POLITICS

Iowa Sen. Chuck Grassley’s legislation to lower prescription drug costs passed his Senate Finance Committee over the summer with support from every Democrat on the committee. Since then, the bipartisan bill has gone nowhere in Mitch McConnell’s Senate. The latest public news on the “Prescription Drug Pricing Reduction Act” came Nov. 21 at the Committee…

When Republican Bobby Schilling announced his candidacy for Iowa’s 2nd Congressional District, he was the only GOP candidate in the race. Now, the former Illinois congressman faces a primary challenger in state Sen. Mariannette Miller-Meeks of Ottumwa. Though Schilling has experience in the U.S. House of Representatives, he largely is seen as the outsider in…

Iowa Sen. Joni Ernst and California Sen. Dianne Feinstein have worked together this year on legislation to reauthorize the Violence Against Women Act. That is, until negotiations stalled over language dictating whether a dating partner or stalker could be barred from owning a firearm. The fight over the so-called “boyfriend loophole” has held up much-needed…

Americas PAC, a Marion-based super PAC, largely is funded by a wealthy Illinois man who has made dismantling labor unions a key focus of his campaign donations. Todd Dorman, a columnist with the Cedar Rapids Gazette, wrote this week about Americas PAC and how it is spending hundreds of thousands of dollars on a 12-week…

Iowa Sen. Joni Ernst gave several problematic answers in a recent Fox News interview, in which she watered down Turkey’s invasion in Syria, defended the president’s relationships with authoritarian leaders and parroted Republican talking points on impeachment. Here are three takeaways from her interview with Neil Cavuto: Excused Trump’s Affinity For Dictators Cavuto asked Ernst…

Iowa Republican David Young is running for Congress in a swing district with the kind of large suburban population that is quickly moving away from Donald Trump. But based on the way he answered questions in a recent radio interview, one might assume he was trying to win votes for a safe Republican seat. At…

On the campaign trail, U.S. Senate candidate Eddie Mauro hits many of the issues important to Democratic voters like health care, gun safety and climate change. But beyond his stump speech, it is apparent Mauro has a deeper connection to these issues than political ideology. The Des Moines native has a pre-existing health condition, has…

Iowa Congressman Steve King drew a “Pants On Fire!” rating today from the fact-checking website PolitiFact, for pushing a conspiracy theory that the whistleblower who spoke out against President Donald Trump is George Soros’ son. King, who often buys into viral fake news stories, posted a tweet at 6:21 a.m. Thursday and later took it…

Iowa Senators Joni Ernst and Chuck Grassley voted to confirm Chad Wolf as the Department of Homeland Secretary undersecretary. It’s a move that propelled Wolf, a man who suggested immigrant children be separated from their families at the country’s southern border, to the acting head of the third-largest department of the United States government. Not…

The American Principles Project ran TV ads in Kentucky this year warning residents a vote for a Democratic governor could lead to transgender youth openly participating in sports. The man behind the conservative think tank is Terry Schilling, son of 2nd Congressional candidate Bobby Schilling. Schilling is in a two-way Republican primary for the open…