Last week, DNC Chairman Ken Martin finally released the much-discussed “2024 autopsy” — and the fact that it was pretty much incomplete was unfortunately no surprise to me. I’ve had a lot of time to think about it over the long holiday weekend. And I keep coming back to something simple: we deserve better.

I’m sure you feel the same way. But deserving something doesn’t make it happen — we have to fight for it. And that is what my campaign for the US Senate is all about. Fighting for a better future for Iowa, an America that lives up to her promise, and a stronger Democratic Party that can make what we deserve a reality.

Today, I want to talk plainly about my vision of a future worth fighting for and what I have learned in fifteen years of being in this work.

If this message resonates with you, I would be honored if you would join our grassroots campaign by making a contribution, or — most importantly — voting for me in the Democratic primary on or before June 2.

Thank you.

-ZW

A Future Worth Fighting For

Iowa needs a fighter in the Senate. A fighter to defeat Ashley Hinson, bring some courage to the Senate Democratic caucus by replacing Chuck Schumer, and finally end Donald Trump’s assault on our democracy. I’m asking for your vote on or before June 2, because I will be that fighter as your senator.

I proudly said on Day One of this campaign: it’s time for new leadership in our party, including Chuck Schumer. As I have shown in the fifteen years since unexpectedly going viral at the age of 19 fighting for my family, I’m ready to fight for a future that is worth fighting for. And I know that our party will keep losing over and over and over until we show voters that we are actually ready to fight for them. That’s how we win back the rural and blue-collar voters that Chuck Schumer lost when he said we should write them off.

That is the choice in our June 2 primary. My opponent is Chuck Schumer’s pick. A dark money Super PAC closely linked to Schumer and funded by his billionaire allies has spent more than $10 million in outside money trying to buy his nomination. (The previous Iowa record for outside spending was $1M, if you’re wondering.) That’s the Schumer playbook.

For more than a decade, we’ve watched the same movie here in Iowa. Washington Democrats pick a candidate. DC runs the same losing playbook: suck up to special interests, campaign in the cities, and hope rural voters stay home. That’s how we lose. The consultants get paid, the autopsy gets “written,” nobody actually learns anything, and in the next campaign, the same losing playbook gets run again. For them, nothing changes.

But things change for us — for the worse. While they get paid, our Medicaid gets cut and our insurance premiums go up. Rural hospitals and clinics close. Grocery bills climb. Our water gets dirtier. The billionaires get richer. And every two years, more and more Iowans wonder why the party that claims to be on their side never actually wins the fight.

There’s a reason this keeps happening. When National Democrats fold instead of fight, we pay the price. They fold to the corporate donors who fund both parties. They fold to the consultants who tell them to soften every edge until there’s nothing left for an Iowan to grab onto. And then they wonder why more and more Iowans are abandoning the party that refused to fight for the people we used to proudly represent.

I’m sick of it. I’m sick of losing. I’m sick of watching Democrats in Washington fold. I’m sick of the empty press releases and phony press conferences. I’m sick of Democratic leaders like Chuck Schumer writing off rural and blue-collar voters and then wondering why we’ve lost them. I’m sick of politicians in both parties getting rich trading stocks while Donald Trump is dismantling our democracy.

It’s time to fight. Our future is worth fighting for, our state is worth fighting for, our rural and blue-collar neighbors are worth fighting for, and our democracy is worth fighting for.

Fighting for that future means electing a senator who takes on Donald Trump every single day — not staying quiet while he defies the courts, punishes his political enemies, and shreds the Constitution.

It means new leadership in our party. It means ending the filibuster to actually get things done. It means passing the PRO Act to make it easier for workers to join a union. It means making Medicare available and affordable for every American who wants it. It means a fifteen dollar minimum wage tied to inflation. It means reversing the Big Bad Bill, passing a wealth tax on billionaires, and finally making paid family and medical leave, affordable childcare, and affordable senior care a reality.

It means breaking up the corporate monopolies that treat Iowa like a colony instead of a state. It means reversing the failed “get-big-or-get-out” approach to agriculture that is hollowing out our small towns and rural communities, selling our farmland to the highest bidder, poisoning our water, depleting our topsoil, and literally killing our state with an out-of-control cancer crisis.

I believe Iowans are desperate for a new vision for our politics and for our state, and that we can win in Iowa again by showing Iowans what we’re for and not just what we’re against. In fact, this vision is already resonating with the voters we need to win back, because it is concrete, tangible and worth fighting for. And that’s exactly why polls consistently show me as the strongest Democratic candidate to defeat Ashley Hinson in November.

The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results. We know that the Chuck Schumer/D.C. playbook has lost in Iowa before, and it will lose again. Or we can try something new, tell the truth about the corruption of our politics, and actually fight for what we believe and a new way forward for our state.

If you’re ready to try something new, and if you’re sick of Democrats playing it “safe” and losing, I am asking for your vote on or before June 2.