Competitive Senate, Iowa gubernatorial races demand full-state, rural-urban eyes, coverage

Douglas Burns is a fourth-generation Iowa journalist.

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The highly competitive 2026 political season is developing early.

I've been at a range of events, talked to GOP and Democratic candidates, around Iowa and other areas of the nation and plan to do more. Much more.

I'm a fourth-generation Iowa journalist living in Carroll, Iowa who has covered the political scene for 30 years. I know the state well, the rural reaches and the cities.

Who is Douglas Burns?

There's an old saying:

"If you've seen one small town, you've see one small town."

That's true as the identities of Iowa communities, while becoming more homogenized at the hands of social media, remain distinct. That's why I travel the full state to get a sense of how candidates' strategies and teams and messaging are playing out in different spaces.

The gubernatorial race will be highly contested — and ultimately defining for Iowa.

So will what I expect to be a spirited 2026 race for a U.S. Senate seat, the one currently held by Sen. Joni Ernst.

Please support The Iowa Mercury's coverage so we can get to more places, more events, talk to as many Iowans as possible and give these races, and others, full-state, deeply researched and intensely reported coverage.

(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. )