Hegewald is the second Republican to challenge U.S. Rep. Mariannette Miller-Meeks' reelection, joining David Pautsch, a hardline MAGA Republican from Davenport.
But Hegewald said he’s more of an Abraham Lincoln Republican. To him, that means holding a political philosophy that takes a small-government, working-class approach.
“Law shouldn’t be complicated, and at the end of the day, law isn’t complicated,” Hegewald said. “You just need to run the government by listening to what the American people want.”
Hegewald lived in Minneapolis for three years before returning to Iowa in November. He's currently a server at an upscale German restaurant in Amana, and he previously owned and operated the Prairie Soup Company in Cedar Rapids. It shut down both of its locations in 2022.
Hegewald said his working-class background and his time as a business owner give him an insight into how decisions that are made in Washington, D.C., affect everyday Iowans.
“Every single day, I have customers come in and I ask them about policies and stuff, and I listen to the customers and their concerns about how the government is being ran,” he said. “And that’s something that current politicians don’t do.”
Hegewald said if he's elected, two of his priorities include introducing more tax breaks to benefit the working class and not spending more money on wars overseas.
“Congress always reduces taxes for the rich and not the working class, even though the working class is the one who needs these tax breaks the most,” Hegewald said. “And we keep telling them ...every single year goes by, and we keep telling them we don’t want tax breaks for the rich, we want it for us.”
A former Democrat, Hegewald promotes limiting government regulations, but also supports proposals typically favored by Democrats, like ensuring greater access to reproductive care.
“Believing in abortions and having that right is what I would see as having a small, limited government at the federal level,” he said. “Because the government doesn’t know where to draw the line when it comes to abortions, and we’re never going to agree on where they should draw the line.”
Hegwald also said he wants to address issues of housing affordability by helping nonprofits maintain housing for their tenants as a first step.
“It makes sense to help and support nonprofits to decrease the cost of living so that they are only charging tenants the amount that they need in order to run the business,” he said.
Hegewald said he also wants to get rid of federal guarantees for college tuition, saying landlords increase rental costs near college campuses as a result.
“[That] will basically, in a way, demand landlords to decrease the rents and the rest of the housing market will follow,” Hegewald said.
Last year, nearly 10 million students received aid from the federal government to help pay for college.
On health care, Hegewald said he wants to improve the Affordable Care Act to increase competition in the health insurance industry and reduce copays and premiums in the short term, before implementing "Medicare for All."
“I want to take smaller steps right away, because if you were to enact 'Medicare for All' right now, that’s going to be a huge shift for the government, and the government, just historically speaking, cannot deal with big changes,” Hegewald said.
He also supports legalizing marijuana and psilocybin and removing the federal drinking and smoking age limits.
“I want a government that represents the people, and it is my belief that the people want marijuana to be legalized,” Hegewald said. “They want smoking to be legal at the age of 18, and want alcohol to be legal at the age of 18. And repealing it at the federal level means states could enact lower drinking ages.”
Who's running in Iowa's 1st District in 2026?
Hegewald, Pautsch and incumbent Rep. Mariannette Miller-Meeks are in the running for the Republican nomination in the 1st District.
Travis Terrell, Christina Bohannan and Taylor Wettach are running in the Democratic Party's primary race.
The 1st Congressional District covers southeast and eastern Iowa.
