Tomorrow, we vote.

This campaign started with a simple conviction: Iowa deserves a senator who is actually working for Iowans. Not for party bosses. Not for outside special interests. Not for the corporations and the billionaires who have corrupted our politics and rigged our economy. For Iowa. For us. For you.

I know a lot of folks are still making up their minds about who they plan to vote for in this primary election, so today I want to share exactly what I’ll fight for in the United States Senate.

What we have been getting from Washington — from both parties — has failed us. And after 362 campaign events, visiting over 100 different communities in 75 different counties, and meeting nearly 20,000 Iowans face to face, I can confidently say that Iowans across our state and across the political spectrum agree it’s time for a new vision.

After 10 months of listening to Iowans on the campaign trail, my team and I have assembled — in painstaking detail — a new vision for Iowa that directly addresses the concerns we have heard on the trail, crisscrossing our state. We call it the Iowans Over Insiders Agenda.

End the Corruption. Unrig the Economy. Fix our Healthcare. Save our Small Towns. Restore our Democracy.

What has happened to our country — to our politics, our economy, our democracy — isn’t an accident. The system isn’t “broken” at all, in fact it’s working exactly the way it has been designed to work.

It’s been built deliberately and methodically, by the insiders, billionaires, special interests, big corporations, and party bosses who profit most from the rigged system. The meatpacking executives who control 85% of the beef market. The pharmaceutical companies that charge Iowans twice what Canadians pay for the same drugs. The dark money donors who write the campaign checks. The lobbyists who write the legislation and the politicians who vote those bills into law. And we’re the ones who are paying for it: at the grocery store, the gas station, the doctor’s office, the pharmacy, the nursing home, the childcare center — and even your property taxes.

Last October, I was in Atlantic, the seat of Cass County, for a roundtable discussion with community leaders. One of the things that came up was that the price for a new fire engine has exploded over the last decade, doubling and even tripling in some cases. The waitlist to take delivery of a new fire engine has doubled, too. And it’s not just Cass County - this is happening all over our state, and all across the country.

Why is this happening? There are a lot of factors at play, but the biggest driver is simple: industry consolidation and corporate greed. Private equity has consolidated what was previously a highly competitive and diversified manufacturing industry, with 70% of the market now controlled by just three companies.

Fire trucks are not an optional expense. No matter whether you live in a big city, a small town, or a rural community, fire safety protection is one of the single most essential services that we expect our government to provide. During my eight years in the Iowa State Senate, property taxes have been a hot topic every single year because they keep going up. But there has been virtually zero discussion about why costs to local governments have been growing out of control, or the fact that our property tax dollars are padding the profit margins of corporate monopolies.

And my Republican opponent in this race? Ashley Hinson loves private equity, the big investment companies that are rigging our economy. She’s received huge campaign contributions from their executives and then votes in their interests, not Iowa’s.

As everything gets more expensive, paychecks and benefits haven’t kept up (in fact, Ashley Hinson voted to cut Social Security by $452M in 2024). The federal minimum wage has been stuck at $7.25 since 2009. The rich keep getting richer, and Elon Musk is set to become the first ever trillionaire after spending $300M to elect Donald Trump in 2024.

We simply cannot continue this way. That’s why I endorsed Bernie Sander’s 5% billionaire wealth tax. (We all pay wealth taxes, by the way — that’s what our property taxes are.) That’s why I proposed a comprehensive anti-corruption and campaign finance reform plan and took the Political Integrity Pledge.

Restoring trust in our politics starts with leading by example.

I’m not taking corporate PAC money. Not one dollar. Because I’ve seen what happens to politicians who do. They arrive in Washington claiming to be full of fight and leave full of excuses for not getting anything done. The way you stay accountable to Iowans is by never selling out. That’s a choice I made at the start of this campaign, and I’m proud of it. And when super PACs started spending in our race, I challenged my Democratic opponent to join me in cracking down on the outside spending — he refused.

Here’s what I’ll fight for: overturn Citizens United through a constitutional amendment, bipartisan work I’ve already started in the Iowa Senate. Ban members of Congress from trading stocks on inside information – and enact real consequences when they do. Close the revolving door between the Senate and K Street. Make dark money donors disclose who they are.

To make an economy work for Iowans again, the era of politicians serving their donors while pretending to serve their constituents has to end.

On the economic side: I’ll enforce antitrust law against the corporate monopolies hollowing out Iowa’s farm economy. I’ll fight for trade policy that protects Iowa farmers instead of gutting their markets. The Trump-Hinson tariffs have done real damage, and I will fight to repeal them. I’ll be a day-one co-sponsor of the PRO Act, fight to repeal right-to-work, and enforce Davis-Bacon on every federally funded project in Iowa.

More than 25 labor unions have endorsed this campaign. The Ironworkers even invited me to become a dues-paying member, because they know I will always fight for working people.

I’ll fight for Small Towns and Family Farms.

I am a sixth-generation Iowan. My family has been farming, building, and raising families in this state for generations. And I have watched rural communities get hollowed out — hospitals that closed, school districts that consolidated and Friday night lights turned off for the last time. That doesn’t have to be our future — if we’re willing to fight back.

With your support, I’ll lead the fight to break up the corporate consolidators squeezing family farmers out. I’ll push for a Family Farm Authority to help young and next generation farmers get a foothold in the land. I’ll crack down on foreign and Wall Street ownership of Iowa land, because Iowa farms should belong to Iowa farmers. And I’ll fight for the rural broadband, rural hospitals, and rural investment that Washington has been promising and failing to deliver for decades.

I’ll fight to protect healthcare and Social Security.

No Iowan should go broke from getting sick. I’ll fight to let Medicare negotiate drug prices directly, cap insulin at $35 a month for every American, restore the Trump/Hinson Medicaid cuts that are closing our rural clinics, and address Iowa’s cancer crisis with serious investment in screening, research, and access. I’ve introduced or co-sponsored 28 pro-choice bills in the Iowa Senate, and I will fight to restore and codify the protections of Roe v. Wade. Ashley Hinson voted to block lower insulin prices and to cut Medicaid. She voted to cut Social Security. She is a vote to keep abortion banned in Iowa. That’s the choice this election.

Iowa’s seniors earned their Social Security. My Keep the Promise Act protects and strengthens it, not by cutting benefits or raising the retirement age, but by scrapping the cap so the wealthiest Americans pay the same rate into the system that working Iowans do. I will not let Trump, DOGE, or anyone else take what Iowa’s seniors were promised.

I’ll fight to Restore Our Democracy.

Donald Trump is an existential threat to American democracy. Not a political opponent to be managed. Not a governing style to disagree with. An existential threat to the courts, to the free press, to the rule of law, to the principle that elections are decided by voters and not by whoever has the most power to contest the result. We are living through a stress test of our democratic institutions, and a lot of them are failing it.

Ashley Hinson is complicit in all of this. She has been Trump’s loyal vote in the House, and she will be his loyal vote in the Senate. I will not. I believe that defending democracy is not a partisan act; it is the most basic obligation of anyone who takes an oath to the Constitution. And I intend to take that oath seriously.

In the Senate, I’ll fight to ban partisan gerrymandering, pass the John Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act, implement automatic voter registration, and push for ranked choice voting to break the stranglehold of a two-party system that is failing most Americans. Democracy is not self-executing. It requires people who are willing to fight for it, even when it’s politically inconvenient, even when powerful people are spending $10 million against you. That’s the senator I intend to be.

Iowa’s Choice.

I’ve spent this entire campaign traveling all across the state listening to Iowans. The message I’ve heard is consistent, whether I’m in Dubuque or Sioux City, Storm Lake or Cedar Rapids: people want a senator who shows up, listens, and actually delivers. A Senator who isn’t afraid to take on powerful interests. A Senator who isn’t afraid to challenge the failed leadership of both parties.

I have spent a decade proving, in the Iowa Senate, that I am exactly that kind of fighter. And I have the endorsements to show for it — Iowa’s firefighters, building trades, community leaders, ironworkers, and more — not because I made back-room deals, but because I kept my promises. And my promise to you is that I will always fight for what I believe is best for our state.

Ashley Hinson is Donald Trump’s choice for this seat. My primary opponent is Chuck Schumer’s choice. But this seat doesn’t belong to them — it belongs to the people of Iowa. Tomorrow, Iowa Democrats have a chance to send someone to Washington who is beholden only to the people of this state, someone who will fight like hell for every Iowa family, every Iowa farm, and every Iowa community that Washington has left behind.

I am asking for your vote tomorrow, and I would be honored to be your Democratic nominee for the U.S. Senate.

— Zach