ITR Live: Iowa Politics and Conservative Policy

Iowa Primary Results: What Lahn's Win Means for the Fall

The Iowa primary is in the books, and Chris Hagenow and John Hendrickson are back in the Hendrickson Library to break it all down. The headliner on the Republican side was the governor's race, where Zach Lahn edged out Congressman Randy Feenstra 38% to 37.2% — a razor-thin margin that nonetheless produced a clear nominee. Chris and John unpack what drove Lahn's late momentum, why Feenstra came up short despite his early advantages in money and name recognition, and what the rapid consolidation of Republican support behind Lahn says about where the party is headed. On the Senate side, Congresswoman Ashley Hinson dispatched Jim Carlin nearly 3-to-1 and enters the general as a formidable candidate. Democrats nominated Josh Turek over Zach Walz in a race that revealed the Schumer establishment's continued grip on the party machinery — and Chris and John assess whether Turek's positioning as a centrist will hold up under general election scrutiny. A handful of hotly contested legislative primaries also drew attention, including the upset loss of Rep. Jane Bloomingdale, the strong win by taxpayer champion Mike Bussell, and the survival of two incumbent senators despite well-funded challenges. Looking ahead to November, Chris and John preview what shapes up as a genuinely competitive fall cycle — a challenging environment for Republicans given the historical headwinds of a second presidential midterm, but one where Iowa's Republican registration advantage and strong candidates at the top of the ticket keep the outcome far from predetermined. The Lahn vs. Rob Sand governor's race figures to be a substantive, issues-driven campaign, and both hosts are eager to see the two square off in debates. Water quality, foreign land ownership, and school choice are among the issues likely to take center stage. Before closing, Chris flags a critically important ballot measure Iowa voters will decide this fall: a proposed constitutional amendment requiring a two-thirds supermajority of the legislature to raise taxes. This is a major ITR priority. With states like Illinois and Colorado moving in the opposite direction — raising income taxes and eyeing progressive tax structures — Iowa has an opportunity to lock in a foundational taxpayer protection. Chris and John will have much more to say on this in the weeks and months ahead.

The Doom and Gloom Tour: Why Local Government Complaints Might Actually Good News

Governor Reynolds signed the property tax bill into law, and Chris Hagenow and John Hendrickson are here to put a bow on it. The 2% revenue cap takes effect July 1st, with estimates putting the relief at $4 billion over six years. The response from local governments has ranged from genuine concern to full-blown hysteria — pools, libraries, trails, economic development, and public safety all reportedly on the chopping block because government spending is being slowed down, not cut. Chris and John's response: that's the point. The legislature heard from voters, stood up to significant lobbying pressure, and passed a real reform. When local governments have to reprioritize, that's a feature of this bill, not a bug. And compared to what other states managed — Minnesota offered a one-time $173 property tax rebate, Tennessee couldn't pass a cap at all, Kansas had its reform vetoed — what Iowa did is genuinely significant. With the primary three weeks out, the governor's race is the other main story. The carbon pipeline and eminent domain — the defining issue of the early campaign — has largely faded from paid media. Congressman Feenstra is running as a Trump-aligned fighter, heavy on border security, women's sports, and his tax record. Zach Lahn has carved out an "Iowa First" lane — Iowa schools, Iowa jobs, Iowa farmland — and is raising harder questions on agriculture, cancer, and water quality that don't fit the typical Republican primary mold. Adam Steen is putting money behind going after Feenstra directly while appealing to the evangelical conservative base. Brad Sherman leans into his biography and anti-establishment framing. Nobody is breaking away — Chris expects a closer than expected finish. A quick look elsewhere: the Democrat Senate primary for Joni Ernst's seat — Josh Turek with establishment backing versus Zach Wahls aligned more with the progressive wing — mirrors the same national tensions playing out in blue primaries across the country. And from Minnesota: 17 cities in one county have voted to fly the old state flag, rejecting the redesign pushed by the current governor. Sometimes the best local control stories come from next door. 0:01:35 - Welcome Back to the Hendrickson Library 0:03:37 - Trivia 0:05:23 - Governor Signs the Property Tax Bill 0:06:48 - Local Government Doom and Gloom — Is Any of It Real? 0:10:17 - That's the Point: Why the Complaints Are Actually Good News 0:14:22 - The Legislature Stood Up to the Lobby — And That Matters 0:18:14 - How Iowa's Reform Compares to What Other States Got 0:22:17 - Governor's Race Check-In: What's on TV and Why It Matters 0:24:11 - Randy Feenstra 0:25:58 - Zach Lahn 0:30:40 - Adam Steen 0:31:29 - Brad Sherman 0:32:22 - Can Anyone Break Away? Reading the Primary 0:33:30 - Do Endorsements Matter? 0:36:00 - Democrat Senate Primary: Turek vs. Walz 0:38:40 - Minnesota's Flag Rebellion: Local Control Cuts Both Ways

Legislative Recap

The Iowa Legislature finally wrapped up Sunday evening after an all-weekend push, and Chris Hagenow and John Hendrickson are here to make sense of what actually happened. The headline: Iowa passed a meaningful property tax bill built around a 2% revenue limitation — the reform ITR has championed for years. It's not a dramatic overnight cut, but it puts a real ceiling on what local governments can collect, and that's how lasting property tax relief gets built. The bill does more than the cap alone. Changes to the school funding formula and the SAVE fund will direct more dollars toward property tax relief over time, and new limits on local government fund balances close a loophole that's allowed governments to accumulate reserves while still levying at full rates. Some provisions didn't survive — a gas tax increase, a new local option sales tax, and senior-specific relief all fell out of the final version. The other story from the session — and arguably the bigger long-term win — is a constitutional amendment headed to Iowa voters in November that would require a two-thirds legislative majority to raise the income tax. More than two-thirds of Iowans already support it. If it passes, it becomes one of the most durable taxpayer protections in state history. 0:00:13 - Welcome: Post-Session Recap Episode 0:02:17 - Trivia 0:04:36 - The Session Ran All Weekend — Here's What Happened 0:05:37 - The Main Win: Iowa's 2% Revenue Limitation Explained 0:07:25 - What's In and Out of the Cap 0:09:12 - TIF Reform 0:10:46 - School Funding Formula 0:12:09 - SAVE Fund 0:13:39 - Ending Fund Balances 0:15:37 - Is This a Big Cut? 0:18:52 - What Didn't Make Ii 0:22:07 - The Two-Thirds Constitutional Amendment 0:27:36 - Federal Grant Transparency and Iowa's Medicaid Shortfall 0:29:43 - Civic Education Bill 0:31:06 - Looking Ahead: Primary Season Is Here

Whose Budget Comes First? Iowa's Property Tax Debate

Chris Hagenow and John Hendrickson are back in the Hendrickson Library with a construction update and a timely speed limit tangent that turns into a teachable moment. The legislature just passed a bill raising Iowa's rural speed limit from 55 to 60 — a bill Chris introduced in 2020 and couldn't get out of subcommittee, partly citing the first line of a Sammy Hagar song. The fiscal note on that bill was $2.3 million. The fiscal note on this year's version? $825,000 — for what is likely a similar number of signs, six years of inflation later. The point: fiscal notes are educated guesses, not gospel, and deserve scrutiny before they drive policy decisions. The main event is a detailed update on Iowa's property tax bill. The House picked up the Senate file, amended it with their own language, and passed it 64 to 23 — with three Democrats crossing the aisle — sending it back to the Senate. Chris and John walk through the standout moment from the House floor debate: Ways and Means Chairman Carter Nordman's defense of the 2% hard spending cap. His argument is the one that matters most — that for too long, the certainty of government budgets has taken priority over family budgets, and this bill flips that script. The opposition's counterargument — that rising assessments, not spending, are the real culprit — actually makes the case for the cap. If local governments won't cut levy rates on their own when assessments rise, that's precisely why a hard cap is necessary in the first place. One key difference between the House and Senate bills that got significant attention at the public hearing: the Senate bill would revisit a 2012 reform that moved multi-residential properties — apartment buildings — into the residential tax classification. Senate supporters have argued that rebalancing it is part of delivering broader property tax fairness. Developers and real estate interests who testified at the House public hearing raised concerns that the change could put upward pressure on rents and affect senior living and retirement communities, where margins are already tight. It's a legitimate debate, and it's now one of the more prominent points of negotiation as the Senate considers its next move on House-amended Senate File 2472.

Fiscal Notes, Chore Coats, and the National Popular Vote Scheme

Chris Hagenow and John Hendrickson are back at the Hendrickson Library for another episode of ITR Live, checking in on Iowa politics as the legislative session heads into its final stretch and the June primary begins to take shape. With 46 days until primary day, the race for governor is heating up — and candidates across the board are hitting the airwaves in chore coats and barn settings, leaning hard into the affordability message. Chris and John break down what that word actually means: grocery bills, gas prices, monthly expenses — and trace the root causes back to Biden-era inflationary spending, a broken border policy that drove up housing demand, and the steady resistance from the left to every meaningful tax reform Iowa has pursued. On the legislative front, the session appears likely to run into overtime as negotiators work toward a property tax deal. The Senate and House are each operating from separate proposals — the Senate bill trimmed back its senior exemption and local option sales tax provisions, while the House bill, aligned with Governor Reynolds, maintains a clean 2% revenue limitation without changes to the rollback formula. Chris walks through the mechanics of fiscal notes — the Legislative Services Agency documents that score bills for their budget impact — and explains why, in a property tax system this complex, a uniform revenue limitation is the clearest and most defensible tool for delivering real relief. The bottom line: if you don't control spending, you don't control property taxes. Beyond property taxes, the House passed a school choice bill with language to protect private schools from Department of Education overregulation — a meaningful safeguard for educational freedom. The budget targets between chambers are reportedly close, though the eminent domain question tied to the carbon capture pipeline remains unresolved. Pressure to wrap up is real: legislators want to get back to their districts to campaign, and under Iowa ethics rules, they can't collect PAC money while session is in session. In the bonus segment, John brings two items worth watching nationally. Iowa climbed five spots — from 30th to 25th — in the 19th edition of ALEC's Rich States Poor States index, driven largely by the flat tax and broader tax reform efforts, even as competition from other reform-minded states intensifies. More alarming: Virginia has joined the National Popular Vote Interstate Compact, meaning its electoral votes would go to the winner of the national popular vote regardless of how Virginians vote. Chris and John make the case that this scheme is constitutionally dangerous, practically unworkable at a national recount scale, and fundamentally designed to dilute the influence of states with sound election integrity laws — handing presidential elections to the largest TV markets in the country. 0:00:13 - Welcome Back to the Hendrickson Library 0:02:28 - Trivia: Iowa's Theodore Roosevelt-Era Treasury Secretary 0:04:01 - Governor's Race: 46 Days to the Primary 0:05:09 - TV Ad Trends: Every Candidate Has a Chore Coat 0:07:16 - What "Affordability" Actually Means 0:09:40 - Tracing the Affordability Crisis Back to Policy Choices 0:12:52 - When Everything Gets Blamed on Tariffs 0:13:49 - Will There Be a Republican Gubernatorial Debate? 0:15:46 - Iowa Legislature: Heading Into Overtime 0:16:24 - Property Tax Reform: Senate vs. House Proposals 0:23:47 - Fiscal Notes 101: How Bills Get Scored at the Capitol 0:28:41 - Why a Revenue Limitation Is the Heart of Property Tax Reform 0:32:32 - Hendrickson Bonus Coverage 0:33:18 - ALEC Rich States Poor States: Iowa Moves Up to #25 0:34:51 - Virginia Joins the National Popular Vote Compact 0:37:01 - Why the Electoral College Must Be Defended