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Thanks for joining us for today’s What’s the Plan call with Leah and Ezra! If you couldn’t make it or missed any of the links we shared, no worries – we’ve got everything you need right here.
Before we share links and calls to action, a quick request to support next week’s call!
For the next What’s the Plan on 6/25, we’re sitting down with a senior leader from Protect Democracy to go deep on election sabotage — how Trump is trying to interfere with the 2026 midterms and what we can actually do about it. We’ve got a short pre-read for that conversation here: Executive Override. The short version of their framework is that the threats fall into three buckets — deceive (manufacturing fraud claims and flooding the zone with disinformation), disrupt (turning federal power against officials, organizations, and voters), and deny (contesting or refusing to certify results they don’t like).
🌟 If you’ve heard about the 15 Minnesota organizers that the DOJ is going after, and want to support them, you can donate to their legal defense fund here (please note this fund is not managed or monitored by Indivisible).
🌟 When ICE surges in your community, do you know what to do? Join Indivisible for the first call in our Immigrant Justice Summer training series, where we’ll give you a concrete three-step blueprint for mounting a safe, hyper-local, immigrant-aligned response. We kick off July 9 – sign up today!
🌟 Indivisible’s Election Defense Corps is a grassroots network of volunteers located in Alaska, Georgia, Iowa, Michigan, North Carolina, Ohio, and Texas dedicated to protecting the right to vote before, during, and after the 2026 election. You can sign up to join it here.
🌟 Urge Dems to oppose and stop Trump’s crypto corruption – say no to the CLARITY Act! Call and email.
🎥 Couldn’t catch the call? No worries, you can catch the recording on YouTube. You’ll be able to find the most recent What’s the Plan recording by midday every Friday on our YouTube What’s the Plan Playlist.
The space between Iowa City and Davenport contain some of the richest farmland in the world. It also contains some of the most common sense Iowans there are. The farmers and the other good citizens of Iowa’s 41st senate district have seen their very ways of life undermined by the current Republican mess both in Washington and Des Moines.
As the Republican Party in Iowa lurches from one bad policy to another, we see good Democratic candidates come forward to challnge for the opportunity to turn this state around. As we look forward to giving Rob Sand the opportunity to turn Iowa around, we need to put good people in the legislature to help him.
Tom Wieck is one such person. Growing up in Iowa, Tom is ready to take a life of experience and use it to help solve Iowa problems such as cost of living for the average Iowan, access to healthcare and Iowa’s declining schools. Do you want improvement as represented by Tom Wieck or the continuing decline his Republican opponent offers.
Our farmers and rural communities are the backbone of Southeast Iowa. But that’s at risk due to Trump’s tariffs harming American farmers. Family farms feel squeezed by rising costs, market access, and decisions made in Washington.
Tom Wieck will work to support family farms to find cost-effective and grant supported improvements to farmland, and make sure our communities have the tools they need to grow and succeed. Strong rural communities mean a stronger Iowa for everyone.
Protecting Healthcare Access
No one should worry about whether they can afford the care they need in a medical situation or have to drive an hour just to see a doctor. In too many parts of our district, healthcare is becoming harder to access and more expensive.
Tom believes we need to protect local healthcare services, keep rural hospitals strong, keep people on Medicaid without work requirements, and lower the cost of prescriptions. Healthcare isn’t about politics, it’s about making sure families can get the quality care they need, when they need it.
Creating Good Jobs & Strong Schools
Strong schools and good-paying jobs go hand in hand. When we invest in education and support our teachers, we’re building a future where our kids can succeed, families choose to stay in Iowa and where people can find good jobs right here at home.
Tom believes in supporting local schools, expanding opportunities for job training, and helping grow an economy where hard work pays off. No one should have to leave our communities just to find opportunity.
As noted by progressiowa.com’s daily newsletter of Monday June 15th:
1.YEARS OF DISINVESTMENT CATCH UP TO IOWA’S EDUCATION RANKING: A new national report found Iowa’s education ranking has fallen to 27th in the nation, the first time the state has landed in the bottom half of states since the report began in 1990. Educators and students have spent years being asked to do more with less as Republican leaders have chronically underfunded public schools, diverted taxpayer dollars to private school vouchers, and undermined the teaching profession. If our leaders wish to see better rankings, it’s time they fully support public education!
So what is it Iowa? Turn the state around with Tom Wieck or vote to continue Iowa’s decline? I think the choice is clear.
Michelle Obama addresses crowd at the opening of the Obama Center Thursday (22 minutes):
Juneteenth was Friday. I always think of Juneteenth as the day that the promise of America started to become a reality. Freedom for everybody. Sadly the fight to make the promise a reality goes on with the opposition hardening more than they have for a long time. But in usual Trump strategy, as they oppose something it only highlights just how wrong and ugly their beliefs are.
As we listen to Michelle’s words, let us vow to overcome the hate and divisiveness and put America back on course. WE can do it!
A) Thanks to shoddy work Trump had done, you can’t see what in Washington’s reflection pool?
B) What nation’s leader was so insulted by Trump at the G7 conference that a visit to the US by that nation’s Foreign Minister was cancelled?
C) Juneteenth trivia gets tangled with the stories of the struggle for freedom for blacks. Juneteenth came late as a holiday. What president signed the bill to make Juneteenth a federal holiday?
D) Hey kids! Uncle Sam’s not so favorite nephew, RFK jr. is about to lose elimination status for what disease due to outbreaks in the past year?
E) Trump got an MOU? It may be the US’s first ever! What is an MOU?
F) Who will be heading up negotiations for the US with Iran?
G) In what may be a wave of the future, California will have a ballot measure this fall to tax what group of people
H) Which amendment to the constitution eliminated slavery?
I) The DOJ has been exposed as running an investigation on what potential Democratic presidential candidate?
J) The first Fed meeting under Trump pick Kevin Warsh resulted in interest rates doing what?
K) In Iowa, a report states that Iowa spent $260 million to pay tuition for kids who would have attended private schools anyway. Whose office issued this report?
L) What black women have been named nominated and confirmed to the SCOTUS?
M) Donald Trump settled a lawsuit out of court against who last week?
N) In a scene that harkened back to one of the most ignominious surrenders in history, Trump signed an agreement with Iran at what venue?
O) Almost missed this since it was barely covered in the US. What North American country will begin to phase in universal health care next January?
P) An international bridge between what two countries, scheduled to open last Friday remains closed thanks to a bribe to Trump?
Q) Where did former VP Kamala Harris graduate college from?
R) What OTC drug is being used in the south as a cancer treatment? (Hint: was used to treat covid)
S) Iowans were advised by what Ashley Hinson primary opponent not to vote for Hinson in November?
T) In 1955, the death of what Chicago young man visiting realtives in Mississippi by lynching galvanized the civil rights movement at the time?
JD Vance promoting his book about finding his way back to faith while helping manage Situation Room meetings on how to cover up for pedophiles is about as Republican as it gets. – Jamie Bonkiewicz
tip of the hat to all-hat-no-cattle.com
Answers:
A) any reflections because of the algae and the chunks of paint
B) Giorgia Meloni of Italy
C) President Biden in 2021
D) Measles
E) Memorandum Of Understanding
F) VP Vance. He prepped by making an appearance on The View last week
G) billionaires – they have enough signatures anyway
H) 13th
I) Gavin Newsom of California and his wife
J) staying put
K) State Auditor Rob Sand’s office
L) Ketanji Brown Jackson
M) His Niece, Mary Trump
N) Versailles
O) Mexico
P) the Gordy Howe Bridge between the US and Canada (built by Canada)
Q) Howard University
R) Ivermectin
S) Jim Carlin (good advice, Jim)
T) Emmett Till
Trump Thanks Iran for “Beautiful Gift” of White Flag – Andy Borowitz
We are nearing the end of gay pride month. However there is still fun to be had. Iowa City, Des Moines, Ankeny and Omaha. Looks like there may be a chance of rain – but who cares?
Celebrate Pride season with an Omaha bar crawl supporting Heartland Pride. The Official Pride Bar Crawl by Crawl With US brings together participating local venues, drink and food specials, music, photos, and community connection in a high-energy 21+ event. Whether you are coming with friends, meeting new people, or looking for a festive way to […]
I was looking for something else when I stumbled across this statement from Progress Iowa from about a week ago. It was such a nice synopsis that I thought I would give it some sunlight:
Ashley Hinson wants Iowans to believe she’s fighting against congressional insider trading and working to lower costs for families, but her voting record and financial disclosures tell a very different story.
A recent report by Heartland Signal revealed that Hinson has quietly maintained up to $5 million in insurance company stocks and has boosted her net worth by up to 10 times since taking office. Despite campaigning on a stock trade ban, she refused to sign a discharge petition that would have forced Congress to vote on legislation to do so.
Karen, a retired social worker from Allamake County, said that news of Hinson’s real priorities is disappointing.
“It has become an affordability crisis, families are now forced to choose between filling up their gas tanks, getting groceries, or paying for medicine,” Karen said. “Our representative’s actions show that she is not working for us, she works for herself and Trump’s agenda.”
“Hinson thinks she can trick Iowans with talking points because she knows Iowans care about this issue,” Progress Iowa Executive Director Mazie Stilwell said . “She’s cosponsoring a watered down bill to save face. The bottom line: she could have helped force a vote to ban stock trading and she didn’t. That’s all Iowans need to know.”
What I was looking for were articles that would show whether Republican candidates would continue to toe the Trump line after a week in which Trump has shown he really give a hoot about our country. Being a candidate in the heartland and having to keep your mouth shut about items like:
surrendering to a third rate power after HE started the war
illegally transfering money from other accounts to build your ballroom that never had funds allocated for it
staging one of most garish of parties on the White House lawn that will cost tax payers multiple millions at a time when tax payers are hurting
ending that party by laughing at a racist joke about a previous First Lady
then going to a meeting in Europe where HE makes a speech that sounds incoherent at best
continuing to claim that elections in the US where Republicans lose are rigged
stories abound of Trump buying and selling stock in open corruption
Trump himself said the US came within a few weeks of a massive economic downturn as oil supplies got short.
After seeing that Iowa’s Republican candidates for the most part line up with Trump down the line I was looking to help the professional journalists in Iowa to formulate some decent questions for those candidates. Our experience with said journalists has been that they seldom ask a Republican anything more difficult than a cookie recipe.
So let’s just see if we can’t come up with some questions:
To Ashley Hinson
Does your investments in insurance company stocks color any votes you may take on health care for Iowans. Healthcare insurance is one of the biggest issues iowans face?
Were Trump to be impeached and tried in the senate, could you be impartial? Why or why not?
Is it alright with you that Trump is using his insider information to buy and sell stocks?
At what point will you stand up to Trump clearly unconstitutional ICE policies?
Zach Lahn’s past as an employee of the Koch brothers is certainly troubling.
So, Mr. Lahn, will policy be generated in Des Moines or sent to you via Americans for Prosperity or ALEC?
A friend just sent me this video. Zachary Oren Smith nails it!
I could just go on up and down the line but I think you get my drift. C’mon Iowa Press corps – you guys are our voices and we are frustrated – ask them some damn questions!
It would be nice to see an Iowa journalist ask a tough question like this reporter did. Rod Blum walks out on a reporter in May of 2017:
From our inbox: Action alert from Iowa CCI. Sign up for the CCI newsletter here
One week out reminder to register for our statewide Data Center Organizing call on Tuesday, June 23!
We’ll hear from folks in Iowa who have been stepping up to protect their communities from data centers.
And we’ll be joined by longtime organizer Adam Kruggel who has been involved in helping people across the country push back against against these billion- and trillion-dollar corporations.
What:Statewide Data Center Organizing Zoom When:Tuesday, June 23 | 6:30PM-8:00PM Where:Zoom – a link will be sent out ahead of the meeting Why:To learn about data centers, why they’re a problem:
Water consumption
Electrical usage and skyrocketing utility rates
Land use
and what we can do about it!
We know when everyday people come together to demand better for the people and places we love, we have the power to build the state we want to see.
And don’t forget how the obscure Joni Ernst was launched into her inglorious political career abandoning Iowans in favor of billionaires even before she reminded us that “we are all going to die. I remember very well her comments praising the “wonderful” Koch network.
Here she is as a candidate for U.S. Senate speaking at the Kochs’ semi-annual political strategy meeting on June 16, 2014 in Dana Point, California at the St. Regis Monarch Bay Resort. Eleven years later she will announce her intention to not run for re-election, basically resigning in disgrace.
Click on the image to hear this audio on YouTube
Fool me once shame on you, Fool me twice shame on me. Let’s not get fooled again.
If you need another reason to not vote for a Koch connected candidate, look at the harm the Republicans in the Iowa lehislature have done to Iowa over the last decade at least. Nine years ago, then state senator from Iowa City, Democrat Joe Bolkcom speaking at a legislative forum, explained to constituents that the Koch Brothers were in “firm control” at the Iowa state house. What good has come from that?
Chris Jones shared this text of his full remarks at the Democratic Party convention on his public campaign Facebook page. I’ve reposted them below. Follow Chris Jones on social media.
“It was great being with so many supporters across the state at the Democratic Party convention yesterday. For those who couldn’t be there, I’m including my full remarks below.
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You may know that my professional training was as a scientist, and I worked in that capacity at several stops in my career: managing an environmental testing laboratory, consulting work for municipal water and wastewater utilities, laboratory manager at Des Moines Water Works, environmental scientist at the Iowa Soybean Association, and finally a research engineer at the University of Iowa hydraulics lab. Some of those work experiences have come in handy these past several months in my campaign for Secretary of Agriculture. I must also tell you that it’s clear to me now why there aren’t many scientists in politics.
Of course, one of our most famous scientists was Izaak Newton. Newton, who invented calculus, proposed in 1687 that gravity is a universal, invisible force of attraction existing between all matter. As legend has it, Newton never thought about gravity until one day he was sitting beneath an apple tree, and an apple fell upon his head, jolting his mind into awareness.
Thus I think it is with our body politic and water quality. Most have seen it as a 2nd- or 3rd tier issue, if indeed an issue at all, until the rotten apple of Iowa’s second-highest, and soon to be highest, cancer rate fell upon their heads. Scientists have known about the associations between large scale agriculture and negative human health outcomes for decades, but leaders in industry and government have refused to take notice. If Iowa does indeed have a cancer crisis, shouldn’t we as democrats demand our leaders treat it as a crisis? We sure as hell know that Republicans won’t.
I retired three years ago and imagined spending my retirement whiling away the days in my fishing boat, tending my garden and trying to write another book. So I come to politics not with career aspirations but out of a sense of duty, because I believe the degraded quality of life and human health consequences of large-scale agriculture is THE issue of our time in Iowa.
The world’s largest nitrate removal facility, of which you’re drinking water from today, was installed in 1992—two generations ago. When I worked at DMWW, of a morning I would walk from the laboratory to the pumping station to discuss with my boss the condition of the rivers on that day. My boss at the time was Ted Corrigan, who just retired as general manager a few months ago. When the rivers were gross and muddy and full of nitrate, Ted would ask ‘where’s the outrage?’. And I would say ‘yeah, where’s the outrage’. Sometimes I inserted a salty adjective in that sentence before ‘outrage’. Folks, I’m here to tell you, the outrage has arrived.
While some progress was made in the 1990s on soil erosion—thanks to a law, that being conservation compliance in the 1985 farm bill, water monitoring data shows us that nothing has really happened on nitrate pollution for the past 50 years, largely because we have no laws for the pollution. If I’m elected secretary of agriculture, I’m going to work to get those 50 years back and make 50 years happen in four years.
We lost control of our agriculture to corporate agribusiness and the federal government in the 1990s, and since then, the mantra has been ‘Bushels or Bust’. Today, for farmers, city dwellers and rural Iowa, that’s become Bushels AND Bust. Consolidation in the livestock industry has brought us 25 million hogs along with the untreated fecal waste equivalent to 168 million people. Farmers lose money, we get sick, and corporate agribusiness skates off with money after fouling our air, water and soil.
You might wonder where our current secretary of agriculture, Mike Naig, stands on all this. The truth is, we don’t have a secretary of agriculture. We have a secretary of AGRIBUSINESS. Iowa needs a secretary of agriculture that works for beneficial outcomes for ALL IOWANS. Trump trade policies and the Iran war hurt Iowa and Iowa farmers. DOGE eviscerates USDA and the remainder has not capacity to deliver conservation and other programs. Trump cancels millions in local food programs. Naig apparently has the hubris to still run on these local food programs. Does he stand up to Trump and defend Iowa and it’s farmers—HELL NO.
How do we achieve better water, a more prosperous rural Iowa and improve the quality of life for all Iowans? We cannot get the beneficial outcomes we want with only two species of plants on 70% of our land. We desperately need diverse farms growing crops like oats and other small grains. For our largest restaurant, which is our system of public schools, we need farmers growing fruit and vegetable crops and raising livestock humanely and sustainably.
We need to return cattle to pasture along with a significant number of hogs and poultry. Why watch western rivers, including the Colorado, dry up from irrigating alfalfa when we can grow it here, un-irrigated? Let’s work to bring back the 800 small scale meat processors we’ve lost over the past 60 years, along with small scale livestock production so we can enable farmers to be farmers again. These are much more long-lasting jobs than those for data center construction. We know Iowa farmers can do this profitably. I talk to some of them nearly every week.
Some or many farmers will prefer to stay in the fast lane of corn/soy/CAFO and ethanol. That’s great. But as this metropolitan area of 600,000 people goes through its second straight summer of restricted water use, leaving the fast lane without a speed limit is no longer a credible position. We CANNOT continue to give the industry license to do whatever they want with fertilizer and other inputs and then ask the taxpayer to pay to mitigate the pollution. It’s perverse.
Many say that what I am proposing is ‘going backward’, and that agriculture and society don’t like to go backward. Now that we’ve hollowed out our small towns to a shell of their former selves, now that we see our young people flee to distant cities and states, now that we see our loved ones die not of old age but a pollution-induced cancer, I say to these folks—what does going forward from this look like to you? Because here’s what it looks like to me—robotic tractors and AI farming 10,000-acre plots owned by billionaires and hedge funds. Is that the rural Iowa we want?
It’s within our power to create the sort of change I speak of. The solutions are not mysterious. While ongoing research and monitoring is always good and necessary, we don’t need more of it to ACT now. If we CAN create policies that reduce known risks NOW, then we should work NOW to create such policies. We don’t lack for solutions; what we lack is the political courage to enable them.
There are only 12 states that elect a secretary of agriculture, Iowa is one. All 12 presently are Republicans. Come January 3, Iowa is going to show America something different. From the heart of American agriculture, we’re going to change American agriculture from a system designed to enrich a few to one designed to benefit the many.” – Chris Jones
We are less than five months from election day, and Democrats need your help to take back Congress.
This summer, it is critical that we are all hands on deck to organize everywhere so we can win big in the midterms. Donald Trump’s disastrous agenda is affecting communities nationwide, and we need to work together to take a stand against his administration.
When we organize everywhere, we can win anywhere. Democrats have proven that time and time again, and we’re ready to prove it this November. This week on Ground Game, we’ll share three actions you can take this summer to organize in your communities and help lead Democrats to victory in the midterms. Thank you for taking action!
1. Volunteer for Your Local Candidates and State Parties
Whether it’s contacting voters to remind them of upcoming primaries or door-knocking for your local Democratic candidates, volunteering is key to winning big this year. State parties are the backbone of Democratic power — and they need our help to win now and build for the future. Click below to find opportunities to take action in your area. Can’t make an in-person event? Check out virtual opportunities to get involved!
2. Make Sure You and Your Friends are Registered to Vote
In order to take back Congress this year, we need to show up at the polls. Take five minutes to check your voter registration and make sure it’s up to date. Want to further the impact? Reach out to your friends, family, and community to make sure their registrations are up to date. We’ll see you at the polls!
Be sure to check out our When We Count fellowship, the first-of-its-kind paid, part-time youth fellowship that trains supporters to organize and register new Democratic voters on the ground. Learn more information and apply today.
Another great volunteer opportunity is hosting or participating in a voter registration drive. Voter registration drives are one of the most powerful tools we have to grow the electorate and build long-term Democratic power. By connecting with our community and neighbors about the importance of voting, we build a stronger democracy. Get some friends together and host a drive this summer!
Thank you so much for reading Ground Game! If you enjoyed this week’s newsletter, let us know with a like, restack, and make sure to share it with your friends so we can keep bringing you weekly organizing updates!
Governor Kim Keynolds: (515) 281-5211 U.S. Capitol Switchboard: (202) 224-3121 Iowa Members of Congress - Rep. Randy Feenstra (R) - Rep. Ashley Hinson (R) - Rep. Mariannette Miller-Meeks (R) - Rep. Zach Nunn (R) Iowa US Senators - Senator Joni Ernst (R) - Senator Charles Grassley (R)
Case in point. Joni Ernst. See below.
Blog For Iowa 