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‘A tattooed, hairy, fat guy who says it how it is’: Sage embraces blue-collar authenticity in Iowa U.S. Senate race
The Marine and Army veteran from Indianola says Democrats must fight harder for working families — and make Iowa farmers ‘frontline fighters’ in the climate crisis
Oct. 19, 2025 6:17 pm
The Gazette offers audio versions of articles using Instaread. Some words may be mispronounced.
CEDAR RAPIDS — Nathan Sage, an Indianola Democrat running for U.S. Senate in 2026, told a crowd of about 50 at Lion Bridge Brewery on Sunday that his campaign is built on “higher wages, lower health care costs, lower child care costs and real opportunities for working-class people,” drawing on his own path growing up in poverty to military service and community leadership.
Sage, a Marine Corps and Army veteran, served three tours in Iraq and later worked as a mechanic, radio news and sports director, and most recently as executive director of the Knoxville Chamber of Commerce. He framed his candidacy as a contrast to what he called a political system beholden to corporations and donors and not responsive enough to people “trying to keep the lights on.”
“I feel like I am the poster child of why we need to pass the PRO Act to support our unions, why we need higher wages and why we need lower health care costs,” Sage said, recounting childhood years in a Mason City trailer park and parents who worked low-wage jobs. “Because if I would have had that growing up, I would have had a little bit different life. I would have had more opportunities.”
Sage drew applause when he turned to what he called the country’s “crisis of leadership,” saying partisan division and corporate influence have left working people without true representation.
“We have a lot of people that are supposed to represent us — supposed to be fighting for us, supposed to be protecting us, supposed to be serving us — but they don't serve us,” he said. “They don't give a crap about anybody in this place at all. What they care more about is the corporations and the billionaires that they're getting money from than the people they're supposed to represent. We don't have real leadership in this country. We don't have leadership on both sides … of the aisle. We have people that are writing strongly worded memos or standing up doing press conferences, but nobody's really doing anything.”
Health care and the shutdown fight
Much of the event focused on health care affordability and coverage, with Sage applauding Senate Democrats and Minority Leader Chuck Schumer for pressing Republicans to extend enhanced Affordable Care Act tax credits as part of negotiations to reopen and fund the federal government.
“Thank God Chuck Schumer finally stood up and showed he had a spine,” Sage said.
He said those subsidies, first expanded during the pandemic, have in recent years dramatically lowered premiums for many Iowans and that letting them lapse would “double” some families’ costs and push more patients into emergency rooms.
“That’s personal for me,” he said, describing how his father, a factory worker and Air Force veteran, delayed care because he lacked insurance and died of cancer at 54.
Sage said he used VA telehealth and cognitive behavioral therapy after Iraq to help him with post-traumatic stress disorder and stressed fully funding veterans’ care. He also called for “reversing cuts to Medicaid,” opposing new work rules for Medicaid recipients he said would harm people with health or employment barriers, and cracking down on pharmacy benefit managers to reduce prescription drug costs.
Workers’ rights and political reform
Pressed on how he would “start a bill in Congress,” Sage pointed to child care as a first target. He pointed to a local model from his time in Knoxville, where the community created a child care solution fund that allowed businesses to contribute to a shared pool supporting the town’s lone child care center. The fund helped raise wages for child care workers while lowering costs for families, a balance Sage said should guide federal policy.
“You want quality workers that are around your kids for 12 hours, so you need to give them a quality wage at the same time,” Sage said. “That's what we need to do, is incentivize and be able to fund programs to make sure that those child care programs are lowering the cost, but also making sure they’re well paid.”
Sage pledged support for the PRO Act — legislation that would strengthen workers' rights to organize and collectively bargain by amending existing labor laws — and a higher federal minimum wage. He said Congress should bar stock trading by members, curb “dark money” and “billionaire-led special interest groups,” and adopt term limits.
Make farmers ‘frontline fighters’ in climate change
On the environment, Sage warned that Iowa’s worsening water quality stems from excess nitrate runoff caused by topsoil loss and heavier rainfall tied to climate change, which accelerates pollution and erosion. He said the state needs a credible, science-based conversation about climate change rather than political denial or silence.
He proposed making farmers “frontline fighters” in combating climate change by incentivizing conservation practices that reduce runoff and protect waterways, supporting the use of cover crops to retain soil and cut nitrate loss, and continuing investments in renewable energy such as wind power to help farmers diversify income and reduce dependence on fossil fuels. He urged policymakers to “believe in science” and restore evidence-based environmental policy to confront Iowa’s ongoing water and soil crisis.
Personal roots and campaign message
Sage’s biography loomed over the hourlong discussion. He spoke about joining the Marines after 9/11, returning to Iraq with the Army in 2010 while his eldest daughter was a toddler, and later juggling overnight shifts as a screen printer while attending Kansas State University on the GI Bill. His mother, a longtime child care worker and nursing assistant, died of leukemia in 2022.
Those experiences, he said, inform his positions: expanding Medicaid, extending ACA subsidies, boosting wages, strengthening unions and “getting big money out of politics” so small businesses and rural communities aren’t “left to fight for scraps.”
Sage argued that rural Americans have been left behind by both parties. He said the country needs working-class candidates who speak plainly and fight for everyday people, adding with a laugh, “maybe a tattooed, hairy, fat guy who says it how it is.”
He also referenced a recent discussion on PBS, where New York Times columnist David Brooks and Washington Post editor Jonathan Capehart cited him by name while criticizing Democrats for spending millions to figure out how to reach young male voters. Sage said Capehart instead urged the party to “follow candidates like one I know in Iowa named Nathan Sage, who looks MAGA, sounds MAGA, but is a Democrat with a capital D willing to fight for people when it comes to affordability.”
Sage said that’s exactly the type of message and authenticity he wants to bring to Iowa’s working-class voters.
Voter reaction
Sage is one four Democrats vying for their party’s nomination in Iowa’s 2026 open-seat U.S. Senate election. Other Democrats running are state legislators Zach Wahls of Coralville and Josh Turek of Council Bluffs, and veterans advocate Bob Krause of Burlington.
Some attendees said Sage’s authenticity and working-class tone resonated with them. Laura Engler, 75, of Cedar Rapids, said she left “pleasantly surprised” by Sage’s presentation.
“I thought I heard a dynamic, direct speaker,” she said, adding that his use of the word ‘incentivize’ when talking about farmers and water quality caught her attention.
Catherine Basile, 78, of Cedar Rapids, said she was also impressed by Sage’s energy and message.
“I think we have to stop being so terribly nice,” she said of Democrats. “It doesn’t play. We always take the safe route, and it’s not safe.”
Basile, who described herself as becoming “more progressive” with age, said she found Sage “authentic” and wants to see him and the other Democrats share a debate stage.
“I think we have an embarrassment of riches in this race,” she said. “They’re all impressive in slightly different ways — but a debate will make whoever comes out on top even better.”
Comments: (319) 398-8499; tom.barton@thegazette.com
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