Mount Vernon lawyer running as Democrat for Iowa Attorney General

CEDAR RAPIDS — A former state legislator and a labor lawyer for a Cedar Rapids law firm announced Wednesday he will run as a Democrat in the 2026 election for Iowa Attorney General.

“As attorney general, I’ll work to keep communities safe by holding violent criminals accountable and I’ll take on corporations who try to rip off Iowans by price gouging or stealing their hard-earned wages,” Nate Willems, 45, a partner in Rush & Nicholson PLC in Cedar Rapids, said in a statement.

“I’ve spent my career representing tens of thousands of Iowans who have had crimes committed against them. I’ve successfully taken on corporations who think they’re above the law and steal wages, require off-the-clock-work, hurt their employees, or violate the rights of working men and women in our state. As attorney general, I’ll fight to make sure every Iowan gets the justice they deserve.”

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Iowa’s attorney general is Republican Brenna Bird, who narrowly defeated Iowa’s longtime Attorney General Tom Miller, a Democrat, in the 2022 election after securing the endorsement of Donald Trump. But whether Bird will run for that office again is not clear. She is among the Republicans mentioned as possibly running for governor in 2026, after Gov. Kim Reynolds announced she is not seeking another term. Bird wrote in a post on X in April that she and her husband would “pray and consider” what Reynolds’ decision would mean “for our future.”

Willems, from Anamosa and now living in Mount Vernon, served in the Iowa House for two terms from 2008 to 2012, where he served on the Education Committee and the Education Appropriations Subcommittee, among others. He earned a law degree at the University of Iowa, according to his legislative biography.

He has been a full-time lawyer with Rush & Nicholson since 2010. Willems counts among his legal victories securing $15 million for 11,000 current and former hospital and clinic workers who sued the UI, saying they were not paid sometimes for months after working extra- duty shifts, in violation of federal wage laws. The Iowa Board of Regents settled the class-action suit in 2022.