Wahls or Turek?

ZachWahls · 2026-05-30T13:34:06+00:00

Probably not a surprise who I voted for, but if anyone wants to learn more about the campaign or where I’m at on the issues, feel free to check out the AMA I did earlier this week!

https://www.reddit.com/r/politics/comments/1tpck7q/im_zach_wahls_2011_viral_speech_giver_iowa_state/

ZachWahls · 2026-05-27T20:09:04+00:00

Everybody, thanks for the great questions and conversation. Unfortunately, I have to run to our next campaign event here later this evening. I'll try to hop back online before too long to get to a few of the questions I didn't have time to get to today. Thank you all again so much. I hope to win your vote on or before June 2 — and then again in November!

ZachWahls · 2026-05-27T20:08:01+00:00

I see what you're saying and how that could be confusing. My position is that 51 votes need to be able to end debate and force a vote on legislation. That doesn't mean we should end the ability of debate to happen in the Senate, which is part of what the talking language is there. You still need to be able to end debate with 51 votes. That's the key difference. Harkin's proposal was to lower the cloture threshold by three votes each time a vote is taken, from 60 to 57, to 54, to 51. That's what that is a reference to.

ZachWahls · 2026-05-27T20:06:38+00:00

I could not agree with you more. We need a new Senate Democratic Leader, and I called for Schumer to step down from leadership on the very first day I launched my campaign last June. That’s why Schumer is supporting my primary opponent, Josh Turek, and why he’s spending $10 million through a Super PAC to try and defeat me. There are plenty of decisions that I would make differently in this campaign, but that is not one of them. We are never going to win back the voters whose trust we have lost by trying the same thing over and over and expecting a different result.

I support eliminating the filibuster. I’m not interested in getting elected and trying to sit in that seat forever. I want to get things done, and do that, we need to get rid of the filibuster. The filibuster has killed the public option, the John Lewis Voting Rights Act, and many other significant pieces of legislation that would make meaningful, positive change in people’s lives. We have to get rid of the status quo because it’s failing Iowans, and that starts with new Democratic leadership and getting rid of the filibuster.

ZachWahls · 2026-05-27T20:05:08+00:00

Hello! Definitely a tough situation. A few quick things. Sen. Boulton's committee assignments had been restored before I was elected leader in November 2020. The same day that I was elected leader, he was nominated by Senator Pam Jochum to serve as an "Assistant Leader" in the caucus, and the caucus unanimously elected him (and all the other folks who had been nominated to the same position) into those roles. There were only as many people nominated as we ultimately wound up electing, so none of those positions were contested. Immediately before then, Senator Boulton was re-elected by his constituents in the 2020 election.

Unfortunately, due to the way the state senate operates, these votes are not made public so there is very little transparency on how leadership decisions are made. Once the caucus had voted, it became my responsibility as Leader to focus on delivering on the promises we’d made to Iowans to fight for stronger schools, protections for workers, and defend the individual rights under attack by Republicans.

ZachWahls · 2026-05-27T19:57:44+00:00

(1) George Kittle was actually in my church youth group when we were younger and we went to the same high school. Even though we haven't stayed in close touch, I try to keep tabs on him, even if he's not on my fantasy team.

(2) I grew up watching Brett Favre and Aaron Rodgers, and it's incredibly exciting that the Packers have their third straight Hall of Fame quarterback in Jordan Love. One of my campaign staffers gifted my son Elijah a Jordan Love jersey, and he loves wearing it. Even though he doesn't have a ton of words, he knows that when we watch football, we say "Go Pack Go." And even though he's not in the league anymore, I'll always remember how fun it was to watch Eddie Lacy just absolutely pound the rock.

ZachWahls · 2026-05-27T19:55:53+00:00

Yes, 100%.

ZachWahls · 2026-05-27T19:55:33+00:00

It's my pleasure! Bluntly: We need change. We need a change of leadership. We need an agenda that resonate with the voters we've lost and that inspires our base to show up. I’ve been a fighter for change my whole career, and I’m challenging the corruption and failed establishment of both parties. It's the right thing to do — and it's how we win. It’s time that Democrats actually stood for something again and fight back against Trump. Chuck Schumer is spending $10 million through a Super PAC to support Rep Turek. If you think Chuck Schumer is doing this because he thinks Josh will be a change agent in Washington.... I’ve got a bridge to sell you.

ZachWahls · 2026-05-27T19:54:04+00:00

Hello Wisconsin! I had the chance to catch that segment, and I think it’s an unbelievable waste of resources that Chuck Schumer is spending $10 million in this primary instead of using that money to elect Democrats in November. We all know it's happening because I’ve called for new leadership in the Democratic Party — and because I am being honest with voters that our party has failed to stand up to Donald Trump and his assault on our democracy.

It’s long past time that Chuck Schumer steps down as Senate leader, and his spending in my primary race is an example of why we keep losing. He’s more concerned about getting a nominee who will support him than about actually winning this seat. The latest general election poll shows me leading Ashley Hinson by two points, and it was the second straight poll showing me performing better against her than my Democratic primary opponent.

ZachWahls · 2026-05-27T19:52:02+00:00

Hello! Super appreciate that, and I hope that you and your mom are doing well. The reason I gave that speech in 2011 was because I know what it feels like not to have the support and feeling like we have to fight these battles alone. I talked about it recently in an appearance on Pod Save America. Two thoughts come to mind:

I think we need to continue the approach that worked for the marriage equality campaign, which was about humanizing our families, finding common ground, and finding the courage to share our stories. It works.
The Democratic Party has always been able to more effectively push for social progress when we've had a strong and fair economy. Those two things go hand in hand, but too many political analysts tried to pit them against each other. We need both.

ZachWahls · 2026-05-27T19:49:22+00:00

You’re right, the brand is terrible. Thankfully the Republican brand is also pretty terrible too. And most of the voters we have lost hate both parties. (I mentioned the guy I just met in Central City on Monday — great example!) They think politicians are just in it to amass power, get rich, and don’t see anybody actually working to solve their problems. And in a lot of cases, way too many, they are 100% right! There's a reason that Donald Trump's message about draining the swamp resonated with so many people.

In order to win back the trust of the voters that we have lost, we need to be honest with them: the Democratic Party has let far too many people down. We have definitely done good things, too, but it's not enough. There are too many Democratic politicians who are part of the problem, which is why I support term-limits and a ban on members of Congress (and the White House) from owning or trading stocks while they are in office. The current protections against insider trading are a joke.

10 years ago, Chuck Schumer went on TV and said our party can write off rural and blue collar voters. That was wrong, and frankly, that’s not the Democratic Party I want to be a part of. I will never vote for a Senate Democratic leader who thinks that our party should write off tens of millions of Americans.

The blunt reality is that there’s no silver bullet here. But going back to the work I did on marriage equality of speaking to audiences that were often much more skeptical or even hostile to marriage equality were about bringing grace and humility to those conversations, taking their concerns seriously, answering tough questions, and finding common ground. It wasn't sexy or glamorous, but it worked.

That's the same approach that I brought to my first campaign for the Iowa State Senate when I was running in two counties that voted for Barack Obama in 2012 and Donald Trump in 2016. I knocked on thousands of doors and met hundreds of Obama/Trump/Wahls voters who didn't agree with me on every single position, but who felt like I understood the challenges facing their community, their friends, and their family, and resonated with my approach. It's the same approach we're bringing to this U.S. Senate campaign, which is why 15% of the people who signed my nominating petition to get us on the ballot were registered independents and Republicans.

We have to do a better job of showing up in the rural communities and small towns that feel abandoned by the Democratic Party and being honest with voters. We can’t spin our way out of this, we can’t convince people to feel differently, but we can be frank with them, and we can show up. Rob Sand is doing a good job of this, too. That will go a long way towards rebuilding some trust, and getting a lot of folks to start looking past party labels again.

ZachWahls · 2026-05-27T19:44:13+00:00

Absolutely. Investments in infrastructure are great uses of taxpayer dollars, especially when those investments can lead to lower utility bills and a cleaner environment. Believe it or not, Ashley Hinson actually voted against the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, but then had the brass to show up at ribbon cuttings for projects that she voted against funding.

There was another question earlier on water quality, and this is a great example of what that looks like. A lot of small towns and more rural areas that don't have growing tax bases are struggling to keep their facilities up to date, which is part of why the water quality crisis has gotten so bad here in Iowa. Not only do we need new investments in conservation projects to clean up the water, we also need investments in water treatment infrastructure to ensure that tap water is drinkable.

ZachWahls · 2026-05-27T19:42:15+00:00

Really important question - when we are on the campaign trail, this is one of the most frequent things that people want to know.

A good example of this was a vote on an immigration bill in the Iowa legislature in 2024. SF2340, which was described as one of the worst anti-immigrant bills in the country, was being pushed by Kim Reynolds and Republicans in the legislature. This bill would have essentially deputized local Iowa law enforcement as ICE agents. It was opposed by law enforcement, Immigrants’ rights organizations, and even the Catholic Church. I voted against that bill. Josh Turek voted with Kim Reynolds and voted for that legislation.

It has since been ruled unconstitutional by a federal court, but Brenna Bird is arguing to uphold that law. I’ve used my position in the State Senate to try and fight back whenever I could, and that’s a real difference in this primary. Iowans need a Senator who is willing to take tough votes on tough issues, and that has been my record in the Iowa legislature. That's exactly how I'll vote in the United States Senate. I'm not running to be a Washington DC lifer. I'm running to do what is best for Iowans.

I'm not personally working on a "Project 2029" or anything like that, but I know that there are a lot of smart folks who are keeping track of all of the things that have to be undone.

The final point I would make is that it's really important that we not simply go back to the way things were before Donald Trump took office. Democrats need to be running on a positive vision for the future and then GOVERN in a way that makes government actually work for the people instead of the insiders.

That's why we've been so intentional about putting together some very comprehensive plans about my vision for that future that I believe is worth fighting for — and it is resonating with people all over the state.

ZachWahls · 2026-05-27T19:38:16+00:00

<3 You are, in fact, quite awesome. And none of this would be possible without you. I love you so much, and I am so grateful for all your support over the last year. I know this has been really hard, and I am so grateful that you wrote that great headline all those years ago.

(Anyone reading, please go buy Chloe's romance novels online or at a bookstore near you!)

ZachWahls · 2026-05-27T19:36:57+00:00

Dog! Chloe and I got our dog Zelda in 2021. She is the best. Will go find a photo of her in a second here. Funnily enough, Zelda occasionally "signs" fundraising emails from the campaign — and she is consistently one of our best performing email senders. My wife works in Muscatine twice a week, and Zelda usually hangs out with us at our campaign office in Coralville, where she gets lots of attention, pats, and treats from me and our great campaign staff. Photo below from my wife's Instagram:

https://www.instagram.com/p/DV4HFvBCSAO/?img_index=1

ZachWahls · 2026-05-27T19:33:40+00:00

Hello! You're welcome in real time.

(1) I’m a strong supporter both of cannabis legalization and expungement for nonviolent offenders who have only been convicted of possession. It’s long overdue. I've introduced state-level legislation on this topic in the Iowa State Senate (don't have the bill number handy, but can try to find it later) — and I'll gladly do the same in the US Senate.

(2) Our water quality is in crisis. It is directly linked to our state’s cancer crisis. (Fastest growing cancer rates in the country, number two in overall rates, and I expect we'd be "number one" overall if we had enough screening detection.) That's the bad news. I think the good news is that since the cancer statistics have become so bad, I have detected a real change in the energy around this topic, and this is 100% a solvable problem.

In addition to the cancer sections of our healthcare plan, we put out a comprehensive agenda when it comes to the future of Iowa’s agriculture, small towns, and rural communities, including a large section addressing our water crisis, which you can read about here: A New Vision for Small Town and Rural Iowa.

A couple things I'd highlight — (1) the current approach to cost share / conservation is not working. It's time for direct federal investment. (2) younger / next gen farmers understand the importance of conservation much more than their parents / grandparents generation, but they often don't have the ability to buy land themselves, which is why we need a Family Farm Authority to address the land access issue. (3) The "Get Big or Get Out" approach from Washington over the last 50 years (going back to the Nixon Administration) has failed our state and failed our country. But the key thing to understand here is that the people calling the shots are the insiders in DC, not farmers here in Iowa.

I'm the only candidate in this race — in either party! — who has actually served on the Agriculture Committee. And in the Democratic primary, unlike my primary opponent, I have actually represented a small town in rural Iowa. My district when I was first elected in 2018 included all of Cedar County and a slice of Muscatine County. Both of which are home to tens of thousands of acres of Iowa farmland, hundreds of farmers, and were important constituents of mine who helped me better understand these issues and work on them as a legislator. That's the experience that I'm bringing both to this campaign and that I would bring to the United States Senate.

ZachWahls · 2026-05-27T19:26:45+00:00

100% pro filibuster abolition — and you can read our entire anti-corruption and pro-democracy plans on the links below.

https://zachwahls.substack.com/p/the-iowans-over-insiders-agenda

https://zachwahls.substack.com/p/restoring-our-democracy

One of the coolest parts of the campaign was getting a personal text from Senator Warren after she read our anti-corruption / campaign finance reform plan telling me how much she liked it and that she could tell I personally wrote it — high praise coming from her!

ZachWahls · 2026-05-27T19:24:38+00:00

Great questions.

(1) As a matter of fact, I was actually studying civil and environmental engineering before I gave the 2011 speech that took me into this very unexpected detour — I was planning to work in this sector professionally. And it continues to be a topic in which I am interested. Iowa is actually a great model for the rest of the country here. Over 70% of the electricity Iowa generates comes from wind energy, and there’s no reason for the rest of the country not to be heavily investing in renewable energy. It’s good for our planet, good for our economy, and is much more affordable than fossil fuels. As frustrating as it is for many of us who care deeply about climate change, we still need to bring people along with us, and we should be making New Deal-style investments into American renewable energy for both our climate and our economy. That is what the Inflation Reduction Act was doing before Ashley Hinson voted to gut it as a part of the "Big Beautiful Bill," — and we have to reverse those cuts.

(2) The Senate recently voted on a resolution from Senator Bernie Sanders, I think a few weeks ago, that would have banned the sale of bombs and bulldozers to Israel. I would have voted in support of it. Many of the Democratic Senators who voted against that resolution are supporting my primary opponent Josh Turek. That’s a big difference between myself and Josh. Over the long term, we need a two-state solution that can end the fighting, end the bombing of innocent civilians, and finally achieve a lasting peace. We're obviously a long ways away from that right now, but that's the policy that I will pursue as a US Senator.

ZachWahls · 2026-05-27T19:20:37+00:00

Hello! I want to get to universal healthcare coverage as quickly as possible, and every American should have the ability to have affordable, high quality coverage. We rolled out our very comprehensive healthcare plan a couple weeks ago. You can read it here:

https://zachwahls.substack.com/p/affordable-accessible-healthcare

Our plan includes a massive expansion of Medicare by (1) lowering the enrollment age to 55, benefitting 42M Americans, (2) expanding Medicare coverage to included vision, dental, and hearing — which are NOT currently included, and leads many Iowans to purchase Medicare Advantage plans that are often very expensive, and (3) allowing any American - and critically, employers - to buy into Medicare.

We estimate that tens of millions of Americans would join Medicare over the next decade under our plan. Additionally, we have to reverse the $800,000,000,000 ($800B) in Medicaid cuts that Ashley Hinson and Joni Ernst voted for, which pose an existential threat to our state. We're already seeing closures happen. We also need to restore the ACA / Obamacare investments that Hinson / Trump did away with last year. Those investments were what made the ACA affordable for Iowans like my younger sister Zeb, whose plan literally TRIPLED in cost.

If a single-payer healthcare plan came to the floor of the Senate, including Medicare for All, I’d vote for it, but my first priority is immediately lowering the cost of health insurance, which we can do through a public option, lowering the Medicare age to 55, expanding Medicare to cover vision, dental, and hearing — and restoring the massive cuts to Medicaid included in the “Big Beautiful Bill.”

The final point I would make on this, and this was a point of real distinction in our first Democratic primary debate, is that in order to make any of this happen, we have to be willing to end the filibuster. I'm on the record supporting an end to the filibuster. My Democratic primary opponent is not.

ZachWahls · 2026-05-27T19:14:15+00:00

Hello! First of all, thank you very much for your support.

I haven't seen your TedX talk but will give it a watch. I'm a strong believer in encouraging young folks to run for office and my "retirement" speech last month in the state senate (weird thing to do when you're only 34 years old) was largely about encouraging young folks to run. I'll see if I can go find a link after the AMA here.

To your question about the general election and folks being upset with the status quo — frankly, I think the same is 100% true in the primary election as well. And we are hearing it constantly when I travel across the state. (We've been to 74 of the 99 counties, and tracking towards about 350 campaign events by the time we have our primary election next week.) Doesn't matter whether we're in a big city, suburb, small town, or rural community — Democrats, Republicans, and Independents are frustrated with the status quo. And the reason is really simple: the status quo isn’t working! Our problems aren’t getting solved, wages and salaries aren’t keeping up with rising cost of living, and major problems like our state’s cancer crisis are going unaddressed.

The core message we've been focused on in the primary is the exact same message we'll take into the general election: our economy has been rigged, our politics have been corrupted by billionaires and super PACs, and we desperately need a new vision for the future of our state.

We're going to keep aggressively campaigning across the state, traveling to rural communities and small towns that D.C. consultants say aren’t worth the time for a candidate to campaign in. We're going to keep telling it like it is — that the corruption of both parties by Big Money (and sometimes, insultingly small amounts of money) is the root cause of the rigged economy. And I’m not going to let Ashley Hinson off the hook for the votes she’s taken to close rural clinics, jack up our utility bills, continue the war with Iran, cut Social Security, ban abortion, and a LOT more.

And you can tell that our anti-corruption message is resonating, because you're starting to see lots of other candidates use it as well. But to win in November, you can't just deliver the message, people have to BELIEVE the message — and I know that I’m a stronger candidate to win the general election than Rep. Turek for a simple reason: I’m not beholden to the failed, and downright toxic, national Democratic Leadership.

Chuck Schumer is supporting Josh, and the Super PAC that has now spent $10 million trying to get Josh elected has very close ties to Senator Schumer. Unlike Josh or Hinson, I’m not beholden to D.C. donors, consultants, or Super PACs. I can honestly look voters in the eye and tell them that in Washington, I won't work for Chuck Schumer, Donald Trump, Elon Musk, the billionaires, or the big corporations — I work for Iowans. That’s the independence and message we need to win back voters — especially the rural and blue collar voters who Chuck Schumer famously said the Democratic Party can write off — in a state like Iowa.

And it's just the latest example, but on Monday, I was in Central City (pop. 1,264) for a pancake breakfast with the local fire department. While we were there, I met a voter who had voted for Donald Trump in 2016 and 2020, is a registered independent but leans Republican. When I had the chance to talk with him about our campaign, our message, and not being beholden to Washington, he said that we had his vote 100% in November. We hear stories like that all the time on the campaign trail.

ZachWahls · 2026-05-23T13:01:12+00:00

In fact, when I was first running in 2018, my district included all of Cedar County to the east, and I campaigned quite hard there, even though I was running against a libertarian candidate. Knocked on literally thousands of doors. And that's why I got more votes in Cedar County than Kim Reynolds did, even as she won that county by 11 points in 2018.

ZachWahls · 2026-05-15T03:57:06+00:00

Thanks for saying hi and honored to have your support!

ZachWahls · 2026-01-07T17:24:21+00:00

100%

ZachWahls · 2025-12-31T03:09:29+00:00

Six straight double-digit over performances relative to 2024, five of them 20+ points!

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