In an inviting and richly reported new book populated with larger-than-life figures cut from the fabric of everyday life in early 1900s central Iowa it is the City of Des Moines itself that emerges as the most riveting character.

David and Rose Donovan’s book, “The Nastiest Saloon in Iowa: Murder, Prostitution, and Corruption in the Heartland,” reveals details about early Des Moines that are shocking and scandalous, hilarious and haunting, and at times all of that on but a single page. The Donovans’ non-fiction work is now in bookstores and available online, and the couple, both accomplished journalists with deep Iowa roots, are making the media rounds to promote this roar of a read.

I will moderate a conversation with the Donovans at Beaverdale Books on Friday from 6:30 to 8 p.m.

“The Nastiest Saloon” centers on a bar-brothel operated by Rose Donovan’s great grandfather, Erastus Wallace Scott of Des Moines — who sadly dismissed his fitting given first name in favor of the middling “Wallace.” The bar, described in the media in 1908 as a “notorious saloon,” was ground zero on East Court Avenue for a range of criminal activity, and formed the core of what was an industrial-scale level of prostitution and booze-fueled corruption and cruelty.

“It tells a story of America that people in the Midwest don’t know,” David Donovan said.

Venereal disease, chiefly syphilis, described at the time as a “scarlet monster” ran so rampant in the state’s capital city that The Des Moines Register in 1908 reported that 80 percent of the deaths of women in Des Moines were caused by “social” diseases, and that 75 percent of the men in the city had been affected by STDs. The Donovans write about a “scarlet trust” of landlords and businessmen, brothels and bar owners, and others, that lured young women into prostitution and trapped them as “inmates” in houses of “ill fame” with punitive rents and interest and other fees, shackling them to lives of abuse until venereal disease killed them — or they committed suicide. The latter could be accomplished by “gulps” of carbolic acid, the book reports.

“Some things never change,” Rose Donovan said. “We have sex trafficking happening today.”

The Donovans spoke with The Iowa Mercury in the publication’s offices in Carroll, David Donovan’s hometown, and joined Julie Gammack on her Iowa Writers’ Collaborative podcast this week.

“I love your book, it’s very fact based,” Gammack said of “The Nastiest Saloon.”

The book’s roots were the results of the pursuit by the Donovans of information about Scott. Rose Donovan grew up in Des Moines with but whispers, little confirmed knowledge, about her family, and this most infamous of great grandfathers.

“It started as a forgotten family history,” Rose Donovan said.

Soon, the research and writing of this book rivered into a project revealing a dark underbelly of Des Moines, and Iowa itself, that had been lost to history.

“It’s not that long ago,” David Donovan said.

The book, much of it gleaned from newspapers, deals with high-profile murders in the early 1900s, and outrageous criminal schemes of theft and fraud, in addition to prostitution. Some of the defenses used in court are so outlandish that readers likely will laugh out loud, such as two defendants, who clearly paid witnesses to leave town, seeking relief because they did not see how this was a crime at the time in Iowa law. Some journalists in pre-1910 Iowa even gave alleged ghosts credibility in their news stories.

We learn in “The Nastiest Saloon” about a hucksters of epic audacity — Count Nathoo — “The Wizard Of The Nile” — who ran daring confidence schemes in Iowa, some of them out of a front called The Temple Of Psychology in Des Moines. His misconduct raged for two decades in the Midwest — and the media, remarkably, loved him for it at times even though few people in history took advantage of Iowa Nice as unapologetically as The Count. Author David Donovan correctly notes that a full book could be dedicated just to Count Nathoo, who is a blend of Harry Houdini and Bernie Madoff.

“The Nastiest Saloon,” written with verve and flair, and grounded in the reporting of the times by authors who understand journalism, is in the end, an accounting that holds a mirror to Des Moines as early fortunes that feed status of families today were built on the bodies of women imprisoned quite literally in prostitution. Yes, there are murders and confidence men in the book, but the haunting parts of this work are the accounts of shattered and destroyed lives of countless women on East Court Avenue.

That history, lost for more than a century, is alive again in our conversations because of the Donovans’ book.

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About the Authors

David Donovan is a retired lawyer and amateur genealogist. He practiced law most of his career for an international firm based in the Washington, DC metropolitan area, and spent half a decade as general counsel for the Washington, DC NFL franchise. Rose Donovan is a retired journalist, having worked for decades as a reporter and editor for suburban newspapers in the DC area and later the Washington Post. They have three children and two grandchildren. David and Rose now live in a small town on the Eastern Shore of Maryland, not far from where Rose’s ancestors landed in America in the 1650s, and where David serves as a Town Commissioner. This is their first book. Both David and Rose graduated from Iowa State University, where they earned bachelor’s degrees. David is a Carroll native and alum of Kuemper Catholic High School. Rose is a native of Des Moines and an alum of Lincoln High School.

About The Iowa Mercury

(Douglas Burns, founder of The Iowa Mercury and a fourth-generation Iowa journalist from Carroll, is a member of the Iowa Writers’ Collaborative. Read dozens of the most talented writers in Iowa in just one place. The Iowa Writers’ Collaborative spans the full state. It’s one of the biggest things going in Iowa journalism and writing now — and you don’t want to miss. This collaborative is — as the outstanding Quad Cities journalist Ed Tibbetts says — YOUR SUNDAY IOWA newspaper. )

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ALTOONA —

Likely 2028 presidential candidate Pete Buttigieg, through the implicitness of his presence in Altoona and earned connectedness to Iowa, made it clear he thinks the Democratic Party should launch the next presidential nominating contest in its historic setting — Iowa. Eschewing hints and subtlety in favor of unbridled advocacy, Buttigieg described the Iowa Caucuses’ role in shaping presidential fields in both soaring and practical terms in a major speech in the state Sunday.

Buttigieg, the former U.S. Transportation secretary and 2020 presidential candidate who burst onto the national scene in Iowa, and continues to maintain a network here, keynoted the Iowa Democratic Party’s Liberty and Justice Celebration at Prairie Meadows in Altoona Sunday afternoon.

“I am very proud of the fact that I was forged in the political furnace of the Iowa Democratic caucuses,” Buttigieg, now living in Michigan, said in his speech. “Only in Iowa could a young Indiana mayor enter a field of literally 20 men and women competing for the American presidency, governors and senators and experienced presidential contenders, and earn one vote at a time and wind up winning.”

I interviewed Buttigieg for the first time in early 2019 after randomly spotting him walking into the Marriott Hotel in downtown Des Moines. Few people recognized Buttigieg, then 37, as he entered the busy hotel lobby, but I approached and in a few minutes, Buttigieg sat for an unscheduled interview as he ate a cheeseburger and drank a beer in the lobby restaurant.

With a field of Democratic White House aspirants likely to stretch to at least 20 viable candidates in 2028, or even larger as social media influencers, sports and entertainment celebrities, and other notable figures with no political experience enter in the era of Trump, expected candidates like Buttigieg who have bases of support in Iowa, and start-up campaigns today like the one the then South Bend, Indiana mayor ran in 2020, could decide to compete in Iowa in a “first” caucus even if the national party sanctions these candidates.

They would have to weigh the options, the costs and benefits of competing in Iowa. Buttigieg knows a lot of Iowa media members by name, and was approached often in Altoona by steadfast supporters who want to see him run again for the Oval Office. Media attention, the content diets of voters more precisely, are fragmented, so the legacy lane for political profile building in caucuses and primaries in 2028 will be attractive to a range of candidates, meaning there is no reason Iowa should not go first, no matter what the national party says. Let the haters hate Iowa all they want. The nominee will emerge from Iowa. Who cares what national Democratic leaders who despair that rural American even exists think. Go first. Power is taken, not given.

To be fair, Buttigieg never flatly said Sunday that Iowa Democrats should go first, but he made a better case for it than even the most stalwart advocates, this publication included.

Asked directly if Iowa Democrats should hold the caucuses first no matter what national leaders dictate, Buttigieg offered a clear endorsement of the state.

“What I would say is that being here made me a better candidate, a better public servant, and that process where people, whether they’re a former vice president or a sitting vice president, all the way to a total unknown, have to be there in the diners and the backyards and convince people to stand up in front of their neighbors and say why you ought to be the pick,” Buttigieg said in response to a question from The Iowa Mercury in a news conference following the Liberty and Justice event. “I just think there is incredible value in that process.”

In recent years, following the devastating tech issues that delayed reporting in the 2020 Iowa Caucuses, some Iowa Democrats have surrendered to what I call sacrificial altruism — the arguments that Iowa is too white and too rural to lead the nominating process, or that the state has had its time. In fact, Iowa is growing in diversity and retrieving rural voters lost from the Democratic coalition is essential for the party.

The Republican Party will continue to hold its lead-off presidential nominating caucuses in Iowa.

I’m getting the sense from conversations with Democratic leaders in Iowa, who I have been pressing on this for the last seven years, that the party will damn the torpedos and just go first as it is obvious candidates will choose to compete here — and some will vault from the lower tier into the political sun as a result of the choice — while others will fortify hard-earned status in the front of the race.

“It feels very, very, very good to be back in Iowa,” Buttigieg said in leading off his Altoona speech.

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About The Iowa Mercury

(Douglas Burns, founder of The Iowa Mercury and a fourth-generation Iowa journalist from Carroll, is a member of the Iowa Writers’ Collaborative. Read dozens of the most talented writers in Iowa in just one place. The Iowa Writers’ Collaborative spans the full state. It’s one of the biggest things going in Iowa journalism and writing now — and you don’t want to miss. This collaborative is — as the outstanding Quad Cities journalist Ed Tibbetts says — YOUR SUNDAY IOWA newspaper. )

NOTE: Click on the above graphic for information on tickets for the event.

WATERLOO, Iowa —

The 1619 Freedom School will host its second Read-In on Saturday, July 18, at Waterloo West High School. Three of the most celebrated and most frequently banned authors writing for young people today will come to a community whose school district sits at the center of the national debate over who gets to decide what books children read.

Award-winning, #1 New York Times-bestselling authors Jason Reynolds, Angie Thomas, and Renée Watson join 1619 Freedom School founder, Pulitzer-Prize winner and Waterloo native Nikole Hannah-Jones for the free public event.

A state once considered a crown jewel of public education and literacy and home to the famous Iowa Writers Workshop, Iowa is now one of the worst states for censorship. During the 2023-2024 school year, Iowa ranked second only to Florida in documented instances of school book bans driven in large part by SF 496, a 2023 state law that Penguin Random House, publisher of The 1619 Project, has sued the state to overturn. The law resulted in more than 3,000 books being removed from shelves from Iowa public schools, including Angie Thomas’s novel The Hate U Give, as well as titles by Toni Morrison, Maya Angelou, and many others. Waterloo’s public schools have the highest proportion of Black students of any district in Iowa.

In February 2025, the district withdrew from a statewide African American Read-In after determining that a selected children’s book may not comply with federal anti-diversity directives, depriving thousands of children – Black, white, Latino and Asian – of the ability to take part in this annual Black History Month literacy event. The 1619 Freedom School, a free after-school literacy program founded in Waterloo by Hannah-Jones, stepped in and hosted the event independently, drawing more than 800 attendees from across the country and giving out nearly 3,000 free books

Books bans continue to surge – just last month a Tennessee school district banned Alex Haley’s epic American story, Roots. PEN America has found communities banned 3,743 unique titles last school year, and that nearly half of all books pulled from public school and library shelves feature characters or people of color.

That is why the 1619 Freedom School has decided to bring back its 1619 Freedom School Read-In this year as a direct continuation of last year’s act of community resistance and in solidarity with communities resisting book bans across the nation. Every family in attendance will leave with books at no cost, including works by the featured authors, placing into the hands of young readers the very literature that organized campaigns have worked to remove from their schools.

“Access to books featuring Black characters and about Black history transformed my life as a young reader, and books about different types of people and from cultures I did not belong to opened my mind and fueled my empathy. That is why reading has always been an act of liberation and, in this political moment, it is also an act of resistance,” said Nikole Hannah-Jones, creator of the 1619 Project and a graduate of Waterloo West High School. “The same authors whose books are being pulled from school libraries across Iowa and across this country are coming to Waterloo to put those books directly into the hands of our children. No law, no executive order, and no school board vote can stop a child from reading a book they already own.”

Hannah-Jones notes how rare it is for authors of this caliber to come to smaller cities like Waterloo, and that the city has likely never seen such a powerhouse group of authors share a single stage. “I am lucky enough that when I reached out to these very busy, very esteemed authors and asked them to join our fight against book bans in my hometown, each one enthusiastically said yes,” Hannah-Jones said. “Our community deserves access to the greatest literary minds and Black stories deserve to be told and shared in a community where Black students struggle to succeed academically and seldom see themselves in literature.”

Reynolds, Thomas, and Watson are among the most widely read authors writing for young people in the country and among the most targeted by organized book ban movements. Reynolds, a #1 New York Times bestselling author, MacArthur Fellow, and former National Ambassador for Young People’s Literature, has described book bans as rooted not in the content of books but in fear of what children might learn and think. Watson, a #1 New York Times bestselling author with more than one million books sold and a Newbery Medal recipient, is co-author with Hannah-Jones of The 1619 Project: Born on the Water. Thomas, whose debut novel The Hate U Give was among the books cited in PEN America’s documentation of Iowa book removals, is a #1 New York Times bestselling author whose work has been adapted into two major motion pictures. The July 18 program will feature author readings, a Q&A with the authors led by 1619 Freedom School scholars, book giveaways and book signings.

The 1619 Freedom School Read-In is the culminating celebration of the 1619 Freedom School’s summer reading programming. Founded in 2021 by Hannah-Jones in her hometown, the 1619 Freedom School is a free, after-school literacy program serving Waterloo public school students in grades 3 through 6 who are reading below grade level. Taking inspiration from the Freedom Schools inaugurated during Freedom Summer across the South, it combines rigorous literacy instruction with culturally grounded education centered on Black American history. The school does not receive government funding and is not subject to the federal anti-diversity directives or Iowa’s SF 496.

The 2026 1619 Freedom School Read-In is made possible through the support of sponsors and community partners including the W.K. Kellogg Foundation, the Dahlstrom family, Richard O. Jacobson Center for Comprehensive Literacy, and Macmillan Publishers.

The Read-In is free and open to the public. Attendees are encouraged to register at www.1619freedomschool.org. Community members who wish to support the Freedom School’s literacy programming may donate at www.1619freedomschool.org/donate.

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By Dr. Anita Fleming-Rife
Guest Columnist For The Iowa Mercury

DES MOINES —

At a recent City Council Work Session, City Manager Scott Sanders and Finance Director Nick Schaul laid out their proposed cuts to library services and other city services as they developed the Fiscal Year 2028 budget. I was among the many residents who packed the Council chambers to register opposition to the proposed cuts to our libraries.

I am writing to advocate for the essential role the Des Moines Public Library system plays in our residents’ lives and to express my concerns about potential budgetary cuts. Our libraries are not merely repositories for books; they are vibrant community centers that promote learning, foster connections, and provide invaluable resources to all citizens.

When we focus on Forest Avenue Library for May, we find that 61 patrons opened new accounts, Wi-Fi usage was higher than at any library branch in the city, PC usage and patron assistance ranked third among the city’s branch libraries. What these rankings do not show are the numbers of community members who study in the library, who socialize in the library, who read in the library without checking out materials, and who consider and use the library as their meeting place. In this community, many people lack access to private or public transportation to visit other libraries.

Reducing their hours or closing them entirely would disproportionately impact families, seniors, and marginalized communities who depend on these services the most. Des Moines has a storied history of championing access to public education and civic engagement. Our city was instrumental in establishing the Library Bill of Rights, a legacy that compels us to protect, not diminish, our library services. Investing in our libraries is a commitment to fostering thriving neighborhoods and empowering all residents.

I urge you, the citizens of this great city, to urge the mayor, elected representatives, and the city manager to say, “Hands off our libraries.” Tell them to prioritize the Des Moines Public Library system in their budgetary considerations. Every branch must remain open, operational hours safeguarded, and vital programs fully funded. It is not merely about maintaining a service; it is about ensuring that every citizen has access to resources that educate, connect, and uplift our community. Let us stand together to demonstrate our commitment to education, equity, and community cohesion.

Please click on this link to find out how we can work together to save our public libraries.

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ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Dr. Anita Fleming-Rife is a proud Des Moines native and East High School Scarlet. She is a retired Communications and Journalism professor, a former United Nations Project Manager and Public Information Officer for UNOSOM II. In her retirement, she returned home nearly a decade ago to advocate for underserved children to have the same academic outcomes she had in DMPS--to that end, she founded the Black Child Development Institute-Iowa (BCDI-Iowa) to improve their quality of life and academic outcomes. BCDI-Iowa is a village of NBCDI, the only national organization focused solely on the unique attributes and needs of Black children, birth through age 8.

JEFFERSON —

Greene County Attorney Thomas Laehn, the only Libertarian Party candidate ever elected in a partisan contest in Iowa, intends to use the Constitution to break the Democrat-Republican stranglehold on the nation’s government in his race for the U.S. Senate, he said in a wide-ranging, hour-long interview this week in Jefferson.

Laehn, who says the American Republic is now an elective monarchy with oligarchic influences, is a fierce critic of the government use of eminent domain for private-interest carbon-capture pipelines. He thinks abortion should be decided fully at the state level, although Laehn describes himself as “radically” anti-abortion, who if elected at the state level, would support a total abortion ban.

He supports decriminalization of marijuana possession and use, which he says is the first bill he’d introduce in the Senate.

Laehn, 44, of Jefferson, has earned a spot on the ballot this fall in the U.S. Senate race along with Democrat State Rep. Josh Turek of Council Bluffs and Ashley Hinson, a Republican congresswoman from Marion.

Laehn says he is a rarity —a third-party candidate with electoral credibility as the voters of Greene County have elected Laehn twice, in 2018 and 2022. He was unopposed on the ballot.

“A clear majority of Americans would prefer to vote for a third party. So we are the majority,’ Laehn said. “There’s this false narrative being propagated by the two major parties that you have to choose, and if you vote for a third-party candidate, you’re a spoiler. Really what they are saying is if you go into the voting booth and you vote your conscience, you’re going to vote for a losing candidate.”

The fact is in 2018, there were 3,044 Greene County residents who voted for Laehn as county attorney. In 2022, 2,679 did, according to the Greene County Auditor’s Office. He qualified this cycle for the ballot in the U.S. Senate race.

“Without any delusions about my odds I am running to win, my motive is to win,” he said. “If there is any ulterior motive it is to alert the Republic that the ship of state is sinking, and the best thing I can do to draw attention to this is running for office.”

Could he ever run as a Republican?

“If the party was no longer a cult,” Laehn told The Iowa Mercury during a late morning interview over iced teas in a Jefferson home.

“I think that right now the Republican Party is the greater threat to the Republic. If Kamala Harris had been elected, I’d probably be saying the same things,” he said.

Laehn does not think the Democratic Party is a cult —yet.

“But the same tendencies are there,” Laehn said. “When Obama was elected and said the seas will stop rising there is the messianic complex that now surrounds the presidency regardless of who the occupant is. That’s the problem.”

If elected to the Senate, Laehn might caucus with the Democrats — and he might go with the Republicans. He would likely caucus with the opposite party to whoever is the president at the time, Laehn said.

“The Republicans in Congress are more loyal to Trump than they are to their own institution so there are no checks and balances occurring across the branches,” he said. “The same is true if we have a Democratic president. The Democrats in Congress are more loyal to the president (if a Democrat is in the Oval Office) than they are to their own institution.”

A major issue Laehn thinks will form a central pull to his coalition: eminent domain and property rights. Laehn said Iowans — and notably many Republicans — outraged about certain Republicans’ efforts to clear a route for Summit Carbon Solutions pipeline, will find a home with his campaign, even though he is running for federal office, as he’s a strong advocate for property rights.

“That’s definitely what political scientists call a wedge issue that can drive a wedge in the Republican coalition. This pipeline is the biggest boondoggle in the history of our state,” Laehn said. “This is obviously an example of the Legislature and the Republicans in the Legislature — and in the governor’s office — doing the bidding of their economic elite, oligarchic donors against the overwhelming wishes of the vast majority of the people of Iowa. The Legislature is actively obstructing the will of the people.”

Laehn grew up in the northeast Iowa town of Allison, a son of a Lutheran minister. Laehn later converted to Catholicism.

He went on to Drake University, Louisiana State University, the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and eventually to law school at the University of Iowa. Laehn’s wife, Susan, is a political science professor at Iowa Stare University.

“The whole reason I went to law school was to have a path back to rural Iowa because I knew at some point I wanted to start a family,” Laehn said. “I wanted my kids to grow up in a town like Allison.”

“I knew I wanted to do something in public service. I’ve always told people if my goal in life was to make money, I’ve made some very bad decisions.”

One area of expertise for him is in ancient political thought.

“Even when the job market is good there are not many universities looking to hire professors of ancient political theory,” Laehn joked.

He focused on political theory and the Constitution while teaching at McNeese State University in Lake Charles, Louisiana — a place, Laehn said, “where Cajun country meets cowboy country.”

What did he learn about Iowa while living in Louisiana?

“I have yet to find a place better than small town Iowa to raise a family,” he said. “It’s a combination of a sense of community — which you can find in other parts of the country — with a work ethic that’s uniquely Midwestern.”

Is the Midwestern work ethic better than in the South?

“Oh, yes,” Laehn said.

He recalled living through hurricanes in Louisiana and a derecho in Iowa.

“If a tree falls across the road in Lake Charles, Louisiana, the people who live down the road take that as an opportunity to take a week off of work,” Laehn said.

Meanwhile, in Jefferson, Iowa, while he was working at the Courthouse during devastating weather, his neighbors were on the spot for him.

“I get home at 4:40, 5 o’clock and my neighbors have already had their chainsaws out taking down the tree that feel in my yard. That would never happen in Louisiana.”

“Maybe the Southerners have it right. Every home in Louisiana has a pot for making gumbo that can feed 20 people because there is this emphasis on community and family.”

“I’m not saying they are wrong. They might be right. Maybe the fact that I work 70 hours a week as county attorney when I really should be spending time with my family — I am the one who is wrong.”

In the U.S. Senate campaign Laehn’s overarching concern is structural, and it through-lines his talking points and issues. The nation must re-establish separation of powers, he said.

“What’s happened across American history, but what is accelerating now, is the growing concentration of power at the national level, and especially in the White House,” Laehn said.

The watershed for the erosion of the separation of powers, Laehn said, is President Truman in 1950 sending troops to South Korea without congressional authorization.

“Since then, we’ve really seen a shift, such that we’re probably now more akin to an elective monarchy than a Republic,” Laehn said. “Trump is exhibit A. If I were to give the jury trial, the war in Iran is clearly unconstitutional.”

Simply put, Laehn opposes undeclared wars.

“I don’t care who the president is, if he starts invading a country without a declaration of war, he should be impeached and removed,” he said.

Trump violated the Constitution with the war in Iran, but so has every president since Truman, except Carter who involved in the nation in no such engagements, Laehn said.

Similarly, as a matter of Constitutional principle, abortion should be decided at the state level. Laehn said.

“My concern is preserving our constitutional system,” he said. “Part of the problem has been all of these issues have been nationalized. I think Congress has zero authority to regulate abortion, zero.”

“The system is designed to be decentralized because people in Louisiana have very different feelings about abortion than people in New York.”

So even though Laehn considers considers himself “pretty radically pro-life,” he would not be active with that view in the U.S. Senate, leaving the issue to state legislators.

If it were his call at the state level?

“I would ban all abortion,” Laehn said.

He allowed that he may vote for exceptions at times to limit abortions in an incremental fashion.

Laehn said he opposes the core of the federal social safety net in principle. But he would vote to maintain Social Security, Medicare and Medicare, he said.

“They are a settled part of the fabric of American life,” he said.

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About The Iowa Mercury

(Douglas Burns, founder of The Iowa Mercury and a fourth-generation Iowa journalist from Carroll, is a member of the Iowa Writers’ Collaborative. Read dozens of the most talented writers in Iowa in just one place. The Iowa Writers’ Collaborative spans the full state. It’s one of the biggest things going in Iowa journalism and writing now — and you don’t want to miss. This collaborative is — as the outstanding Quad Cities journalist Ed Tibbetts says — YOUR SUNDAY IOWA newspaper. )

By NORAH D’CRUZE
For The Iowa Mercury

IOWA CITY

On the Pentacrest lawn of the University of Iowa, where students are lolling on the grass on a warm spring day, Isaiah Banwart snaps pictures with the camera around his neck, then picks up a sign reading “Fund healthcare, not warfare.” He moves to join a small group trying to draw attention to its protest of statewide funding cuts and foreign conflicts.

As an educator of autistic students, Banwart, 26, said he feels the cuts to education and disability resources are causing immense economic stress. Although he grew up Republican in a small town in northern Iowa, seeing the impacts of MAGA policy solidified his decision to vote blue in this year’s midterm elections.

Expecting that conditions will get worse before they get better, especially with Donald Trump in the White House, he imagines putting Iowa in his rear-view mirror one day.

“I’ll probably move eventually, like within one to five years,” he said.

Many educators and families who depend on social service spending are worried about the state’s direction in education, with Republicans dominating the state legislature and the federal government. In November, they will be supporting Rob Sand, the Democrat given the best odds in years to win the governorship, and Democrats hoping to flip one Senate seat and more than one seat in the U.S. House.

Educators bear the brunt of managing rapidly changing policies on education. Republican Gov. Kim Reynolds has spearheaded legislation that enforces “Make America Healthy Again” rhetoric, redirects funding to private schools and halts Democratic projects. While Reynolds is not seeking reelection in 2026, the legislation she has signed since 2018 has lasting impacts on education across all 99 counties.

One of those items is private school vouchers, which has affected 99 percent of private school students since it was passed in March. The Students First Act diverted state education funds to private schools through $8,000-per-student vouchers. Beginning this year, all K-12 students in Iowa, regardless of family income became eligible.

Compared to the 2 percent increase in public school funding, the governor’s budget showed a 44 percent increase for vouchers for 2026. Diversion of funding and public economic struggle prime Iowa’s once robust public education system to deteriorate, causing public educators to worry for their wage security.

“I think public money should go for public schools, and it’s been gradually eroding,” said former special education teacher Dianne Gibson of Dubuque. “We don’t have the resources in public schools that we used to.”

Gibson, recently retired, began teaching in public schools in 1973. When she began teaching, Gibson recalled having “such free rein to do things, it was creative, it was lovely.”

Gibson’s two nieces, both in their forties, still work in Iowa as teachers. Once, she was heartened that they chose to follow her. Not anymore, she said.

“Who wants to go into education anymore?” Gibson said.

Volunteering and testifying for public education, Gibson is saddened by the loss in resources that is diminishing student services and staff wages and is sympathetic to those pursuing work out of state.

In February, State Sen. Herman Quirmbach, D-Ames, calculated that Gov. Reynolds’ voucher program caused funding for public K-12 schools to fall more than half a billion dollars behind inflation in the past decade.

“The shortfall is now more than $1,000 per student for regular program kids,” Quirmbach said, citing verified data analysis. “The situation is even worse for students receiving special education. Funding for the kids who need the most help has fallen as much as $3,500 behind inflation compared to nine years ago,” when Reynolds first took office.

The 1990 Americans with Disabilities Act, prevents discrimination based on disability, including in public education, but the act’s regulations do not extend to private schools. Thus, Iowa’s defunding of public education in favor of private, risks leaving disabled students behind.

Furthermore, Medicaid and Medicare cuts of almost $1 trillion by the president last year exacerbate the damage to Iowans with disabilities, an issue that candidates including State Rep. Josh Turek, the state’s Democratic U.S. Senate nominee, have made central to their campaign platforms.

“I’m only here because of a long time United States senator, Senator Tom Harkin and the work that he did on the ADA,” Turek, a graduate of the Iowa public school system in Council Bluffs, said in Dubuque in May. If elected, he promises to fight for “social safety nets” like Medicare and Medicaid.

Bill Stumpf’s son, Kyle, has Down syndrome. Now 36, Kyle graduated from an Iowa public school and is competitively employed. The Dubuque father attributed Kyle’s success to public resources, including state education funding and Medicaid waivers that contributed to his son’s learning.

“Disability services were never partisan issues in the past, and should not be now,” said Bill Stumpf.

Yet, cuts in education and disability services appear increasingly political, championed by Republican leaders. The politicization of these issues led 23-year-old Aysia Smith to move to Illinois after two years of working in Iowa.

“There’s a lot of pushback from Republicans just surrounding autism in general,” said the Drake University graduate. “Iowa is doing less to support special education, and Illinois is doing more.”

Smith said she saw MAHA-driven conspiracies begin to emerge in public schools. At a professional development training run by Dallas County Public Schools in Waukee, Smith said she was told by staff leaders that Mexican populations tend to have lower levels of autism diagnoses because they eat corn instead of wheat. As a Mexican- American, she said this experience was extremely upsetting.

Smith said pay was a factor in her decision to leave Iowa. Banwart echoed the sentiment. While Iowa ranks 30th nationally, in teacher pay, close to the average, teachers report lower retention, larger class sizes and decreasing pay.

Intimately affected by cuts to Medicaid are Applied Behavior Analysis clinics, specialized facilities where professionals provide behavioral therapy and education to students with autism, like Banwart’s employer in Coralville. They are funded primarily through the public assistance program. The behavioral technician, who provides therapy to autistic students, says since the cuts, many kids have seen their insurance decreased or cancelled. Students with no insurance cannot be billed, he said.

“’I’ve had a month where I wasn’t able to bill anything,” said Banwart, “Cuts to services like this, from Medicaid, there is less money to pay the workers.”

It has caused burnout with his work and pushed him to rethink staying in Iowa, where he grew up and attended public school. Banwart wishes to start a family one day. Yet, he doesn’t think it will be possible in Iowa, where his partner, a registered nurse, also has seen decreased wages with Medicaid cuts, he said.

“Absolutely not,” he said to the question of having kids in Iowa. “I would not want to bring anyone into a worse version of what I grew up in.”

The young educator said he hopes for better for his future family, having struggled with food insecurity and an underfunded public school system himself. Yet, he holds some hope for his home state, with upcoming midterms posing viable democratic candidates.

“I think there’s the potential for change if Democratic candidates are elected.” Banwart said. “My decision to move would be based on what those changes are.”

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About the Author

Norah D'Cruze is a junior at the Northwestern University’s Medill School of Journalism in Evanston, Illinois. She is from Gaithersburg, Maryland. Her reporting has been published in PBS Chicago, the Texas Observer and Sojourners Magazine. She currently works as a reporter for Board Rule, in Chicago.

About The Iowa Mercury

(Douglas Burns, founder of The Iowa Mercury and a fourth-generation Iowa journalist from Carroll, is a member of the Iowa Writers’ Collaborative. Read dozens of the most talented writers in Iowa in just one place. The Iowa Writers’ Collaborative spans the full state. It’s one of the biggest things going in Iowa journalism and writing now — and you don’t want to miss. This collaborative is — as the outstanding Quad Cities journalist Ed Tibbetts says — YOUR SUNDAY IOWA newspaper. )

MANILLA, Iowa —

Democratic candidate for governor Rob Sand has selected Crawford County Supervisor Dave Muhlbauer, a cattleman-farmer and deeply rooted rural Iowan from Manilla in western Iowa who ran for the U.S. Senate five years ago, as his lieutenant governor running mate.

The pick fortifies Decorah native Sand’s efforts to bridge the partisan divide in rural Iowa and brings a geographic balance to the ticket.

“A fifth-generation family farmer and cattleman from Crawford County, Dave Muhlbauer represents the best of our state: hard-working, honest, and always willing to help out. I’m proud to have him on Team Sand,” Sand said in a statement. “Dave has a track record of working with everyone to deliver for western Iowa and knows it’s time to rotate the crops in state government. He’ll be a great partner on the trail and an even better lieutenant governor for the people of Iowa.”

Muhlbauer, 42, a son and grandson of former state representatives, the late Dan Muhlbauer and Louis Muhlbauer, farms corn, soybean and rye and raises cattle and hogs in Manilla, at the southern edge of Crawford County. All three Muhlbauers have served as Democrats on the Crawford County Board of Supervisors —Dave Muhlbauer for eight years.

“I am in tune with what the people of my community are saying and asking and their concerns,” Muhlbauer said in an interview with The Iowa Mercury.

Muhlbauer described Sand as “grounded” and “compassionate.”

“It’s not about one side or the other,” Muhlbauer said. “It’s about doing what’s right versus wrong. I know he says it a lot, ‘not redder or bluer, but better or truer.’ That is so true.”

Muhlbauer’s father, the late State Rep. Dan Muhlbauer, D-Manilla, represented Carroll, Crawford and Audubon counties. He died Oct. 1. 2020 at age 62.

“This is very personal to me. Growing up farming and being in a farm family, taking care of the land, and doing what we do, is deeply embedded in our DNA,” Dave Muhlbauer said. “That’s the same to me with what grandpa and dad did with serving as a Crawford County supervisor, and later, legislator. I grew up campaigning for my grandpa when I was just a little kid.”

Several members of Dave Muhlbauer’s family — sister and brother in law Robert and Megan Riesselman and cousin Jared Muhlbauer — are engaged in the farming-agricultural operation just a stone’s throw from Shelby County and close to the Carroll County city of Manning, where Muhlbauer’s wife, Linda, is the library director.

“I first and foremost think there should be a place for any size farm,” Muhlbauer said. “Every farmer is a little bit different with how they operate and what they want to do or don’t do. We need to see the state work hand in hand with farmers on policies that are best practices.”

“I myself do cover crops because I feel that greatly helps my soil and water quality and helps with the fertility of the land and the health of the soil. I think we need to have more communication with farmers on how to make practices at hand more available to them.”

Muhlbauer said at the core he and Sand have the same goals for the state and are equipped with the electoral track records to end a decade of one-party control in Iowa by Republicans.

“For us, it’s about making government work for the people and fixing a broken political system,” Muhlbauer said.

As a local elected official, Muhlbauer lives among the people he represents in Tuesday morning supervisors’ meetings at the Crawford County Courthouse in Denison.

“People are upset, they don’t feel like government represents them,” Muhlbauer said. “They don’t feel like their voice is being heard. They feel like legislators are more interested in special interests and powerful insiders. To me, it’s about giving that voice back to people.”

Through the years, Muhlbauer has often described himself as an “old-school farming-labor Democrat.”

Muhlbauer ran for the U.S. Senate in the 2022 cycle but left the race before the primary to spend time with family after the death of his 4-year-old nephew Jed Riesselman in an accident. The Riesselmans have established a non-profit foundation, Stables 4 Jed, and developed a mental-health/grief facility, one with a focus on horse therapy, right on their farm, 5 miles southwest of Manning, on the east side of 370th Street just north of Dave Muhlbauer’s home.

Dave and Linda Muhlbauer have one son and two daughters: Chas, 18; Ava, 17; and Roslyn, 15, all high school students.

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About The Iowa Mercury

(Douglas Burns, founder of The Iowa Mercury and a fourth-generation Iowa journalist from Carroll, is a member of the Iowa Writers’ Collaborative. Read dozens of the most talented writers in Iowa in just one place. The Iowa Writers’ Collaborative spans the full state. It’s one of the biggest things going in Iowa journalism and writing now — and you don’t want to miss. This collaborative is — as the outstanding Quad Cities journalist Ed Tibbetts says — YOUR SUNDAY IOWA newspaper. )

DES MOINES —

The kid with the wrong-colored lunch ticket had the right message.

Josh Turek, the two-time-gold-medal-winning basketball Paralympian who grew up hardscrabble in Council Bluffs, staring down both medical challenges and economic struggles, Tuesday night earned the Democratic slot on the general-election ballot for the first open U.S. Senate seat in Iowa in a generation with a dominating showing in the primary as he nearly ran the table of 99 counties on Zach Wahls, a fellow state legislator who has constructed an estimable political profile over the last decade and is widely seen as having a bright future of his own in public life.

Tonight was all Turek.

The two-term Council Bluffs Democrat captured the primary with 63 percent of the vote to Wahls’ 37 percent with 98 of 99 counties reporting as of press time, according to the Iowa Secretary of State’s Office. Turek prevailed with nearly 90 percent of the primary vote in his home county, Pottawattamie, and posted 41 percent of the vote in Wahls’ home county of Johnson. Iowa Public Radio, as of press time, reported just three counties for Wahls: an eastern Iowa home-turf clutch of Johnson, Louisa and Cedar. Turek hit 80 percent in Page County where he launched his Farmers For Turek organization late last week.

“Iowa sure does love an underdog and we have done it tonight,” Turek said.

Turek will face U.S. Rep. Ashley Hinson, R-Marion, in November. Hinson cruised to a win in the lightly contested GOP primary with 74 percent of the vote over former state legislator and attorney Jim Carlin.

In his acceptance speech, delivered at The Loft, an event space just north of Mercy Medical Center in Des Moines, Turek was quick to compliment Wahls and reach out to the Coralville state senator’s supporters.

“Zach has been an exceptional representative for his district and a true public servant for the people of Iowa,” Turek said. “I am grateful for this primary. It has made me a stronger candidate. To Zach’s supporters, I know I was not your first choice. But I ask each and every one of you to join our campaign to push for change.”

Maria Torres, 36, made the two-hour drive Tuesday from her home in Council Bluffs to support Turek at the Des Moines victory rally.

“Honestly, I’ve always admired Josh Turek,” Torres said in an interview with The Iowa Mercury. “Since I first met him, and just hearing his story, it connected very well with me just coming from a family like mine. We were poor. We grew up that way. And it’s like ‘you understand what it’s like to be an actual Iowan, you know. Like you get not having anything and trying to build that up.’”

An early Turek supporter, and close friend, former state legislator Sami Scheetz of Cedar Rapids, now a Linn County supervisor, said primary voters were keyed in on electability.

“Josh has a unique story that’s going to resonate with people across the political spectrum in this state,” Scheetz said of Turek, the first permanently and visibly disabled legislator in Iowa history.

Former Iowa Attorney General Tom Miller said in an interview that Turek has the “whole package” as a general-election candidate.

“His story, what he overcame, his persistence, his winning those two races in Council Bluffs, and being center-left, being a kitchen-table-kind-of-issues guy and connecting with people, he really connects with people well — that whole package is what we want in politics, and it’s a winning package in a general election as well,” Miller, who endorsed Turek in the primary, said.

“I think he’s doing a lot of things right that he needs to continue doing,” Miller added.

Long-time Democratic Party activist Nancy Bobo, 73, of Des Moines, who cut her political teeth knocking doors for Gov. Harold Hughes as a kid in her hometown of Westside, co-hosted a Turek event on her family’s farm in Crawford County Friday. She attended the primary night party in Des Moines.

“I’ve worked campaigns, I’ve done that all my life,” Bobo said minutes after Turek spoke Tuesday. “When I see Democratic candidates, and they’re very similar in their policy issues, I really look at the character of the person because that’s where people distinguish themselves.”

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About The Iowa Mercury

(Douglas Burns, founder of The Iowa Mercury and a fourth-generation Iowa journalist from Carroll, is a member of the Iowa Writers’ Collaborative. Read dozens of the most talented writers in Iowa in just one place. The Iowa Writers’ Collaborative spans the full state. It’s one of the biggest things going in Iowa journalism and writing now — and you don’t want to miss. This collaborative is — as the outstanding Quad Cities journalist Ed Tibbetts says — YOUR SUNDAY IOWA newspaper. )

By AMELIA ALBERS
For The Iowa Mercury

When driving along Iowa’s farm-lined highways, you don’t have to go far to spot a wind turbine. Iowa has the highest concentration of wind energy capacity per square mile in the United States. Renewable energy powered about two-thirds of Iowa’s total electricity generation in 2024, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration, and 63% of Iowa’s net energy generation is powered by wind turbines.

But President Trump’s One Big Beautiful Bill could slow or halt projects for wind turbines and other sources of renewable energy by reducing federal incentives.

“We have not approved one windmill since I’ve been in office, and we’re going to keep it that way,” said the president on January 9, 2026, at a meeting with oil executives at the White House.

Josh Manske, a fifth-generation farmer in Algona, Iowa who currently sits on the Iowa Farmers Union board of directors, pointed out an interesting dichotomy between the king of wind energy– current Iowa Republican Senator, Chuck Grassley– and the Republican administration in the House. While wind power in Iowa originated from a Republican Senator, the Trump Administration is against wind turbines and other forms of renewable energy.

Senator Grassley championed the first wind energy tax credit in 1993. The updated Working Families Tax Cuts Act allows prospective wind turbine owners to receive years’ worth of tax credits as long as construction begins in less than a year.

“As a family, we’re directly benefiting from that renewable energy,” said Manske.

MidAmerican Energy Company is one of the most powerful in Iowa, serving 1.3 million electric and natural gas customers. MidAmerican currently partners with about 4,000 landowners in Iowa to build its wind farms. In 2025, they paid $60 million in property taxes across 35 counties. These payments provide funding for schools, roads, bridges, county health services, and emergency responders.

“I see it as not only another source of energy to keep our energy costs low, reliable, and nearby, but also, you know, the economic benefits to the local people,” said Ray Gaesser, the owner of Gaesser Farms in Corning, Iowa. “There are these economic benefits that people don’t talk about, and it is a big deal for rural America.”

Gaesser voted for President Trump because of his America First policies and is a part of the Iowa Conservative Energy Forum. At his home in Adams County 112 wind turbines are operating and pay a third of the property tax. These turbines have supported the community since 2016, providing funding for schools, maintaining roads, and rebuilding bridges.

Ethanol is considered a renewable energy source because it’s made from plant biomass that grows back. This colorless alcohol fuel is a substitute for traditional petroleum gas, helping power trucks and automobiles.

“An ethanol plant came into production 14 miles from our house. It immediately raised the value of the corn that we grow, probably by 5% or more. And sometimes that’s the difference between being profitable and agriculture not being profitable,” said Gaesser.

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He believes that many of the renewable energy projects can still continue without the incentives President Trump is cutting with the One Big Beautiful Bill. Additionally, he thinks it’s time for the renewable energy projects to stand on their own, without government intervention.

In the Southwest Iowa county of Adair, there are over 500 turbines, making it the county with the highest concentration of wind turbines in all of Iowa. But, not everyone in rural Iowa sees this as an economic success.

“I think they’re a complete waste,” said Micaiah ‘Mickey’ Thompson, a mechanic from Adair County who worked putting up and fueling wind turbines. “I can’t see how it makes sense for what they produce.”

Mickey describes himself as right-leaning in politics and voted for President Trump. He said that the process of putting up the wind turbines and the difficult dismantling after the turbines’ lifespan ends in 20-30 years doesn’t sit right with him.

“Some guys, their jobs are actually to go around from windmill to windmill, looking at dead birds,” said Mickey. Some of his favorite camping spots have been ruined by the “big roaring noise” they emit.

In the US, wind turbines kill about 700,000 to 1 million birds annually, according to the American Bird Conservancy. But, the leading human-made cause of bird mortality is outdoor cats, which kill 2.4 billion birds each year.

As someone who leans more progressive politically than most of his neighbors, Manske supports renewable energy initiatives but also recognizes their harmful effects.

“You’ve got some counties, even in the state, that are very, very anti-wind energy because they don’t like what it does to the landscape, and those very legitimate issues when it comes to that,” said Manske. He recognized that there is some noise pollution from the turbines.

“You gotta just do your due diligence to put it away from your neighbor and make sure you work with your neighbors to make sure that it’s okay,” said Manske.

While rural Iowa relies on renewable energy, the communities continue to cast red votes. Manske attributes this paradox to the loss of identity in rural communities due to the mass rural exodus, a large-scale migration from rural to urban areas.

“They’re not necessarily voting for their pocket, but voting for that identity issue,” said Manske. “It’s at a certain point where you’re like, we couldn’t keep the county church open anymore because we didn’t have the people yet to keep it going. It makes people feel like they failed in some way.”

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About The Author

(Amelia Albers is a senior at Northwestern University studying journalism and psychology, from Grand Rapids, Michigan. Albers is a member of the National Championship-winning field hockey team for Northwestern.)

About The Iowa Mercury

(Douglas Burns, founder of The Iowa Mercury and a fourth-generation Iowa journalist from Carroll, is a member of the Iowa Writers’ Collaborative. Read dozens of the most talented writers in Iowa in just one place. The Iowa Writers’ Collaborative spans the full state. It’s one of the biggest things going in Iowa journalism and writing now — and you don’t want to miss. This collaborative is — as the outstanding Quad Cities journalist Ed Tibbetts says — YOUR SUNDAY IOWA newspaper. )

CLARINDA, DES MOINES, COUNCIL BLUFFS and WESTSIDE —

Ginny Hamilton traveled from Windsor Heights to the Noethe Brothers Farm in Westside Friday to hear Josh Turek, a Democratic U.S. Senate candidate she sees as having the mettle to push back on President Trump.

“He’s just so brave and I can’t imagine that he’d bow down and kiss Trump’s butt like everyone else does,” Hamilton, 73, said after hearing Turek speak from a farmhouse porch to about 80 people, most hailing from Crawford and Crawford counties. Westside is at the juncture of the two counties.

Tim Tracy, an active Democrat and the former long-time chair of the Carroll County Democratic Party who has hosted presidential candidate Martin O’Malley and astronaut and senator John Glenn’s family at his home, and can vividly recall talking with the late Bobby Kennedy, detailed his support for Turek over hot dogs and homemade cookies at the Noethe farm. Tracy, who early voted for Turek on Friday, also sang the national anthem to kick off the Westside event which unfolded in a light rain.

“I think with his legislative experience, his life experience, he understands what people in Iowa are going through even if right now some of them don’t realize what’s happening to them,” Tracy said.

Tracy, 75, said Turek brings a fundamental grit to his role as a legislator.

“I think his determination is the Iowa determination that we all assume we have,” Tracy said. “I think he’s the best candidate to represent us at this time in our history because we need people in Washington who understand what they’re putting people through when they pass various pieces of legislation.”

For his part, Turek chatted with Mary Bruner of Carroll, a former candidate for the state senate who now uses a wheelchair. Turek even inspected the ramp to her accessibility van. Turek noted in the conversation with Bruner that he entered politics in 2022, the year he won election to the Statehouse, largely because of his frustration with Medicaid privatization in Iowa and denial rates for people with disabilities.

“They were just denying people over and over and over and I thought that was fundamentally wrong,” Turek said.

Rose Miller of Westside, a retired preschool teacher who co-hosted the event, said Turek’s passion and empathy for people with disabilities manifests in what she believes is a deep well of compassion for people in general.

“I think he has empathy for everyone in different areas because I think whenever you have different challenges it makes you aware of different challenges other people have,” Miller said. “Plus, I just think people will listen to him more than they might.”

Two days earlier, on a 320-acre farm outside of Clarinda in far southwest Iowa, just a skip from the Missouri border, 20 people, many in agriculture, gathered for the unveiling of Farmers For Turek, a group co-chaired by Seth Watkins, 57, of Clarinda and Ellen Walsh-Rosmann, 39, of Harlan.

Watkins’ farm is four generations deep in his family. His great-grandfather started it on a land grant claim tied to his great-great-grandfather’s service in the War of 1812.

“Every time I meet with Josh he listens first and asks really poignant questions,” Walsh-Rosmann said.

“What do you look for in a leader? Grit, humility and empathy,” Josh Manske, a farmer from Algona, said, adding that Turek embodies all of that. Manske, who attended the Clarinda event, wrote a column in The Iowa Mercury endorsing Turek.

Watkins, who showed Turek his cattle operation, and hundreds of newly planted trees, among other aspects of the farm operation, said there’s an urgency to solutions for agriculture.

“I see tariffs decimating soybean prices and hurting my friends who raise corn and beans,” Watkins said, adding that “I see a needless war in Iran driving the price of fuel and fertilizer.”

Ten days ago, on a sweltering Saturday, a few dozen politically engaged people gathered at the Des Moines home of Mary Riche, a fierce early supporter of Turek and a tireless advocate for women’s reproductive freedom. Riche has this column in Laura Belin’s publication, Bleeding Heartland.

Riche started the event at her home with a performance by Des Moines musician and writer Chip Albright of “If It’s Turek, That’s Terrific” that Albright wrote after reading articles in The Iowa Mercury about Turek. CNN featured Albright and the song in a piece over the weekend.

“I think it’s Ok to have heroes,” Albright tells The Iowa Mercury. “Let’s get behind this guy.”

Riche said Turek has earned her support in the last two years.

“It’s even more important that he win because he’s a proven winner, and we need to win in November, which is why I’m guessing many of you are here today,” Riche said.

Liz Huebsch, 39, a mental-health therapist from Windsor Heights who grew up in West Des Moines, said she originally supported Turek’s opponent in the primary, State Sen. Zach Wahls, D-Coralville. She’s now decidedly with Turek.

“I just really appreciate how Josh Turek is focused on elevating himself and uplifting himself and what he is running for and his campaign,” Huebsch said. “I was very active in Pete Buttigieg’s campaign. We never bashed the other side, we never talked bad about them.”

Buttigieg, a 2020 Democratic presidential candidate and former U.S. secretary of transportation, has endorsed Turek in the primary.

“I already knew right before then I was going to vote for Turek,” Huebsch said. “But when Pete Buttigieg endorsed him I was like, ‘Oh, gosh, I knew this was the right candidate for me.’”

The primary election is Tuesday.

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(Douglas Burns, founder of The Iowa Mercury and a fourth-generation Iowa journalist from Carroll, is a member of the Iowa Writers’ Collaborative. Read dozens of the most talented writers in Iowa in just one place. The Iowa Writers’ Collaborative spans the full state. It’s one of the biggest things going in Iowa journalism and writing now — and you don’t want to miss. This collaborative is — as the outstanding Quad Cities journalist Ed Tibbetts says — YOUR SUNDAY IOWA newspaper. )

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CARROLL, Iowa —

I’d always thought my career in journalism would be defined by my own writing, the leads and turns of phrase and reporting under the byline.

That is true, but as it turns out, I have an eye for talent in other writers, and a passion to platform underrepresented voices, new thinking. As former co-owner of the Carroll Daily Times Herald, I scouted and hired five writers who each earned Iowa Young Journalist of The Year honors from The Iowa Newspaper Association.

The only employee of The Iowa Mercury is me. But this site, and our readers, have been lifted with extraordinary guest columns from a range of perspectives on urgent topics in a nation and state that seem hungry for content not available elsewhere.

Fifteen of those guest columnists are pictured above.

As much as anyone in The Iowa Writers’ Collaborative, I work to find and amplify other people with perspectives to more fully shape our worldviews and empathy. Always empathy. The only response to chaos is kindness.

Help The Iowa Mercury continue spotlighting important writers.

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I’ve covered Iowa for a quarter century. That continues.

I interviewed former President Barack Obama 10 times, and once asked then-candidate Donald Trump, “If you love Iowa so much, why haven’t you built anything here?”

Sadly, in one of the more challenging days in my career, I joined colleague Lorena Lopez, editor of La Prensa Iowa Spanish language newspaper in covering the school shootings in Perry.

In recent weeks, The Iowa Mercury has reported from Denison, Ottumwa, Muscatine, Mason City, Council Bluffs, Des Moines, Ames, Carroll, Clear Lake and Carter Lake. I regularly see both the Mississippi and Missouri rivers.

On the positive side: Arts and culture and business and entrepreneurs are thriving in rural reaches of Iowa. You just have to find them. The Iowa Mercury knows where to look. I review many books from Iowa authors, including the recent “Dear Marty” by Art Cullen.

The Iowa Mercury is a reader-supported publication with 2,219 subscribers.

It’s painful not to be the publisher of the Carroll Times Herald. I miss it every day. But destiny has me in vital supporting roles for some of the journalists I most admire in Iowa as I write for and promote two essential Iowa media leaders — Lorena Lopez and the estimable La Prensa Spanish Language Newspaper and Dana James, who operates a statewide community newspaper that reminds me so much of my family’s paper — Black Iowa News. And of course, I am here to support the peerless Julie Gammack who brilliantly, fearlessly constructed the Iowa Writers’ Collaborative. Gammack is one of the more influential leaders in Iowa journalism and arts and culture.

Additionally, I regularly write The Political Mercury column for Des Moines Cityview. I’ve pinch hit for several other papers around the state — a cobbled-together career.

I’m working these days out of the Hub 712 in Carroll, an innovation and start-up center in western Iowa, which aims to boost entrepreneurs, especially in the rural and Latino communities, the lifeblood of western Iowa.

I’ve rarely pushed for paid subscriptions here before. Helping me get to more paid subscribers would allow The Iowa Mercury to cover more, post more, travel to more parts of Iowa — and continue platforming guests columnists.

Thanks for indulging.

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COUNCIL BLUFFS, Iowa —

The words that came to John Turek’s mind weren’t just words. They were numbers, too.

“Fifty eight thousand,” said John Turek, a veteran of the Vietnam War, as he stood feet from The Wall That Heals, a replica of the Vietnam Veterans Memorial on display for most of the last week in Council Bluffs.

“We lost so many guys over there, it’s hard to comprehend,” John Turek said.

John Turek, 76, the father of U.S. Senate candidate Josh Turek, a Council Bluffs legislator, today covered the full grounds of The Wall That Heals experience in its temporary location at Lewis Central High School in Council Bluffs.

“You were there for 22 months, a lot of the wall is going to cover when you where there,” Josh Turek observed to his father as they absorbed the wall.

The elder Turek, who also lives in Council Bluffs, pointed to spots in Vietnam where he served in the Navy. His finger went right to the rivers where his craft, an LST, a Landing Ship Tank, delivered troops and supplies in the Vietnam War.

Soon, the Tureks found Kim Smith, 49, of Council Bluffs, a volunteer with The Wall That Heals. Using an app on her smart phone Smith helped them locate the name of one of the 58,318 Americans represented on the wall — Pfc. Robert William Smith who died in 1966 in Vietnam in a hostile ground engagement. John Turek knew Smith in high school in Wentzville, Missouri.

“He was such a close friend before we went in,” John Turek said of Robert Smith, now gone for nearly 60 years.

.John Turek said having the wall in Council Bluffs for Memorial Day is extraordinary for both the city and veterans. The wall conveys respect for veterans, he said.

“I think it’s amazing that they do this,” John Turek said.

David Hazelwood, 58, a Marine combat veteran who served after Vietnam, said The Wall That Heals is far more than an exhibit.

“It has been a place of remembrance, healing and unity,” Hazelwood, who lives in rural Pottawattamie County, said in remarks to close out the wall experience. “For many veterans The Wall That Heals represents a deeply personal connection to brothers and sisters they served beside, names etched into history, but never forgotten in the hearts of those who knew and loved them.”

The younger Turek, a two-time gold-medal-winning Paralympian in basketball, is the first permanently and visibly disabled member of the Iowa Legislature. The spina bifida that required 21 surgeries by the age of 12 for Josh Turek is the result of his father’s 22 months of service in the Vietnam War during 1968 and 1969, much of it on rivers.

“I didn’t realize when I was over there that this would be the result,” John Turek said, motioning to his son’s wheelchair.

Like his father, and many other veterans and family members gathered this afternoon at the memorial, Josh Turek went immediately to the number 58,000 when talking about the impact of the Vietnam Memorial Wall.

“It’s profound when you see the size of this, when you think of 58,000 brave men and women losing their lives,” Josh Turek said. “It’s emotional to see that amount of names. In our country, it’s just over and over and over finding ourselves in these forever wars.”

“Unfortunately, for me, I’m an example of the generational consequences to this,” he added. “The bombs stop and the consequences don’t.”

The Wall That Heals will be transported to Indiana for an early June exhibit. It is back in Iowa — in Manning from July 23 to 26, and in Brooklyn, Iowa from July 26 to August 2.

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About The Iowa Mercury

(Douglas Burns, founder of The Iowa Mercury and a fourth-generation Iowa journalist from Carroll, is a member of the Iowa Writers’ Collaborative. Read dozens of the most talented writers in Iowa in just one place. The Iowa Writers’ Collaborative spans the full state. It’s one of the biggest things going in Iowa journalism and writing now — and you don’t want to miss. This collaborative is — as the outstanding Quad Cities journalist Ed Tibbetts says — YOUR SUNDAY IOWA newspaper. )

By JERRY WU
For The Iowa Mercury

On a recent Saturday in Pella, Iowa — 40 miles southeast of Des Moines — crowds packed into the local Pizza Ranch.

Thousands headed to Pella in May for the annual Tulip Time festival, a celebration of the town’s blooming tulips and Dutch heritage. Ahead of the evening parade, families wrapped around the downtown streets while the smells of freshly baked bread and tangy tomato sauce drifted through the air.

But in Iowa, chains like Pizza Ranch are more than just restaurants. Over the last two decades, the storefronts have become fixtures of the state’s political culture, places where politicians go to present themselves as authentic Iowans to court voter support. Presidential hopeful Ron DeSantis even popped into Pella’s Pizza Ranch in 2023, the staff said.

Now, as Iowa prepares for its gubernatorial elections in November with Gov. Kim Reynolds’ departure, the two leading candidates are leaning into that familiarity in different ways.

Republican U.S. Representative Randy Feenstra has made Pizza Ranch a signature stop on his campaign trail. His opponent, Rob Sand, a Democrat and the state’s auditor, has embraced another Iowan staple on social media: Casey’s gas station pizza.

Both candidates have decided to make local favorites part of their brand, a strategy that some Iowans say has caught their eye ahead of this year’s elections.

“It draws my attention even though I’m not even sure where he stands on things,” said Michelle Ryan, a child protection worker in Iowa City, who has seen Sand’s Facebook posts reviewing Casey’s. “It’s been awhile but it will pop up, and I’ll naturally recognize the name.”

This year’s gubernatorial race has drawn national attention as Democrats aim for a key pickup in Iowa, which has trended red in recent election cycles.

Sand has emerged as an early favorite in the polls. Since he was elected as state auditor in 2018, he has worked to cultivate an image that reaches beyond his Democratic base. Besides his messages about rooting out corruption in Iowa, he often posts about his passions for bowhunting, skateboarding and Casey’s pizza.

Casey’s began serving pizza accidentally. In 1984, the owner of an early Casey’s store in Corning, Iowa, decided to start making pizza after a local shop closed, according to The Des Moines Register. Casey’s now sells over 28 million pizzas a year and has more than 500 locations in Iowa, growing into the fifth-largest pizza chain in the U.S.

One of Sand’s viral clips shows him practicing the “Casey’s pizza flop” hack, which involves slamming an unopened Casey’s pizza box onto the floor to draw excess grease from the pizza.

“I think this is really who Rob is, especially traveling in a state like Iowa where there are many rural areas, Casey’s might be one of the few places in those communities to stop in and get gas and get a pizza,” said Emma O’Brien, Sand’s deputy campaign manager. “I think you could go back years — he’s been talking about his love for Casey’s for several years.”

Each year since he was elected auditor, Sand has completed a tour of 100 town halls statewide, similar to Iowa Senator Chuck Grassley’s annual tradition of visiting all 99 counties. Starting this year, Sand’s campaign team also began to organize community conversations inviting his supporters and opponents to dine over slices of Casey’s and discuss politics, O’Brien said.

Some Iowan voters say Sand’s attachment to pizza helps humanize him in the world of politics.

Ryan, who visits Casey’s weekly for its breakfast pizza, said Sand’s social media clips make him seem like an everyday Iowan.

“It makes him a normal, relatable person,” said Ryan, a registered Democrat, who hopes the next Iowa governor can push back against the Trump administration. “I want change, and if he wants change, we should buddy up.”

Republicans also have long recognized the political value of familiar locales.

Polls have shown that Feenstra, who has represented Iowa’s 4th Congressional District since 2021, is the Republican frontrunner in the gubernatorial race. As Feenstra has crisscrossed the state leading up to the Republican primary in recent months, it has become routine to see him posting a video or photo on Facebook of another Pizza Ranch visit.

For Feenstra, the buffet chain is both a campaign stop and a symbol of his roots. Pizza Ranch was founded in 1981 in Hull, Iowa — Feenstra’s hometown — and he also met his wife at one of the storefronts.

“So the connection to Pizza Ranch, like literally, is from birth,” said Ty Rushing, a journalism professor at the University of Iowa who has reported on Feenstra’s political career since 2014, when he was a state senator. “This has always been in his character.”

With a strong Christian-oriented mission, Pizza Ranch has a long history of hosting Republican candidates, dating back to Mike Huckabee and Rick Santorum in the late 2000s to mid-2010s.

Ana Hibbs, who lives in Pella with her husband and daughter, said she remembered spending her weekends at Pizza Ranch locations across the state, while her dad worked for Huckabee’s 2008 presidential campaign during the Iowa caucuses.

“Iowa is a first-in-the-nation caucus state, but people find Pizza Ranch like home in Iowa. It’s pretty big here,” said Hibbs, who believes pro-life policies and school choice are the state’s most pressing issues.

Hibbs works as a communications liaison for Republican gubernatorial candidate Adam Steen, the former director of Iowa’s Department of Administrative Services, whom she says has a track record of supporting those policies.

Still, in a state where retail politics have a long history, many Iowan voters say they pay little attention to those political signals.

Outside a Casey’s near the University of Iowa’s campus in early May, Johnson County Supervisor Rod Sullivan stepped out with two slices of pizza and a Mountain Dew.

“It’s convenient, and the quality’s pretty decent,” said Sullivan, a registered Democrat, who has lived in Iowa City for the last 42 years. “I’ve probably had Casey’s as long as they have had it.”

Sullivan said he has seen Sand’s Facebook posts about Casey’s, but doubts they have shaped voter opinions. The race, he said, will come down to who promises the most change. Sullivan said Sand has his vote.

“To be completely honest, it’s just a non-factor. It doesn’t change how I think about a person one way or another, but I would say if it’s working for Rob, he should keep doing it,” said Sullivan, with a gap-toothed grin.

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About The Author

Jerry Wu, who is from San Diego, is a junior at the Northwestern University Medill School of Journalism in Evanston, Illinois. His reporting has been published in POLITICO, the San Francisco Chronicle and The San Diego Union-Tribune. He is also a regular freelancer for the Chicago Tribune.

About The Iowa Mercury

(Douglas Burns, founder of The Iowa Mercury and a fourth-generation Iowa journalist from Carroll, is a member of the Iowa Writers’ Collaborative. Read dozens of the most talented writers in Iowa in just one place. The Iowa Writers’ Collaborative spans the full state. It’s one of the biggest things going in Iowa journalism and writing now — and you don’t want to miss. This collaborative is — as the outstanding Quad Cities journalist Ed Tibbetts says — YOUR SUNDAY IOWA newspaper. )

By JOSHUA MANSKE

ALGONA —

I first met Josh Turek doing advocacy for farmers and rural communities at the Statehouse in 2023. He was engaged, curious, and asked meaningful questions. I was impressed.

A few months later, I reached out to Josh to come to Kossuth County and speak at one of our Chautauqua Talks. He responded quickly and said absolutely. Again, I was impressed. Keep in mind, Algona is about three and a half hours one way from Council Bluffs, his hometown, one of the two communities Josh represents in the Legislature. Not a short journey.

During that event, he talked about his experience representing the USA in the Paralympics, where he won multiple gold medals. He described the long hours of training required to make an Olympic team and competing on the biggest stage in sport.

Josh also talked about his struggles.

He was born with spina bifida due to his father’s exposure to Agent Orange in Vietnam. Josh showed humility when talking about his life journey through multiple surgeries, and his grit to not let his disability define him. He talked about how he would drag his wheelchair up flights of stairs when knocking on doors in his campaigns for office, and the surprised look on people’s faces when they asked how he got to their door. We could use this kind of grit in Washington.

I say all of that to say that Josh is a workhorse.

He likes to get things done for his constituents.

Josh has worked in a bipartisan way, which is vital to accomplish any meaningful endeavor — and a rare skill in today’s environment. Josh showed his work ethic when he made the Paralympics team in basketball, and he has shown that in the state legislature and on the campaign trail.

He also has the quality of empathy, being able to relate to those who are hurting or are in tough shape economically or otherwise. This may be the most important trait in any leader.

Lastly, humility.

I noticed this when I first met Josh. He knows what he doesn’t know and seeks out the best advice from those who do. These are the traits that you look for in a leader. Josh has them. They will serve Iowa and the nation well in the U.S. Senate.

(Joshua Manske is from Algona. He farms, manages farmland and sells farm real estate.)

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About The Iowa Mercury

(Douglas Burns, founder of The Iowa Mercury and a fourth-generation Iowa journalist from Carroll, is a member of the Iowa Writers’ Collaborative. Read dozens of the most talented writers in Iowa in just one place. The Iowa Writers’ Collaborative spans the full state. It’s one of the biggest things going in Iowa journalism and writing now — and you don’t want to miss. This collaborative is — as the outstanding Quad Cities journalist Ed Tibbetts says — YOUR SUNDAY IOWA newspaper. )

Dozens of West Des Moines educators rendered a collective judgment of disappointment in U.S. Rep. Ashley Hinson, R-Marion, an alum of Valley High School, in a relentless rally Saturday that served as both a post-graduation failing grade from a new advocacy group on Hinson’s record of public service and a call to action for her opponents in what promises to be an intensely fought campaign for an open U.S. Senate seat in Iowa this fall.

The newly formed Iowans For Decency rolled out a battery of challenges to Hinson’s voting record and public comments in an event attended by nearly 250 people in the Iowa State Capitol rotunda late this morning. The rally presaged the publication of a letter to the eastern Iowa congresswoman that will appear as a paid advertisement in The Des Moines Register and other media. Organizers were on hand to sign up supporters of Iowans For Decency and mobilize for the general election in November. The political action committee is raising money as well.

Hinson is the prohibitive favorite to capture the Republican nomination for the U.S. Senate June 2. State Rep. Josh Turek of Council Bluffs and State Sen. Zach Wahls of Coralville will face off in the Democratic primary with polls showing Turek as the commanding frontrunner. Incumbent U.S. Sen. Joni Ernst, R-Red Oak, is not running for a third term.

Iowans For Decency is not taking a stance in the primaries, and instead is gearing up for the general election with its ire and fire trained on Hinson.

“We are saddened and disappointed by your votes, loyalties and words as a U.S. congresswoman,” read Nick Nelsen, a retired Valley High School teacher. “You are failing your state and country. Your actions are antithetical to good and just decency.”

The majority of people in attendance at the public launch for Iowans For Decency were Democrats, but The Iowa Mercury talked to independents and Republicans there.

Teachers blasted Hinson for her support of what they said were Trump’s “reckless” tariffs, supported by Hinson; a “costly and unprovoked” war with Iran; her decision to “stand with ICE” amid deadly encounters with citizens; ignoring what they believe is rampant corruption in the Trump administration; and a range of other issues detailed in the exhaustive letter.

Dr. Erika Cook, a former West Des Moines administrator and chief academic officer for the state, focused on the defunding of USAID and Trump-administration management of immigration enforcement.

“As a registered independent who has voted for both parties, and as someone who has worked on both sides of the political aisle, now isn’t about liberal or conservative policies, but about right or wrong,” she said.

After reading sections of the letter, and offering other observations, teachers held signs designed to shame Hinson, such as: Why don’t you want to be kind and just? Why aren’t you fiscally responsible? Why are you afraid of the truth?

Read the full letter here. More than 60 teachers had signed the letter as of presstime.

One of the founding organizers of Iowans For Decency, filmmaker and “What’s Eating Gilbert Grape?” author Peter Hedges, a 1980 Valley High School alum now living in Brooklyn, New York, acknowledged the extraordinary break with convention in seeing teachers so publicly criticize a former student of their school system.

“One of the beauties of the name of our group is it insists that we be worthy of the name,” Hedges said in an interview with The Iowa Mercury. “When it became clear that we had this groundswell of teachers join our group — and that they, to a person, felt so deeply offended by the policies and efforts of Ashley Hinson — the first thing they said was, ‘But we don’t want to attack her personally.’ Some of them taught her and quite liked her. We don’t want to engage in the tactics that in our view the other side just traffics in. Then the question became how do you proceed and what became essential is: They proceed with facts and with truth.”

Launched by teachers and alumni of West Des Moines schools, Iowans For Decency is building a statewide coalition to prevent Hinson’s election, Hedges said.

“It’s wide open,” Hedges said. “We have new members who come from Carroll, Decorah. Other smaller towns are starting to join our group.”

Hedges added, “I am just moved by how many people in Iowa really care about the future and are ready to fight for a better one.”

Peter Hedges is a member of the Iowa Writers’ Collaborative.

For her part, Hinson graduated from Valley High School in 2001 before going to the University of Southern California. She worked as a journalist in Cedar Rapids and served in the Iowa Legislature before being elected to Congress. Hinson, 42, lives in Marion.

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BELOW IS THE LETTER FROM EDUCATORS TO HINSON:

CARTER LAKE, Iowa —

Shoe salesmen no doubt are thrilled to see Eric Armstrong coming.

The near-daily runner is adding even more miles to his routines as he walks the sweeping, hilly Iowa House District 20, a far western Iowa reach of the state that includes Council Bluffs and all of Carter Lake. Voters are seeing the engaging Armstrong on the doors more than once now. And he has questions, lots of questions, as he builds an ever-evolving campaign for the Statehouse.

“I’m carrying so many stories with me now that I’ve seen and talked with people,” said Armstrong, who lives in Carter Lake, where voter turnout is reliably high.

Armstrong, a Democrat, a former railroad executive and entrepreneur who worked for General Electric, among other companies, sees economic-development opportunities for western Iowa. He’s centered intensely on affordability and cross-state competitiveness. The Omaha skyline looms on the near horizon from his Iowa home.

“I think the key is economic development and being able to see that these communities can actually grow, and that these people actually have jobs within our community or Council Bluffs,” Armstrong in an interview during a tour of Carter Lake with The Iowa Mercury. “The people in Carter Lake, almost all of the younger people, leave to go work. But we do have some industry here.”

One immediate Armstrong initiative: attracting a grocery store to Carter Lake. There is not one, and getting to the grocery is time-consuming and inconvenient. The House district can leverage this opportunity to boost quality of life, while bringing jobs and boosting the local tax base, Armstrong said, adding that he’s worked with other leaders to scout four potential sites.

“We need to have economic development incentives in place so that businesses can come and relocate here and they can compete with Omaha,” Armstrong said. “That’s important. We really need to get a grocery store kicked off and the thing is the grocery store would serve not just Carter Lake but it would serve most of North Omaha and we have the space in Carter Lake to develop.”

Carter Lake, an Iowa community west of the Missouri River, and located near the Omaha Airport, is a crossroads. There are the local city leaders themselves, the State of Iowa, Pottawattamie County, two native American nations, the Ponca and Omaha, both with substantial landholdings in Carter Lake, and then of course, the proximity to Omaha, Douglas County, Nebraska, and the State of Nebraska itself. Carter Lake also borders both the thriving downtown Omaha area of New North Makerhood and struggling parts of North Omaha.

This singular jurisdictional collision in an Iowa city creates enormous opportunity for an outgoing, bridge-building legislator who likes working with a range of people and is decidedly focused on the economy and jobs, Armstrong said.

“I think that economic development in Carter Lake, economic development in the west end of Council Bluffs, can help Omaha,” Armstrong said. “That bridge that we cross can go both directions. People can come to work in Council Bluffs. People can come to work in Carter Lake. But they don’t necessarily have to go across the bridge and work in Omaha, which is what we have going on now.”

The jobs in Iowa have to pay more, too, he said. Armstrong supports an incremental increase in the minimum wage. He would vote to set it at $15/hour immediately.

A self-described strong supporter of public schools, Armstrong would phase out vouchers for private schools over 12 years, giving time for those in private schools to adjust.

Armstrong said the state should have term limits for elective office.

He supports reproductive choice.

“I really believe the government shouldn’t stand between a woman and her doctor,” Armstrong said.

Most of all, Armstrong thinks Republican dominance of state government is leaving many Iowans without a voice, and effective solutions.

“The lopsidedness of the Iowa Legislature is driving a lot of bills that I don’t think will benefit the people in District 20,” he said. “I don’t think they are engaged in helping the people.”

Armstrong’s wife, Hillary Parker, is a mechanical engineer dedicated to environmental renewal construction initiatives. Eric’s immediate family includes his two sons, Roderick and Nathan, their spouses, and their daughters.

Armstrong is expected to face Republican Pottawattamie County Supervisor Keith Jones in the general election for the House seat being vacated by State Rep. Josh Turek who is running for the U.S. Senate. The party primaries are June 2 with early voting starting this week.

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About The Iowa Mercury

(Douglas Burns, founder of The Iowa Mercury and a fourth-generation Iowa journalist from Carroll, is a member of the Iowa Writers’ Collaborative. Read dozens of the most talented writers in Iowa in just one place. The Iowa Writers’ Collaborative spans the full state. It’s one of the biggest things going in Iowa journalism and writing now — and you don’t want to miss. This collaborative is — as the outstanding Quad Cities journalist Ed Tibbetts says — YOUR SUNDAY IOWA newspaper. )

Edi Corado thinks of coffee beans the same way winemakers do of grapes.

The origin story is everything — the climate, altitude and sourcing.

It’s what this western Iowa entrepreneur says separates his company — Bosque Alto Coffees — from a burgeoning field of roasters, shops and cafes.

“We are a super small company,” Corado said. “We focus on the quality, not the quantity.”

It’s working as Bosque Alto’s profile continues to grow in Iowa and beyond.

Corado operates Bosque Alto in Carroll at The West End, a gathering space developed by Renew Covenant Church, which features the coffee shop and ample space for coffee lovers, families, meetings and community events.

Local businessman Matt Hackfort has been involved with the successful coffee business as well.

For his part, Corado, whose family has roots in Guatemala, grew up in Perry and worked for Pella Corp in Carroll before launching launching Bosque Alto.

“We wanted to give the brand really deep roots in Guatemala,” Corado said.

Bosque Alto translates into “high forest.” The altitude and volcanic soil and other factors blend for the coffee, Corado said.

His cousin Walter Jaurez of Des Moines regularly travels to Guatemala to ensure the transport of the highest quality been to Kansas City, Missouri, where they are stored before being delivered to Carroll.

Corado, 32, operates a roastery in West End to churn out the coffee for use on site and sales around the nation.

The company, which has shipped coffees to more than a dozen states, has an active website — bosquealtocoffees.com

Corado said Bosque Alto coffees have hints, or taste notes, of cantaloupe, orange and chocolate.

“Specialty coffees are just like wine,” Corado said. “Think about high-quality wine. Have you ever gone wine-tasting before? When they tell you ‘taste notes’ coffee is the same way.”

He added, “That’s why I’m a big fanatic of coffee because of all those notes and all those qualities.”

A shipping container from Guatemala with the raw, or “green” beans, is on its way now to Bosque Alto.

“It’s pretty neat positive, in a small town to do this large thing that we are doing that I never expected it to,” Corado said. “I didn’t see it going that fast.”

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(Douglas Burns, founder of The Iowa Mercury and a fourth-generation Iowa journalist from Carroll, is a member of the Iowa Writers’ Collaborative. Read dozens of the most talented writers in Iowa in just one place. The Iowa Writers’ Collaborative spans the full state. It’s one of the biggest things going in Iowa journalism and writing now — and you don’t want to miss. This collaborative is — as the outstanding Quad Cities journalist Ed Tibbetts says — YOUR SUNDAY IOWA newspaper. )

Former U.S. Sen. Tom Harkin today endorsed Democratic candidate for the Senate Josh Turek just days before early voting in the primary.

“I believe both of us care deeply about a lot of the same issues,” Harkin said in an interview with The Iowa Mercury tonight.

Turek, a state representative from Council Bluffs, faces state Sen. Zach Wahls, D-Coralville, in the June 2 Democratic primary contest for the open U.S. Senate seat in Iowa. U.S. Rep. Ashley Hinson, R-Marion, is widely expected to claim the Republican nomination for the race to fill the seat of U.S. Sen. Joni Ernst, R-Red Oak, who at age 55 is retiring from the Senate.

The first day of early absentee voting is Wednesday, May 13.

Harkin served in the U.S. House s from 1975 to 1985 and was a U.S. senator from 1985 to 2015.

“I was proud and honored to represent my fellow Iowans for 30 years in the U.S Senate,” Harkin said in a written statement. “Thank you, Iowans, for giving me that opportunity, over five statewide elections, to work for you. I have a pretty good idea of what it takes to win an election, and then to faithfully represent all Iowans, not just those who voted for you. That’s why I am supporting Josh Turek for the Democratic nomination for the U.S. Senate in the Democratic primary on June 2.”

Harkin’s endorsement comes almost exactly three years to the date after The Iowa Mercury ran a story in May 2023 titled “Council Bluffs’ Turek in conversation as state’s ‘next Tom Harkin’”

Harkin, in his statement, said there’s a saying that “rough weather makes good timber.“

“Josh has had some pretty rough weather in his life, and he is ‘good timber,’” Harkin said. “In fact, Josh is as strong and resilient as a good Iowa Bur Oak.”

Harkin has campaigned for Turek in Council Bluffs in two Statehouse races and the former senator spotted early potential for statewide office in Turek. There are a number of factors that go into an endorsement, Harkin said in the interview, noting that a final consideration is what Harkin says are inaccurate criticisms of the support for Turek from a veterans advocacy PAC, VoteVets.

“I just saw some of this negativity coming, and I thought, ‘Wait a minute, this is not right,’” Harkin said in The Iowa Mercury interview.

Harkin, a veteran himself who maintains continued close relationships with several veterans in Congress, served as a pilot in the Navy in the 1960s, the same decade that Josh Turek’s father, John Turek, served in the Vietnam War. John Turek talked to The Iowa Mercury about his service for a story this week.

Josh Turek, a two-time gold-medal-winning Paralympian in basketball, is the first permanently and visibly disabled member of the Iowa Legislature. The spina bifida that required 21 surgeries by the age of 12 for Josh Turek is the result of his father’s exposure to Agent Orange in 22 months of service in the Vietnam War during 1968 and 1969.

“Josh is as much a victim of the Vietnam War as veterans who were out in the field fighting, absolutely,” Harkin said.

Harkin sees VoteVets as a force for good.

“They have really supported some great candidates,” Harkin said.

He specifically referenced U.S. Sens. Mark Kelly of Arizona Tammy Duckworth of Illinois, a Navy and Army veteran respectively, who have been supported by VoteVets.

“It’s not like they are trying to do something they haven’t before and that is to support good, solid candidates who they believe will be supportive of veterans and veterans issues -- that’s their bottom line,” Harkin said.

Harkin said he knows Turek well enough to be confident in continued advocacy on shared foundational values.

“I hope and trust that he will pick up on some of the issues that I care deeply about —retirement security, saving Social Security, supporting small farmers, getting a better tax system so that the wealthy are paying their fair share,” Harkin said.

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About The Iowa Mercury

(Douglas Burns, founder of The Iowa Mercury and a fourth-generation Iowa journalist from Carroll, is a member of the Iowa Writers’ Collaborative. Read dozens of the most talented writers in Iowa in just one place. The Iowa Writers’ Collaborative spans the full state. It’s one of the biggest things going in Iowa journalism and writing now — and you don’t want to miss. This collaborative is — as the outstanding Quad Cities journalist Ed Tibbetts says — YOUR SUNDAY IOWA newspaper. )

Disclaimer: I don’t live or vote in Iowa. But I used to live and vote in Iowa, and I loved the years spent in a state filled with people who took pleasure grilling politicians on public policy in small-town diners. Even the grocery baggers debate election issues.

Who can forget wearing Wellie boots on a muddy farm after a rainy morning, standing beside the new CNN reporter Wolf Blitzer in his fancy Italian loafers. Later, Andrea Mitchell of NBC News elbowed me in the ribs trying to get closer to Bill Clinton as he campaigned for president. She later elbowed others, I heard, when covering Hillary Clinton. Beltway reporters brought their own style to the heartland.

Even though I no longer cover politics for The Des Moines Register, I can’t help but follow Iowa because it remains a bellwether. I’m not alone in monitoring the U.S. Senate battle.

Incumbent Joni Ernst is quitting at age 55.

Her counterpart, Chuck Grassley, is 92 and hasn’t announced retirement. As president pro tempore of the U.S. Senate, he’s third in line for the presidency behind the Vice President J.D. Vance and U.S. House Speaker Mike Johnson.

Ernst, a lieutenant colonel in the Iowa National Guard who served in the Iraq War, was elected 12 years ago. She succeeded Democrat Tom Harkin, a U.S. Navy pilot, who retired after 40 years in the House and Senate.

But she announced her retirement in June 2025 after a national debacle where Ernst, a Republican, dismissed constituent concerns at a town hall about spending cuts to Medicaid in President Trump’s Big Beautiful Bill Act by saying, “We are all going to die.” Constituents booed.

America was stunned.

Her infamous words rapidly replaced Iowa’s popular quote from the 1989 film “Field of Dreams” — “Is this heaven? No, it’s Iowa.” Critics created T-shirts and mock welcome signs went viral on social media. A day later, she posted a video saying she wanted to “sincerely apologize” and say she was glad she didn’t have to explain the “tooth fairy.” The sarcasm backfired.

And now, Plan B in DC

U.S. Rep. Ashley Hinson, 43, a former broadcast journalist in Cedar Rapids, is widely considered the frontrunner for the GOP nomination.

Meanwhile, Democrats are engaged in a brutal fight. Polling is split.

Iowa state Sen. Zach Wahls, 34, of suburban Iowa City in the east, and Iowa state Rep. Josh Turek, 47, of conservative Council Bluffs in the southwest, have criss-crossed the state tirelessly. They have a lot they agree on, and some things they don’t.

But there’s one issue that seems to be getting a lot of media attention and it feels like reporters are missing the story putting veterans in the crosshairs.

Why it’s misleading

Wahls takes every opportunity to say his primary opponent is backed by dark money — and implies it’s unsavory. Turek has, in fact, been the beneficiary of millions of dollars from VoteVets, an advocacy founded in 2006 by military veterans unhappy about Iraq war decision-making.

Both candidate have pledged to refuse donations from corporate PAC groups, but Wahls spotlighted VoteVets activity at a forum in Des Moines on April 8.

That wasn’t the first time and it won’t be the last.

But it’s grossly misleading. And the press hasn’t explained why.

“There is a real difference in this race,” Wahls said. “Actions have to speak a lot louder than words. We are talking right now about the impact of corporate PAC money and how that has affected a lot of Iowans in our economy. But right now, there is a dark money super PAC that is currently spending millions of dollars bolstering Rep. Turek’s campaign.”

Highly respected political reporter Laura Belin of Bleeding Heartland reported on April 12 that VoteVets planned to spend $2.5 million prior to the June 2 primary election. “So far, the VoteVets ads have focused on positive messages about Turek’s personal story and have not raised the electability issue” noting that Turek has proven record of passing legislation and winning over voters in a red district vs an opponent whose progressive district is nicknamed the People’s Republic of Johnson County.

To date, VoteVets has spent more than $6 million raising Turek’s profile with independent expenditures spent on ads and outreach not coordinated through the campaign.

Thing is, VoteVets is not a corporate PAC.

Its official VoteVets Action Fund is actually a 501©4 non-profit organization considered a hybrid PAC because it focuses on electing Democratic veterans advocating for veterans issues as opposed to a political action committee created by a corporate to represent business interests. The money powering VoteVets Action Fund actually comes from thousands of individual contributions.

Where attacking VoteVets gets weird

Wahls says the main difference between himself and Turek is a dark money super PAC “linked” to Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer who is backing Turek. Wahls said he’s the one who will go to Washington as an “outsider” to “challenge the status quo” and “party bosses in DC,” making him more competitive against Hinson.

A message was left with Schumer’s office on Thursday, May 7, asking about Schumer’s alleged role in the Iowa race. No question, Schumer is widely viewed by Democrats in Iowa and nationally as a weak leader who fails to pushback against President Trump on key policies.

Belin posted video of Turek and Wahls and wrote, “Wahls believes that his public criticism of Schumer is the reason VoteVets is spending heavily for Turek. To my knowledge, every Democrat running for Senate went to Washington last summer to make their case for support. I would guess that Schumer and his allies decided Turek was the strongest candidate for the general election and were not reacting to anything the other Democratic contenders said about Schumer personally.”

Again and again, Wahls implies the VoteVets money is suspicious.

Turek’s dad, a U.S. Navy combat veteran in Vietnam who described listening to soldiers cry as they burned to death, told the Iowa Mercury this week that if any candidate in this country deserves VoteVets support, it’s his son. Both John and Josh Turek have suffered from Agent Orange exposure. Josh Turek endured 21 surgeries as a child with spina bifada. He has used a wheelchair since.

So who better for VoteVets to support than someone who lives the consequences of war? John Turek asked. He suggested that demonizing VoteVets is unfair.

Still, Belin commented on May 7 to the Iowa Mercury story saying, “I wouldn’t call VoteVets ‘sinister’ but to my knowledge they don’t disclose their donors. So that is by definition a dark money group. It’s not funded through small grassroots donations from veterans, as far as I know.”

Wait, did Zach Wahls’ staff even check?

A little digging casts doubt on the authenticity of Wahls’ claims.

That seems cynical at best and manipulative at worst. The candidate must think that voters won’t do the research themselves.

Again and again, Wahls steps in front of cameras to suggest that VoteVets is a pawn of Schumer. But VoteVets spotlights national security and veterans care issues. A quick review of proposed legislation by VoteVets-endorsed candidates indicates a specific focus on veterans.

VoteVets, which claims to represent more than 1.5 million military families and their supporters, has reach: 349,000 Facebook followers, 260,000 X followers; 76,000 YouTube subscribers; 144,000 TikTok subscribers and 120,000 Instagram subscribers.

Wahls attacks PAC that (his) labor supports

When you review Form 990 tax records and look at finance records through citizenaudit.org or OpenSecrets.org or ProPublica’s Nonprofit Explorer for the most recent years available, you notice patterns.

Individual donor support

In the 2023-24 election cycle, 7,234 individuals donated $200 or more to VoteVets. In the 2021-22 election cycle, 3,467 individuals donated $200 or more. In the 2019-20 election cycle, 4,623 individuals donated $200 or more.

Labor support

Unions have contributed significant dollars to VoteVets, including: Ironworkers, Plumbers and Steamfitters, Service Employees International Union (SEIU), Communication Workers of America (CWA), Laborers International Union of North America (LiUNA), International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers (IBEW), Steamfitters, International Association of Firefighters, American Federation of Teachers (AFT), Sheet Metal Workers International Association, United Mine Workers.

Note: Wahls touts the support of Ironworkers and Plumbers on his campaign website.

Direct connection between VoteVets top donors and the military.

• Liz Simons of Atherton, California, was a top donor in 2022 with $600,000. Her mathematician father worked as a codebreaker during the Vietnam War. The family has donated billions to philanthropy.

• Karla Jurvetson of Los Altos Hills, California, donated $500,000 in 2022. She is a physician and the granddaughter of a Christian chaplain in the U.S. Navy. (She was a major contributor to a PAC that supported Elizabeth Warren, who is campaigning with Wahls as he criticizes people associated with VoteVets.)

• Pat Stryker of Fort Collins, Colorado, the granddaughter of a U.S. Army veteran who served in World War 1 and invented products for wounded soldiers as an orthopedic surgeon based in Kalamazoo, Michigan, donated $250,000 in 2022.

• Frank Armstrong, a retired U.S. Air Force pilot and Vietnam veteran from Coconut Grove, Florida, donated $700,000 in 2024.

While Iowans aren’t listed among top donors, they do appear, including Roxanne Conlin of Des Moines, former U.S. attorney, a $10,000 donor in 2024.

Deep ties to U.S. lawmakers with military ties

Again, VoteVets is not a corporate PAC pushing business issues. It focuses on issues that impact military families and candidates with a record of understanding, including U.S. Sen. Elissa Slotkin, Michigan, former CIA, Department of Defense; U.S. Rep Andy Kim, New Jersey, former NATO, State Department, Pentagon; U.S. Sen. Mark Kelly, Arizona, U.S. Navy aviator; U.S. Rep. Ted Lieu, California, U.S. Air Force colonel, JAG Corps; U.S. Rep. Salud Carbajal, California, U.S. Marine Corps Reserve; U.S. Rep. Jimmy Panetta, California, U.S. Navy Reserve intelligence officer; U.S. Rep. Gil Cisneros, California, U.S. Navy; Tulsi Gabbard, National Intelligence director, former Army National Guard; U.S. Rep. Jared Golden, Maine, U.S. Marine Corps; Gov. Wes Moore, Maryland, U.S. Army Reserve; Gov. Mikie Sherrill, New Jersey, U.S. Navy.

In March, Iowans mourned the death of two U.S. Army soldiers killed by a drone attack on a command center in Kuwait, a day after the U.S. and Israel launched its military campaign against Iran: Sgt. Declan Coady, 20, of West Des Moines, and Maj. Jeffrey O’Brien, 45, of Waukee.

Iowa has approximately 177,000 military veterans in the state or 5.5% of the population with a $2.6 billion annual economic impact.

Awaiting a response from Wahls

Messages were left with the Wahls campaign early Thursday, May 7, to ask how he can be critical of a PAC that’s funded by groups whose support he touts.

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Editor’s note: Phoebe Wall Howard is an award-winning reporter who worked for The Des Moines Register covering organized labor and politics. She now writes Shifting Gears on Substack and is currently a member of the Iowa Writers Collaborative. She is the daughter of a U.S. Army veteran, granddaughter of a U.S. Navy veteran and niece of U.S. Air Force veterans. She is married to a master electrician who recently worked on the Gordie Howe International Bridge project as a member of the IBEW.

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John Turek can still hear the screaming.

Aboard a river craft known as an LST, a Landing Ship Tank that delivered troops and supplies in the Vietnam War, John Turek, who maned a .50-caliber gun during combat, saw an enemy rocket hit a U.S. helicopter near a river in country. The helicopter whirled into the jungle and John Turek and the rest of his Navy ship’s crew could hear American soldiers cries of pain as they burned to death.

“It never leaves you,” John Turek, now 76, tells The Iowa Mercury. “They say war is hell. It is definitely that.”

“There were so many days when you saw the worst of mankind.”

John Turek, retired and living in Council Bluffs, is the father of U.S. Senate candidate Josh Turek, a Democratic state legislator from Southwest Iowa.

State Rep. Josh Turek has served as the ranking member of the House Veterans Affairs Committee. His dad’s service and Josh Turek’s own tie to the Vietnam War inform his work today on veterans’ health care issues and suicide prevention — and Turek’s opinion that the current war in Iran required congressional authorization.

The younger Turek, a two-time gold-medal-winning Paralympian in basketball, is the first permanently and visibly disabled member of the Iowa Legislature. The spina bifida that required 21 surgeries by the age of 12 for Josh Turek is the result of his father’s 22 months of service in the Vietnam War during 1968 and 1969, much of it on rivers. What John Turek and his fellow Navy men thought was mosquito spraying, or perhaps something else, turned out to be the U.S. military’s delivery of Agent Orange — and his exposure to it resulted in Josh Turek’s disability — spina bifida — and Josh Turek’s eligibility for treatment through the Veterans Administration — just like his father, a cancer survivor.

“Josh is a casualty of the Vietnam War,” John Turek said in the phone interview today. “Even though he wasn’t over there fighting, he’s a casualty of the war. A lot of people were affected by this. A lot of people came out without having a son like me born with a disability but PTSD and all kinds of things. I ended up having two types of cancer.”

John Turek is not the only member of what he described as a generations-deep “military family” to serve. Josh Turek wore a USA uniform on the field of competition in wheelchair basketball, and not in battle, but he’s as much a part of the tradition of family honor in the Armed Services as any Turek — and he’s paid a big price, John Turek said.

“I went through war, but you went through hell,” John Turek has told his son over the years.

All of this considered, John Turek says his son is as deserving as anyone of the support of VoteVets, a progressive organization founded in 2006 to back veterans and military families seeking public office at local, state and federal levels. VoteVets is running ads in Iowa in support of Turek.

But Turek’s June 2 Democratic primary opponent, suburban Iowa City Democrat Zach Wahls, has repeatedly suggested that VoteVets is some sinister organization with “dark money” designs — that it’s little more than a vehicle for the schemes of Senator Majority Chuck Schumer.

In fact “veterans” is in the name of the group, making mission and transparency apparent from the jump, and VoteVets has more than 1.5 million supporters. Among other candidates VoteVets has endorsed are: Sen. Mark Kelly of Arizona, Sen. Tammy Duckworth of Illinois Senator Seth Moulton of Massachusetts — all veterans. VoteVets also backs former National Security professionals like Sen. Elissa Slotkin of Michigan. VoteVets endorsed Gov. Mikie Sherrill of New Jersey, a Navy veteran, and Virginia Gov. Abigail Spamberger, a former National Security official.

VoteVets says Turek fits the 20-year legacy of supported candidates.

“Josh Turek is a fighter who knows firsthand the costs military families experience when our sons and daughters are sent to war. It’s families like his that bear the costs of decisions made in Washington,” VoteVets Senior Adviser Major General (Ret.) Paul D. Eaton said in a news release. “Our nation needs Senators like Josh who will fight for veterans and military families like his – and who know how to win, which Josh does. He will be an advocate in the Senate for veterans and military families like his own, and take on whatever fight is necessary to protect hardworking Iowans. We are proud to stand with him.”

In his Paralympics and professional wheelchair basketball career Josh Turek encountered many veterans with serious injuries.

“I played basketball with so many of these gals and guys that have come back missing arms and legs,” Josh Turek said in an interview.

For his part, John Turek, the father of six, marvels at the early resilience he witnessed in his his now Senate candidate son. Josh never complained about the surgeries or felt sorry for himself, didn’t let grievance consume him, and summoned an intense work ethic early, a hunger for challenges and achievement that drove him to gold-medal excellence, and the hill climbing to doors in two elections in Council Bluffs and Carter Lake, John Turek said.

“I listen to a lot of the politicians and it seems like some of them think they have a hard day if they go out and they give a couple of speeches and they go to a couple of fundraisers, have a couple of cocktails, knock down a steak, and boy, it’s been a tough day,” John Turek said. “For months and months I’ve watched my son go out day after day after day in sleet, snow, rain, whatever it is, and drag his wheelchair up steps. We live in Council Bluffs, and like it says, it’s bluffs, it’s not flat so a lot of people have stairs.”

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About The Iowa Mercury

(Douglas Burns, founder of The Iowa Mercury and a fourth-generation Iowa journalist from Carroll, is a member of the Iowa Writers’ Collaborative. Read dozens of the most talented writers in Iowa in just one place. The Iowa Writers’ Collaborative spans the full state. It’s one of the biggest things going in Iowa journalism and writing now — and you don’t want to miss. This collaborative is — as the outstanding Quad Cities journalist Ed Tibbetts says — YOUR SUNDAY IOWA newspaper. )