Iowa
National Democratic group boosts 7 ‘spotlight’ candidates in Iowa House and Senate races
A national Democratic group is boosting seven candidates for the Iowa House and Senate as the party aims to flip Republican-held seats this November and begin to climb out of the minority.
The Democratic Legislative Campaign Committee, an arm of the national Democratic Party dedicated to electing Democrats to statehouses around the country, named the seven Iowa “spotlight” candidates Tuesday. They are:
- Rep. Josh Turek, D-Council Bluffs, who is running for a second term in House District 20.
- Heather Sievers, who is challenging Rep. Bill Gustoff, R-Des Moines, in House District 40.
- Tiara Mays-Sims, who is challenging Rep. Eddie Andrews, R-Johnston, in House District 43.
- Aime Wichtendahl, who is running for House District 80, an open seat in Cedar Rapids, Hiawatha and Robins.
- Matt Blake, who is challenging Sen. Brad Zaun, R-Urbandale, in Senate District 22.
- Sen. Eric Giddens, D-Cedar Falls, who is running for reelection in Senate District 38.
- Nannette Griffin, who is challenging Sen. Jeff Reichman, R-Montrose, in Senate District 50.
The news comes one day after the DLCC announced a plan to spend $10 million nationwide as part of its “Summer of the States” campaign. It’s not clear how much money the group could spend in Iowa.
Democrats are in the minority in the Iowa House, holding 36 seats to Republicans’ 64. And Republicans enjoy a supermajority in the Iowa Senate, with 34 seats to Democrats’ 16.
More: Iowa Democrats urge focus on education, abortion as they seek wins in November elections
House Minority Leader Jennifer Konfrst, D-Windsor Heights, is the top Democrat in the Iowa House and a member of the DLCC board.
She said the national party’s decision to highlight candidates in Iowa “shows that what we’ve been saying for a while is true, which is that Iowa is a purple state.”
She pointed to the fact that Iowa’s 1st and 3rd congressional districts, which are held by Republican U.S. Reps. Mariannette Miller-Meeks and Zach Nunn, are on national Democrats’ list of top congressional seats to flip this year.
“It just goes to show you that the message that we’ve been giving for a long time, which is don’t give up on Iowa, has broken through,” she said. “And that some national folks are looking at Iowa and saying, ‘OK, this place can come back to purple. This place can come back into balance. Let’s get engaged and see what we can do.’”
Konfrst said it will take time for Democrats to win back majorities in the Iowa House and Senate, but argued the national party can see “we’re doing really good work to rebuild.”
“The DLCC knows that we’re not going to flip the Iowa House this year or the Senate,” she said. “But they also know that you don’t get there unless you start investing now. And so that’s why it really means a lot that they’re here and they’ve picked some great candidates.”
In a news release the DLCC said Republican majorities in the Iowa House and Senate “has posed grave threats to Iowans’ fundamental freedoms.”
The group highlighted Iowa Republican policies to restrict abortion, including a bill that passed the Iowa House to raise penalties for ending someone’s pregnancy without their consent.
Democrats and Senate Republicans said the legislation could endanger access to in vitro fertilization because it would have defined an “unborn person” as beginning at fertilization. The bill did not become law.
More: IVF fears scuttle Iowa bill raising penalty for ending pregnancy without consent
“Iowa Republicans made national headlines this year for their egregious threats to reproductive rights, and Democrats have the candidates this year to fight back and win targeted races,” DLCC President Heather Williams said in a statement. “The Democratic Legislative Campaign Committee is proud to announce our Spotlight candidates in Iowa, whose fierce support of fundamental freedoms and democracy will be instrumental for combatting the GOP agenda.”
Stephen Gruber-Miller covers the Iowa Statehouse and politics for the Register. He can be reached by email at sgrubermil@registermedia.com or by phone at 515-284-8169. Follow him on Twitter at @sgrubermiller.
Iowa State running back Carson Hansen speaks to the media after win
Iowa State running back Carson Hansen speaks to the media after win over Arizona
Iowa State football running back Carson Hansen announced on Dec. 23 that he “will be pursuing new opportunities with my last year of eligibility.”
Hansen is the latest Cyclones star to indicate that he will transfer to another school in the wake of coach Matt Campbell’s departure to Penn State. Quarterback Rocco Becht and cornerbacks Jeremiah Cooper and Jontez Williams are among the other Iowa State standouts leaving Ames.
Hansen, a native of Lakeville, Minn., rushed for 952 yards on 188 carries during his junior season with the Cyclones. In three years with Iowa State, he compiled 1,771 yards and 19 touchdowns on the ground.
Hansen was the Cyclones’ leading rusher in 2024 and 2025.
“My three years here at Iowa State have been a life changing experience because of the people who make up Ames …” Hansen wrote on Twitter/X. “Thank you to the fans that shook Jack Trice every Saturday and for your belief in this football team.”
Campbell announced on Dec. 5 that he was leaving Iowa State after 10 years as the Cyclones’ head coach. He was quickly succeeded by Washington State’s Jimmy Rogers, who has a big job in front of him to replace the exodus of talent transferring out of Ames.
The Iowa Supreme Court’s 2025-2026 docket is filled with key cases
Iowa’s top court has a busy schedule as it launches into a new term this fall, delving into cases involving subjects including bullying and TikTok.
The Iowa Supreme Court has overturned the conviction of a West Des Moines doctor found guilty of sexually abusing a child, ruling that allowing the victim to testify via one-way video violated the Iowa Constitution.
The court on Tuesday, Dec. 23, reversed the conviction of Lynn Melvin Lindaman, a longtime central Iowa surgeon who practiced at the Lindaman Orthopaedics clinic in West Des Moines before he was charged in 2023 with second-degree sexual abuse. The case was remanded for a new trial.
The decision is the latest in a string of rulings that have set Iowa apart as the only state in the country whose highest court has barred one-way video testimony in criminal trials, even in cases involving child victims.
Those decisions already have begun reshaping prosecutions across the state and have prompted lawmakers to launch the process of amending the Iowa Constitution. The change would ultimately require voter approval.
Lindaman, now 75, was convicted after a jury trial in Polk County. Prosecutors alleged that on June 26, 2023, he committed a sex act in Ankeny against a child under the age of 10. A second count of sexual abuse was dismissed prior to trial. He was sentenced to 50 years in prison, with a mandatory minimum of 42½ years because of a prior sexual predatory offense in 1976. He also faced a separate and now-dismissed civil lawsuit from an Iowa woman who claimed he sexually assaulted her in 1975.
The Iowa Offender Search still lists Lindaman as in custody of the Iowa Medical & Classification Center.
On appeal, Lindaman argued that his constitutional rights were violated when the district court allowed the child to testify from another room via one-way closed-circuit television, rather than from the witness stand in the courtroom.
“Today’s decision from the Iowa Supreme Court is an important win for Lynn Lindaman and a major step toward a fair result,” said Lucas Taylor, the attorney representing Lindaman. “Although the court did not rule in our favor on every issue, this ruling recognizes serious errors in the prior proceedings and gives Mr. Lindaman the chance to present his defense to a new jury.”
In a 4-3 ruling issued earlier this year in State v. White, the Iowa Supreme Court agreed with that argument, holding that one-way video testimony violates the confrontation clause of the Iowa Constitution. Writing for the majority in that case, Justice David May said that “when the accused and the witness are prevented from seeing each other, there is no face-to-face confrontation, and the Iowa Constitution is not satisfied.”
The ruling came despite U.S. Supreme Court precedent allowing such testimony and laws in many other states permitting it. Under the Iowa statute the court overturned, judges had been allowed to authorize remote testimony by minors, or witnesses with mental illnesses or disabilities, if a judge found that “trauma caused by testifying in the physical presence of the defendant … would impair the minor’s ability to communicate.”
The White decision arose from an Osceola County case, but its effects have since spread and courts across Iowa have begun hearing challenges from defendants convicted in cases where one-way video testimony was used.
Following the ruling, Lynn Hicks, a spokesman for the Polk County Attorney’s Office, said at least five Polk County defendants convicted under similar circumstances could be entitled to new trials.
One of those defendants, Michael Dunbar, already has received a new trial. Dunbar was resentenced after the victim testified in person from the witness stand, and the court again imposed a life sentence.
Dissent fuels push to amend Iowa Constitution
The State v. White ruling has drawn sharp criticism from prosecutors and state leaders, including Iowa Attorney General Brenna Bird, who has argued the decision unnecessarily traumatizes child victims.
Bird has proposed a constitutional amendment to allow children to testify remotely in certain cases. The measure has passed both chambers of the Legislature once and must pass again before going to voters in a statewide referendum.
“Children shouldn’t be forced to testify at arm’s length from their abusers, and many kids can’t. This opinion shows how important it is to restore protections for a child victim to testify remotely,” Bird said in a Tuesday statement to the Des Moines Register. “Our office will continue to fight for a constitutional amendment to ensure kids are protected and abusers are brought to justice. We are grateful our effort has received overwhelming bipartisan support in the Iowa Legislature.”
Justice Thomas D. Waterman, writing in a dissent in the opinion issued Tuesday, rejected the majority’s historical interpretation of the confrontation clause.
“Thunder comes during rainstorms; it does not follow that thunder requires rain. That video testimony was not used in 1871 tells us more about technology than it does about constitutional interpretation,” Waterman wrote.
He also said there is “no historical evidence that the framers of the Iowa Constitution intended a different meaning for confrontation rights than the Sixth Amendment,” and warned that the majority was reading requirements into Iowa’s Constitution that do not exist in its text.
Nick El Hajj is a reporter at the Register. He can be reached at nelhajj@gannett.com. Follow him on X at @nick_el_hajj.
This story was updated to add new information and to correct an inaccuracy.
LINCOLN, Neb. (WOWT) – A coalition of states including both Iowa and Nebraska reached a nearly $150 million settlement with Mercedes-Benz.
The states allege over 200,000 diesel vehicles were illegally equipped with devices designed to cheat on emissions tests between 2008 and 2016.
Mercedes allegedly hid the existence of these devices from regulators and people purchasing the vehicles.
Copyright 2025 WOWT. All rights reserved.
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