Jason Benell lives in Des Moines with his wife and two children. He is a combat veteran, former city council candidate, and president of Iowa Atheists and Freethinkers. A version of this essay first appeared on his Substack newsletter, The Odd Man Out.

Elon Musk isn’t the problem. Donald Trump isn’t the problem. The problem is Republicanism and our broken political system.

Across the country and here in Iowa there have been protests targeting Elon Musk and the company he owns, Tesla. Protesters point out—rightfully, in my view—that Musk echoes fascist tendencies from the 20^th century with his glorification of Nazi imagery, sympathetic speeches to neo-Nazi groups both domestically and abroad, and his gleeful charge into dismantling the federal government. People have written articles and giving interviews exclaiming how much a problem Musk is for the United States. 

The argument goes something like this: “Elon wasn’t elected, yet he wields tremendous power to dismantle the federal government, and we do not like an unelected billionaire doing all of this damage!”

Yeah, that is true. Americans didn’t elect Musk, and one person shouldn’t have that much power to destroy the state. By all accounts, he seems to be a terrible human being who craves attention and respect while treating others poorly and abusively. Turning away from that type of person is morally good.

Rick Morain is the former publisher and owner of the Jefferson Herald, for which he writes a regular column.

Rarely, if ever, have Iowa’s members of Congress found themselves situated to alter the course of America’s economy. But right now they can, and one of the six in the delegation has already taken a first step to do so.

Last week, President Donald Trump imposed harsh tariffs on every nation in the world that trades with us. He did so by fiat, something he claims empowerment to do without so much as even consulting Congress. The Republican majorities of 53-47 in the Senate and 220-213 in the House have remained almost unanimously acquiescent.

U.S. Senator Bernie Sanders’ campaign has a staffer on the ground again in Iowa. No, the senator from Vermont isn’t getting a head start on the 2028 caucuses.

In an April 3 telephone interview, Evan Burger described his focus and early work as Iowa organizer for Friends of Bernie Sanders.

Dan Piller was a business reporter for more than four decades, working for the Des Moines Register and the Fort Worth Star-Telegram. He covered the oil and gas industry while in Texas and was the Register’s agriculture reporter before his retirement in 2013. He lives in Ankeny.

U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Brooke Rollins’ March 31 visit to Iowa had the appearance and vibe of a high-ranking officer sent to the front line to boost the troops’ morale before the next assault.

Rollins visited all the strategic strongholds of Iowa agriculture: an ethanol plant, a hog farm, a feed processing operation, and a suitably big (Republican-leaning) farm operation just west of Des Moines, handing out plenty of morale-raising attaboys to the soldiers in the trenches.

But even as Rollins addressed the “Ag Leaders Dinner” in Ankeny—assembling some 500 people and Iowa’s agricultural royalty such as Governor Kim Reynolds, U.S. Senator Joni Ernst, and Iowa Secretary of Agriculture Mike Naig—Iowa’s economic earth was beginning to shake.

Randy Evans is executive director of the Iowa Freedom of Information Council, a nonpartisan, nonprofit organization that promotes openness and transparency in Iowa’s state and local governments. He can be reached at DMRevans2810@gmail.com.

Growing up in the 1950s, Evans family vacations seem typical by rural Midwest standards: car trips to the Ozarks, the Black Hills, Nauvoo and New Salem in Illinois, or St. Louis for a Cardinals baseball game.

But one memorable summer trip, around 1960, occurred when we motored north through Minnesota to Canada, the only foreign country my parents ever visited and a place more exotic than the Wisconsin Dells. 

Exotic? Absolutely. This trip required us to stop at the border and clear a Canadian customs check.

Herb Strentz was dean of the Drake School of Journalism from 1975 to 1988 and professor there until retirement in 2004. He was executive secretary of the Iowa Freedom of Information Council from its founding in 1976 to 2000.

We’re in the Christian season of Lent—the 40 days from Ash Wednesday to Easter Sunday—a time for self-reflection and repentance. This year, however, Lent is also marked by enough ironies to fuel endless debates about the separation of religion and politics.

Consider:

President Donald Trump has said of the attempt to assassinate him last July, “I was saved by God to make America great again.”

Further, Trump has likened his May 2024 felony conviction to the persecution suffered by Jesus Christ. He also likened those he pardoned for their roles in the January 6, 2021 insurrection to Christian martyrs—“persecuted Christians” was Trump’s phrase.

On the other hand, a recent survey by the well-respected Pew Research Center suggests a marked decline in Iowans identifying themselves as Christian. Pew’s Landscape Study also indicates that Iowa is no longer more Christian than the rest of the nation.

Dave Price had the scoop for Gray Media on March 28: State Senator Zach Wahls is “certainly listening” to those who have encouraged him to run for U.S. Senate in 2026.

Wahls is the first Democrat to publicly express interest in this race. Two-term Senator Joni Ernst has not formally launched her re-election campaign but is widely expected to seek a third term.

Wahls told Price he will decide whether to run for higher office after the Iowa legislative session. But he’s already criticizing Ernst, most recently in a March 26 news release that tied the senator to Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s “reckless mishandling of military plans” in a Signal group chat.

Rod Sullivan is a Johnson County supervisor. 

I searched the word “Medicaid” in my archive. I was shocked to find how much I have written on the topic—tens of thousands of words over the years. 

Why have I written so much about Medicaid? For one, you write what you know. I used to work in the Iowa Medicaid program. Even though that was several years ago, I know Medicaid quite well. That is why the Republican scheme to cut the program upsets me so much.

Bruce Lear lives in Sioux City and has been connected to Iowa’s public schools for 38 years. He taught for eleven years and represented educators as an Iowa State Education Association regional director for 27 years until retiring. He can be reached at BruceLear2419@gmail.com 

Dear members of Congress:

I know your job is difficult. I’d hate coming to work where I’m expected, at least in public, to despise almost half of my co-workers just because we disagree.

One side knows the republic hangs in the balance, but can’t decide how to cut it down to keep it from choking. The other side twists itself into knots defending a mercurial president who rides one whim after another, depending on the day. Both sides hurl insults via cable news noise.

It’s a dysfunctional work environment.

The American people are caught in the middle.

Here are some suggestions for improving your workplace and getting back to doing the people’s business. 

Randy Evans is executive director of the Iowa Freedom of Information Council, a nonpartisan, nonprofit organization that promotes openness and transparency in Iowa’s state and local governments. He can be reached at DMRevans2810@gmail.com.

As President Donald Trump, red-state governors, and legislators elevate the stress and anxiety in higher education by seeking to change how U.S. colleges and universities operate and what they teach, the contrast between how an Ivy League school and an Iowa university responded shows the courage gap among college leaders.

Columbia University, the 270-year-old private, nonprofit institution in New York City, garnered intense governmental attention and public criticism last week. 

The Trump administration cancelled $400 million in federal grants for medical and scientific research because of what the president thought was the school’s inadequate response to pro-Palestinian protests on campus growing out of Israel’s war in Gaza. The president demanded the school make a series of substantive changes as preconditions for the feds’ restoration of the grants—including banning protesters from wearing masks, thereby making it easier to identify them.

Robert Reich, a University of California professor of public policy and former member of the Clinton cabinet, wrote last week about the Trump administration’s actions: “Don’t fool yourself into thinking this is just about Trump wanting to protect Jewish students from expressions of antisemitism. It’s about the Trump regime wanting to impose all sorts of values on American higher education. It’s all about intimidation.” 

While the Ivy League school withered in the spotlight and gave in to the pressure, Drake University, the largest private school in Iowa, stood firm against the tide of federal and state mandates to end diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives in a way few institutions have in recent weeks.

Marty Martin has led Drake as its president for the past ten years. On March 3, he offered a blunt defense to Drake’s faculty, staff and students of what opponents to diversity, equality, and inclusiveness label simply as DEI.

In an email titled “A Welcoming Place for All,” Martin wrote: 

A great strength of Drake University is the ever-increasing diversity of the individuals who make up this wonderful place. That diversity is essential to our mission promise to prepare our students for meaningful personal lives, professional accomplishment, and responsible global citizenship. 

It creates opportunities for life-changing relationships. It makes our campus more interesting and vibrant. It broadens perspectives and enriches the learning experience. It ultimately makes our University stronger and more resilient.” 

Martin continued: “When we open ourselves up to the wide array of individuals and communities around us, our lives become more grounded, joyful, and fulfilling. We learn that our differences are not weaknesses, they are strengths. We discover that exploring those differences with open minds and hearts, with empathy and love, is one of the most meaningful experiences we can have in life.” 

He then directed his attention to Iowa state government: 

On Friday [February 28], Governor Reynolds signed a bill ending eighteen years of civil rights protection for transgender and nonbinary Iowans. This action is one among many current state and federal efforts that seek to turn our differences into division. Instead of working to find a shared path grounded in respect for the basic human dignity possessed by every person, too many public officials are seeking to marginalize and isolate our colleagues, neighbors, friends, and loved ones. 

This is a moral failure against which we stand in opposition. It is our duty to respect, support, and affirm anyone in our community targeted by these actions.

Martin concluded, “The road ahead is going to present many challenges to the values that define this institution. … My hope is that we travel this road together grounded in a shared commitment to be there for each other every step of the way. You have my unwavering commitment to remain steadfast in fostering a welcoming, inclusive, and safe community for all.” 

Martin’s message was not written in a vacuum. And effective and courageous leadership does not occur in a vacuum, either. 

At a time when academic freedom and First Amendment rights get pushback from federal and state government officials, Marty Martin elevated Drake University above a concerning number of other colleges and universities that have bowed to outside political pressure and legalized extortion. 

Federal research grants are not some form of reward or incentive available only to government’s “friends.” Nor should these grants—and the promise they hold for healthier lives—become a tool for intimidation.

Government never should have the power to condition benefits, funding or support on a waiver of constitutional rights or civil liberties. 

Presumably, the medical research grants the Trump administration is cutting originated because government saw important societal benefits from the breakthroughs these institutions’ scientists have achieved—breakthroughs that have improved survival rates and new treatments for breast cancer, for heart disease, for leukemia, diabetes, and other health disorders. 

Martin’s letter also comes at a time when a bill moving through the Iowa legislature would withhold Iowa Tuition Grants from private colleges and universities in the state if a school refuses to end its diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives. (Iowa House members approved House File 856 last week; the bill has been assigned to a subcommittee in the Senate.) 

The tuition grant program was created in 1972 and has made higher education more affordable for qualifying students who choose to attend an Iowa private, not-for-profit college or university. The state will spend about $50 million this year on these need-based scholarships. 

One footnote of irony: That the legislature is considering conditioning college tuition support on how private colleges run their internal operations—their diversity and equality initiatives—stands in sharp contrast with the hands-off position the state takes with private K-12 schools that receive taxpayer funds through Education Savings Accounts. These voucher accounts provide $7,800 in tax money for each student to assist with their private school tuition, costing the state hundreds of millions of dollars a year.

The question now is whether state and federal government officials take a similar hands-off attitude toward the pledge by Marty Martin and Drake University to keep its campus welcoming, nurturing and supportive of all students, all faculty and all staff.

Rick Morain is the former publisher and owner of the Jefferson Herald, for which he writes a regular column.

It takes courage to stand for the right course of action. It takes more courage to do something about it.

John F. Kennedy’s 1956 book Profiles in Courage details the actions of eight U.S. Senators throughout history who did the right thing in specific instances, knowing nevertheless the bitter criticism and retaliation they would undergo. Among the eight was U.S. Senator James W. Grimes of Iowa, who was among seven Republican senators who voted against convicting President Andrew Johnson in 1868 on his questionable impeachment charge approved by the Republican-controlled U.S. House.

Johnson avoided ejection from the presidency by just one vote. Had any one of the seven brave senators voted the other way, he would have been gone.

Sometimes such courage takes place hidden from the public. Other times, as in the episodes Kennedy describes, it’s very public, even sensational.

If ever a time cried out for such courage, it’s now.

Dani Replogle is a staff attorney with the national advocacy group Food & Water Watch.

For nearly a century, the U.S. government has encouraged farmers to adopt practices that conserve wetlands, protect clean water, and keep farms sustainable. But this common-sense federal commitment to farmers and wetland conservation is now under threat.

Swampbuster, a federal program that rewards farmers who conserve wetlands with eligibility for millions of dollars in U.S. Department of Agriculture benefits, is a policy that embodies the longstanding governmental commitment to supporting good farmland stewardship practices. Thanks to the Trump administration and a suite of lawsuits that have cropped up in federal courts, Swampbuster and similar incentive programs now face an uncertain future.

For years, family farm groups have been advocating for this long-term farm sustainability program. This month, attorneys representing sustainable agriculture groups will defend the critical Swampbuster program in federal court in Cedar Rapids.

First-term State Representative Brett Barker has acknowledged he made a “rookie mistake” when he authorized the distribution of a right-wing Christian pamphlet to all of his Iowa House colleagues. Barker told Bleeding Heartland he didn’t read the publication by Capitol Ministries before it was circulated in the chamber on March 19.

But Barker has not publicly disavowed the contents of the weekly “Bible Study,” which portrays political adversaries as tools of Satan, calls on believers to “evangelize their colleagues,” depicts same-sex marriage and LGBTQ existence as “satanic perversions,” and condemns “women’s liberation” as a “scheme of the devil.”

Staff for Governor Kim Reynolds and U.S. Senator Joni Ernst did not respond to Bleeding Heartland’s inquiries about their association with Capitol Ministries or the views expressed in its latest publication. Both Reynolds and Ernst are among the “Bible Study Sponsors” listed on the front page of the document distributed in the Iowa House.

John Hale and Terri Hale own The Hale Group, advocating for older Iowans and people with disabilities. John worked for the Social Security Administration for 25 years in its Baltimore headquarters, Kansas City regional office, and in multiple Iowa field offices. Contact: terriandjohnhale@gmail.com

The Social Security program is 89 years old. Seventy-two million Americans currently receive a monthly benefit. Some 185 million Americans pay into the system and plan to receive benefits someday.

According to the Social Security Administration, some 687,630 Iowans receive monthly Social Security benefits, which total more than $1.2 billion ($1,235,464,000 to be precise) every month—in Iowa alone.

Americans depend on Social Security to be there for them. Recent events raise serious questions about whether it will be.

Kurt Meyer writes a weekly column for the Nora Springs – Rockford Register and the Substack newsletter Showing Up, where this essay first appeared. He served as chair of the executive committee (the equivalent of board chair) of Americans for Democratic Action, America’s most experienced liberal organization.

John Muir, among our nation’s earliest and most passionate conservationists, died on Christmas Eve, 1914. Yet I swear I can hear his voice, crystal clear, responding to President Donald Trump’s recent actions. 

Earlier this month, Trump directed federal agencies to seek ways environmental regulations could be circumvented with plans of increasing timber production in 280 million acres of national forests and other public lands. He signed an executive order allowing the U.S. to bypass Endangered Species Act protections.

The only Iowa Republican in Congress who did not receive Donald Trump’s “Complete and Total Endorsement!” in 2022 has been working hard to demonstrate her loyalty to him.

U.S. Representative Mariannette Miller-Meeks has stuck close to Trump—literally and figuratively—as she prepares for what could be a tough 2026 primary campaign in Iowa’s first Congressional district.

Herb Strentz was dean of the Drake School of Journalism from 1975 to 1988 and professor there until retirement in 2004. He was executive secretary of the Iowa Freedom of Information Council from its founding in 1976 to 2000.

Lutheran Services in Iowa is struggling after the federal government reneged on a $1.5 million commitment to fund the nonprofit’s work in welcoming and aiding legal immigrants and refugees to Iowa. The controversy screams for more detail and better coverage than it has received from the news media so far.

Hundreds of newcomers to Iowa, and millions across the country aided by other charities, have been cut off from support authorized by Congress. The Trump administration’s decision to freeze the funding is grounded in misleading statements if not outright lies.

The way we are treating the world’s most vulnerable today stands in stark contrast to our country’s history. Consider a 19^th century sonnet by poet Emma Lazarus, which expressed America’s aspirations as a nation of immigrants, and a vulgarity President Donald Trump expressed in the 21^st century.

Fifteenth in a series interpreting the results of Iowa’s 2024 state and federal elections.

Nick Conway is a Geographic Information Systems Technician who lives in Seattle, Washington. He is a graduate of Grinnell College. Follow him on X/Twitter @Mill226 or on Bluesky @conwayni2.bsky.social.

Iowa has experienced one of the nation’s most dramatic political transformations since President Barack Obama carried the state for a second time in 2012. While Obama won 52.0 percent of Iowa’s presidential vote to Mitt Romney’s 46.2 percent (a roughly 6-point margin), by 2024 the state had become solidly Republican, with Donald Trump securing 55.7 percent to 42.5 percent for Kamala Harris (a 13-point margin).

Iowa’s 19 percentage point swing in presidential voting from 2012 to 2024 was the second-largest shift toward Republicans among all 50 states, surpassed only by Obama’s childhood home of Hawaii.

The transformation was particularly striking at the county level. Nearly a quarter of the 100 counties in the U.S. that showed the largest GOP gains from 2012 to 2024 are in Iowa.

The only Iowa Republican legislator to lose his 2024 re-election bid has landed a job in the Trump administration—and he won’t need to move to Washington, DC.

Former State Senator Brad Zaun will be the administrator of the Small Business Administration’s Region 7, he announced to LinkedIn followers on March 6. In a statement published by the Des Moines Register, Zaun said he was “dedicated to boosting small businesses in Iowa, Kansas, Missouri, and Nebraska by cutting red tape, expanding our reach, and providing essential resources.” He added, “My goal is a streamlined, ‘America First’ SBA that fuels free enterprise and regional prosperity.”

Elon Musk’s “Department of Government Efficiency” continues to slash the federal workforce, but there will always be room for political appointees—especially those on good terms with President Donald Trump.

Jason Benell lives in Des Moines with his wife and two children. He is a combat veteran, former city council candidate, and president of Iowa Atheists and Freethinkers. A version of this essay first appeared on his Substack newsletter, The Odd Man Out.

Recently we have seen an onslaught of awful behavior and policy from the Republican majority, not only at the Iowa statehouse but nationally. In each case the Republicans have acted deplorably, while Democrats seem to think that the proper way to respond to deplorable behavior is to adjust their monocle, straighten their suit jackets, and have a respectable and demure silent protest before tut tutting on the drive home. 

Now, I am not one for immediately going from zero to pissed in a counterproductive way, but I am also not one to say, “When they go low, we tuck our tails and do nothing.” The way you deal with bullies isn’t to immediately cave and cede the entire ground to them, but to stand up and make them do the bad things they threaten to do. You don’t comply in advance. If you stand up, you have a chance to stop them.

Bruce Lear lives in Sioux City and has been connected to Iowa’s public schools for 38 years. He taught for eleven years and represented educators as an Iowa State Education Association regional director for 27 years until retiring. He can be reached at BruceLear2419@gmail.com 

(With apologies to the Twilight Zone creators)

You’re about to enter another dimension. A dimension not only of anger and fear but of hypocrisy. A journey into a place where bipartisan thought is extinguished by blind obedience. A dimension that diminishes a state. It refuses to listen to cries for moderation and compromise. It’s a place where no position is too extreme. Bizarre becomes reality. There’s a signpost up ahead. 

You’ve entered the Golden Dome Zone.

There’s certainly something weird happening under that Golden Dome. Senate File 360 would have made it a simple misdemeanor in Iowa to provide or administer a gene-based vaccines like the mRNA ones for COVID-19. Republicans on a subcommittee advanced this bill, but it did not get through the full Senate Health and Human Services Committee before the “funnel” deadline on March 7.

But did it really die?

Third in a series on the new Iowa law that removed legal protection against discrimination for transgender and nonbinary Iowans, as well as any path for the state to officially recognize their gender identity.

Given the choice, most legislators will not cast a potentially career-ending vote—especially when they know the outcome isn’t riding on their decision.

But on February 27, five Republican members of the Iowa House voted against Senate File 418, the bill that laid the groundwork for future discrimination against transgender Iowans and others. A sixth GOP lawmaker (who left the capitol during the floor debate) later put a note in the House Journal to confirm he would have voted no.

These lawmakers come from different political backgrounds but have a couple of things in common. All represent heavily Republican areas, not swing districts—which means they are at greater risk of losing to a GOP primary challenger than to a Democrat in a general election. In addition, all have opposed at least one other high-profile bill the House approved during the past few years.

This post is mostly about the six Republicans who took a public stand against Senate File 418. I also discuss eight of their colleagues, who signaled they were uncomfortable with discrimination against transgender Iowans but eventually fell in line.

Rick Morain is the former publisher and owner of the Jefferson Herald, for which he writes a regular column.

Like many words, “peace” carries a number of meanings. U.S. President Donald Trump and Ukrainian President Zelenskyy use “peace” to describe two different scenarios.

When Trump says peace, he means the absence of physical fighting. He says the goal in Ukraine is to stop the war, which he emphasizes has killed thousands upon thousands of Ukrainians and Russians.

That’s a laudable goal. And it’s Zelenskyy’s goal as well. But when Zelenskyy says peace, he has more in mind. He means the peace that comes when the aggressor is defeated and withdraws, when his invaded nation is no longer partially occupied by foreign troops.

Jeff Fuhrman is an independent international finance director with significant experience in the former Soviet Union.  He resides in Iowa with his husband and their dog, Harambe.

I write today to advocate for a return to good judgment and integrity in U.S. policies toward Ukraine. 

The February 28 meeting between President Donald Trump and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy devolved into a shouting match. Apparently it was was too much for the Trump administration for Zelenskyy to cite real facts in front of media outlets that might actually broadcast them.

The rhetorical tactics Trump and Vice President JD Vance used in response (including “if all else fails, just talk over them, loudly”) may have worked for some of the audience, but the messaging apparently didn’t land right. The administration sent Secretary of State Marco Rubio out to do more damage control a few hours later.

With a promise “to provide leadership to our country,” Republican David Pautsch officially kicked off his second campaign for Iowa’s first Congressional district on February 27 in Des Moines. Touching on many of the topics he discussed in a recent interview with Bleeding Heartland, he repeatedly contrasted his steadfast conservative beliefs with the “vacillation” of the GOP incumbent, U.S. Representative Mariannette Miller-Meeks.

I was unable to attend the campaign launch, as I was in the Iowa House chamber covering floor debate on a bill revoking transgender Iowans’ civil rights protections and legal recognition. The Iowa Standard’s Jacob Hall recorded the event and posted the video on Facebook.

Jesse Parker is a concerned citizen with an educational background in history and politics.

Donald Trump’s return to the White House is a reminder that the Democratic Party needs to recruit, revitalize, and inspire a younger voter base. Over the span of twelve years, Iowa flipped from a swing state that voted for Barack Obama to a solid red state. This year, Democrats must begin the work to flip the colors back.

While Iowa voter turnout hovered around 74 percent for the recent presidential election, young Iowans mark a problematic demographic with disappointing voter participation. Iowans aged 18-24 had an abysmal turnout rate of 29 percent in the 2022 general election, while 25–34-year-olds were only slightly more likely to participate (33 percent turnout).

Although these figures present a common trend among young voters in the nation, 2025 presents a strategic opportunity to engage with young progressives across the state.

Herb Strentz was dean of the Drake School of Journalism from 1975 to 1988 and professor there until retirement in 2004. He was executive secretary of the Iowa Freedom of Information Council from its founding in 1976 to 2000.

A sign of our times: a satirical T-shirt from the RAYGUN store in Des Moines offers better perspective on a political controversy than you’ll get from a Congressional hearing or the vigilante operation of President Donald Trump and Elon Musk. Using humor—an alternative to despair—the T-shirt highlights one small aspect of Trump’s reckless, damaging first few weeks in office.

With so many issues, lies, and likely unconstitutional actions in play, where does one begin? 

Let’s start with the Lutheran Crime Syndicate.

Rick Morain is the former publisher and owner of the Jefferson Herald, for which he writes a regular column.

President Donald Trump and DOGE top gun Elon Musk have been in power for a month. How have they changed life in Greene County?

Probably not much—yet.

Musk has ordered the firing of hundreds of thousands of federal employees, particularly those on “probationary” status who were hired in recent months. Greene County has precious few federal workers. Probably most of them here are concentrated in the USDA and related agencies. I’m not aware that anyone here in that category has been let go, but I may be wrong.

Anne Kinzel is a former attorney and Californian now living in central Iowa. Anne speaks three languages: English, French, and Policy, which allows her to take arcane policy concepts and translate them into language that consumers, voters, and policy makers can appreciate and use.

How many consultants has the Democratic establishment hired over the years to help them understand why they aren’t connecting with voters and non-voters? It’s likely more than the $250 million Elon Musk spent to buy the election.

Why don’t the Democrats connect well enough with Americans? It’s all about who has your back and who your true friends are—those who stand by you in a crisis.

I am certain that we are in a serious crisis. Every day, my Washington Democratic acquaintances bombard me with messages and spammy emails declaring that our country, our democracy, all of us are facing an existential crisis brought on by the authoritarian criminal Donald Trump and his twisted accomplice, Elon Musk. The essence of my Dem friends’ messages is this: send money to help us get re-elected, and everything will be fine.

Governor Kim Reynolds struck a confident tone when asked this week about a possible 2026 primary against former State Representative Brad Sherman.

In a February 17 news release announcing his campaign for governor, Sherman said, “I look forward to working with President Trump – who I endorsed early and supported in rallies, caucuses, conventions, and elections – in his agenda to restore the America we love.”

It was a not-subtle swipe at Reynolds, who endorsed and campaigned for Florida Governor Ron DeSantis before the 2024 Iowa caucuses.

Although the governor has not confirmed she will seek a third term, she was ready with talking points that would cater to Republican audiences.

“I’LL STAND ON MY BOLD CONSERVATIVE RECORD”

Gray TV Iowa political director Dave Price asked Reynolds on February 18 if she felt confident the president would endorse her in a Republican primary. Here’s my recording of that exchange from the governor’s press conference.

Bruce Lear lives in Sioux City and has been connected to Iowa’s public schools for 38 years. He taught for eleven years and represented educators as an Iowa State Education Association regional director for 27 years until retiring. He can be reached at BruceLear2419@gmail.com 

Imagine being appointed to be the president of a huge tech company. You have no experience or knowledge of tech. Your 11-year-old grandson taught you once how to turn on a computer, but that’s the limit of your tech knowledge. You’re a modern-day Luddite.

Most of your experience is in showbiz. The chairman of the board loved your show and even made guest appearances. The other board members are afraid of the chairman, so when he shouts, “jump!” They whimper, “How high?”

You’ve received your orders from the chairman. His goal is to dismantle the company regardless of harm. You’re hired to destroy, not reform.

Brian Bruening lives in Clayton County and has been involved in Democratic Party leadership since 2017. He is on Bluesky at @iowarural.bsky.social.

When I wrote just under two years ago about my unsuccessful bid for the Iowa House, I affirmed the importance of running as a Democratic candidate in a very red district and said I would do so again. Last fall, I made good on that commitment, and ran for Iowa Senate district 32, with similar results. We ran a lean campaign, raising and spending a little more than $21,000 in a three month span starting from my nomination via special convention in late July through Election Day.

Having long ago given up on expecting much help from the state party beyond a phone call or two and some technical assistance, I relied on local volunteers and county party infrastructure to spread my message. I created and sent out targeted online and streaming ads, sent text messages, direct-to-door mailers, distributed hundreds of signs and banners, filled local airwaves with radio ads, participated anyway I could in local newspapers and TV, and spoke and debated throughout the district.

I focused on issues that directly affected voters in local communities: public education and defunding of the Area Education Agencies, health care, and rural economics, all the most potent issues the Iowa Democratic Party told us to run on. I added water quality issues to my platform, something our Big Ag-beholden state Democratic Party seemingly doesn’t have the stomach to discuss. The end results were as expected: the Republican incumbent held his seat with 64.6 percent of the vote.

State Senator Liz Bennett and State Representative Aime Wichtendahl co-authored this commentary, which first appeared in the Cedar Rapids Gazette. Bennett represents Senate district 39 and is District 39 and is the ranking member of the Senate Technology Committee. Wichtendahl represents House district 80 and serves on the House Economic Growth and Technology Committee.

On January 31, 2025, the largest data breach in U.S. history occurred when Elon Musk accessed the United States Treasury systems. The data accessed is, in effect, the nation’s checkbook. Financial transactions detailing the who, what, where, and when of every payment the United States makes, as well as the Social Security numbers of millions of Americans were compromised.

According to reports, then-unnamed affiliates of Musk were also granted access and external hard drives were brought in to capture the data for offsite storage. While these affiliates are now being called employees of the “Department of Government Efficiency” (DOGE), none of them have gone through the rigorous background checks used to vet other federal employees at this level.

I wouldn’t have guessed President Donald Trump’s lawsuit over the pre-election Iowa Poll could assert claims any more outlandish than the original court filing in December.

Enter U.S. Representative Mariannette Miller-Meeks and former State Senator Brad Zaun.

The Des Moines Register’s William Morris was first to report on February 4 that Miller-Meeks and Zaun signed on as plaintiffs in Trump’s case against J. Ann Selzer, her polling company, the Des Moines Register, and its parent company Gannett. The suit alleges that the inaccurate poll (which suggested Democratic nominee Kamala Harris was leading Trump in Iowa) was an “unfair act or practice” under Iowa’s consumer fraud statute. It further claims defendants “engaged in this misconduct to improperly influence the outcome of the 2024 Presidential Election.”

Adding plaintiffs who are Iowa residents will help Trump get the case moved back to state court, where he originally filed. Attorneys for Gannett used a legal maneuver in December to remove the case to federal court.

For Miller-Meeks, there’s political upside as well: demonstrating her allegiance to Trump may help her fend off a second primary challenge from MAGA Republican David Pautsch.

But let’s be clear: Miller-Meeks and Zaun have even less basis to claim the Iowa Poll harmed them than Trump does.

“The grassroots of America love making America great again,” David Pautsch told me during a February 5 telephone interview. “It’s the political establishment people, including and especially the Republican establishment, that is the biggest albatross around our neck.”

Pautsch is counting on the MAGA grassroots as he prepares for a rematch against U.S. Representative Mariannette Miller-Meeks in the 2026 GOP primary for Iowa’s first Congressional district.

A minister and founder of the Quad Cities Prayer Breakfast, Pautsch received just under 44 percent of the vote in the 2024 primary after running against the incumbent from the right.

I reached out to Pautsch after seeing he had booked the state capitol rotunda on February 27 for a “Congressional candidacy announcement.” Although he hasn’t officially launched his campaign, he agreed to speak on the record about his plans and prospects.

Dan Piller was a business reporter for more than four decades, working for the Des Moines Register and the Fort Worth Star-Telegram. He covered the oil and gas industry while in Texas and was the Register’s agriculture reporter before his retirement in 2013. He lives in Ankeny.

President Donald Trump renewed his eight-year tariff war last weekend by declaring tariffs of 25 percent on most goods from Mexico and Canada (10 percent on Canadian oil) and 10 percent on China. No sooner had the war been declared than we had a 30-day truce as Mexico and Canada promised various reinforcements of their border that supposedly will stanch the flow of fentanyl into the U.S.—policies both countries had announced weeks earlier.

Trump famously told us eight years ago that trade wars are “easy to win.” But if they’re so easy, why are we still fighting them eight years later? U.S. armed forces needed just half that time to subdue Nazi Germany and Imperial Japan in World War II.

Trump and his MAGAtoids can claim short-term victories with the Mexican and Canadian truces. But bigger hills remain to be seized. China might not be so easy to bully. Neither will be the European Union. To those of us of advanced ages, the 30-day truce was reminiscent of the occasional truces during the Vietnam War, when hopes were raised around the world only to be shattered by the resumption of bombings and guerilla ambushes.

John Kearney is a retired philosophy professor who taught at Saint Joseph’s University in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. He has lived in Waterloo, Iowa for the past six years.

You are a juror in a murder trial, and you are tasked with deciding the innocence or guilt of defendant Robinson. To be convinced of Robinson’s guilt you want “sufficient evidence,” a reason or set of reasons for confidently believing that he is guilty beyond a reasonable doubt. If ten witnesses saw Robinson shoot Johnson and there are no witnesses who saw anything to the contrary, then there are strong reasons (“sufficient evidence”) for believing that Robinson shot Johnson.

But evidence can be “insufficient.” If five witnesses believe it was Robinson who shot Johnson, but five other witnesses believe it was someone who simply looks like Robinson, then the situation becomes problematic. If your verdict hinged solely on eyewitness testimony, you would have grounds for “reasonable doubt.” You would have “insufficient evidence” for finding Robinson guilty.

It is clearly better to have sufficient evidence for your beliefs than to be saddled with insufficient evidence or no evidence at all.

In his recent press conference following the tragic accident near Reagan National airport President Trump claimed “we do not know what led to this crash, but we have some very strong opinions and ideas, and I think we’ll probably state these opinions now.”

Randy Evans is executive director of the Iowa Freedom of Information Council, a nonpartisan, nonprofit organization that promotes openness and transparency in Iowa’s state and local governments. He can be reached at DMRevans2810@gmail.com.

Iowa Attorney General Brenna Bird again tried to put herself in the national spotlight last week as leader of a group of Republican attorneys general who fixed their sights on Costco over the warehouse retailer’s diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) policies.

The state attorneys sent a stern warning letter telling the company, “We … urge Costco to end all unlawful discrimination imposed by the company through diversity, equity and inclusion (“DEI”) policies. … Costco should treat every person equally and based on their merit, rather than based on divisive and discriminatory DEI practices.”

Mary Weaver writes a regular column for the Jefferson Herald and Greene County News online. She is a former registered nurse and former public health nurse administrator, who currently chairs the Iowa Democratic Party’s Women’s Caucus. Mary resides on a farm near Rippey.

To the editor:

As a former Public Health Nurse, I am very anxious and concerned that Robert Kennedy Jr. may be confirmed to the cabinet position of Health and Human Services secretary.

I will share a couple of stories to emphasize my concerns, particularly in the arena of vaccinations.

I have a good friend who loves to explore cemeteries. I cannot say it is my favorite diversion, but one very weather pleasant day she talked me into going with her. She likes to look at the headstones and I dutifully followed along. There were numerous markers with lambs. This was usually the grave of an infant who had died of diphtheria or whooping cough. It is painful to believe this type of marker may indeed be seen in future cemeteries.

Sean Flaherty lives in Iowa City.

Many Bleeding Heartland readers know this already, but we’re going to have to repeat a certain fact quite a lot in the next four years: Foreign aid makes up less than 1 percent of the U.S. federal budget. Cuts to this lifesaving aid could not be worse for America’s credibility and standing in the world.

ProPublica published a story on January 31 about the chaos that is choking non-governmental organizations that depend on funding from the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID). These NGOs deliver critical services to millions of people around the world. The article by Anna Maria Barry-Jester and Brett Murphy describes a tragedy unfolding.