Iowa public tv/radio cuts, more new candidates, 2Q fundraising

July 21 edition of "KHOI's Capitol Week"

Photo by Donghun Shin on Unsplash

Three years ago this week, Julie Gammack dragged me kicking and screaming onto Substack. I didn’t see the point, since I had been publishing on my own website for around 15 years and already had an email newsletter that linked to recent Bleeding Heartland coverage. Julie had a vision for something called the Iowa Writers’ Collaborative. My dad taught me that “when the pie is being passed around, that’s the time to take a slice.” I didn’t want to miss out on what Julie was planning.

Initially, I wasn’t sure how to use this platform. Should I share my own political reporting, links to good work I was reading, or something else?

I quickly realized this would be a good place to share my weekly show on KHOI Community Radio in Ames. At first I just posted the link to each episode of “KHOI’s Capitol Week.” (You can also subscribe to the show on podcast platforms, and find the archive on KHOI’s website.) But some people would rather read a summary than listen to a 30-minute discussion.

So now, in addition to the audio file embedded at the top of this post, I write a detailed recap. If your email provider truncates this post, you can read it without interruption here.

Let’s get to the July 21 edition. Spencer Dirks and I covered a lot of ground, as usual.

Iowans in Congress cut public radio and television

We started with news from Congress, where Iowa’s senators and House members all voted last week to cut about $9 billion in previously approved spending for the current budget year. Most of the cuts (around $7.9 billion) come from foreign aid. Another $1.1 billion will be cut from the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, which partly funds public radio and television.

“Rescission” bills are rarely used in Congress, because the legislative branch typically doesn’t want to give its blessing to a president refusing to spend money already appropriated.

On one level, the debate was mostly political theater. The Iowans in Congress bragged about savings and rolling back “out of control spending.” But the budget reconciliation bill they voted for a few weeks ago will add at least $3 trillion to federal deficits over the next ten years.

A trillion is a thousand billion. So the $9 billion in saving approved last week amount to less than 1 percent of a trillion dollars. It’s not meaningful in terms of getting our country’s fiscal house in order.

However, the bill will do immense damage to foreign aid programs and public broadcasting. (There was one bit of good news: the Senate removed language that would have cut $400 million from the life-saving global HIV/Aids program PEPFAR.)

Last week, leaders of Iowa Public Radio indicated they expect to lose about $1 million, which is roughly 10 percent of their budget, and Iowa PBS will lose about $3.5 million in Corporation for Public Broadcasting grants, which accounts for about 18 percent of its annual budget.

We don’t have many specifics about how public broadcasting will change. Democrats have warned that the bill will affect stations in rural areas in particular. Looking at maps of public radio and tv stations most at risk of closure, I didn’t see any in Iowa listed as most endangered. But that doesn’t mean there won’t be painful cuts.

Iowa Public Radio executive director Myrna Johnson said last week that they would save money by not filling open positions and reducing the size of their physical footprint. They may defer maintenance on their infrastructure. Speaking to KCCI-TV, Iowa PBS executive director Andrew Batt predicted “massive, massive changes in the public broadcasting system, as soon as this fall.” Programs currently in production may be scuttled.

While Republicans like Senator Joni Ernst and Representative Ashley Hinson have depicted public stations as offering “partisan propaganda,” people rely on public radio and TV for coverage of the weather, local events, and educational programming for children. Spencer has worked in radio for around two decades and noted that this will accelerate the decline in radio jobs available.

Although the rescission bill codified some of the spending cuts imposed by Elon Musk’s “Department of Government Efficiency,” Musk was not celebrating last week. He posted, “What’s the point of DOGE if the government’s just going to add $5 trillion more in debt?”

Several Congressional reporters have mentioned that what happened last week makes a federal government shutdown after September 30 much more likely. It takes 60 votes to approve a budget, but only 51 votes to pass a rescission bill. Senate Democrats are less likely to cut a deal on spending if they know Republicans may later use a partisan vote to claw back funds for Democratic priorities.

Trump administration withholding K-12 education funding

Unrelated to those spending cuts that Congress approved last week, the Trump administration is withholding $6.8 billion in K-12 education funding. States Newsroom reported, “Just a day ahead of the July 1 date when these funds are typically disbursed as educators plan for the coming school year, the Education Department informed states that it would be withholding funding for several programs, including before- and after-school programs, migrant education and English-language learning, among other initiatives.”

Since early July I’ve been trying to find out how much federal funding for Iowa is being held up. I haven’t been able to get any answers from the governor’s office or the Iowa Department of Education.

I have seen estimates in the $40 million range, which is around 12 percent of total federal education funding for Iowa. But less than six weeks before kids go back to school, I can’t confirm the number or find out which programs would be affected.

Last week, ten GOP senators wrote to Office of Management and Budget Director Russ Vought, asking him to release the K-12 funds. Neither Chuck Grassley nor Joni Ernst signed that letter.

I didn’t have time to mention during the show that Governor Kim Reynolds was in Washington earlier this year when President Trump signed the executive order dismantling the U.S. Department of Education. At that time, she claimed this wouldn’t reduce federal education funding for states—it would merely give states more control over how to spend the money. We’ll see how well that prediction holds up.

Grassley blows off whistleblower on Emil Bove

Grassley was at the center of another big story out of Congress last week. On Thursday, Democrats walked out of the Senate Judiciary Committee meeting after Grassley called a vote on Emil Bove, a nominee for the U.S. Court of Appeals. Bove is one of Trump’s former criminal defense attorneys. A whistleblower recently alleged that as a senior Justice Department official, he “ told subordinates to consider defying a federal court order halting Trump’s deportation flights to El Salvador in March.”

For decades, Grassley has talked about the importance of whistleblowers, but he declined to hold an additional hearing on Bove’s nomination to hear from the whistleblower directly. Instead, he characterized the report as “a political hit job.”

The Judiciary Committee’s rules require at least two members of the minority party to be present to conduct business, but Republicans voted to advance Bove’s nomination without any Democrats in the room.

So far, Bove is the most controversial judicial nominee Trump has appointed in his second term. Last week more than 900 former Justice Department attorneys signed a letter saying he should not be confirmed. Two Iowans were on that list: Kevin Techau, former U.S. attorney in Iowa’s northern district, and Mary Luxa, who spent 30 years as an assistant U.S. attorney in Iowa’s southern district.

Also last week, more than 80 former state and federal judges signed a letter urging the Judiciary Committee to reject Bove, saying it was “disqualifying” that he had fired FBI and Justice Department personnel who had investigated or prosecuted January 6 defendants, and also “disqualifying” that he “took the lead in scuttling the Department of Justice’s bribery prosecution of New York City Mayor Eric Adams.”

Former Iowa Supreme Court Chief Justice Marsha Ternus was among those who signed that letter. She has previously condemned the Trump administration’s attacks on the judiciary, and in May joined an amicus brief criticizing the federal prosecution of a Wisconsin state judge.

Grinnell College spared from federal tax on endowments

We didn’t have time to get to this on last week’s show, but I wanted to flag Grinnell College alumnus Stephen Gruber-Miller’s story for the Des Moines Register:

Grinnell College officials were bracing for a $30 million tax hike under President Donald Trump's massive tax cut and spending package known as "one big, beautiful bill."

Instead, they'll get a tax cut.

The tax bill that Republicans in Congress and Trump enacted in 2017 imposed a 1.4 percent tax on private college endowments at schools where the endowment is valued at more than $500,000 per student. The House-approved version of the bill would have raised that tax rate to 21 percent. So instead of paying $2.4 million a year under the current law, Grinnell would have been on the hook for around $30 million in taxes.

As a member of the Senate Finance Committee, Grassley said he worked to prevent this tax increase. He advocated for a change included in the final bill, which exempted schools with fewer than 3,000 students. That means Grinnell won’t have to pay any tax on its very large endowment.

Iowans in House vote against releasing Epstein files

The controversy surrounding records related to Jeffrey Epstein has become a hot issue in the U.S. House. All four Iowans joined other Republicans last week to block Democratic efforts to force a vote on whether the Justice Department must release the Epstein files.

This was a procedural vote, so technically they can claim they didn’t vote against releasing the files. Representative Ro Khanna, a Democrat from California, has taken the lead on this and is not giving up. (Side note: He’s visited Iowa several times and some believe he plans to run for president someday.)

Khanna is working with Republican Representative Thomas Massie on a bill that would force a House floor vote on this issue.

During her latest conference call with Iowa reporters, Representative Ashley Hinson said all can agree that Jeffrey Epstein was “a disgusting human being and an absolute pedophile,” but she went on to say that Massie “is approaching this in the wrong way,” and she trusts the Trump administration to do the right thing.

Shout out to KTIV for posting the audio of this exchange (Hinson’s staff don’t allow me to participate in her media calls):

Hinson said that what Massie is doing “would give the floor to Democrats, which is not how we should be doing business.” She said Americans are right to have more questions and demand justice for the victims, but “I do fully trust the administration’s continued commitment to the truth.” She later repeated that she trusts President Trump, Attorney General Pam Bondi, and FBI Director Kash Patel.

In May I wrote about how Hinson is working hard to align herself with Trump, presumably in the hope of landing his endorsement for a future U.S. Senate campaign. I view her comments on the Epstein files through that lens.

Democrat Kathy Dolter launches campaign in IA-02

If it’s a week in 2025, we probably have a new candidate for Congress in Iowa. Last Tuesday, Kathy Dolter announced she’ll seek the Democratic nomination in the second district, covering most of northeast Iowa. She’s a U.S. Army veteran and former Kirkwood Community College dean of nursing.

I interviewed Kathy on Monday. She described herself as “a doer” with a strong background and record of leadership. She’s deeply concerned about the cuts to Medicaid and food assistance Republicans just enacted, as well as broader cuts to scientific research and health care spending.

Dolter grew up in Dubuque and has lived there for about the last 20 years, so we talked about the trend toward Republicans in that county and across northeast Iowa, and how she would try to address that. She also mentioned that as a single person, she will be able to devote a lot of time to representing the district.

I’ve been asking every Democratic candidate for Congress how they feel about Senate Democrats going along with a continuing spending resolution in March, rather than standing up to Trump and possibly forcing a federal government shutdown. Dolter told me Democrats should have taken a stronger stand in March.

You can watch our interview in full:

The Cedar Rapids Gazette and Des Moines Register also covered Dolter’s campaign launch.

On the Democratic side, Dolter is the only declared candidate now, since Kevin Techau suspended his campaign in June. It will be a competitive primary, however: Clint Twedt-Ball announced his campaign on Tuesday, and State Representative Lindsay James may join the field in the coming weeks.

Most assume Hinson will run for re-election, but if Ernst doesn’t seek another term in the Senate, IA-02 will be an open seat. I would welcome tips on Republicans likely to run here.

Republican Kyle Larsen running in IA-04

A third Republican has joined the field in Iowa’s fourth Congressional district, which includes KHOI’s listening area. Kyle Larsen is a farmer and land appraiser from Humboldt County. You can read about him in the Des Moines Register, or watch his interview with KCCI’s Amanda Rooker.

In a statement, Larsen said hardworking people “deserve someone in Congress who has experienced life the way they have,” adding,

Our family farms are hurting, and our rural way of life is being threatened by elites in Washington who think they know better. For too long, career politicians have been thinking only about themselves and how they can win the next election, not what’s best for the country, or what’s best for you. Well, enough is enough. This farmer is running for Congress so rural Iowa doesn’t lose our treasured family farms or our way of life.

I am skeptical that Larsen can compete for the nomination against two well-funded candidates, Siouxland Chamber of Commerce leader Chris McGowan and outgoing Iowa House Majority Leader Matt Windschitl.

For now, Ashley WolfTornabane is the only Democrat running in the fourth Congressional district.

Kevin Virgil rules out another bid in IA-04

I checked my social media feeds less than an hour before going on the air and learned that Kevin Virgil had announced on Facebook and X/Twitter that he won’t run for Congress again in 2026. Virgil received nearly 40 percent of the vote against Randy Feenstra in last year’s GOP primary. That was impressive, given that Feenstra had much higher name ID and outspent the challenger by more than ten to one.

Virgil wrote,

Shortly after my campaign ended last year, I was offered an incredible opportunity to take the CEO role at a consumer health company. I am a huge fan of what this company does, and it's a role that I cannot turn down at this stage in my life. I joined the company earlier this year, and am going to stay in place here. It has been very hard to walk away from a second campaign, as Iowa desperately needs better leaders, however I know that - for now at least - I am in the right place.

I will run again, and likely soon, but I will be sitting out this campaign cycle.

The Iowa GOP desperately needs a shakeup. I will be supporting candidates that can help to accomplish this. Thank you to everyone who supported me in my campaign and God bless.

In the same social media post, Virgil harshly criticized Feenstra (who is expected to run for governor) and said he will be supporting former State Representative Brad Sherman’s campaign.

Bohannan rolls out long list of endorsers in IA-01

Christina Bohannan, the front-runner in the four-way Democratic primary to represent the first Congressional district, rolled out a long list of endorsers last Thursday. They include Dave Loebsack (the last Democrat to represent this area in Congress), former Iowa Attorney General Tom Miller, and former Lt. Governor Patty Judge. A bunch of Democratic legislators and candidates from this area are also getting behind Bohannan. You can read the whole list here.

Last week we talked about Taylor Wettach’s campaign launch, and I think Bohannan is trying to end this primary quickly. I saw on their social media feeds that Wettach and Bohannan were both doing outreach at several county fairs this past week.

Federal candidates report 2Q fundraising

It’s always challenging to talk about Federal Election Commission filings on the radio. I don’t want to throw a lot of numbers at listeners. So I’m going to link to all of the FEC reports for the Iowans running for U.S. House or Senate, and you can click through from the candidate’s name (underlined) if you want to find more details.

Senate candidates

• Joni Ernst (R) certainly didn’t quell speculation that she is retiring. She only raised around $723,000 from April through June, which is less than she raised in the first quarter. She spent about 45 percent of what she raised, which is a high burn rate. Her campaign has about $3.4 million cash on hand. but that’s not a huge amount for a two-term incumbent.

• Jim Carlin (R) is mostly self-funding. He’s already loaned his campaign more than $100,000 this year. He’s paying as he goes, because as of June 30 he had only about $711 on hand. (I couldn’t find an FEC filing for Joshua Smith, the other potential Republican primary challenger, which means he hasn’t raised or spent much.)

• Nathan Sage (D) raised the most money in the Democratic field (about $709,000), but also had the highest burn rate, spending more than half of what he raised. As of June 30, he had about $334,000 on hand. I’ll be watching to see if he can keep raising a lot of money from small donors in the third quarter, now that he has competition from other Democrats.

• J.D. Scholten (D) raised about $175,000, putting him in third place for fundraising. He had a low burn rate, ending the quarter with $156,600. I’ll be watching to see if he can raise more money once baseball season is over and he can campaign full-time.

• Zach Wahls (D) raised around $656,000 despite entering the race with three weeks left in the fundraising period. He also had a very low burn rate, so ended the quarter with the most cash on hand in the Democratic field (around $626,000). I’m curious to see whether he can continue to raise money at that pace, especially after Jackie Norris and/or Josh Turek join the field.

• Thomas Laehn (Libertarian) is not raising or spending a lot, but his campaign is still active and has more than $17,000 in the bank. That suggests to me he is leaning toward running for Senate in 2026. Having a Libertarian on the ballot could be important if the race is close.

Aside from Ernst, who brought in a lot of money from PACs, the vast majority of contributions to all of the Senate candidates came from individual donors.

For U.S. House races, I pay less attention to fundraising than I used to, because in targeted districts, outside groups often spend more than the candidates do. But it’s still useful to look at the candidates’ early fundraising, which can influence which races become top-tier battlegrounds in the election year.

IA-01 candidates

Incumbent Republican Mariannette Miller-Meeks had her biggest fundraising quarter ever. Her campaign committee took in around $1.3 million, including some $835,000 directly to her campaign and more than $460,000 in transfers from other committees. That shows other Republicans understand this is the most at-risk seat. Total receipts were around $1.3 million.

Miller-Meeks spent around $300,000 during the second quarter and has just under $2 million cash on hand—a lot for her.

I forgot to mention Miller-Meeks’ GOP primary challenger during the show. David Pautsch raised $9,250 during the quarter and spent more than $10,000. He had just under $13,000 in the bank as of June 30.

Only one of the four Democrats who have declared here filed a quarterly report. Travis Terrell and Bob Krause didn’t raise or spend enough to need to file, and Taylor Wettach launched his campaign in early July, so he won’t need to report on his fundraising and spending until October.

Christina Bohannan raised around $780,000 (including $7,000 from the candidate herself) and got a refund from a 2024 media buy for about $31,000. So her total receipts exceeded $810,000. The election nerds at The Downballot (formerly the Daily Kos Elections team) observed, “Despite announcing with less than two weeks to go in the quarter, Iowa's Christina Bohannan and Michigan's Bridget Brink proved to be two of the Democrats' best fundraisers on the House front, taking in $773,000 and $482,000, respectively.”

Bohannan spent just under $60,000 and ended the quarter with nearly $820,000 cash on hand. She will surely be able to outspend her competitors before the June primary.

IA-02 candidates

For those on Ernst retirement watch: Ashley Hinson actually raised more than Ernst and spent less than the senator during the second quarter. She brought in a total of around $853,000 and has around $2.8 million cash on hand—not much less than Ernst. (That’s partly because Hinson didn’t spend all of what she raised for her 2024 campaign, only going up on tv about three weeks before the November election.)

Hinson’s second quarter expenditures included $10,000 for “survey research.” I’d love to know if those were statewide surveys, and if they were sampling the whole electorate or mainly Republicans, with a view to the next GOP Senate primary.

If Hinson runs for re-election, she’ll have an enormous cash advantage over any challenger. If she ends up running for Senate, whoever picks up the ball in IA-02 for Republicans will be starting from scratch.

Democrat Kevin Techau suspended his campaign on June 30, saying in a statement, “the reality is, this campaign’s fundraising simply hasn’t met the threshold level that this race demands.” But his report showed he raised a little more than $142,000, spent around $67,000, had around $68,000 cash on hand. I’ve seen a lot of candidates keep running for Congress with less money in the bank.

Since Kathy Dolter just launched her campaign, she won’t report on her fundraising until after the third quarter.

IA-03 candidates

Republican incumbent Zach Nunn has about $1.3 million cash on hand, but his report wasn’t that impressive to me. Total receipts were around $803,000 but only around $232,000 of that amount came from individual donors to his campaign. The rest came from PACs ($238,600) or transfers from other committees (around $327,000). He spent just under a quarter of what he raised.

Between the two Democratic challengers, Sarah Trone Garriott has an early fundraising advantage. She raised more than $520,000, spent around $142,000, and had just under $377,000 cash on hand as of June 30.

Jennifer Konfrst raised about $251,000, spent just under $81,000, and has around $170,000 in the bank. That’s certainly enough to run a district-wide campaign.

I’ll be interested to see what happens in the current quarter and whether that gap narrows or widens.

Konfrst and Trone Garriott will likely spend most of what they raise before the June 2026 primary. But IA-03 will be among the most competitive U.S. House races in the country, so I’m sure there will be plenty of donations for the eventual nominee.

In the fourth Congressional district, none of the candidates reported any fundraising or spending. Even though Chris McGowan announced his campaign in late June, he didn’t file paperwork with the FEC until July 1, so he didn’t have any fundraising or spending to report in the second quarter.

Bird drops lawsuit against Winneshiek County sheriff

In a classic Friday afternoon news dump, Attorney General Brenna Bird announced that she was dismissing her lawsuit against Winneshiek County Sheriff Dan Marx. Bird said in a news release, “Given that Winneshiek County has now fully complied with 27A, the state law prohibiting sanctuary cities and counties from receiving taxpayer funds, the state is dismissing the lawsuit to enforce 27A.” She added that Winneshiek County and Marx “have committed to continue to honor ICE detainers and cooperate with federal immigration authorities.”

This was disappointing for me, as I was looking forward to watching these legal arguments play out. I anticipated that Bird’s attorneys would fall on their face in court.

Marx (a Republican who considers himself a “constitutional sheriff”), said in a statement,

Recently I had a face-to-face meeting with Attorney General Bird. During our meeting, I explained it was never my intent to discourage immigration enforcement. We have always complied with ICE detainers and will continue to comply with Iowa code section 27A and encourage immigration enforcement under our written policies.

Attorney General Bird has informed Winneshiek County that the lawsuit is no longer necessary given compliance with Iowa code section 27A. […]

I thank the people of Winneshiek County for their patience and outpouring of support through this situation.

This whole case was a farce. Nothing substantive changed between late March (when Bird filed suit) and last week. The state never presented any evidence that the sheriff had failed to comply with any immigration enforcement. She claimed that a Facebook post (which Marx later took down) violated the law, and demanded that he put up a Facebook post drafted by her staff. There was also a total mismatch between the disputed Facebook post and the remedy she was seeking: to have the court temporarily withhold all of Winneshiek County’s state funding.

Thanks so much for reading or listening! We’ll be back next week.