National Politics

Politics reporters across the state talk through this week in Iowa Politics, including recent town halls and the big, beautiful bill.

Iowa U.S. Sen. Joni Ernst was being criticized Friday after a comment she made earlier in the day during a town hall meeting in Parkersburg. While answering a question about proposed cuts to Medicaid, a member of the audience yelled “people will die.” Ernst responded, “Well, we all are going to die.”

Republican Rep. Mariannette Miller-Meeks, who was in Davenport for a campaign fundraiser Thursday, said of Medicaid recipients who would lose coverage because they don’t meet proposed work requirements and don’t qualify for an exception, “that's their choice to lose coverage.”

Iowa Republican U.S. Rep. Ashley Hinson was met with a mix of boos and applause from the approximately 100 people in the audience at her town hall meeting in Elkader Wednesday morning.

Americans’ views of the economy improved in May after five straight months of declines sent consumer confidence to its lowest level since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, largely driven by anxiety over the impact of President Donald Trump’s tariffs.

The empty chairs are a reminder that in spite of the spectacle, the democratic process cannot begin before the arrival of the people.

In a crowded Veterans Memorial Building in downtown Cedar Rapids on Tuesday evening, “Mayor” Pete Buttigieg told more than 1,600 people that America is facing its “most profound test in generations.”

Former U.S. Secretary of Transportation Pete Buttigieg will be in Cedar Rapids on Tuesday afternoon for a town hall focused on veterans and military families and “the recent wave of policy decisions that have negatively impacted Americans.”

Democratic Iowa Sen. Sarah Trone Garriott, a Lutheran minister from West Des Moines, is looking to challenge Republican U.S. Rep. Zach Nunn in Iowa’s 3rd Congressional District in 2026. Political forecasters have the district as one of the most competitive in the country.

Rep. Mariannette Miller-Meeks’ tele-town hall Tuesday evening came nearly a week after she committed to hosting an in-person town hall in her southeast Iowa district. She has not held an in-person town hall meeting this year, and protests across Iowa’s 1st Congressional District have called on her to do so.

Some of the most vulnerable Republicans in Congress — including Rep. Mariannette Miller-Meeks, of Davenport — are embracing the strategy of GOP leaders who say there is no benefit to hosting in-person town hall meetings and creating more viral moments like the pointed questions that have faced U.S. Sen. Chuck Grassley this month.