Iowa Democratic state Rep. J.D. Scholten launches run for U.S. Senate

SIOUX CITY — Iowa's 2026 U.S. Senate race is coming into focus.

State Rep. J.D. Scholten, D-Sioux City, announced Monday a run for the seat held by Republican Sen. Joni Ernst since 2015.

Other state lawmakers, Sen. Zach Wahls from Coralville and Rep. Josh Turek of Council Bluffs, have been talked about as possible challengers for Ernst but so far Nathan Sage, an Iowa Army and Marine Corps veteran, and Scholten are the only ones to make it official.

Scholten's announcement comes just days after Ernst received national backlash over comments made at a Friday town hall in Parkersburg about reductions to Medicaid and Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program spending.

Ernst was answering a question about Medicaid cuts, when an attendee at the town hall shouted over her that people were "going to die" as a result of the cuts. Ernst responded: "Well, we all are going to die," which was followed by jeering from the crowd. Ernst quickly followed up saying Medicaid spending will focus on the most vulnerable who meet the program's eligibility requirements.

On Saturday, Ernst leaned into her comments by posting a sarcastic apology video that appeared to have been recorded in a graveyard.

"After her comments over the weekend, I've been thinking about it for a while, but that's when I just said: This is unacceptable and you've gotta jump in," Scholten said. "At the end of the day, though, it's not about her, it's not about me, it's about the people of Iowa deserving better. I don't think there's anything worse that you could do than cut Medicaid, cut SNAP benefits for everyday Iowans just so you can give billionaires bigger tax breaks. That is not Iowa in my mind."

Scholten said he believes the state of Iowa has lost a lot by having Ernst and U.S. Sen. Chuck Grassley as its senators for the past decade.

"Growing up here you had a nice balance with Harkin and Grassley. You had a Democrat, you had a Republican. And I think that really benefited the state because you had leaders on both sides," he said. "Unfortunately now we aren't very dominant and you see that at the Statehouse. You don't have bills that benefit people and lower costs or anything like that. You have things like taking gender identity out of civil rights protections and things like that. It's what I call punch-down politics and I think that most people are just kind of sick of that."

Since 2023, Scholten has represented a Sioux City district in the Iowa House. In the most-recent legislative session, which ended in May, Scholten focused on education issues and "protecting the rights of Iowans." At a local legislative forum in March, Scholten slammed anti-DEI legislation in the state as creating "chaos and uncertainty" for schools and educators.

Scholten kept a busy schedule in 2024 as he not only served in the House and ran for re-election but also pitched at age 44 for the Sioux City Explorers of the American Association of Professional Baseball. The story attracted national coverage and Scholten had an Explorers hat of his make it to the National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum in Cooperstown, New York. Scholten made the team again this year. He said he plans to keep up the pitching through the fall.

"I just got activated with the Xs. We're going to go on and continue to play baseball representing Sioux City both at the Capitol and with the jersey across my chest but come fall I'll get Sioux City Sue 2.0 and just go nonstop," Scholten said, referring to a Winnebago RV campaign bus he named for the song popularized by Gene Autry and Bing Crosby.

Scholten's 2024 election run against local teacher Josh Steinhoff saw him win by 6.9 points in a district carried by President Donald Trump.

"I was able to punch above and outperform the top of the ticket," Scholten said of the race. In his first run for the state legislature, he ran unopposed.

Scholten has run twice for Iowa’s 4th Congressional District seat

The previous two cycles, 2020 and 2018, Scholten ran for Iowa's Fourth Congressional District seat, the most-Republican in the state. He lost to current Rep. Randy Feenstra, R-Hull, by about 24 points in 2020. Two years earlier, Scholten finished 3.3 points behind then-longtime Rep. Steve King of Kiron. In those elections, Scholten crisscrossed the district in "Sioux City Sue.“

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Scholten said those two congressional runs help him understand how important it is to build relationships with Iowans, regardless of their party affiliations.

"When you get out there to the people and earn trust, you're going to earn votes across the political. And I think that's one thing that I've proven," Scholten said. "I think one thing Democrats need to do is find a way to welcome people into your coalition and that's one thing I think I have good experience doing and just continue to do."

As for the fact that Iowa has increasingly become a solidly red state, Scholten said he thinks 2026 may well be a fruitful year for the Democratic Party, which hasn't held a spot in the state's congressional delegation since 2022.

"I think we're seeing a lot of similarities to 2018 and I wish this wasn't the case," Scholten said. "I wish we had a better economy. I wish things were going better in this country. I wouldn't be doing this if that was the case. But you know it all goes back to my grandmother who, on her deathbed, said ‘You've got to take care of the farm.’

"We're in an agriculture recession. With the tariffs we've lost out on the soybean market and things aren't looking great and they're kicking the farm bill down the road again,“ he said. ”Enough is enough and I think people want change."

Gazette-Lee Bureau Chief Maya Marchel Hoff contributed to this story.