Democrat announces run against Ernst after her 'We're all going to die' comments
J.D. Scholten, a Democratic Iowa state representative and professional baseball player, has entered the race to take on Republican Sen. Joni Ernst in 2026 -- prompted in part by her comments to constituents last week about potential cuts to Medicaid.
Ernst faced a number of agitated constituents at a town hall on Friday who expressed concerns that Republican cuts to Medicaid in the bill that would fund Trump's legislative agenda. After one person in the audience shouted. "People are going to die!" Ernst responded, "Well, we're all going to die."
The incident "really hit home with me," Scholten told ABC News in a brief interview. "We need better leadership than that."
MORE: 'We all are going to die': Republican Sen. Ernst defends Medicaid cuts at town hall
On Saturday, Ernst posted a sarcastic "apology" for her comments in what appeared to be a cemetery, saying, 'I made an incorrect assumption that everyone in the auditorium understood that, yes, we are all going to perish from this earth. So I apologize, and I'm really, really glad that I did not have to bring up the subject of the tooth fairy as well.'
Scholten has run for higher office before, coming within a few points of unseating far-right Rep. Steve King in 2018. He lost the 2020 race for King's old seat to Rep. Randy Feenstra by a wider margin and currently serves in the state house representing the Sioux City area.
He is currently a pitcher for the Sioux City Explorers of the American Association of Baseball, an independent Major League Baseball partner league.
Should he win the Democratic primary, Scholten said he also plans to make the race a referendum on President Donald Trump's trade policy, noting that Iowa soybean farmers have been caught up in the trade war with China.
While some of Iowa's House seats are considered competitive in 2026, Democrats have not won a Senate race in the state since 2008.
-ABC News' Allison Pecorin contributed to this report.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Yahoo
28 minutes ago
- Yahoo
Trump's Late-Night Lament Over Xi Deepens Impasse in Trade Fight
(Bloomberg) -- President Donald Trump is positioning a personal discussion with his Chinese counterpart as the key to preventing the world's largest economies from spiraling deeper into their trade and technology fight. The Global Struggle to Build Safer Cars At London's New Design Museum, Visitors Get Hands-On Access ICE Moves to DNA-Test Families Targeted for Deportation with New Contract LA City Council Passes Budget That Trims Police, Fire Spending NYC Residents Want Safer Streets, Cheaper Housing, Survey Says But Chinese leader Xi Jinping is making clear that a phone call doesn't come without a price — a resolute stand so far that's apparently keeping Trump up late into the night. 'I like President XI of China, always have, and always will, but he is VERY TOUGH, AND EXTREMELY HARD TO MAKE A DEAL WITH!!!' Trump posted on Truth Social at around 2:17 a.m. Washington time. His complaint came after a flurry of US officials claimed this week the two men were set to speak. Exactly what the Chinese are asking the White House to relinquish in order to secure the one-on-one remains unclear. But the US president's unanswered pleas are looking more like a standoff without an off ramp. Beijing, meanwhile, is making overtures in the direction of Europe, which is engaged in its own tariff dispute with Trump. 'If China doesn't want a call, it could be that they don't intend to comply or are intentionally holding their cards for the time being,' said Kelly Ann Shaw, a partner at Akin Gump and former senior adviser to Trump during his first term. 'If there isn't a call, I would expect further escalation in the bilateral relationship before things de-escalate again.' At the heart of the stalemate is a mismatch in negotiating styles that, if it continues, threatens to derail the bilateral relationship. While Trump wants to hash things out with his counterpart, Chinese officials are reluctant to commit before working out deliverables at lower levels. Oval Office showdowns with the leaders of South Africa and Ukraine in recent weeks have likely offered little reassurance to Beijing to accept Trump's terms. A 'Disconnect' 'There's a fundamental disconnect here,' former acting White House Chief of Staff Mick Mulvaney told Bloomberg Television on Tuesday. 'Trump wants to talk at the very highest levels. That's not always how the Chinese want to do business.' While it isn't impossible for the US and China to strike a deal, expectations for what it would entail look out of sync. Policymakers in Beijing want to have broader access to high-end US chips, essentially for AI and military advancement, as well as the opportunity for more Chinese investment in the US. Beijing could be open to buying more US agricultural products, too. Rolling back sweeping controls on cutting-edge technology expanded under Joe Biden would be politically toxic in Washington, where there's rare consensus among Democrats and Republicans that China poses a national security threat. Officials in Washington also believe Beijing has been dumping goods on the US for decades, threatening American jobs and industry, and are seeking major concessions. That both sides are talking past each other has become evident in the confusion over China's position on rare earths — metals that are core to America's national-security supply chains and automakers in particular. Trump and his team have accused Beijing of breaking the trade agreement announced in mid-May, where both countries significantly lowered tariffs and China agreed to remove other retaliatory measures it imposed in response to earlier duty hikes. In Washington's view, that meant China would immediately grant licenses to export rare earths to American companies that had been cut off. Stalling for Time US Trade Representative Jamieson Greer said China has slow-walked the process. Companies that are reliant on the inputs are feeling the supply squeeze, with some temporarily shuttering production. From Beijing's perspective, it's following procedure on a license system that exports to all nations must follow. As tensions over such shipments grow, the Trump administration has continued to impose restrictions on chip technology and exports of jet engine parts to China. Beijing publicly criticized the moves and, according to the Trump team, continued choking off critical minerals supplies to American companies. While giving Trump the cold shoulder, China is tilting its attention toward Europe, where it sees an opening for deeper trade ties after Trump hit the European Union with tariffs and threatened steeper ones. In anticipation of the EU-China summit in late July in Beijing, Europe's trade chief Maros Sefcovic on Tuesday met Chinese Commerce Minister Wang Wentao in Paris. Ahead of next month's summit, China is considering placing an order for hundreds of Airbus SE aircraft as soon as next month to celebrate the economies' long-term ties, Bloomberg News reported. That represents another blow to Boeing Co., which hasn't won a major order from China since at least 2017 due to the trade tensions and other issues. It all stands in contrast to Trump's first trade offensive against China, when it took just 10 weeks for China to announce Xi would fly to Mar-a-Lago for talks with the US. The result was a so-called phase one trade deal aimed at boosting Chinese purchases of American products — an agreement that went dormant during the Biden administration. This time around, ties have derailed much more quickly — despite Chinese efforts to steady things. January Call Just before Trump's most recent inauguration, Xi called Trump and told the incoming leader he was hoping for a good start to US-China ties, with both sides agreeing to stay in touch. Days later, Trump began targeting fentanyl cooperation, attacking a relatively bright spot in bilateral ties where Beijing has said the US owes it a 'big thank you' for efforts to curtail smuggling. China has repeatedly pointed to demand from Americans as the root cause of fentanyl abuse. Trump followed up with a 20% tariff, setting off tit-for-tat rounds of levies that essentially imposed a trade embargo on the two nations. A US federal court ruled Trump's duties were illegal, sapping the president of leverage, but the order was put on hold as a higher court considers an appeal. Also playing into Xi's reluctance is the fact China is in a stronger position now than in the last trade war to weather Trump's unpredictability. The world's No. 2 economy has been diversifying beyond the US market, its people are relatively united in the face of Trump's threats, and the US is alienating friends and foes alike with its overhaul of economic and defense policy. 'One problem is that Trump is trying to use deal-making to normalize trade aggression,' said Josef Gregory Mahoney, a professor of international relations at Shanghai's East China Normal University. 'Another issue is that he remains an opportunist, and even when deals are struck you can't count on him to keep them, or the next administration.' YouTube Is Swallowing TV Whole, and It's Coming for the Sitcom Is Elon Musk's Political Capital Spent? Millions of Americans Are Obsessed With This Japanese Barbecue Sauce Cavs Owner Dan Gilbert Wants to Donate His Billions—and Walk Again Trump Considers Deporting Migrants to Rwanda After the UK Decides Not To ©2025 Bloomberg L.P.
Miami Herald
29 minutes ago
- Miami Herald
Zelenskyy dismisses Russian demands, proposes direct Putin talks
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said that Russia's maximalist demands mean there's no point in continuing with lower-level talks aimed at brokering an end to the war. Calling Russia's conditions for peace an "ultimatum," Zelenskyy said that he remains willing to meet directly with President Vladimir Putin. But low level talks such as those that took place in Istanbul on Monday make no sense unless they lead to a meeting of the two leaders, he said. "To continue diplomatic meetings in Istanbul at a level that does not resolve anything further is, in my opinion, meaningless," Zelenskyy told reporters in Kyiv on Wednesday. Zelenskyy is upping the pressure on Putin after a pair of audacious attacks against Russian targets in recent days that represented an embarrassing setback for the Kremlin. U.S. special envoy for Ukraine Keith Kellogg said yesterday that additional sanctions on Russian are "ready to drop," based on his conversation with Republican Senator Lindsey Graham. Another prisoner exchange with Russia involving around 500 people is possible over the coming weekend, according to Zelenskyy, who said that Russia was motivated by a desire to avoid further western sanctions. Prisoner exchanges "are going on and should go on, but the Russians are not ready for a ceasefire; at least the delegation level is not ready to resolve this and they believe that this is a matter for the leaders, they told us so themselves," he said. Zelenskyy proposed a ceasefire until a leaders' meeting in a place "of Russia's choice," citing Istanbul, the Vatican, or Switzerland. "If we see that we can continue the dialogue and are ready to take steps towards de-escalation, we will continue the ceasefire with American monitoring and American guarantees of mediation," he said. However, he said a meeting with Putin would also be possible "tomorrow" without such a ceasefire agreement in place. Copyright (C) 2025, Tribune Content Agency, LLC. Portions copyrighted by the respective providers.
Yahoo
34 minutes ago
- Yahoo
Bill would cover ‘Forever Chemical' exposure at bases under VA benefits
A bipartisan bill would allow veterans with health issues caused by exposure to 'forever chemicals' at U.S. military bases to be treated as service-connected disabilities, which would further open the door to health care and benefits compensation for those impacted. Forever chemicals, more technically known as polyfluoroalkyl substances, or PFAS, are long-lasting chemicals that break down slowly. They are found in many everyday objects, food, and in air, water, and soil around the world, according to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. The bill, titled 'Veterans Exposed to Toxic PFAS Act,'' or the ''VET PFAS Act,' would designate exposure to PFAS as a service-connected condition for veterans, making them eligible for disability compensation through the Department of Veterans Affairs. It would also allow military dependents, including those 'in utero while the mother' resided at a base with PFAS exposures, to be eligible for hospital care and medical services for certain diseases and conditions, according to the text of the bill. If passed, the legislation would be a major expansion of health conditions and illnesses for which veterans could receive VA care and disability benefits. The bill was introduced in the House on May 29 by New York Rep. Josh Riley, a Democrat, and Rep. Mike Lawler, a Republican, and builds upon measures from the Promise to Address Comprehensive Toxics Act. The PACT Act, passed in 2022, was the largest expansion of service-connected health conditions eligible for VA care, including service members exposed to burn pits during Iraq and Afghanistan deployments, for Vietnam War veterans exposed to Agent Orange-related chemicals, and very specific instances of base exposures. The Department of Defense has identified 718 bases with known or suspected PFAS release. The military estimates that PFAS investigation and cleanup costs could come to more than $9.3 billion in fiscal year 2025, which was more than triple the estimate in 2022. Since 2017, the Defense Department has spent around $2.6 billion to address PFAS, according to a Government Accountability report from February. The bill states that covered health conditions would be identified by the Secretary of Veterans Affairs and the agency administrator of the Department of Health and Human Services' registry for toxic substances and diseases. Their suggestions would come from studies directed by Congress in the annual defense bill for fiscal year 2018, which are ongoing from the Centers for Disease Control. The CDC's website on health investigations states that existing research suggests that high levels of PFAS could lead to increased cholesterol, changes in liver enzymes, pre-eclampsia in pregnant women, decreases in birth weight, and increased risks of kidney and testicular cancers. The bill specifically calls for health care coverage of perfluorooctanoic acid exposures for veterans diagnosed with high cholesterol, ulcerative colitis, thyroid disease, testicular cancer, kidney cancer, and pregnancy-induced hypertension. Other iterations of the legislation have been previously introduced. Some Democratic senators have expressed interest in crafting their own PFAS bill, but nothing formal has been introduced yet, a spokesperson for the Senate Veterans Affairs Committee told Task & Purpose. The issue of forever chemicals on military bases and their health impacts on military families has been gaining support in Congress. In April, Senate Democrats held an event on the Hill with former service members and their families who called for a broadening of the PACT Act. At the April event, military families described cancers and other illnesses they believe are the result of PFAS exposures, including former bases like George Air Force Base, California, which later became superfund sites, a designation by the EPA as one of the most polluted sites in the U.S. Despite the designation, the families based there were never notified of their potential exposure. The PACT Act also established a framework for the VA to establish presumptive conditions without an act of Congress through the federal rule-making process. The VA began the process for defining PFAS exposure as a presumptive health condition for VA care with a federal register notice in September. However, an executive order issued by President Donald Trump in January paused all federal rule-making. Navy SEAL Team 6 operator will be the military's new top enlisted leader Veterans receiving disability payments might have been underpaid, IG finds Guam barracks conditions are 'baffling,' Navy admiral says in email Navy fires admiral in charge of unmanned systems office after investigation The Pentagon wants troops to change duty stations less often
