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Yahoo
6 hours ago
- Politics
- Yahoo
Democrat J.D. Scholten drops out of Iowa's 2026 US Senate race and endorses Josh Turek
Democratic U.S. Senate candidate J.D. Scholten is dropping out of Iowa's 2026 Senate race and endorsing Josh Turek. Scholten, a state representative from Sioux City, was one of the first Democrats to jump into the race in early June against Republican U.S. Sen. Joni Ernst. He's the first Democrat to end his campaign, and his endorsement goes to his fellow state representative from Council Bluffs, who is the latest contender to enter the race. In a statement, Scholten said "we can't sit idly by while health care is ripped from millions of Americans," adding that he believes "there's no better Democrat in Iowa" than Turek to talk about health care. "From the very beginning, I thought a prairie populist athlete from western Iowa would be the best candidate to win in the general election," Scholten said. "I still do, but instead of me, I have complete confidence that Josh Turek can take this on. That's why I am suspending my campaign and endorsing him. As his friend, I'm proud to support him." Scholten, a minor league baseball pitcher, and Turek, a former Paralympian who won two gold medals in wheelchair basketball at the Paralympic Games, were both elected to the Iowa House in 2022 and have become friends. "I am honored to have the support of J.D.," Turek said in a statement. "Over the last several years, J.D. and I have fought alongside one another in the state Legislature to lower costs for Iowa's families, to make health care more affordable and accessible, to make housing more affordable and to make life a little bit easier and a little bit better for Iowa's families. We have an incredible opportunity to beat Joni Ernst in 2026, and I'm proud to join forces with J.D." Scholten's announcement is the first sign of consolidation in the Democratic primary, which has steadily grown over the past few months. State Sen. Zach Wahls, former Knoxville Chamber of Commerce Director Nathan Sage and Des Moines School Board Chair Jackie Norris are also seeking the Democratic nomination. Scholten, who previously ran twice for Congress in Iowa's 4th District, raised far less money than his competitors in the second quarter of the year, taking in just over $175,000. More: US Sen. Joni Ernst barely outraises Iowa Democratic challengers but has more cash on hand Sage raised $709,000 in the same timespan, while Wahls raised $656,000 despite launching his campaign less than three weeks before the fundraising deadline. Norris announced her campaign in August and has not had to report her fundraising. Turek entered the race Aug. 12 with a campaign launch video that features him crawling up stairs and dragging his wheelchair behind him to speak to a voter. He said he plans to focus his campaign on "kitchen table issues," including health care. He and Scholten are set to appear at a rally together at 6:30 p.m. Monday, Aug. 18, in Council Bluffs. In a news release, Wahls said he would tour an ironworking apprenticeship program on Aug. 18 and announce "a major endorsement." More: 'Bring it on,' US Sen. Joni Ernst says of crowded field of Democratic challengers The Democrats are seeking their party's nomination to take on Ernst, who is up for reelection in 2026. Ernst has not formally announced that she will seek a third term this year, but speaking at a Republican breakfast meeting on Aug. 13, she told her Democratic challengers to "bring it on." Stephen Gruber-Miller covers the Iowa Statehouse and politics for the Register. He can be reached by email at sgrubermil@ or by phone at 515-284-8169. Follow him on X at @sgrubermiller. This article originally appeared on Des Moines Register: Iowa Democrat J.D. Scholten ends Senate campaign, endorses Josh Turek
Yahoo
31-07-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Democratic US Senate candidate Nathan Sage says he'll visit 99 Iowa counties in 99 days
Democratic U.S. Senate candidate Nathan Sage is kicking off a 99-county tour of Iowa — which he plans to complete in just 99 days. "In Iowa, you've got to go to where the voters are at, you've got to go to where the people are at," Sage said in an interview with the Des Moines Register. "We're going to go out there and have a chance to speak in front of these people, but also listen." Sage is the first Democrat running for U.S. Senate to launch a formal 99-county tour of the state, which will begin with an appearance at the National Balloon Classic in Indianola on Friday, Aug. 1, from 6 to 8 p.m. Sage said he initially wanted to complete the 99-county tour even faster, "but 99 days will do." "There's a lot of people out there that are grinding away trying to survive in this state, trying to survive in this country," he said. "And if I can't do 99 counties in 99 days, and they can do three jobs in one day to support their family then what am I doing? I need to be out there grinding just as hard." The former Knoxville Chamber of Commerce director is competing with state Rep. J.D. Scholten and state Sen. Zach Wahls for the Democratic nomination in 2026, while Des Moines School Board Chair Jackie Norris and state Rep. Josh Turek have said they are considering running. Sage, who was the first Democrat to get into the race in April, outraised his fellow Democrats in the second quarter of the year, taking in $709,000. Wahls raised more than $656,000 and Scholten raised more than $175,000. Sage said the response he's gotten to his fundraising has been "jaw-dropping." "We are the campaign of the people," he said. "We have a lot of people that don't have a lot of money, but they're willing to give us the money to make this run because they know that I'm going to fight for them." Incumbent Republican U.S. Sen. Joni Ernst raised $723,000. Ernst has not announced a formal reelection campaign, prompting speculation about her intentions. Sage spent the spring raising money and holding around 20 events around the state to raise his name identification. He called the 99-county tour "the next phase of our campaign" and said he'll be doing a mix of events, including meet and greets, coffees, dinners, town halls, rallies and more casual appearances. "To me it's an important opportunity to meet me one on one and really feel like you're being listened to and feel like you're being heard, because that's what it is," he said. "That's what I want to do. I've said this many, many times: to speak to voters, you've just got to shut up and listen and they'll have those conversations with you." Sage's tour will take him to Indianola on Aug. 1; Osage, West Des Moines, Waverly and Iowa Falls on Aug. 2; and Audubon, Mapleton, Missouri Valley and Harlan on Aug. 3. Stephen Gruber-Miller covers the Iowa Statehouse and politics for the Register. He can be reached by email at sgrubermil@ or by phone at 515-284-8169. Follow him on X at @sgrubermiller. This article originally appeared on Des Moines Register: Democratic US Senate candidate Nathan Sage to launch tour of Iowa Solve the daily Crossword
Yahoo
14-07-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
This Democratic Senate candidate says he's made a 60% return from copying the Pelosi family's stock trades
A Democratic Senate candidate has been following the Pelosi family's stock trades for over a year. Iowa state Rep. JD Scholten said he invested $1,000 in a "Pelosi Tracker." He says he's since made about $600, but still supports banning stock trading in Congress. JD Scholten, a Democratic state legislator in Iowa, invested $1,000 in a fund that follows the Pelosi family's stock trades in early 2024. Since then, he says he's made about $600. "It's not really a serious thing. I'm not banking on this," Scholten, who's now running for US Senate against Republican Sen. Joni Ernst, told BI in an interview. In a financial disclosure filed on Monday, Scholten said that his investment in the "Pelosi Tracker" was made "partly as a joke." The tracker is run by Autopilot, an app that allows retail investors to automatically copy stock trades made by politicians and prominent hedge fund managers. The Pelosi Tracker follows trades made by Paul Pelosi, who is married to Speaker Emerita Nancy Pelosi. Scholten, who calls himself a "prairie populist," said that he would sell off the stocks if elected and said that he supports banning lawmakers from trading stocks. "I think it's a disservice to the people," he said. "We gotta clean that up to make sure that people are in it for the right reasons, not just to get rich." Scholten said that he decided to invest in the tracker after hearing about it via Instagram. He had just earned a $1,000 bonus from a law firm he had recently joined, and he decided to try it out. "I'd never owned a stock before," Scholten said. He told BI that he had $1617.25 in the account as of Monday. Though the former speaker does not trade stocks herself, her husband's trades have drawn scrutiny given his proximity to Pelosi, who controlled the House floor schedule during her time as speaker and likely had access to non-public information. Ian Krager, a spokesman for Pelosi, reaffirmed in a statement to BI that the former speaker doesn't own the stocks and has "no prior knowledge or subsequent involvement in any transactions." She has said that she supports banning lawmakers from trading stocks. Autopilot cofounder Chris Josephs told BI on Monday that the app now has more than $400 million in client assets following Pelosi's trades, and said that the point of the tracker itself is to "highlight the hypocrisy" of congressional stock trading. "We welcome JD and hope this further pushes the movement to get them banned from trading," Josephs said. Scholten rose to prominence in 2018 when he ran for Congress against Rep. Steve King, a Republican with a long history of controversial comments about race and immigration. He came within three points of defeating King that year. This year, he's running for the Senate seat currently held by Republican Sen. Joni Ernst. State Sen. Zach Wahls and Nathan Sage are also running in the Democratic primary. On his financial disclosure, Scholten also reported earning $6,000 as a professional baseball player as well as his salary and per diem as a state representative, a role he's held since 2023. Read the original article on Business Insider
The Guardian
12-06-2025
- Politics
- The Guardian
‘Beer-drinking, working-class populist': JD Scholten, Iowa Democrat challenging senator Joni Ernst
When Iowa senator Joni Ernst now infamously told a town hall audience last month that 'we're all going to die' in response to concerns about proposed cuts to Medicaid in Donald Trump's signature spending bill, her Democratic challenger JD Scholten was on his way to a funeral. Scholten, a state lawmaker and minor league baseball player, said it was at that funeral for a local Democratic activist that his tentative plans to run for Congress for a third time – this time for the upper chamber – suddenly became more certain. 'Sitting there at the funeral, you know, you question life, you question a lot of different things and hearing all the wonderful things that Gary Lipshutz did in his life and the activism, it just inspired me and I thought, I need to do this.' The next day when Ernst doubled down with what Scholten described as a 'very disrespectful 'apology'' – posting a video on social media in which she walked through a cemetery and sarcastically apologized for her comments – 'that's when I was like, game on,' he said. Scholten announced earlier this month that he's challenging Ernst for her seat next year, and one day after that, the nonpartisan Cook Political Report shifted the race from 'solid Republican' to 'likely Republican'. 'I think so much of modern politics is about matching the moment and we just said, you know, this won't be the perfect launch but we'll get it done,' he said. Scholten describes himself as a 'baseball-playing, beer drinking, Bible-reading, working-class proud Prairie populist'. He's upfront about the challenges facing his home state. 'I love where I'm from, but we haven't bounced back since the 2008 economic crisis,' he said. 'The status quo is just not working, both politically and economically for most of Iowa.' Iowans are already struggling with inadequate healthcare, and that's before huge proposed cuts to Medicaid, he said. Ernst made her recent controversial comments in response to a question at a town hall about her support for the US president's signature spending bill, which would likely strip Medicaid coverage from 8.7 million people and leave 7.6 million more Americans uninsured. Scholten said the cuts will also have detrimental effects on rural hospitals and nursing homes in Iowa, which would impact urban hospitals as well. Some in the state have taken to calling her 'Joni Hearse', he said. Ernst has also faced backlash from the right wing of her party in recent months for initially hesitating on confirming the secretary of defense, Pete Hegseth. Scholten is not the first or the only Democrat to announce a challenge to Ernst, who has served in the senate since 2015. On Wednesday, state senator Zach Wahls announced a campaign as well, including a clip of her town hall comments in his launch video. But as Scholten notes, he's the only Democratic candidate who has run for federal office before and who over-performed the Democrat on the top of the ticket by eight-and-a-half points when he won his state house seat last year. He also claims his full-time job – a pitcher on the Sioux City Explorers minor league baseball team – is the best one to prepare him for a messy primary and long campaign. 'A minor league baseball season is a grind. It is a marathon and not a sprint. Every night you have to perform and even on your off days, you have to be good, or you're going to get released.' But more importantly, he said he has insight into a demographic that Democrats have struggled with since the 2024 election: younger men. 'I don't have to hire a consultant to do a focus group. I can ask them and figure out ways to get my message out better so they care about what I'm passionate about just as much as I'm listening to what they're interested in.' When Scholten ran for Congress in 2018 and then 2020, he was known for having a used Winnebago RV he named 'Sioux City Sue' that would criss-cross the district. He said he hopes to recreate the van and get out to all of Iowa's 99 counties.
Washington Post
02-06-2025
- Business
- Washington Post
Iowa state lawmaker enters US Senate race after Ernst retort on Medicaid cuts
SIOUX CITY, Iowa — Iowa state Rep. J.D. Scholten, a Democrat, announced a run for U.S. Senate on Monday, a decision he says he made after U.S. Sen. Joni Ernst made a retort about Medicaid cuts that prompted swift backlash. Scholten, from northwest Iowa, was first elected to the statehouse in 2023 after twice losing congressional races in Iowa's reliably conservative 4th Congressional District.
