YouTube | Instagram | TikTok | Twitter | Bluesky | Threads | LinkedIn
Happy Wednesday and welcome back to Cornhole Champions, where we throw bags at the state's biggest stories. I'm Zachary Oren Smith, and this week, I’m dragging a bit. I took a little PTO to do something big over the weekend.
Relay Iowa is an annual foot race across the state of Iowa. It bills itself as the world’s longest relay race. And for the second year in a row, I was the van driver for team High Fructose Corn Sweat to help raise money for the Iowa Abortion Access Fund and Trans Mutual Aid.
The race stretches across the 339 miles between Sioux City to Dubuque. Every last mile gets eaten up over the course of around 56 hours. It’s a beast.
As a driver you get a little more leisure time and you get to spend a little more time thinking about the small towns that stretch along its length: Ida Grove, Lake City, Grundy Center, Hudson, Independence… imagine experiencing the state as one seemingly endless highway, every b-road and Carnegie library unfolding as you chase the horizon.
Seeing so much of Iowa in so little time, you begin seeing the connective tissue. The nervous kindness of the boys soccer team at Independence High as they fed foil-wrapped potatoes to a to some sleepy runners. How the old-timers loitering on their tailgates at the Casey’s in Jewell are as chatty today as they were the year before. How—and maybe most importantly—people are as excited to welcome you to this place, as they are to be from it.
Now me—a mustachioed white dude who could make conversation with a wall—I’m gonna find a friend. I know that not everyone gets to show up to the Casey’s that way. And we need to work on that. But I volunteer each year to lose sleep, eat worse, get eaten up by bugs, lose my voice, and make a fool of myself on the internet because it sweeps away the cobwebs the news leaves in my head. It breathes a little life in me.
In a year punctuated by plant closures. In a year the Iowa Legislature took civil rights away. In a year where politicians keep telling us the world is a smaller and scarier place, that our neighbors aren’t like us, that each of us isn’t deserving of genuine respect and love: this 339 mile pilgrimage is for me a meditation on what is here, on who we are, and what we could be.
It’s exactly the spirit of Cornhole Champions. And I’m thrilled to have you here with me.
Onto the news… In this letter, we’re breaking some. State Sen. Zach Wahls of Coralville announced this morning that he’s running against Joni Ernst for her US Senate seat. You’ll remember last time he was on the show, he was weighing the decision. For our Cornhole Matchup this week, we spoke with him about why a new generation is ready to meet this political moment and why the Democratic Party needs to be ready for it.
But first…
Speaking of Wahls… - The New York Times is telling us about his porn preferences as a 19-year-old. (I imagine that’s why his feet were in the feature image?) The piece is about the unusually “young” slate of candidates for major office in 2026. And the long history on the internet that they… and well, creators like me… have floating in their backgrounds.
In addition to Wahls (33 years old), you’ve got Rob Sand (42) running for governor in 2026. Sarah Trone Garriott (47) and Jennifer Konfrst (51) are running in the House primary for IA-03. And then Nathan Sage (40) and JD Scholten (45) are also in the US Senate race.How the sausage is made - In Perry, Iowa, Mayor Dirk Cavanaugh got the kind of phone call that can change a town's future. Brazilian meat giant JBS Foods was on the line with news that seemed almost too good to believe: they wanted to build a $135 million sausage production facility right where Tyson Foods had crushed the community's hopes just one year ago.
Less than 12 months after Perry lost 1,200 jobs when Tyson shuttered their pork plant, JBS announced they're bringing 500 direct jobs back to town. The new facility will pump out 130 million pounds of sausage annually starting in late 2026 — the first plant of its kind built in 40 years.
According to the Iowa Capital Dispatch, JBS chose Perry specifically because of the existing workforce and infrastructure left behind by Tyson. In other words, Perry's devastation became its selling point.Corporate rainbow’s true colors - It’s Pride Month. And celebrations across Iowa are dealing with corporate sponsors pulling funding under pressure from the Trump administration's anti-DEI push. Iowa Public Radio reported that Des Moines Capital City Pride lost nearly $70,000 when longtime supporters like Nationwide and MidAmerican Energy walked away. Iowa City Pride lost $15,000, including support from the University of Iowa and Iowa Health Care. Cedar Rapids saw sponsorship drop 10-15%.
But here's the twist: individual donations and smaller businesses more than made up the difference. Des Moines actually raised $80,000 to $90,000 to replace that $70,000 loss. Event organizers say they're expecting a record turnout, with Iowa City having more parade participants than ever and Des Moines selling out vendor booths for the first time.
Sometimes losing fair-weather friends helps you find out who your real allies are. And in Iowa, it turns out there are more of them than the corporate spreadsheets suggested.
And now, let’s talk about that US Senate race…
Zach Wahls launches bid to unseat Joni Ernst
State Sen. Zach Wahls launched a his bid targeting US Sen. Joni Ernst's "Wait for everyone to die" healthcare plan. He joins a crowded primary pool on Ernst’s left and right that says her days in Washington, DC are numbered.
State Sen. Zach Wahls ended months of speculation Wednesday morning, announcing his campaign to challenge US Sen. Joni Ernst in 2026. The 33-year-old Democrat from Coralville to Iowa Starting Line that he is framing his campaign around the economy.
“Hardworking Iowans aren’t getting ahead,” he said on Cornhole Champions. “It’s being rigged to benefit those at the very top.”
Wahls said his own family’s finances were being strained to cover daycare costs for their child.
Wahls seized on Ernst's recent town hall gaffe, where she responded to concerns about Medicaid cuts by saying, "Well, we all are going to die." He called it emblematic of failed Republican leadership.
"That's the Republican healthcare plan, right?" Wahls said. "I don't think that waiting for your constituents to die is an acceptable course of action for a leader."
Wahls brings name recognition from his 2011 viral testimony defending his mothers at the Iowa Legislature, which helped galvanize support for marriage equality. As a state senator since 2018, he's focused heavily on manufactured housing issues, championing what he calls a "Mobile Home Bill of Rights." While he built bipartisan support for the legislation, it ultimately was stymied by the Republican-controlled legislature.
Wahls said this was an outcome by special interest money. Groups like the Iowa Manufactured Housing Association lobbied heavily against the legislation.
"The problem wasn't necessarily that this was like a partisan issue," he said. "The problem is that the influence of money in our politics has become so overwhelming."
Wahls had a brief tenure as Senate Democratic Leader from 2021-2023. That ended when his own caucus voted him out over disagreements about changes he was making to the caucus and its staffing.
Iowa Republicans now hold a 190,000-voter registration advantage, and Trump carried the state by 13 points in 2024. Iowa Democrats haven't won a federal race since 2018, despite multiple well-funded efforts.
Wahls points to Iowa Democrats recent overperformance in three special elections as a positive sign about the coming midterms. But special elections are not predictive of a midterm year. Wahls said its a sign that there’s momentum, that Iowans want something different.
Wahls joins Marine veteran Nathan Sage of Knoxville and state Representative J.D. Scholten of Sioux City in the Democratic primary. More than a year from the election, all three are focusing on an economic agenda.
Meanwhile, Ernst—who despite hiring a campaign manager, hasn’t announced her run for reelection—faces only one primary opponent so far. Former state Senator Jim Carlin, an attorney and Army veteran, ran unsuccessfully against Chuck Grassley in 2022, criticizing Grassley for certifying the 2020 election results, the same purity test he's now applying to Ernst.
Wahls positioned himself as an outsider willing to challenge leadership "in both parties," calling for term limits and banning elected officials from trading stocks.
Question for you
JBS chose Perry because of the existing workforce and infrastructure. But what happens to communities that lose major employers and don't have those advantages?
What should Iowa be doing to help towns that don't get the comeback story?
Write me back by responding to this email. I might feature your thoughts in the next edition.
Last week, we walked through the systemic failures of regulators and watchdogs to prevent the Davenport Hotel’s deadly collapse in 2023. I asked what you thought would make a difference:
Phil from Des Moines: New law that outlaws absentee landlords. Each person would only be allowed to own 1 piece of residential property. And if you own a residential property, you MUST live there. So if your building is deteriorating into a death trap, you'll be living there too when it comes down around you.
Maria from Davenport: We need mandatory escrow accounts for rental properties. Before any landlord can collect rent, they should be required to deposit a percentage into a city-managed repair fund. If they don't maintain the building to code, the city uses that money to make emergency repairs and bills the landlord. No more "I can't afford repairs" excuses when you're collecting thousands in rent every month.
David from Iowa City: The real problem is inspectors with no teeth. We need a state-level building safety authority that can override local politics. When an inspector says "close it down," it gets closed - period. No more bureaucratic games where buildings rack up violations for years. And any inspector who falsifies reports should face criminal charges, not just lose their job.
Jennifer from “none of your business”: Hit them where it hurts - insurance. Require landlords to carry massive liability policies that actually pay out to victims' families. When insurance companies start seeing these payouts, they'll demand regular third-party structural inspections as a condition of coverage. Market forces will do what regulations apparently can't - force landlords to maintain safe buildings or go out of business.
To all of you, thanks for writing in.
— Before you go —
Support this work by doing the following:
Subscribe to Cornhole Champions on YouTube and on Substack
Sign up for Iowa Starting Line's flagship newsletter
Follow our work on Instagram and TikTok
Consider contributing to Iowa Starting Line's Spring Supporter Drive
Cornhole Champions is a weekly podcast powered by Iowa Starting Line with music by Avery Mossman and show art by Desirée Tapia. We are a proud member of the Iowa Writers Collaborative.
Your friendly neighborhood reporter,
Zachary Oren Smith
Political correspondent
Iowa Starting Line
Share this post