‘Pissed off’ Nathan Sage taps into working Iowans’ anger during Cedar Rapids stop

CEDAR RAPIDS — Nathan Sage is “pissed off” — and he’s ready to tell national political leaders “where to shove it, how to shove it.”

The Iowa Democrat who’s running for U.S. Senate in the 2026 midterm election said both political parties are broken and have abandoned working-class Iowans who struggle to survive, rather than thrive.

Speaking to a group of about 50 people Sunday at Lion Bridge Brewing in Cedar Rapids’ Czech Village, Sage repeatedly underscored his hardscrabble upbringing in a trailer park in Mason City in the shadows of a meat processing plant and his military service to illustrate the need for change.

“I feel like in Iowa especially, we have a lot of people that are working every single day — like my dad and like my family — fighting to survive every day, fighting to put groceries on their table, fighting to figure out how they're going to pay for college,” Sage said. “ … We work non-stop every day, over and over, and it seems like all we do is survive, right?”

His father was a U.S. Air Force veteran and factory worker. His mother worked as a day care teacher and later became a certified nursing assistant. Both parents later died of cancer, he said.

After graduating from high school, Sage enlisted in the U.S. Marine Corps and served two deployments to Iraq. He later joined the U.S. Army and worked as a mechanic for a while. He used the GI Bill to study journalism and mass communication at Kansas State University, and worked nights as a screen printer to support his family while attending school.

Today, he serves as executive director of the Knoxville Chamber of Commerce. He lives in Indianola with his wife and their two daughters, and said he continues to feel the struggle of working hard and never getting ahead.

He criticized Republican incumbent U.S. Sen. Joni Ernst and Republican leadership for catering to corporate interests and billionaires like Elon Musk, while neglecting the working class. He spoke about the need to increase the minimum wage, subsidize child care, lower health care costs and enact universal paid sick leave and campaign finance reform.

Democratic U.S. Senate candidate Nathan Sage discusses some of his policies, which include boosting the working class, during a Cedar Rapids campaign stop Sunday at Lion Bridge Brewing in southwest Cedar Rapids. (Elizabeth Wood/The Gazette)

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Democratic U.S. Senate candidate Nathan Sage, of Indianola, discusses health care, the working class and other topics during a Sunday campaign stop at Lion Bridge Brewing in southwest Cedar Rapids. (Elizabeth Wood/The Gazette)

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He said he is running a campaign centered on fighting to put more power into the hands of the working class, tackling corruption in Washington and supporting veterans, small businesses, small towns and family farms.

“The only way we're ever going to get to be where we need to be as a state and as a country is to elect working-class candidates to be able to speak about working-class issues, because working-class people are what make up this state and what make up this country,” Sage said. “All of us here are the ones that keep lights on. We're the ones that teach the next generation. We're the ones that fix the potholes. We're the ones that fix the bridges. We're the ones that make life available for everybody else. And all we're getting at the end of the day is (expletive) on.”

Sage is the first Democratic challenger to formally launch a campaign to run for the seat now held by Ernst in what is expected to be a competitive Democratic primary. A trio of Democratic state lawmakers have told The Gazette they are considering running for U.S. Senate in 2026.

Ernst told reporters in 2024 that she intends to seek a third term, but she has not formally launched a re-election campaign.

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Sage is getting an early start traveling the state, with stops in Des Moines, Ames, Cedar Rapids, Bettendorf, Iowa City, Council Bluffs and Clear Lake over the next two weeks.

Nonpartisan elections analysts at the Cook Political Report and Sabato's Crystal Ball both rate Iowa's U.S. Senate race as a safe Republican seat in a state that has shifted solidly to the right in recent elections.

Iowans, though, have recently packed raucous town halls and held large rallies to protest and ask pointed questions about actions taken by the Trump administration, including tariffs and their impact on farmers, mass deportations of migrants and due process. They’ve expressed anger over funding cuts and mass firings of federal employees — including at the Department of Veterans Affairs — led by Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency.

Ernst has embraced and defended President Donald Trump and Musk’s efforts to expose and eliminate “waste, fraud and abuse” in the federal government, forming a DOGE caucus of Senate Republicans to involve Congress in discussions of spending cuts.

Ernst’ campaign, responding to Sage’s campaign launch last month, said the incumbent senator is a “proven leader” who delivers for Iowans.

“Look no further than her work to bring justice to an Iowa family whose daughter was killed by an illegal immigrant and to end Washington’s wasteful spending and save Iowans’ hard-earned tax dollars,” said Bryan Kraber, with Ernst’s campaign. “Make no mistake — Joni is relentless, and she’s not slowing down.”

Republican Party of Iowa Chair Jeff Kaufmann highlighted Ernst’s own working-class upbringing in rural southwest Iowa and 23 years of military service.

“Don’t mess with this combat veteran who grew up in rural, southwest Iowa wearing bread bags over her good pair of shoes and working the morning biscuit line at Hardee’s to save for college,” Kaufmann said in a statement. “Joni Ernst lived simply because there wasn’t room for waste, and she’s taken that same fight to the U.S. Senate to save Iowans’ hard-earned tax dollars and make Washington — and clearly the Democrats — squeal.”

Sage used profanity in his campaign launch video and said “the economy is rigged, and those in power don’t give a damn. They’re the ones doing it.”

Sage doubled down on his use of profanity to underscore the raw anger and frustration he said is felt by everyday Iowans.

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“I'm going to keep saying the things that need to be said, because … I live in the real world,” he said Sunday. “This is how we all talk. This is how we communicate. And at the end of the day, we need to stop beating around the bush and say the things that need to be said to draw attention to us, to understand the working-class is fed up. … And that's why I will not be apologizing for anything that I say, because Donald Trump doesn't do it. Why the (expletive) should I?”

Jo Pearson, 68, of Marion, said she was impressed by Sage and appreciated his raw language and working-class message, though noted the audience seemed to be mainly retirees like herself.

Pearson — who described herself as an “anti-(Gov. Kim) Reynolds, anti-Trump” liberal — said Iowa Democrats need new, fresh voices like Sage running for office and expressed hope that his background could help the party appeal to Iowa's rural conservative voters.

“And somehow we need to find a way to crack that barrier and get through to those folks, and make it clear to them that they are not getting what they expected to from the (Republican) candidates they voted for,” Pearson said. “ … He seems like a candidate who could maybe crack through a little bit.”

Former state Sen. Rob Hogg, who in 2016 ran unsuccessfully in the Democratic U.S. Senate primary for a chance to take on GOP incumbent Chuck Grassley, said Sage offers a refreshing message and background that voters increasingly are seeking in new candidates.

“His service in Iraq, his background growing up in a trailer park near Mason City, his work for supporting small businesses in Knoxville — those are real qualifications and real experiences that would inform him working in the U.S. Senate for all Iowans,” said Hogg who stopped at the Cedar Rapids event. “People increasingly want new candidates, right? And Nathan's new.”

He added “a good, contested primary” will help Democrats “have the best candidate possible. And I think it very well might be Nathan Sage.”

Sage said he’s scheduled to sit down Tuesday in Washington, D.C., with Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, a Democrat from New York, who wants to learn more about his campaign and if it’s worth backing.

He said he plans on telling Schumer that Senate Democratic leadership needs to more assertive and vocal in their stance on issues.

“They need to stand up and fight for what's right,” Sage said.

Comments: (319) 398-8499; tom.barton@thegazette.com