who almost… I mean, they had to make changes at the last minute to the Ways and Means Committee members to even get this bill through the committee. You had the Ways and Means chair vote against it in committee, speak against it on the floor, and so they barely had the votes to get this through the Iowa Senate. I did not expect that. Dave Price: Okay, I’m not trying to make fun of you, but speak against it on the Senate floor is not nearly a strong enough way to describe what happened. But let’s put a pin in that part. We’ll get to, we’ll come back to that. Don’t let me forget. Kathie, what, like, what’s the thing that stuck out more to most of you about what we just went through? Kathie Obradovich: What else is we? Yeah, I mean, what Laura said, for sure. But, earlier in the day, I mean, we’re going into the special session, after the… at this presidential news conference, it was called a done deal. No local, my gosh, I’m sounding really bad, sorry. No local or state incentives required. And so, it’s like, what are we talking about? Why are we doing… and it was Howard Lutnick, the Commerce Secretary, who said that. So what are we doing here? You know, why are we, you know, apparently throwing these… massive incentives at a deal that’s already done. And, Debbie Durham was questioned about that during the Ways and Means subcommittee meeting. And she basically said, yeah, I don’t know what he was talking about, it’s not a done deal. Even after the legislative session goes, there’s gonna be more process. The Economic Development Board has to do a contract. There’s gotta be, you know, even more process here with all of the utilities, all of that kind of stuff. So, far from being a done deal. And it did turn out to be, you know, they were portraying Iowa as still being in competition with Arkansas, which is one of the balloons that Dan Dawson poked on the Senate floor. I’m going to keep my remarks even shorter than this in the future. Sorry about this. I thought I sounded… Dave Price: Oh, not at all. Thanks for trying to power through here. Eric, what stood out to you about the way this week played out? Eric Woolson: You know, I’m gonna come at it from the perspective I think you guys have me on for anyway, which is a historical perspective, and in that sense, I’m gonna put on my former reporter hat ra… Get full access to Iowa Down Ballot at iowawriterscollaborative.substack.com/subscribe

We dug into the sudden Republican pivots happening six weeks out from the election. Ashley Hinson, Zach Nunn, and Mariannette Miller-Meeks are all pushing back on the war and rising fuel costs after months of standing firmly with the president, including Nunn, who was on stage with Secretary Hegseth at the Iowa State Fair just a month ago. We talked about whether this is a real break or just safe talk now that the House is out of session until after the election. We also covered Nunn’s Beef Act co-sponsorship pushing back on the administration’s cheaper beef imports, and debated how much weight these largely symbolic moves should really carry in our reporting. On the campaign trail: we don’t expect Trump to visit Iowa before November, though nobody’s ruling it out completely. We flagged Wednesday’s Sioux City debate between Chris McGowan and Dave Dawson in the 4th District, and noted debates are still uncertain in the 1st and 3rd. Finally, we broke down Judge Scott Beattie’s 60-plus-page ruling dismissing Trump’s lawsuit against Ann Selzer. First Amendment protections and a lack of any actual damages both did the case in. We expect an appeal, but we’re skeptical it goes anywhere. Like, share, and subscribe! A huge thanks to our new paid supporters for helping keep this going. We’re just a little over a month away from election day, and we can’t wait to keep you updated as we get closer and closer. If you’d like to become a paid subscriber, please click the button above. You can make a one-time donation by clicking the button below. See ya next week. Auto-generated transcript below: Dave Price: Welcome back, everybody, to the Iowa Down Ballot podcast. I’m Dave Price. We have some new polls out — do we have some Republican pivots in position? Is there a strategy, a “strategery” happening in the final six weeks of this campaign with some Republicans in really competitive races? That’s one of the things we’re going to be talking about this week. With us this week is Republican contributor Ed Failor Jr. Hello, Ed. Ed: Hello. Dave Price: Proudly — for those of you watching on video — wearing his Iowa Hawkeye merch. I’m pretty sure he’s an influencer for them and getting paid under the table. But for those listening and not watching, you’re really missing out, because Kathie Obradovich will not allow Ed to take over with complete Hawkeye fervor, so she’s brought a prop this week since she neglected to bring one last week — Herky has shown up. Kathie Obradovich: What? No, no, wrong team, sorry. Dave Price: Sorry — size? Kathie Obradovich: That’s a turkey. Dave Price: Sigh, sigh, sigh, sigh. Sorry — proud alum, I’m sorry. And Laura Belin, playing Switzerland, staying neutral — hello to you as well. Alright, Ed — well, I’ve offended Kathie because I mixed up my mascot, sorry about that. So I’m curious for you, since we talk about strategery — you’re familiar with the public polls, and some of the campaigns are getting internal polls back. It does seem like we’ve been seeing a shift, with some of our Republican members of Congress on the ballot this November, to push back a bit on some of what’s going on with their party leadership, including the president in D.C. Is that fair? Ed: Yes, but clearly it’s not on everything — they’re not just pushing away from the president, they’re pushing back on this one topic, right? So they’re obviously seeing information — I’ve seen information too — that the war itself, and the effects of it... or “police action,” whatever we call it now, I don’t know... Dave Price: Depends on the day — the president’s called it many different things. War, conflict, whatever. Ed: Right, right. But anyway, they’re obviously seeing that, and quite honestly, in my view, I think they’re making a solid call. Just interesting how it progresses and when it happens — but yeah, they’re clearly seeing polling data saying, “wow, we’ve got to be for ending this thing.” So good for them for taking a stand, I guess, but that’s what they’re clearly seeing. Dave Price: Kathie, you’ve written a couple hundred thousand gazillion stories in your career — you saw Ashley Hinson’s move this week. She’s voted against the War Powers Resolution seven times in the past — unlike Zach Nunn and Mariannette Miller-Meeks, who supported it this time before the Senate killed it Thursday. Hinson voted against it the whole time, but early this week said the war’s got to be over, Iowans shouldn’t be paying higher prices because of it. So how do you pick your words as you’re looking at your reporters’ stories on things like this? You don’t want to overplay it — it’s not like Hinson’s bailing on Trump — but is it nuanced, is it a pivot? How do you choose how to describe what’s happening? Kathie Obradovich: Yeah, speaking out against the war is a lot easier than voting against it. Zach Nunn and Miller-Meeks took a pretty obvious step away from the president by actually taking that vote. Hinson — it’s safe talk, since the House is now gone until after the election. There won’t be any more votes, so she can say what she wants without having to put a vote down on it. But still, for her — someone who’s been four-square behind Trump — to say “no, this is wrong, it’s gone on too long,” that shouldn’t be discounted. I think it’s a sign that candidates facing competitive elections are seeing how unpopular this war is getting. We’ve got diesel prices at record highs just as harvest is starting, so it shouldn’t be underplayed how much this hurts farmers right now. I think she had to say something, but I’d have respected it more if she’d actually voted for the War Powers Act. Dave Price: Laura, what do you think? How have you followed what they’ve all been saying and doing this past week? Laura Belin: I think it’s very performative. The Senate just had a vote yesterday that went 50–49 — literally, Chuck Grassley and Joni Ernst were each the decisive vote. I didn’t hear Ashley Hinson, Zach Nunn, or Mariannette Miller-Meeks say they think Iowa’s senators should hold out and not vote to continue this war unless we get concessions. Chuck Grassley is out there posting on X that we should have a diesel export embargo to help farmers, but if he was talking to the White House about getting something in exchange for his vote against the war powers resolution, I didn’t hear anything about it. Dave Price: And I should mention, Nunn also co-sponsored, with a member of Congress from New Mexico, the Beef Act — going back to the president’s decision to bring in lower-quality, cheaper beef filler from Argentina and Brazil to get more cheap meat into the market. Early reporting says this will have minimal impact on price, but it does provide another option for consumers. Ed, are they just selectively picking their spots here — is this more performative, in that none of it’s really going to matter? Ed: Well, Laura’s right, and Kathie’s right — until you’re laying down votes and we see a bill on the president’s desk... part of politics and the legislative process is performative as you go through it. Until there are votes on the board and bills moving, it can’t really be described as much else, I suppose. But I believe, clearly, that Miller-Meeks and Nunn at least took a vote. Laura Belin: I’m not a believer in doing stories about so-and-so introducing a bill that has very little chance of going anywhere — especially this one, when the House isn’t even back in session until after the election. My editorial policy is I will very rarely, if ever, write a story about someone announcing they co-sponsored a bill unless it’s actually going somewhere. Kathie Obradovich: Yeah, I think with this one, though, it was reinforcing that Nunn is trying to distance himself from the president at a time when he’s facing a rough election. This is directly calling out Trump’s order on beef imports — going directly against a Trump order. Even though the bill has no chance of passing, certainly not before the election, it does make a statement about … Get full access to Iowa Down Ballot at iowawriterscollaborative.substack.com/subscribe

Chuck Grassley turns 93, soon becoming the second longest-serving senator in U.S. history — though Eric argues the milestone doesn’t sidestep the harder question of age and capacity. Laura notes he still won’t rule out running again in 2028, when he’d be 95. The panel also digs into November’s ballot amendment requiring a supermajority to raise income and corporate taxes. Kathie lays out the opposition’s case: it won’t stop tax hikes, just push lawmakers toward more regressive options like a sales tax hike. Laura shares her repeated, unsuccessful attempts to pin down Rob Sand’s position, despite his own warnings about a looming state budget shortfall. Candidate visibility comes up too — Rob Sand’s near-daily public events versus Zach Lahn’s more private appearances, and Ashley Hinson skipping JD Vance’s Council Bluffs stop this week. Iowa’s 2nd District also gets a look back, as Laura’s early call that it would be a genuine toss-up, given the district’s dramatic Obama-to-Trump swing, has now been borne out. The episode wraps with congratulations to Iowa Capital Dispatch’s Clark Kauffman, whose reporting on nursing home abuse and neglect earned the outlet its first-ever Media Impact Award from the Iowa Developmental Disabilities Council. This weekly podcast continues to grow. In downloads, views, followers, subscriptions, you name it. As we get closer to the November election we’ll have news and info that you won’t find anywhere else (like normal.) If you’d like to become a paid subscriber to help cover costs of production please click the button above. You can also make a one-time donation using the button below. Thanks to all of you that have already contributed. This isn’t possible without you! Auto-generated transcript below: Dave Price: Hello, everybody. Welcome back to the Iowa Down Ballot podcast. I am Dave Price. This week, grab your you-know-what — Chuck Grassley celebrates another birthday. The crystal ball makes another move, and it involves another Iowa congressional district. Plus, we’re going to talk about that constitutional amendment, which could make it more difficult to raise taxes in the future. With us this week, Kathie Obradovich — I was there when she received yet another award, we’ll talk about that this week — and Laura Belin. Laura Belin: Good morning. Dave Price: And back by popular demand, longtime Republican strategist, former journalist, former Democratic strategist, Eric Woolson. Hello, sir. Eric Woolson: Great to be back. Dave Price: Back from his world travels as well. He will have a Netflix documentary on his world travels coming up — if it’s not, it should be. For those of you watching on video, Eric, can you tell us what’s in the visual behind you? Eric Woolson: I didn’t like the blurred background last week, so that’s an aerial of my farm down in Wayne County. Dave Price: And on that farm you grow? Eric Woolson: Catnip. Dave Price: Catnip, of course you do. Eric Woolson: My tenant’s a traditional farmer, so he grows corn and soybeans — we’re not that far off. Dave Price: Alright, now how’d you get into catnip? Eric Woolson: My son and I wanted a cat, and my wife wouldn’t let us have one, so we said, well, we’re going to be growing catnip on the farm, and we need an official spokescat. In 20 years, I don’t think that cat has ever sold any catnip, but — Dave Price: That ploy worked. Eric Woolson: He really is the most interesting man alive, is he not? Kathie Obradovich: He is, and my cat approves, by the way. Eric Woolson: Excellent — we’ll be looking for those campaign ads! Kathie Obradovich: Outstanding. Dave Price: Alright, so grab your you-know-what, as Chuck Grassley — the Dairy Queen aficionado — would say. Eric, you wrote a book about the senator back in the day. He is 93 years old. I’m guessing you’re not surprised he’s lived to see 93? Eric Woolson: That’s what clean living does for you. I was looking up some numbers last night — sixth longest-serving senator, but third oldest. Obviously Strom Thurmond, at 99, has the record, but Theodore Green, a Rhode Island Democrat, was 93 when he retired, so Grassley will become the second longest-serving senator on December 20th. I think you can hold two truths about Grassley at once — his longevity and public service are extraordinary, but at the same time, we’re entitled to a serious conversation about age and capacity and the transfer of political power. Those aren’t mutually exclusive. It’s not really “is 93 too old, or 90, or 85, or 80” — it’s whether this individual is demonstrably capable of performing every important task of the job. That’s the conversation that should always be there. Dave Price: Laura, didn’t you ask Rob Sand at a news conference about his idea for age limits? Laura Belin: I don’t know if I asked him specifically about that. He’s talked about age limits but hasn’t said exactly what age is too old — he says he’d be open to different ideas. It’s interesting — you may have seen a reporter ask Senator Grassley recently, similar to what he was asked about a year or so ago. He’s not ruling out running for another term in 2028, when he’d be 95. I think he will retire in 2028, but it’s interesting that he won’t just say that. To me it seems pretty clear that at 95, you shouldn’t be running for another six-year term. Dave Price: Kathie, you were like 11 when you started covering Chuck Grassley, right? Kathie Obradovich: Yes, let’s go with that. A couple things — one, I hope Senator Grassley has a freezer in his office, because judging from social media, the amount of Dairy Queen treats coming his way on his birthday... if he had to actually sit down and eat all of that, even with help from staff — and I hope he hasn’t become lactose intolerant in his old age, because even one Dairy Queen blizzard would cause havoc for me, I can tell you. Laura Belin: My neighborhood Dairy Queen, in Windsor Heights, is actually the one that inspired the viral tweet. Kathie Obradovich: I do love a blizzard. Second thing — the Board of Regents this week gave UNI official permission to open essentially the Chuck and Barbara Grassley Center, where the senator’s papers will be donated. They approved it on his birthday, which was nice. Interestingly, they’re withholding the naming of the center until he leaves office. I don’t know if any of you remember, but that became an issue with the Regents when Tom Harkin was originally going to put his center at Iowa State — some Regents voted against naming it after a sitting senator, since he could be raising money for the center while still in office, and they thought that was an ethics issue. So it’s interesting they’re withholding the Grassley Center’s naming until he retires. Harkin did eventually pull out of Iowa State, but that was over an ag-research dispute, unrelated to the naming — just a bit of history I thought was interesting. Dave Price: On the totally non-political side, I was also thinking — how cool is it that Barbara is also with us. She’s slightly younger, I think, right, Eric? Eric Woolson: I think so — actually, I think she might be even slightly older. She had a previous marriage and a son from it when she met Grassley. But they’ve been together since the early ‘50s — going on over 70 years now. Dave Price: And I believe they still go to the same restaurant they went to when they were dating. Eric Woolson: Creatures of habit. Dave Price: Which is cool in its own right, that the place still exists. Let’s talk about an event we’ve teed up a few times on the show and never quite gotten to. This past week, the Republican Party of Iowa held an event — billed largely as another “Josh Turek is too liberal” event — but they also talked about the constitutional amendment going before voters in November, which would make it harder for the legislature to raise taxes. It reminds me of the old “when you have the majority, be bold, kick down the door” mentality. Republicans are pushing this through even amid some uncertainty about where they’ll stand with vo… Get full access to Iowa Down Ballot at iowawriterscollaborative.substack.com/subscribe

This week, we paused to remember September 11th, 25 years later. Kathie, Laura, and Ed each shared where they were that day. Kathie watched the towers fall live on TV, Laura was in London and saw the shock ripple through Britain (which lost 67 citizens that day), and Ed watched fighter jets and Air Force One crisscross an eerily empty sky over Iowa. It’s a reminder of how much the world shifted that morning, and how differently a new generation experiences that history. On the political side, we dug into the GOP’s midterm convention in Dallas and Trump’s surprise pitch to send every American adult $5,000. Ed broke down why he sees it as inflationary deficit spending rather than a “revenue hit,” and Laura pointed out this is just the latest in a string of promised dividends (DOGE checks, tariff dividends) that haven’t materialized. Ashley Hinson, for her part, stayed carefully noncommittal when asked about it back home in Iowa. We also talked Cy-Hawk weekend politics. Tailgate stops are now basically mandatory campaign stops, from Zach Wahls to Mariannette Miller-Meeks’ star-studded tailgate. We closed with Martin O’Malley’s visit to stump for Social Security solvency alongside Josh Turek, plus the news that Iowa’s caucuses are now officially locked in as first-in-the-nation for 2028. Thanks for listening as always. If you would like to become a paid subscriber to help cover the costs of production please click the ‘Subscribe now’ button above. If you’d could spare a few dollars for a one-time donation please click the button below. We appreciate you! Auto-generated transcript below: Dave Price: Hi everyone, and welcome back to the Iowa Down Ballot podcast. If you’re watching the video version of this, you can tell it’s a Cy-Hawk weekend — one of our contributors this week wants you to know what he’s proudly wearing. We’ll get to him in a moment. We also have a somber remembrance this week: 25 years since the 9/11 terrorist attacks. We’ll talk about that a little. A former presidential candidate came to Iowa — that seems to happen every week now — in this case it was Martin O’Malley, talking about Social Security. We’ll talk about whether we agree that Social Security will be a big issue for voters this November. Plus, President Trump wants to give you $5,000 — but there’s a big catch. We’ll cover that and more. Let’s bring on our panelists. Mr. Iowa Hawkeye, demonstrating his pride — Ed Failor Jr., longtime Republican advisor and staffer. Hello, sir. Ed Failor: Hello, how are you today? Dave Price: We’re good. Laura Belin, our regular. Kathie Obradovich, our regular — not that you’re “regular,” you know what I mean. Kathie Obradovich: Well, I have to say, I wasn’t prepared for the rivalry. Dave Price: Oh. Kathie Obradovich: Because I am, I think, the only Cyclone on the panel here. But Ed, hat tip to you. Laura Belin: I’m neutral — I’m Switzerland on the Iowa/Iowa State game, because I’m a Michigan fan. Dave Price: We pledge civility on this show, but Cy-Hawk may bring some other emotion out this week. We’ll see how Ed and Kathie coexist. Ed Failor: I’m an elephant. Kathie Obradovich: Cyclone. Ed Failor: I’m always nice to the younger sibling who just can’t get by. Dave Price: And for those watching the video version — Ed’s on the mend here. You good? You’ve got a big bandage on your forehead. Ed Failor: Yeah, just a little skin issue — sun damage and all that. Had a small thing taken care of yesterday, and I’ve got to leave this on for a day and a half or two days. So yeah, I’m golden. Dave Price: All good, good to hear. Remembering September 11th Dave Price: I thought this week we should address — we’re recording on September 11th. I know this drops on the weekend, but there were a lot of moments throughout Friday looking back 25 years. It’s one of those things where you realize your age a bit — neither of my kids was alive when the 9/11 attacks happened. I have a coworker in television who’s only 24, and when we were talking about story ideas for 9/11, I figured she wouldn’t know much about it firsthand. Kathie, do you remember what was happening in your life on September 11, 2001? Kathie Obradovich: Yeah, I was still working for the Lee Enterprises papers. I remember the day vividly — I was getting ready for work with the TV on, half-watching while I got dressed, and when I turned it on, the first tower had already been hit. So then I’m glued to the TV, assuming at that point it was a terrible accident. I was still watching when the second plane hit the tower. Honestly, it makes me tear up right now — I literally burst into tears when I saw it. The weeks afterward were just a blur. We were wondering whether the state capitol would be a target — Tom Vilsack was governor at the time — and there was a lot of discussion about Homeland Security and what could be at risk in Iowa: the water supply, the food supply. There was a lot of talk about securing Iowa’s food supply because of the sudden insecurity everyone felt. But yeah, I’ll never forget that morning, watching that plane hit the second tower. Dave Price: I had a similar experience. I slept in that day and missed the first one — a friend called me, I flipped on the TV, and then saw the second one. Laura, what do you remember of that day? Laura Belin: I was in graduate school, living in London, so my morning was completely normal. I watched the BBC noontime news and nothing was happening yet — the first plane hit a little before 2 p.m. in Britain. Somebody called me, and I turned on the TV a little after 2. A lot of people don’t realize the 9/11 attacks were the deadliest terror attack in British history — at least 67 UK citizens were killed, mostly in the World Trade Center: some on the observation deck, some working at Cantor Fitzgerald, some passengers on the planes. No IRA attack in the UK ever killed nearly as many people. It was a massive story — for weeks afterward, if people heard my American accent, they’d say, “We’re so sorry for what happened to your country.” British media coverage focused a lot on the British victims too, but it was an unbelievable, devastating experience — people in Europe really felt the scale of the calamity. Dave Price: Ed, where were you back then? Ed Failor: I was at Iowans for Tax Relief in Muscatine when it happened. What stands out to me — the actual events were awful, obviously — but I remember going out into the yard just to catch my breath and look around. There was no air traffic. It was eerie. Then I saw jets, probably F-16s, come screaming west to east. I’m an Air Force veteran, I worked in ops, so I thought, “The president’s probably in the air right now.” Then they came screaming back. And then, at a much slower pace, another big plane came through — that had to be Air Force One, making its way from Omaha back to DC. I remember thinking: the only things in the sky right now are our president and some fighter jets. That felt almost as profound, in some ways, as the tragedy itself — like, wow, the world’s changed forever. Nothing’s going to be the same. That’s what I remember feeling, watching those planes go back and forth. Dave Price: I remember our television newsroom — everybody scrambling, rushing in without even being called, but not really knowing what to do. Like Kathie said — is the state capitol safe? The airport had shut down, so we had crews out there talking to grounded, confused passengers walking off planes. As a reporter, you’re processing what’s happening as an American, while also trying to figure out what the story should even be. The technology was so different back then — today it’d all be social media and digital, but this was the early days of that. We interviewed all kinds of people and shot stories that never aired, because the networks were on 24/7 for days and there wasn’t room. Local TV was kind of stuck, still transitioned to the old world, rushing from place to place trying to figure out what to do — but feeling kind of useless. Laura Belin: The BBC al… Get full access to Iowa Down Ballot at iowawriterscollaborative.substack.com/subscribe

This week we dug into two big stories. First, the Des Moines Register’s new reporting on Derek Wulf’s farm finances: an active criminal investigation, a court-appointed receiver, and creditors who settled for less than they were owed. We talked about what real campaign due diligence looks like, and why this story hasn’t gotten the attention it probably deserves. We also broke down a new Emerson College poll. Rob Sand leads Zach Lahn by 3 points in the governor’s race, with independents breaking hard his way. In the Senate race, Ashley Hinson leads Josh Turek 50-45, and we tried to make sense of Turek’s ad touting cooperation with Trump on immigration. Plus, we’re pleased to welcome first-time guest Eric Woolson who has an extensive background in journalism and campaigns, closed things out with the Chuck Grassley vacuum cleaner bobblehead saga, and pondered whether Grassley might run again in 2028 at age 95. Want to sharpen your writing and get the inside scoop on Iowa politics at the same time? Join us September 27-30 at the Okoboji Writers’ & Songwriters’ Retreat on beautiful West Lake Okoboji, featuring Iowa Down Ballot analysts Laura Belin and Kathie Obradovich. They’ll walk you through finding public information, getting your opinion pieces published, and plenty more. Spots are limited, so scan the QR code at the beginning and end of the video or head to okobojiwritersretreat.com to sign up. If you’d like to make a donation to help the Iowa Writer’s Collaborative which supports this show please click the button below. Thanks! Auto-generated transcript below: Dave Price: Hi everyone, and welcome back to the Iowa Down Ballot podcast. We have another new statewide poll, and it shows that, at least for some people, split-ticket voting is still a thing. We’ll talk about that. Plus, there’s new reporting on Republican lieutenant governor candidate Derek Wulf and his farm operations, legal situation, and finances. The Des Moines Register had a story out Friday that we want to discuss. I’m Dave Price. This week we’re joined by Iowa Down Ballot regulars Kathie Obradovich and Laura Belin. Hello, ladies. Kathie Obradovich: Hello! Good to be here. Laura Belin: Good to be here. Dave Price: And making his debut on the podcast, I was going to say “best known snake charmer” — that’s not really why he’s here, but he might be the most interesting man in the room if you really know his background. Eric Woolson, way back in the day, was a newspaper reporter. He may be the only person I know who’s worked for both a Democratic and a Republican presidential candidate. Is that true? Eric Woolson: Well, that’s where the snake charming comes in handy, I suppose. I used to say I was one of the few people who’d worked for seven presidential campaigns. But I’m absolutely positive I’m the only person who’s been a spokesperson for both Joe Biden and Michele Bachmann. Laura Belin: Narrow that down. Eric Woolson: I’ll throw that down. Dave Price: Well done — we strive for uniqueness on this show. Welcome, Eric, thanks for joining us. Derek Wulf’s Financial and Legal Troubles Dave Price: Let’s talk about this Des Moines Register story. Tyler Jett posted it Friday — and we’re recording this on Friday, so we may be talking about it as the news is still unfolding. This won’t drop until the weekend, so there could be twists and turns. Laura, I believe you were the first to report on Derek Wulf’s agricultural operations and financial challenges. Tyler Jett has picked up from there, and it shows there are still serious financial challenges for Representative Wulf, along with some strong allegations from people who’ve worked with him. What do you make of it? Laura Belin: It was a really good piece by Tyler Jett — he clarified some things I wasn’t able to nail down back in June and July. First, WCF Financial, his bank, filed a foreclosure petition in May. As of this summer they were negotiating some kind of refinancing. Derek Wulf said at the Westside Conservative Club in July that they’d been able to refinance, but that clearly wasn’t complete, because last week the bank filed a motion to have a receiver appointed, which the court approved two days ago. The bank’s filing said Wulf never presented a commitment letter — essentially proof that financing or additional collateral was lined up to support the refinancing. So we know negotiations broke down somewhere along the way. Also important: Tyler Jett confirmed with the Black Hawk County Sheriff’s Office that there is still an active criminal investigation into Wulf’s operations. That was hinted at in the May foreclosure filing, and seems related to livestock collateral belonging to the bank that may have been sold to third parties. There were also fraud allegations in an earlier filing from a separate case brought by Heartland Co-op, but I was never able to confirm an actual criminal investigation — Tyler Jett did. The Lahn campaign’s spokesperson denied any fraud occurred, but also apparently confirmed to the Register that Zach Lahn didn’t know about the criminal investigation when he picked Wulf as his running mate. Dave Price: Eric, you’re the only one of us who’s worked on campaigns — what’s traditional due diligence like when choosing a running mate? Eric Woolson: Going back to my reporting days in the ‘70s, ‘80s, and ‘90s, my first thought was: how did this happen? Clearly a due diligence question — somebody didn’t do their homework. Normally that process runs a couple of weeks: you dig into personal background, financial background, talk to people they’ve done business with, talk to the neighbors. A lot of times you’ve got a professional firm doing opposition research — including on your own candidate, so you know what the other side will say about you. Clearly none of that happened here. The landscape’s changed too. Laura’s done terrific work, the Register has a news story, but for the most part it feels like a tree falling in the forest that nobody hears. There’s not as much media in this state as there used to be, reporters are shorthanded, there’s only so many hours in the day. Regardless of party, this isn’t as big a story as it should be — and that goes back to the central question of where the due diligence was. Obviously there wasn’t any. Kathie Obradovich: To give the Lahn campaign a little grace — it’s possible that when Wulf first addressed these questions with Laura, he genuinely believed refinancing was in progress, and that kind of deal can fall apart at any point. That does happen. But this raises real questions: if this is how the Lahn campaign does due diligence on someone as important as a running mate, how can Iowa voters trust he’ll pick the right people if he becomes governor? The governor doesn’t do everything alone — you have to pick the right people for the job. Even if this is damaging to Wulf, it doesn’t mean he can’t do a good job as lieutenant governor. It’s possible the campaign knew all this and decided his financial experience actually makes him a stronger advocate for farmers. Some of this comes down to how much voters really care about who the running mate is. Laura Belin: Tyler Jett interviewed some of the creditors who sued Wulf — I’d reached out but never heard back. One of them, Chad Zoske, described something that goes well beyond normal farmer financial distress. The Lahn campaign had said all creditors were being repaid in full, but according to the Register story, Zoske ended up settling for less than he was owed because he figured something was better than nothing. Eric Woolson: Part of this may be that Lahn really came out of nowhere as a surprise candidate, so he may have lacked connections within the party infrastructure. In years past you’d have five or six names floated — someone from eastern Iowa, someone from northwest Iowa, maybe a business person — generating buzz. This pick came out of left field. The question is how much internal discussion there really was among Senate, House, and party leadership … Get full access to Iowa Down Ballot at iowawriterscollaborative.substack.com/subscribe

We welcomed Ed Failor Jr. to the show for the first time — longtime Iowa Republican operative, former head of Iowans for Tax Relief — and put him through the paces alongside Kathie Obradovich and Laura Belin. We dug into the new Suffolk poll. Ashley Hinson is up 45-41 on Josh Turek, Rob Sand is up 48-44 on Zach Lahn. The Libertarians lost in court again. A judge ruled they can’t replace their disqualified candidates, so their LG and 3rd District picks are off the ballot pending a possible appeal. We talked beef! The president’s move to allow cheaper foreign beef imports has ranchers fuming, with timing that couldn’t be worse for Iowa’s cattle counties. And we closed on whether Hinson’s time in Congress is a liability in a statewide race. Ed says no. It’s the candidate, not the office. Want to sharpen your writing and get the inside scoop on Iowa politics at the same time? Join us September 27-30 at the Okoboji Writers’ & Songwriters’ Retreat on beautiful West Lake Okoboji, featuring Iowa Down Ballot analysts Laura Belin and Kathie Obradovich. They’ll walk you through finding public information, getting your opinion pieces published, and plenty more. Spots are limited, so scan the QR code at the beginning and end of the video or head to okobojiwritersretreat.com to sign up. If you’d like to make a donation to help the Iowa Writer’s Collaborative which supports this show please click the button below. Thanks! Auto-generated transcript below: Dave Price: Welcome back, everybody, to the Iowa Down Ballot podcast. I’m Dave Price. This week, we are going to talk about a new statewide poll that shows, yet again — in case you didn’t know this — that we have some really competitive races in this state. We’re also going to talk about beef. The president has made a move that has ticked off some cattle ranchers, and we’re going to dig into that a little bit. And we have a tradition, it seems, on this weekly podcast: we must cover the latest twists and turns of the Libertarian candidates, so we’ll do that too. With us this week are regulars Kathie Obradovich and Laura Belin. Hello, ladies. Kathie Obradovich: Oh! Laura Belin: Good to see ya! Dave Price: But this week we’ve added a fourth. This is something we’ve been talking about for quite a while, and it is now a thing: Ed Failor Jr. joins us this week. He’s a longtime Republican who has had a bunch of different jobs — he’s worked at the Statehouse, he’s worked on campaigns, he led an organization, Iowans for Tax Relief, and he’s done other stuff too. We’ll maybe get into some of that. Regardless, welcome, Ed. Thanks for doing this. Ed Failor: Well, happy to be here. I just — people talking is a good thing. Dave Price: It is a good thing. You and I, over the years, have had many lengthy conversations, and now we can do it here. And as you promised, you’ll work in at least one dad joke — in case any of your kids are listening to this podcast. True? Ed Failor: I’m going to ignore the ageism of that and go with it. Yeah. Dave Price: I’m apparently with you, because I’m accused of that all the time. I wear it as a badge of honor. All right, all right — trio. The Suffolk University Poll Dave Price: Let’s set things up with this new Suffolk University poll. Two of the big races we’ve talked about all year: the governor’s race and the U.S. Senate race. Quick numbers — in the Senate race, Republican Ashley Hinson leads 45–41 over Democrat Josh Turek, with Libertarian Thomas Lane at 4%. The governor’s race is flipped: Democrat Rob Sand is at 48%, Republican Zach Lahn at 44%, no Libertarian in that race. That’s our tease — we’ll get to the Libertarians, but not yet. Kathie, we’ve said again and again that it’s a competitive race — when you see these numbers, what’s the “why” of it? Kathie Obradovich: Yeah, I think one thing I liked about this poll is they asked a lot of issue questions that help explain where people are coming from, and it won’t surprise anyone — it’s the economy, it’s gas prices, it’s household expenses, grocery prices. Poll respondents were asked what they’re spending more money on, and gas and groceries topped the list. President Trump’s approval rating is down, as we’ve seen in other polls and nationally. There’s also still a healthy number of undecided voters. I was glad to see Thomas Lane included in this poll — we hadn’t seen a poll name the Libertarian candidate before, for reasons we’ll get into. But he’s on the ballot, and he pulled about 3 points that look like they came from Republicans and 1 point from Democrats. So if we speculate about who the Libertarian hurts more in this race, it’s probably Ashley Hinson. Dave Price: Laura, what’s your takeaway? Laura Belin: I like to look at the composition of the electorate. I could look at this poll and say it’s encouraging for Republicans — Zach Lahn isn’t that far behind, he’s much less well-known than Rob Sand, and he has room to grow, while Hinson still has a lead. But I looked at the sample: 38% Republican, 33% Independent, 28% Democrat. That’s a decent reflection of Iowa’s registered voters as a whole, but a poor reflection of who’s likely to vote in a midterm — there’s no way independents will outnumber Democrats at the ballot box in November. Democratic turnout will be higher than independent turnout, even accounting for a stronger-than-usual independent showing. So if I’m a Democrat, I’m looking at this poll and thinking Rob Sand’s lead could actually be understated. Also worth noting: the recalled 2024 presidential vote in this sample was Trump +11, close to Trump’s actual 13-point win in the state — but there’s no guarantee the November electorate mirrors 2024. We’ve talked about this before: if you’d polled in 2014 assuming the electorate would look like 2012’s, you’d have been way off. So — I have no idea. I do feel Hinson is slightly favored in the Senate race, but this poll doesn’t look like what the November electorate is likely to be. Dave Price: Ed, you’ve watched how the sausage is made for years — what did you think of the headline numbers, and of the internals? Ed Failor: Laura stole one of my two points, so it must have been a good one — the composition of who they polled isn’t what the electorate is actually going to look like. That was my biggest takeaway, and Laura’s right. The other thing: the numbers are all within the margin of error, so who really knows. Polls are a snapshot of a group of people at a given time. They brought in a good sample from Muscatine County, which is a real bellwether — that was smart. But the thing that struck me most was why people said they’re voting. Forty percent of likely voters said it’s their civic duty — for people willing to answer a poll in August, that doesn’t surprise me; I’d almost have expected that number to be higher. But 30% said they’re voting because of the political climate, and that’s interesting. Without the crosstabs, you can’t see the “why” behind that — as a Republican, I’m not happy with the climate either, and I know plenty of Democrats who aren’t public about their views, so that number cuts both ways. Without an incumbent on the ballot, Sand and Hinson are each the closest thing to one, and having them up by a bit this early is normal — the late deciders will make the difference. I’d be concerned, as a Republican, that those numbers aren’t better given the state we’re in. The Cabinet Visits Dave Price: Ed, can you zoom out and look at the last couple of weeks? About the only people who haven’t visited Iowa lately are Donald Trump and J.D. Vance — I exaggerate only slightly. They sent a plane full of administration officials who did various things; a bunch went to the State Fair. Is this a protective move, making sure they don’t take chances because so much is at stake — or are they seeing the numbers, feeling the environment, and thinking “we need to reinforce en masse”? Ed Failor: Probably a little of both, but more the latter. It’s real early for them to be doing this, so I’d assume — mathematica… Get full access to Iowa Down Ballot at iowawriterscollaborative.substack.com/subscribe

We started with the Cook Political Report’s new ratings: the U.S. Senate race moved from Leans Republican to Toss-Up, and the governor’s race moved from Toss-Up to Leans Democrat. We talked about why. Tight polling, a president underwater in approval, gas prices topping four bucks, and Iowa’s history of electing Democratic governors in red states even when it won’t send them to the Senate. We also noted how many Republican candidates went negative on their opponents at the soapbox this year, which we read as a sign of real nervousness in the party. Then we got into the sheer number of Trump administration officials who came through Iowa this week. We counted at least nine cabinet secretaries, including Pete Hegseth, Scott Bessent, RFK Jr., and Brooke Rollins. Hegseth’s visit stood out most: no public schedule, a rare appearance for him, and a campaign fundraiser for Zach Nunn that Pentagon guidelines normally wouldn’t allow for a Senate-confirmed official. We debated who ends up paying for that kind of travel and what message it sends about how worried the administration is about Iowa’s races. We closed out with our soapbox moments: the Libertarians’ ongoing ballot fight and court hearing, and Turning Point USA activists trailing Rob Sand, Josh Turek, and Mark Kelly around the fairgrounds, something none of us had seen at the fair before. We’ll be back next week to see how the final 48 hours of the fair played out. Want to sharpen your writing and get the inside scoop on Iowa politics at the same time? Join us September 27-30 at the Okoboji Writers’ & Songwriters’ Retreat on beautiful West Lake Okoboji, featuring Iowa Down Ballot analysts Laura Belin and Kathie Obradovich. They’ll walk you through finding public information, getting your opinion pieces published, and plenty more. Spots are limited, so scan the QR code at the beginning and end of the video or head to okobojiwritersretreat.com to sign up. If you’d like to make a donation to help the Iowa Writer’s Collaborative which supports this show please click the button below. Thanks! Auto-generated transcript below: Dave Price: Hi, everybody, and welcome back to the Iowa Down Ballot podcast. We are talking to you on the final Friday morning of the Iowa State Fair. I’m Dave Price, joined by Laura Belin and Kathie Obradovich. Hello, ladies, how are you? Kathie Obradovich: Hello, happy Friday! Dave Price: Happy Friday — and happy Saturday, Sunday, Monday, Tuesday, to all of you, whenever you’re listening to this podcast, the final Friday of the Iowa State Fair. Much to talk about. I wonder if we can talk first about the Cook Political Report. I was talking to somebody — this would’ve been Thursday, I think — at the fair about this. Cook Political Report looks at all these races across the country, obviously, and it shifted both the governor’s race and the U.S. Senate race toward Democrats. As we know, Republicans have been the dominant party in our state for more than a decade. We’ve also talked early in this podcast about the new wildcards in 2026 — for the first time since ‘68, I believe, both of those races are open seats. So in theory, anything goes, although I feel like I’ve brought this up a half dozen times: Laura’s post six months ago now, showing the registration numbers — the difference between Republicans and Democrats — while it’s narrowed, you’re still looking at, what, 180-some thousand? What’s the difference? Laura Belin: I think it’s closer to 170,000 now. Pretty big Republican advantage. Dave Price: That’s a big ol’ gap. Okay, let’s talk about this shift. Kathie, why don’t you lead us off? And appreciate — this is just a forecast, and we tread carefully on polls and speculation. But as Cook is looking at this, they’re clearly looking at the atmosphere and what’s going on. So how potentially significant is this, for a party that still has sizable advantages like Republicans do, to now almost be at a disadvantage in a couple of these prominent races? Kathie Obradovich: Yeah, so first of all, I think this reflects what we’ve been seeing here — these races are tight. These forecasts are based largely on polling, I’d argue, although there are certainly other factors that go into it. The U.S. Senate race moved from Leans Republican to Toss-Up. And again, we talked about the Emerson poll a couple weeks ago — it was a two-point race between Ashley Hinson and Josh Turek. By most definitions, I’d call that a toss-up. And then the governor’s race moved from Toss-Up to Leans Democrat, which again I think is reflective of that same Emerson poll — Rob Sand had a five-point lead, so it seemed weird that we were still calling it a toss-up and not Leans Democrat. You guys may disagree, but I think this is reflective of the national climate — we continue to see dissatisfaction with the Trump administration. He’s underwater in polls in Iowa and around the country. We continue to see economic angst among the population. All of that, piled on top of the fact that the president’s party typically does poorly in the midterms — I think that builds a case, separate from anything going on in Iowa specifically. Having said that, it’s August. Dave Price: Yes. Kathie Obradovich: A lot, a lot can happen. Laura Belin: I think one thing it underscores — and we’ve talked about this before — is that in a red state, voters are more likely to elect a Democrat as governor than to the U.S. Senate. That’s why we have Democratic governors in Kansas, Kentucky, and recently had one in Louisiana. So I think what everyone agrees on is that Rob Sand has a better chance than Josh Turek, regardless of the climate. But I was struck by Ashley Hinson’s speech on the soapbox Monday — she went hard negative on Turek before she even talked about her own record. Sometimes candidates talk about their own record first and then criticize the opponent, but she did the negative part first, which normally you wouldn’t do when you’re feeling comfortable about the race. Brenna Bird also went negative on her opponent in her soapbox speech. And I saw that Sabato’s Crystal Ball just moved the Iowa Attorney General race from Likely Republican to Lean Republican, and Secretary of Agriculture Mike Naig also went negative on his opponent. So it does seem that Iowa Republicans are feeling pretty concerned about this election cycle. Dave Price: Kathie, you said maybe we disagree — I don’t. I think all the things you pointed out... and, I love a bunch of things about the Iowa State Fair, but not how you feel afterward, when you’re like, “dang, it’s gonna take me three months to walk off this weight.” That aside — it’s such a good place. For years, when I was at my old TV station, we had our Cast Your Colonel booth, where people could drop a kernel of corn in whichever candidate’s jar they supported. Not a scientific measure, but the benefit for me was more the one-on-one conversations — who do you like, what’s going on in your life. We’d get 60,000 people stop by. I don’t have the corn anymore, but I’ve been at the fair a bunch of times already this year, and this is only anecdotal, so asterisk everything I’m about to say: I can’t think of one person I saw wearing a Trump hat. “Trump ‘28,” Trump-Vance shirts, whatever. I’m not saying he doesn’t have supporters there — of course he does — but I do wonder if people are starting to tire of some of this. I felt this in ‘16 — he beat Hillary Clinton, and toward the end you saw people, including some Republicans, get tired of the chaos. Maybe it’s magnified this time, and then there’s the economic piece — we were driving to the fair the other day when gas by our house topped four bucks. We’re six months into this, and forget the politics — people notice that. Four bucks is a mental threshold. And for people paying attention: the president originally said this wouldn’t even last a couple of weeks. Well, we’re six months in, so you’ve been paying higher prices for six months. I really think that wears on people. Kathie Obradovich: A… Get full access to Iowa Down Ballot at iowawriterscollaborative.substack.com/subscribe

We split up this week: Laura hit the Wing Ding in Clear Lake, Dave went to the Field of Dreams game. Both nights ran long. Wing Ding drew its best crowd since 2019, about 750 people, with Mark Kelly headlining and fueling more 2028 speculation. Over in Newton, RNC Chair Jeff Kaufmann made the case that Republicans only need to flip a handful of seats nationally, two of them right here in Iowa. Laura’s not so sure the math holds, she counts at least three competitive Iowa districts. We also flagged the odd, limited-media visit from Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, campaigning for Miller-Meeks and Nunn under the guise of official business. And the Libertarian ballot saga rolls on. New candidates, a likely court fight ahead. Plus a preview of what we’re watching for at the Register Soapbox at the state fair this week. Want to sharpen your writing and get the inside scoop on Iowa politics at the same time? Join us September 27-30 at the Okoboji Writers’ & Songwriters’ Retreat on beautiful West Lake Okoboji, featuring Iowa Down Ballot analysts Laura Belin and Kathie Obradovich. They’ll walk you through finding public information, getting your opinion pieces published, and plenty more. Spots are limited, so scan the QR code at the beginning and end of the video or head to okobojiwritersretreat.com to sign up. If you’d like to make a donation to help the Iowa Writer’s Collaborative which supports this show please click the button below. Thanks! Auto-generated transcript below: Dave Price: Hi, everyone, and welcome back to the Iowa Down Ballot podcast, our weekly confab of all things politics in Iowa, and some other things that impact Iowa politics — the people, the places, the issues, the events, this big campaign, all that kind of stuff. We talk about it here on the podcast. I’m Dave Price, joined by my Iowa Writers’ Collaborative colleagues, Kathie Obradovich, the czar, the queen of the Iowa Capital Dispatch... Kathie Obradovich: And... Dave Price: ...Laura Belin, the founder, the creator, the editor, the writer... Dave Price: The bookkeeper. Did I get them all? At Bleeding Heartland Laura Belin: Most of them, yes. Dave Price: Most of them, yes. It just depends on me. How are you both? And I love your peach, Kathie. Kathie Obradovich: Oh, well, thank you. Yeah, happy Friday. It doesn’t feel like Friday, because I think we’re going to be going all weekend, right? At least with the Saturday State Fair. Dave Price: Indeed. I feel like I need to pre-apologize just in case for how this podcast goes. We were recording on Friday morning. Laura went to the Wing Ding, which we’re going to talk about, at Clear Lake — that ain’t close to Des Moines. I went to Dyersville for the Field of Dreams game with my son — that is not close to Des Moines either. So not to whine, but we both had very short nights and took a good extended nap, separately. Do you drink caffeine, Laura? Laura Belin: I do not. I get all the caffeine I need from chocolate. Dave Price: Okay. Laura Belin: But I got home at about 11:30 last night, and then I was just wired, so I couldn’t go to sleep right away, because it was a highly stimulating environment up there at the historic Surf Ballroom in Clear Lake. Dave Price: Oh, man, I’m jealous — you beat us by an hour and a half. We walked in just a couple minutes before... before wine. My 16-year-old, he’s like the Energizer bunny — he slept almost the entire three-hour drive back. Now, he did drive us there so I could work while we drove, but I guess 10:30 was his knockout point, so it was just me and a silent car for three hours on Highway 20. But here we are. All right, how about we leave... Kathie Obradovich: And I didn’t do anything. Dave Price: Not bragging. Laura Belin: So you edited a bunch of stories, I did — late. Kathie Obradovich: I watched Field of Dreams on Netflix — not to give it a plug or anything. And yeah, I did edit the Wing Ding story when it came in, and I drank some wine, so today I have my baseball mug for my caffeine. Dave Price: May I just say it’s good to be the boss working at home when you can drink? I’m not going to allege that you drank your wine while you edited Robin’s story from the Wing Ding — that’s for everyone else to figure out, and this is not a confessional here — but regardless of the order, that’s the way to make that night work. Kathie Obradovich: Yeah, I think so. I haven’t been doing this for almost 40 years for nothing, babe. Dave Price: Amen. All right, Laura — since you were the one of the three of us physically present at the Wing Ding, give us a little intro, because you’ve gone to a bunch of these things. Talk about what happens there first, and then, as they usually do, they had a high-profile guest — in this case, Arizona Senator Mark Kelly. What’s the atmosphere like when you get into the Surf Ballroom? Laura Belin: The Iowa Democratic Wing Ding is a fundraiser put on by a bunch of county Democratic Party organizations across northern and western Iowa, but it draws people from well outside that region too — I saw people from Scott County, Polk County, and lots of places. They said last night there were about 750 people there, and it certainly looked it — the room was very full. They said it was the best-attended Wing Ding since 2019, when they had more than a dozen presidential candidates there. I was at that one too, and it was kind of wild with the presidential-candidate sign wars. This time, since it’s after the primary, there’s no Democratic competition, so they had most of the statewide nominees speaking — except not Rob Sand or Dave Muhlbauer, but all the other nominees for statewide office: Chris Jones, Taylor Wedick, John Norwood, Nathan Willems and Ryan Peterman running for Secretary of State. Then they always have two congressional candidates — Lindsey James, the nominee in the 2nd District, and Dave Dawson in the 4th. And, as you mentioned, Mark Kelly, the keynote, gave kind of a rally-the-troops speech. Last year’s keynote was Harry Dunn, the Capitol Police officer who was there on January 6th, and he gave a more introspective speech than Kelly did. Oh, and I forgot to mention — Josh Turek, the Senate candidate, was there too, speaking. The crowd was very into the speeches. Afterward, talking to activists, there’s a lot going on the ground — coordinated campaign offices open in several counties across the 2nd and 4th Districts. People seem pretty fired up. Dave Price: The one thing I thought was interesting about what Kelly was talking about — this is where I feel like Democrats are a little split, at the DC level. Kelly talked about the importance of Democrats getting back into the majority so they could investigate the alleged corruption of the Trump administration. Some Democrats don’t really want to talk about that — they may not want to talk about Trump at all, or about possible impeachment, corruption, and all that. What was your take on how that played with the crowd? Laura Belin: He didn’t talk about impeachment. But if you’re Mark Kelly, and you were threatened with prosecution over that video he and other members of Congress recorded telling service members they don’t have to follow illegal orders, I think you almost can’t avoid talking about the Trump administration a little bit. But it definitely wasn’t the focus of his remarks. He was really trying to say we’ve got to get things under control. He told a story I’ve heard him tell before, about going with his daughter — who’s about 30 now — to visit the house where he and his wife lived when she was born. It was a four-bedroom house in a nice neighborhood that he could afford to buy as a young Navy officer, which nobody in his daughter’s generation can afford at her age in a neighborhood like that. So I’d say he emphasized economic issues more, though he did touch on the investigations and what Pete Hegseth is doing. Later, after his speech, he did a segment on MS NOW where he talked more about allegations involving the Abraham Lincoln in the Gulf —… Get full access to Iowa Down Ballot at iowawriterscollaborative.substack.com/subscribe

We welcome first-time guest Shane Vander Hart this week. He writes at shanevanderhart.com. Please give him a follow while you’re there. We dug into school choice first. Rob Sand wants to bring back the ESA income cap and add audits, while Zach Lahn talks expansion without much detail. Shane and Laura sparred over what audits would even target, since tuition dollars aren’t currently subject to oversight once schools receive them. Then we turned to the new Emerson/Nexstar poll. Sand is up 5.5 points on Lahn, boosted by a 26-point lead with independents. The Senate race is tighter, Hinson over Turek 47.5 to 45, but Turek leads independents by nearly 12 points, a warning sign for Republicans this cycle. We also covered Brenna Bird’s new Medicaid fraud task force, which drew criticism from two former state officials who say the existing Medicaid Fraud Control Unit just needs more funding. Laura flagged that the task force ignores MCOs illegally denying care. Looking ahead, Laura’s tracking healthcare messaging in the 1st District, Kathie’s watching Sunday’s Libertarian convention to replace their bounced 3rd District candidate, and Shane has a piece coming Monday on Sand’s ESA means test. Want to sharpen your writing and get the inside scoop on Iowa politics at the same time? Join us September 27-30 at the Okoboji Writers' & Songwriters' Retreat on beautiful West Lake Okoboji, featuring Iowa Down Ballot analysts Laura Belin and Kathie Obradovich. They'll walk you through finding public information, getting your opinion pieces published, and plenty more. Spots are limited, so scan the QR code at the beginning and end of the video or head to okobojiwritersretreat.com to sign up. If you’d like to make a donation to help the Iowa Writer’s Collaborative which supports this show please click the button below. Thanks! Auto-generated transcript below: 00:00:30.730 --> 00:00:39.459 Dave Price: Hi, everyone, and welcome to the Iowa Down Ballot Podcast. I am Dave Price, joined by not two. 3 00:00:39.580 --> 00:00:55.030 Dave Price: But 3 media friends this week. Laura Belin, Kathie Obradovich are regulars. They’re here, of course. But we have a newbie, a rookie, Shane Vander Hart. Who the heck is this person? Hi, Shane. 4 00:00:55.030 --> 00:00:55.760 Shane: Hey! 5 00:00:55.890 --> 00:00:57.110 Shane: Hey Dave, how are you? 6 00:00:58.110 --> 00:00:59.459 Dave Price: Who are you? Shane: Who am I? Well, I’m just a guy, no. I write a substack, shanevanderhart.com, very original. 8 00:01:09.370 --> 00:01:10.190 Shane: So, it’s… 9 00:01:10.190 --> 00:01:11.310 Dave Price: Branding, baby, branding. 10 00:01:11.310 --> 00:01:20.809 Shane: Yeah, yeah, so it’s… it’s a piece of my mind, basically, the subtitle’s Piece of My Mind About Faith, Culture, Politics, Media, and Public Policy, because 11 00:01:21.100 --> 00:01:30.350 Shane: drilling down on one particular thing is boring, and so I can… it just leaves it broad and wide open, so whatever I want to write about, I can just do that. 12 00:01:30.490 --> 00:01:37.780 Dave Price: Outstanding. We have had some private conversations, really, for a number of weeks, and we took last week off. 13 00:01:38.080 --> 00:01:43.669 Dave Price: For a little vacation, rest up as we get ready for the final sprint. 14 00:01:43.930 --> 00:01:53.680 Dave Price: I… one of the biggest… I’m just gonna talk out loud about what has been challenging for me. There is no conservative version of Laura Belin. 15 00:01:54.770 --> 00:02:01.099 Dave Price: That is… that has… because that has always been my dream, right? Laura is this unique… 16 00:02:01.970 --> 00:02:09.669 Dave Price: entity. Nobody does what Laura does. Kathie runs this sprawling enterprise, so she’s her own thing, too. 17 00:02:09.740 --> 00:02:13.819 Dave Price: But… but that… she has a different… a different mission. 18 00:02:13.820 --> 00:02:33.139 Dave Price: There is no conservative version of Laura, and so we have had private conversations about, like, how do we get some conservative voices in here? You know, way back in the day, we had Kevin Hall, Craig Robinson, they were doing some things, and they did it differently than Laura does. 19 00:02:33.170 --> 00:02:47.340 Dave Price: But nobody does the kind of deep dive stuff from the conservative side that Laura does, and that is something that I’ve always thought could probably give our conversations here each week a little more depth. 20 00:02:47.410 --> 00:02:48.580 Dave Price: So… 21 00:02:48.690 --> 00:03:03.760 Dave Price: Shane, who has 43 different jobs, so it makes it very challenging to schedule with this man, but you have been around conservative politics for a while, and I appreciate right now you’re… you’re probably a lost man. 22 00:03:04.000 --> 00:03:21.710 Dave Price: You are not… you are not the Republican guy who I met 20 years ago or whatever, when we met up for coffee at Smokey Row in Des Moines, when you were doing some other… you had caffeinated thoughts and some other things you were doing. You later launched Iowa Torch, you’ve been a youth pastor in your career, all kinds of stuff. 23 00:03:21.790 --> 00:03:23.780 Dave Price: So… 24 00:03:23.860 --> 00:03:43.229 Dave Price: welcome, because it’s nice to add yet another… yet another voice to this. And I wonder, since you’re our guest this week, maybe you lead off, but one thing that we have talked a little bit about on this podcast, but not a lot, would be looking at the idea of school choice. 25 00:03:43.230 --> 00:03:59.199 Dave Price: And how that might play out in the gubernatorial race. Laura has done a lot of reporting, Kathie’s staff has done reporting on this as well. Shane, you are working for a couple of members who clearly have. 26 00:03:59.680 --> 00:04:00.669 Shane: Mistaken it, yeah. 27 00:04:00.670 --> 00:04:13.019 Dave Price: a stake in this and a lot of interest in this expansion. So, talk about what you have seen so far from Rob Sand and Zach Lahn in this area. 28 00:04:13.300 --> 00:04:24.940 Shane: Okay, well, as far as, school choice, it’s hard to say exactly how prominent it’s gonna be in the election. Right now, it seems, obviously, focused more on the economy, and… 29 00:04:25.190 --> 00:04:29.109 Shane: I think Rob Sands, 30 00:04:29.310 --> 00:04:37.129 Shane: his hits on Lahn about where he, you know, where he resides has been landing, especially with independents, but… 31 00:04:37.310 --> 00:04:45.039 Shane: I see two candidates that are pretty far apart on the issue. Of course. 32 00:04:45.300 --> 00:04:57.290 Shane: Rob seems like he has, moderated himself to a point where he’s not… he’s not advocating getting rid of ESAs altogether, but just putting… bringing back the income cap, which I hope I’m… 33 00:04:57.640 --> 00:04:59.719 Shane: I hope I’m, 34 00:05:00.230 --> 00:05:08.220 Shane: talking about his position accurately, but… So I don’t know if that’s what he truly believes, or if that’s what he… 35 00:05:08.900 --> 00:05:20.790 Shane: thinks that’s what… the only thing he’s gonna be able to get accomplished, with… with the current political environment and the likelihood that if he’s elected governor, he’s going to have a Republican legislature to work with, so… 36 00:05:20.860 --> 00:05:30.320 Shane: It’s been interesting. Lahn hasn’t said a lot on the campaign trail that I’ve seen, other than he’s supportive of VSAs. 37 00:05:30.350 --> 00:05:42.859 Shane: I think we’re going to be trying to drill down where he really lands more on specific issues that impact private schools, not just ESAs, but independent accreditation and other things as well. 38 00:05:43.450 --> 00:05:47.089 Dave Price: Laura, what’s your take on where is the base on this? 39 00:05:47.440 --> 00:06:03.939 Laura Belin: Well, the Democratic base is extremely opposed to the school voucher program. I think I agree with Shane’s summary. I would just add a couple of things to what Rob Sands says when he talks about this issue, which he does a lot. He brings it up a lot at his town halls. And… 40 00:06:03.940 --> 00:06:28.209 Laura Belin: he definitely wants to bring b… Get full access to Iowa Down Ballot at iowawriterscollaborative.substack.com/subscribe

Kathie’s team at Iowa Capital Dispatch broke a story on a 119-page study the Reynolds administration commissioned on letting community colleges offer four-year degrees, then sat on for months. The findings: Iowa doesn’t really have “education deserts,” and the brain drain problem is more about low wages than higher ed. Community colleges are already pushing back on the report’s methodology, and expect this fight back at the legislature next year. Read Brooklyn Draisey’s reporting here. We also got an update on the libertarian ballot cases. Marco Battalia (running under a name that isn’t legally his) and Rick Stewart both had name-based challenges heard in court this week, with rulings expected soon. The tougher case, over Jules Cutler’s affidavit for lieutenant governor, is headed to the Iowa Supreme Court either way. Last up, a Dave Muhlbauer campaign stop for the Rob Sand campaign at Ember Recovery turned into a real, unscripted moment when YSS president Andrew Allen raised concerns about legalizing marijuana and its effect on kids. Good discussion, and a reminder that this issue deserves more nuance than it usually gets. We’re off next week, back in two weeks as the fall campaign heats up. Want to sharpen your writing and get the inside scoop on Iowa politics at the same time? Join us September 27-30 at the Okoboji Writers' & Songwriters' Retreat on beautiful West Lake Okoboji, featuring Iowa Down Ballot analysts Laura Belin and Kathie Obradovich. They'll walk you through finding public information, getting your opinion pieces published, and plenty more. Spots are limited, so scan the QR code at the beginning and end of the video or head to okobojiwritersretreat.com to sign up. If you’d like to make a donation to help the Iowa Writer’s Collaborative which supports this show please click the button below. Thanks! Auto-generated transcript below: 00:02:03.920 --> 00:02:20.189 Dave Price: Hi everybody, welcome back to the Iowa Down Ballot podcast. I’m Dave Price, joined by Laura Belin and Kathie Obradovich, as we get toward the end of July, and my son’s 16th birthday, so kind of a fun… a fun day in my household. How are you, ladies? 33 00:02:20.720 --> 00:02:22.580 Kathie Obradovich: Doing great, how are you? 34 00:02:22.720 --> 00:02:35.560 Dave Price: Kathie, I’m gonna call you out, but just to show how I do think women are genetically superior at this, which is probably sexist toward men, but it is what it is. Right before we open this podcast. 35 00:02:35.720 --> 00:02:51.300 Dave Price: Kathie, as she’s getting ready to do this show, is texting as part of her editor duties at the Iowa Capital Dispatch. So, you know, it just shows how she can break that brain up into multi… little multi-chunks. 36 00:02:52.180 --> 00:02:54.400 Kathie Obradovich: I would never get anything done otherwise. 37 00:02:54.400 --> 00:02:56.780 Laura Belin: Women… women are good at multitasking, Dan. 38 00:02:56.780 --> 00:02:58.130 Dave Price: Honestly, I… 39 00:02:58.130 --> 00:03:22.950 Dave Price: I am… I learn that every year, year after year. Anyway. Alright, we have a bunch to talk about. Kathie, can you lead off today? Because on… late on Thursday night, Iowa Capital Dispatch had a story that posted about something that you all have been chasing down, really, for a number of months. And to catch us up on this, this was something that came up 40 00:03:22.950 --> 00:03:41.270 Dave Price: during the past legislative session, where there was talk about community colleges offering four-year degrees, to lay this out generically. And it faced some pushback from the regents, obviously, it faced some pushback, especially from some of the private colleges and universities. 41 00:03:41.270 --> 00:03:54.570 Dave Price: But your staff found out that there had been this study commissioned to look at this concept. Can you walk us through the journey to actually get ahold of this study? 42 00:03:54.570 --> 00:03:59.399 Kathie Obradovich: Yeah, so it’s interesting. It’s probably been more accurate to say it’s been weeks, as… Okay. 43 00:03:59.400 --> 00:04:01.190 Dave Price: It’s better to say months. 44 00:04:01.190 --> 00:04:17.640 Kathie Obradovich: But, it’s been 8 months, anyway. So, yeah, we covered during the legislative session, the push from community colleges to establish baccalaureate degrees at community colleges, which is, you know, really. 45 00:04:17.640 --> 00:04:42.300 Kathie Obradovich: something that has never been done in Iowa. Community colleges, have four-year or two-year associate certificates, and they also have programs where their students can transfer to a private college or one of the region’s universities to get a four-year degree. And that was a hotly contested issue at the legislature, the private colleges especially 46 00:04:42.380 --> 00:04:59.869 Kathie Obradovich: were up in arms over that, saying it would really help them. And really, one of the, the arguments behind it, on the community college side was that there are, higher education deserts in Iowa, that the community colleges could help fill, because 47 00:05:00.030 --> 00:05:02.319 Kathie Obradovich: You know, there are places where 48 00:05:02.320 --> 00:05:27.220 Kathie Obradovich: Especially adult students who may be, trying to go back to school to upgrade their skills and get a better job, that they, you know, might not be able to access those, courses, you know, either they’re too far away, or they are too expensive. So, okay, that was the… that was the big driving argument. The bill didn’t pass. And at some point during the process. 49 00:05:27.220 --> 00:05:40.530 Kathie Obradovich: the Reynolds administration commissioned a study from a consultant. Never told anyone this study was going on, but some of the stakeholders participated in the study, so they knew about it. 50 00:05:40.530 --> 00:05:47.780 Kathie Obradovich: And then the study, was received by Department of Education, in June. 51 00:05:47.780 --> 00:06:03.389 Kathie Obradovich: At some point, the study actually was dated in March, which is while the legislative session was going on. The Department of Education says they received it in June, but it was never released. And so… 52 00:06:03.650 --> 00:06:28.649 Kathie Obradovich: We put in a Freedom of Information Act request, and after being handed around, you know, various departments, we finally got a copy of it yesterday morning. And it was really interesting, because the study basically said, you know, that there really isn’t education deserts in Iowa. That, they, you know, people can 53 00:06:28.650 --> 00:06:45.830 Kathie Obradovich: access higher education, either through, you know, within an hour’s drive or online, and that there’s plenty of access, etc. And, also, and this is maybe even the more interesting part, they said that 54 00:06:45.930 --> 00:07:07.509 Kathie Obradovich: Iowa’s workforce woes, you know, the concerns about the brain drain are really due to the business climate, and not how higher education is performing in the state, which I thought was pretty interesting. So, you know, we can use our imaginations about why the governor’s office wasn’t in a big hurry to release this study. 55 00:07:07.510 --> 00:07:12.470 Kathie Obradovich: But, you know, the community colleges are still pushing back. They’re saying that the 56 00:07:12.470 --> 00:07:20.779 Kathie Obradovich: Their definition of an education desert was flawed, or at least different from what the community colleges are using. 57 00:07:20.780 --> 00:07:44.820 Kathie Obradovich: community colleges say a 30-minute drive is, is really more practical for people. And, you know, I think they have a point there. But also arguing that, you know, online, doesn’t serve the bill. So they’re pushing back, essentially, especially at the education desert part of that. And, you know, I think that there were some recommendations that the private colleges don’t like as well, including 58 00:07:44.820 --> 00:07:54.319 Kathie Obradovich: putting, more, you know, kind of putting more conditio… Get full access to Iowa Down Ballot at iowawriterscollaborative.substack.com/subscribe