Madeleine King
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Iowa Public Radio
Iowa Democrats had their best election night in years. Chair Rita Hart calls the results a “cry for help” from voters who want both parties to work together.
Sheila Brummer
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Iowa Public Radio
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The midterm elections are ramping up. We launch our candidate series with Dave Dawson, the Democrat running in Iowa’s 4th District. Dawson is running against Siouxland Chamber of Commerce president Chris McGowan, a seat currently held by Rep. Randy Feenstra. We talk with him about running as a Democrat in a red district. But first, we revisit a conversation with an astrophysicist who discusses new research on white dwarf stars 200 light-years away and learn about scientists at the University of Iowa working on a virtual lunar landscape complete with low gravity and lunar dirt. (Portions of the episode were originally produced Feb. 3, 2026.) -
On this episode, we talk with both of Iowa's major political party chairs. First, Iowa Democratic Party chair Rita Hart, then Iowa Republican Party chair Jeff Kaufmann. We discuss the open governor and Senate races and key Congressional and statehouse races in the November 3 midterm election, plus where the 2028 presidential caucuses stand.
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The Democratic National Committee on Saturday approved by voice vote its lineup of six early primaries for the 2028 election cycle, kicking off with South Carolina and Nevada. Notably, the early lineup excludes Iowa, despite a push from its state party officials to keep it among the initial contests.
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A longtime Iowa State Fair tradition gave Republican Zach Lahn and Democrat Rob Sand a chance to make their case to voters. They offered different visions for the state while portraying themselves as willing to challenge politics as usual. -
New campaign finance reports show Democrat Rob Sand with a fundraising edge over Republican Zach Lahn. But the biggest difference isn't just how much money they're raising — it's where the money comes from as they compete for Iowa's highest office. -
The Iowa Democratic Party and the Republican Party of Iowa both gained voters over the past month, while the number of voters with no party affiliation dropped significantly.
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Democratic nominee for governor Rob Sand launched a statewide town hall tour in Decorah on Wednesday. It was the first stop on a trip that will bring the candidate to each of Iowa’s 100 county seats between now and the end of September. -
Three Libertarians who filed to run for governor, lieutenant governor and U.S. House in Iowa won't appear on the ballot. That's after members of the Republican party challenged their paperwork, and the state objection panel voted to remove the names of Nicholas Gluba, Jules Cutler and Marco Battaglia from Iowa ballots. In this episode, host Ben Kieffer recaps that decision as well as the state party conventions with Megan Goldberg of Cornell College and Jonathan Hassid of Iowa State University. They also discuss looming changes to Social Security and the tentative peace deal with Iran.
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The Democratic candidate for governor and his running mate attended an event in Manning, where they focused on issues including clean water, data centers, education savings accounts and government accountability.
