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ICE Detains Des Moines Public Schools Superintendent
The Department of Homeland Security claims that Roberts was taken into custody as part of a "targeted enforcement operation."
Sep 26, 2025
Ian Roberts, the superintendent of Des Moines Public Schools, has been detained by Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials.
The Des Moines Register reports that Roberts, who has served as superintendent in the Iowa district since 2023, was taken into custody by ICE agents on Friday morning.
The Des Moines Register has confirmed that Roberts is currently being held at the Pottawattamie County Jail, which the paper noted would put him in close proximity to the Omaha Immigration Court.
According to local news station KCCI, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) claims that that Roberts was been taken into custody as part of a "targeted enforcement operation."
DHS said that after ICE officers approached Roberts' vehicle on Friday, he sped away and tried to escape. They eventually apprehended him and found a loaded handgun, $3,000 in cash and a fixed-blade hunting knife inside his vehicle.
DHS also claimed that Roberts had been ordered to be removed from the US in May 2024, and that he had an existing weapons possession charge dating from 2020.
Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds, a Republican, put out a brief statement on Friday saying she was "made aware this morning that Ian Roberts was taken into custody by Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents and is in contact with the Iowa Department of Public Safety and federal authorities."
Reynolds last year touted a meeting she'd held with Roberts in which she said the two discussed "our shared goal of providing all Iowa students a world-class education."
Local residents who spoke with The Des Moines Register were stunned by news of Roberts' detention. Alison Hoeman, founder of the local nonprofit Des Moines Refugees Support, told the paper that her phone "blew up" from concerned parents as soon as they heard the news about Roberts' arrest.
“You know it’s the Black and brown kids who are worried," she said. "If it’s Ian Roberts who’s in trouble, what does that mean for them?”
Roberts was born to parents who immigrated to the US from Guyana, and he told local news station WHO 13 last year that he spent considerable time in both countries growing up.
Prior to pursuing a career in education, Roberts competed in the 2000 Summer Olympics as a middle-distance runner for the Guyana team.
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'I've Never Seen Anything Like It': Trump Policies Leave US Farmers in Dire Straits
"It's a five-alarm fire," one Kentucky soybean farmer said, describing the harmful effects of the president's tariffs.
Sep 16, 2025
As anticipated, US President Donald Trump's economic and immigration policies are harming American farmers' ability to earn a living—and testing the loyalty of one of the president's staunchest bases of support, according to reports published this week.
After Trump slapped 30% tariffs on Chinese imports in May, Beijing retaliated with measures including stopping all purchases of US soybeans. Before the trade war, a quarter of the soybeans—the nation's number one export crop—produced in the United States were exported to China. Trump's tariffs mean American soybean growers can't compete with countries like Brazil, the world's leading producer and exporter of the staple crop and itself the target of a 50% US tariff.
"We depend on the Chinese market. The reason we depend so much on this market is China consumes 61% of soybeans produced worldwide," Kentucky farmer Caleb Ragland, who is president of the American Soybean Association, told News Nation on Monday. "Right now, we have zero sold for this crop that’s starting to be harvested right now.”
Ragland continued:
It’s a five-alarm fire for our industry that 25% of our total sales is currently missing. And right now we are not competitive with Brazil due to the retaliatory tariffs that are in place. Our prices are about 20% higher, and that means that the Chinese are going elsewhere because they can find a better value.
And the American soybean farmers and their families are suffering. They are 500,000 of us that produce soybeans, and we desperately need markets, and we need opportunity and a leveled playing field.
“There’s an artificial barrier that is built with these tariffs that makes us not be competitive," Ragland added.
Tennessee Soybean Promotion Council executive director Stefan Maupin likened the tariffs to "death by a thousand cuts."
“We’re in a significant and desperate situation where... none of the crops that farmers grow right now return a profit,” Maupin told the Tennessee Lookout Monday. “They don’t even break even.”
Alan Meadows, a fifth-generation soybean farmer in Lauderdale County, Tennessee, said that “this has been a really tough year for us."
“It started off really good," Meadows said. "We were in the field in late March, which is early for us. But then the wheels came off, so to speak, pretty quick.”
It started with devastating flooding in April, followed by a drier-than-usual summer. Higher supply costs due to inflation and Trump's tariffs exacerbated the dire situation.
“So much of what has happened and what’s going on here is totally out of our control,” Meadows said. “We just want a free, fair, and open market where we can sell our goods... as competitively as anybody else around the world. And we do feel that we produce a superior product here in the United States, and we just need to have the markets.”
Farmers are desperate for help from the federal government. However, Congress has not passed a new Farm Bill—legislation authorizing funding for agriculture and food programs—since 2018, without which "we do not have a workable safety net program when things like this happen in our economy," according to Maupin.
Maupin added that farmers “have done everything right, they’ve managed their finances well, they have put in a good crop... but they cannot change the weather, they cannot change the economy, they cannot change the markets."
"The weather is in the control of a higher power," he added, "and the economy and the markets are in control of Washington, DC."
It's not just soybean farmers who are hurting. Tim Maxwell, a 65-year-old Iowa grain and hog farmer, told the BBC Sunday that "our yields, crops, and weather are pretty good—but our [interest from] markets right now is on a low."
Despite his troubles, Maxwell remains supportive of Trump, saying that he is "going to be patient," adding, "I believe in our president."
However, there is a limit to Maxwell's patience with Trump.
"We're giving him the chance to follow through with the tariffs, but there had better be results," he said. "I think we need to be seeing something in 18 months or less. We understand risk—and it had better pay off."
It's also not just Trump's economic policies that are putting farmers in a squeeze. The president's anti-immigrant crackdown has left many farmers without the labor they need to operate.
“The whole thing is screwed up,” John Painter, a Pennsylvania organic dairy farmer and three-time Trump voter, told Politico Monday. “We need people to do the jobs Americans are too spoiled to do.”
As Politico noted:
The US agricultural workforce fell by 155,000—about 7%—between March and July, according to an analysis of Bureau of Labor Statistics data. That tracks with Pew Research Center data that shows total immigrant labor fell by 750,000 from January through July. The labor shortage piles onto an ongoing economic crisis for farmers exacerbated by dwindling export markets that could leave them with crop surpluses.
“People don’t understand that if we don’t get more labor, our cows don’t get milked and our crops don’t get picked,” said Tim Wood, another Pennsylvania dairy farmer and a member of the state's Farm Bureau board of directors.
Charlie Porter, who heads the Pennsylvania Farm Bureau’s Ag Labor and Safety Committee, told Politico that “it’s a shame you have hard-working people who need labor, and a group of people who are willing to work, and they have to look over their shoulder like they’re criminals—they're not."
Painter also said that he is "very disappointed" by Trump's immigration policies.
“It’s not right, what they’re doing,” he said of the administration. “All of us, if we look back in history, including the president, we have somebody that came to this country for the American dream.”
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Dems Break GOP Supermajority in Iowa Statehouse with 20-Point Swing in Trump District
In a race that bodes well for Democrats' hopes in 2026, Catelin Drey won by championing "affordable housing, childcare, and healthcare, strong public schools, and bodily autonomy," wrote one progressive Iowa journalist.
Aug 27, 2025
Democrats have broken the GOP stranglehold over Iowa's statehouse with a resounding win in a special election for the state Senate on Tuesday.
In the Sioux City-area district that Donald Trump carried by more than 11 points in 2024 and which had been won by Republicans for 13 consecutive years, Democrat Catelin Drey is projected to have won a convincing 55% of the vote over her Republican opponent, Christopher Prosch.
By taking the vacant seat, Democrats not only added to the mounting evidence for a coming anti-Trump backlash in the midterms, but also ended the Republican supermajority in Iowa's state Senate, which has allowed the GOP to spend the past three years curtailing abortion rights, stripping civil rights protections from transgender people, and chipping away at public education.
Additionally, the Democrats have thrown up a barrier to Republican Gov. Kim Reynolds, who needs a supermajority to confirm appointments and will now require some measure of bipartisan approval.
Like other successful Democratic candidates, Drey's message focused on affordability, with a special emphasis on the cost of living for families. Her slogan was "Iowa's Senate needs more moms."
"She has highlighted issues of particular importance to young parents," wrote Laura Belin for the progressive Iowa politics site Bleeding Heartland. "Affordable housing, childcare, and healthcare, strong public schools, and bodily autonomy."
Drey seized on outrage toward Republican attempts to defund public schools. Teachers, she said in one ad, "shouldn't have to rely on GoFundMes just to do their jobs."
"One takeaway from the Iowa special election: don't listen to centrist Democrats on education," said Jennifer Berkshire, an education writer for The Nation and the New Republic. "Catelin Drey made defending and funding public schools a focal point of her campaign and called for rolling back Iowa's controversial school voucher program."
Drey's victory adds to the already mounting pile of evidence that backlash towards President Donald Trump, whose approval ratings have skidded to near-record lows in recent weeks, will manifest at the ballot box next November.
G. Elliott Morris, a political data journalist, wrote Wednesday in his Strength in Numbers newsletter that "there have been plenty of special elections" this year, with "all of them suggesting a pretty sizable leftward shift in the electoral environment since November 2024."
Citing data from The Downballot's special election tracker, Morris wrote:
On average in 2025, Democratic candidates in special elections are running about 16 percentage points ahead of Kamala Harris’s margin versus Donald Trump in last year’s presidential election. That is 5-6 points higher than the average Democratic overperformance in 2017.
These crushing results, Democratic strategists say, are the reason behind Republicans' frantic efforts to ratchet up gerrymandering in states like Texas, where they control the state legislature.
"If you're wondering why Republicans are gerrymandering the fuck out of red states," said Democratic fundraiser Mike Nellis, "Democrats just flipped a Trump [+11] Iowa Senate seat. That's what they're afraid of."
With Drey's victory, Iowa Democrats have now won four consecutive special elections held in the state, flipping two other Republican-held seats. Riding that wave of optimism, they now have their sights set on a greater target: Iowa's two-term senator Joni Ernst, who comes up for reelection in 2026.
Defeating Ernst would be a significant boost to Democrats' efforts to regain control of the Senate in 2026. That effort may have been helped along by Ernst herself, who responded to questions at a town hall earlier this year about her support for savage cuts to healthcare in the GOP's One Big Beautiful Bill Act by callously remarking, "Well, we are all going to die."
An internal poll published Tuesday showed Democratic state senator Zach Wahls, one of many Democrats vying for the party's nomination, edging Ernst out in a hypothetical general election. Other polls show the race to be within the margin of error.
In a video posted to X, Wahls said Tuesday's Democratic victory is further evidence that "the state is in play," after not having elected a Democratic senator since 2008.
"Iowans are sick of the inability of the current administration and politicians like Joni Ernst to deal with rising costs. They are sick of the corruption, and they are ready for change," Wahls said. "We are going to flip this US Senate seat, the exact same way that Catelin Drey flipped her state Senate seat."
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Iowa Democrat JD Scholten Launches Senate Run After Joni Ernst Controversy
"I don't think there's anything worse that you could do than cut Medicaid, cut SNAP benefits for everyday Iowans just so you can give billionaires bigger tax breaks," Scholten said.
Jun 02, 2025
Iowa Democratic state Rep. JD Scholten, who represents parts of Sioux City, announced Monday that he is mounting a challenge to U.S. Sen. Joni Ernst—the Iowa Republican who is up for reelection in 2026 and who has come under scrutiny in recent days for comments she made downplaying constituent concerns over GOP efforts to cut Medicaid.
"After her comments over the weekend, I've been thinking about it for a while, but that's when I just said: This is unacceptable and you've gotta jump in," Scholten said, according to the Iowa outlet The Sioux City Journal. "At the end of the day, though, it's not about her, it's not about me, it's about the people of Iowa deserving better.
"I don't think there's anything worse that you could do than cut Medicaid, cut SNAP benefits for everyday Iowans just so you can give billionaires bigger tax breaks," he added, referring to the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program. "That is not Iowa in my mind."
Scholten has served in the state House since 2023. In 2024, Scholten won his contest by 6.9 points in a district that U.S. President Donald Trump won.
The Democrat has run twice for Iowa's 4th Congressional District. In 2020, he lost to Republican Rep. Randy Feenstra, and in 2018, he narrowly lost to then-longtime Republican Rep. Steve King. Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) campaigned for Scholten during his 2018 bid and Rolling Stone once described Scholten as a "prairie populist."
Scholten, 45, is a pitcher for the baseball team the Sioux City Explorers.
If he prevailed over Ernst, he would take over a seat that she has held since 2015.
Ernst spoke at a town hall in Parkersburg, Iowa last week and was responding to a question about the impact of the U.S. House-passed GOP reconciliation bill, which includes cuts to Medicaid and SNAP, when an attendee shouted that "people will die" as a result of the cuts.
Then Ernst said, "Well, we all are going to die."
Ernst later posted a video on Instagram, in which she offered a mock apology.
"I made an incorrect assumption that everyone in the auditorium understood that, yes, we are all going to perish from this Earth," she said. "So I apologize, and I'm really, really glad that I did not have to bring up the subject of the tooth fairy as well." The video appeared to be filmed in a cemetery.
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Facing 'Dangerous Attacks on Care' From GOP, At Least 20 Planned Parenthood Clinics Close
"We have been fighting to hold together an unsustainable infrastructure as the landscape shifts around us and an onslaught of attacks continues," said the head of Planned Parenthood North Central States.
Jun 02, 2025
On the heels of Planned Parenthood announcing clinic closures in the Midwest last month, The Guardian published a Monday analysis showing that the reproductive healthcare provider has closed or disclosed plans to shutter at least 20 locations across seven states since the beginning of the year "amid immense financial and political turbulence."
"The Planned Parenthood network, which operates nearly 600 clinics through a web of independent regional affiliates and is overseen by the Planned Parenthood Federation of America, is facing a number of threats from the Trump administration," the newspaper reported, detailing closures in Illinois, Iowa, Michigan, Minnesota, New York, Utah, and Vermont.
In a May statement, Planned Parenthood North Central States (PPNCS) detailed cost-saving closures, consolidation, and layoffs impacting eight health centers in Iowa and Minnesota, and stressed that "dangerous attacks on care continue."
"My heart hurts as we announce the closure of health centers and the departure of trusted and talented colleagues, but our patients come first—always," said Ruth Richardson, president and CEO of PPNCS. "We have been fighting to hold together an unsustainable infrastructure as the landscape shifts around us and an onslaught of attacks continues."
Since the U.S. Supreme Court empowered abortion opponents by reversing Roe v. Wade with the Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organization decision in 2022, those attacks have included the freezing of Title X funds and Republicans in the U.S. House of Representatives voting last month to advance a reconciliation package that would defund Planned Parenthood.
In response to the House's May vote, Jessica Barquist, Kayla Montgomery, and Lisa Margulies, vice presidents of public affairs at Planned Parenthood of Northern New England (PPNNE), said, "To be clear, 'defunding' Planned Parenthood and taking away health insurance from millions will do nothing to lower healthcare costs, address challenges in our healthcare system, or save lives."
"Taking healthcare away from people struggling to deal with rising costs and preventing people from using their health insurance at their trusted provider is cruel," they continued. "We know what happens when people lose access to care: they skip cancer screenings, delay STI testing, miss birth control appointments. These delays lead to worsened health outcomes and more costly emergency care down the line."
In addition to warning of "catastrophic" consequences for patients, the trio highlighted that "analysis from the Congressional Budget Office finds 'defunding' Planned Parenthood would cost $300 million and is the only provision in the healthcare portion of the bill that would increase the deficit."
PPNNE in April announced the closure of a Vermont health center, citing "serious financial hardship." Nicole Clegg, president and CEO of the regional group, said at the time that the decision was "very difficult" and "PPNNE attempted many different investments and organizational changes to tackle the complexities of delivering care in St. Johnsbury, but the challenges persisted."
That same month, Planned Parenthood Association of Utah (PPAU) said that it had to restructure due to the Trump administration's attacks, "including the recent withholding of $2.8 million in Title X funding."
"The painful decisions to close Logan and St. George health centers, reduce PPAU's staff, and increase service fees are forced on us by the Trump administration," declared PPAU interim CEO Sarah Stoesz. "We believe that by consolidating our healthcare delivery and expanding telehealth, we will be in a better position to continue serving those who rely on us for healthcare."
Planned Parenthood of Michigan (PPMI) also revealed in April that it "is reducing its brick-and-mortar footprint and reorganizing operations statewide," which includes closing three health centers in Jackson, Petoskey, and Marquette; consolidating two clinics in Ann Arbor; and expanding its telehealth offerings.
PPMI president and CEO Paula Thornton Greear said at the time that "the Trump administration and its anti-abortion allies have made clear their intention to defund Planned Parenthood and attack access to sexual and reproductive healthcare nationwide," and "these necessary changes strengthen PPMI's ability to adapt quickly in a challenging political landscape."
The Guardian noted that PPMI "was not among the Planned Parenthood affiliates that saw their Title X funding frozen," and "did not immediately respond to a request for comment about the clinic closures and the role of Title X in those closures."
According to the newspaper:
Planned Parenthood’s financial woes have raised eyebrows for some advocates of abortion rights and reproductive health. The organization has weathered several crises, including allegations of mismanagement, in the years since Roe collapsed—but as the face of U.S. abortion access it continued to rake in donations. (Most abortions in the US are in fact performed by small "independent" clinics, which are grappling with their own financial turmoil.) As of June 2023, the Planned Parenthood network had about $3 billion in assets, according to its 2024 report.
In March, Planned Parenthood of Greater New York (PPGNY) announced it would put its property that houses the Manhattan Health Center up for sale as part of an "ongoing strategy to ensure future, long-term patient access for underserved communities throughout New York state."
Just two days after U.S. President Donald Trump returned to office in January—following a campaign in which the Republican tried to downplay how much voters care about reproductive rights while also bragging about his role in reversing Roe—Planned Parenthood of Illinois (PPIL) said it would close four health centers, downsize administrative staff, and boost telehealth.
Illinois, a blue state surrounded by red ones, saw an influx of "abortion refugees" post-Dobbs. PPIL interim president and CEO Tonya Tucker said in January that "we made plans for the patient surge, however, rising care costs and lower reimbursement rates from insurers is jeopardizing PPIL's sustainability."
"Unfortunately, this is the reality many other Planned Parenthood affiliates are facing in the rapidly evolving healthcare environment," Tucker added. "We are making the difficult decisions today so we can continue providing care tomorrow and well into the future."
Other recent reporting has also highlighted how reproductive healthcare providers, particularly those that offer abortion, are struggling to stay open, even in places where politicians haven't passed laws that make it harder to end pregnancies.
"At least 17 clinics closed last year in states where abortion remains legal," NPR reported last month, citing the Guttmacher Institute. "Experts say the closures indicate that financial and operational challenges, rather than future legal bans, may be the biggest threats to abortion access in states whose laws still protect it."
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Asked About Backing 'Largest Cuts in History' of Medicaid, GOP Rep. Miller-Meeks Has No Comment
"Does it concern you that you only won by 800 votes?" asked the executive director of Social Security Works.
May 20, 2025
Ahead of a "Hands Off Medicaid" rally planned in Republican U.S. Rep. Mariannette Miller-Meeks' district in Iowa, the economic justice group Social Security Works on Tuesday wanted to see if the congresswoman had a message for her constituents about the vote she cast in favor of advancing massive cuts to Medicaid.
"Rep. Miller-Meeks, I'm wondering if you have any comment on the healthcare that 67,000 people in your district are going to lose?" asked Alex Lawson, executive director of the group, following the congresswoman down a hallway on Capitol Hill as she made her way to an elevator reserved for lawmakers.
Miller-Meeks sits on the House Energy and Commerce Committee, which last week was one of three committees to advance part of President Donald Trump's legislative agenda, including more than $700 billion in federal healthcare cuts.
Progressives have focused heavily on Miller-Meeks as Republicans in Congress have grappled with how to secure tax cuts for the wealthiest Americans that would blow a $3.8 trillion hole in the federal deficit. Miller-Meeks, who won her reelection campaign by just 800 votes in 2024, is among the swing district Republicans whom advocates have pressured to reject Medicaid cuts that would harm their constituents.
As Miller-Meeks attempted to ignore Lawson and said she had "no comment," Lawson noted that she previously "lied" to Social Security Works and said she wouldn't support Medicaid cuts.
"But then you actually voted for the largest cuts to Medicaid in the history of the country," he said. "Do you have any comment on that? Do you have any comment on the four hospitals in your district that are going to close because of your vote?"
Finally Lawson asked whether Miller-Meeks has given any thought to how her vote could impact her political future in a district where about 102,500—16%—of her constituents depend on Medicaid or the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, which would also be slashed under the Republican bill.
"Does it concern you that you only won by 800 votes?" Lawson asked before Miller-Meeks got on the elevator.
Social Security Works urged voters in Iowa's 1st District to join the group Wednesday for its rally in Jasper County, and to ask the congresswoman—who's also a doctor—"why she's cutting $700 billion from Medicaid."
One advocate, Mathew Helman, posed a question to Miller-Meeks on social media: "If you ran for Congress honestly on your actual platform of slashing Medicaid and closing Iowa hospitals, how do you think you'd do?"
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Six Months After Iowa Abortion Ban, Crisis of Care Spreading Across Midwest
"This is what abortion bans do—they don't stop people from needing abortions, they just make access harder and more expensive."
Feb 27, 2025
Midwestern abortion funds on Thursday presented the latest evidence that state-level abortion bans have effects that reach far beyond state borders, with wait times increasing in states friendlier to reproductive healthcare and abortion funds reporting strained resources, making it harder for people throughout the region to obtain care.
The Chicago Abortion Fund reported that, according to a coalition of groups that raise funds for patients in the Midwest, hundreds of Iowans traveled across state lines to get abortion care since the state's six-week abortion ban went into effect last July.
One hundred and thirty state residents have traveled to Minnesota in the last six months to obtain abortions, while 84 have gone to Nebraska and 47 have traveled to Illinois.
Clinics in Nebraska, Wisconsin, Minnesota, and Kansas are reporting longer wait times, with some patients required to wait up to five weeks for their appointments—forcing some Iowans to travel even further, delaying care for both local and out-of-state patients, and likely leaving some patients with no choice but to carry unwanted pregnancies.
"With Omaha sitting right on the Iowa border, we've seen a dramatic increase in the number of Iowans seeking care in Nebraska," said Shelley Mann, executive director of Nebraska Abortion Resources. "Our clinics are already stretched thin, and Iowans are often forced to travel even farther due to limited appointment availability in our state. This is what abortion bans do—they don't stop people from needing abortions, they just make access harder and more expensive."
"This is what abortion funds do: We step up, we organize, and we make sure people get the care they want, need, and deserve."
While clinics across the region are seeing an influx of out-of-state patients, abortion funds are seeing an increase in the support needed by Iowa residents living under the state's abortion ban.
The Chicago Abortion Fund saw a 222% increase in the number of Iowans needing help covering the cost of their procedure, travel expenses, and other practical costs in just one year.
The fund poured $7,139 into practical support for patients in August 2024, the first full month under the ban, compared to $2,536 in June 2024.
The Iowa Abortion Access Fund also reported a 21% increase in Iowans needing help paying for abortion care compared to 2021, before Roe v. Wade was overturned.
Shayla Walker, executive director of Our Justice, an abortion fund in Minnesota, said that since Iowa's abortion ban went into effect, the organization has "been averaging 18 patients a month from Iowa at a total cost of $54,800—before the ban, we averaged around six at a fraction of the cost."
"The reality is abortion bans don't stop people from needing abortions," said Walker, but instead widen "the gap in access and mortality rates among Black, queer, disabled folks, and minimum wage workers."
With the six-week ban in place, Iowa now has only two clinics that provide abortion care—a Planned Parenthood clinic in Ames and the Emma Goldman Clinic in Iowa City. Five clinics provided care before July 2024.
The Guttmacher Institute, which researches abortion care, found in a report published this month that 76% of abortions in Iowa in 2023 were provided with medication rather than surgical procedures.
With the loss of brick-and-mortar clinics across the state, Isabel DoCampo, a senior research associate at the Guttmacher Institute, told Iowa Public Radio Thursday that a rising number of Iowans could seek medication abortions from online-only providers.
"It could be that we see further changes in clinic counts in Iowa, which could place greater importance on telemedicine provision throughout the state as a result of this ban," DoCampo told the outlet.
Megan Jeyifo, executive director of the Chicago Abortion Fund, said the group will continue to be "nimble and relentless in responding to every new barrier, every policy shift, and every crisis moment."
"In just the last year, we've handled over 16,000 support requests and distributed $5 million in direct assistance, the most in our 40-year history," Jeyifo said. "This is what abortion funds do: We step up, we organize, and we make sure people get the care they want, need, and deserve."
"Abortion funds have always been here, working together across state lines to get people to care," Jeyifo added, "because access to abortion is not just about laws, it's about the people who need care right now. No matter the barriers, we will find a way."
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Thousands in Midwestern GOP Districts Attend Sanders' First Stops on Tour to Fight Oligarchy
"It's like there's only one person who is actually able to sidestep the demoralization and frustration," said one observer.
Feb 22, 2025
After addressing more than 3,400 Nebraska residents in Omaha Friday evening, U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders on Saturday made his second stop on his National Tour to Fight Oligarchy—telling Iowa City, Iowa residents that "Trumpism will not be defeated by politicians inside the D.C. Beltway."
"For better or worse, that is not going to happen," said the Vermont Independent senator, whose broadly popular policy proposals have long been dismissed by Democratic leaders as unrealistic and radical while President Donald Trump has increasingly captured the attention of the working class Americans who would benefit most from Sanders' ideas.
"It will only be defeated by millions of Americans in Iowa, in Vermont, in Nebraska, in every state in this country, who come together in a strong grassroots movement and say no to oligarchy, no to authoritarianism, no to kleptocracy, no to massive cuts to programs that low-income and working Americans desperately need, no to huge tax breaks for the wealthiest people in this country," said Sanders.
The senator announced his tour earlier this month as Elon Musk, the head of the Trump-created Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) who poured $277 million on the president's campaign, swept through numerous agencies, with DOGE staffers setting up illegal servers, seizing control of data, shutting federal employees out of offices, and working to shut down operations across the government.
Since Trump took office for his second term just over a month ago, roughly 30,000 federal employees have been fired or laid off—part of Musk's push to cut $2 trillion in federal spending in order to fill the $4.6 trillion hole that Trump's extension of the 2017 tax cuts would blow in the deficit.
Republican lawmakers have also pushed to include cuts to Medicaid, and Trump this week signaled he would back Medicare cuts after repeatedly insisting he would not slash the popular healthcare program used by more than 65 million Americans, in order to save money while handing out tax cuts to the same corporations and ultrawealthy households that benefited from the 2017 tax law.
"Today in America we are rapidly moving toward an oligarchic form of society where a handful of multibillionaires not only have extraordinary wealth, but unprecedented economic, media, and political power," said Sanders in Iowa City, which like Omaha is represented by a Republican U.S. House member who narrowly won reelection last November and has faced pressure to reject the GOP budget plan. "Brothers and sisters, that is not the democracy that men and women fought and died to defend."
Sanders began his tour in Omaha and Iowa City to pressure the Republican House members there—Reps. Don Bacon (R-Neb.) and Mariannette Miller-Meeks (R-Iowa) out of supporting the GOP's proposed cuts.
"Together, we can stop Republicans from cutting Medicaid and giving tax breaks to billionaires," said Sanders ahead of the Iowa City event.
Sanders drew loud applause when he noted that the increasingly oligarchic political system extends past just Trump, Musk, and Republican lawmakers.
"The role of billionaires in politics, it's not just Musk, it's others," he said. "It's not just Republican billionaires, it is Democratic billionaires. It is the corruption of the two-party system."
Progressive activists and journalists in recent weeks have expressed growing frustration with Democratic leaders as they have publicly appeared to throw up their hands and deny they have any power to fight Trump's attacks on immigrants, transgender children, and other marginalized people.
House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.) has garnered scorn for meeting with Silicon Valley executives to "mend fences" with the powerful tech sector—where numerous CEOs have signaled support for Trump during his second term.
Ken Martin, the newly elected chair of the Democratic National Committee, said last month that the party should continue to take money from "good billionaires."
Some Democratic senators have voted for Trump's Cabinet nominees even as members of the caucus have accused Musk of orchestrating a coup on Trump's behalf, and leaders including Jeffries have reportedly become "very frustrated" with progressive advocacy groups like Indivisible and MoveOn for organizing grassroots efforts to pressure the Democrats to act as a true opposition party.
Meanwhile, Sanders this weekend has captured the attention of thousands of people in Republican districts along with hundreds of thousands of people who have watched his anti-oligarchy tour online.
"The energy around what Bernie is doing is insane," said Matt Stoller, a researcher at the American Economic Liberties Project. "It's like there's only one person who is actually able to sidestep the demoralization and frustration."
Jeremy Slevin, a senior adviser to Sanders, reported that in Iowa City, the senator gave "not one, not two, but three different speeches to overflow crowds," with 2,000 people lining up to see him speak "on a freezing cold day in a Republican district."
Pointing to the enthusiasm shown in Nebraska and Iowa, Sanders supporters questioned the idea, reportedly embraced by Democratic consultants and politicians, that "Americans don't understand the word oligarchy."
" Bernie Sanders launched an anti-oligarchy tour, and it's the only thing that has popularly resonated within the Democratic Party base," said Stoller. "That's fascinating and notable."
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'It's the Abortion Ban': Final Iowa Poll Shows Harris Leading Trump 47-44
Rights advocates were energized by the "gold standard" poll results, but called on progressives to continue working to turn out voters.
Nov 03, 2024
Political observers expressed shock Saturday evening as the Des Moines Register released its final poll before Election Day showing Democratic Vice President Kamala Harris leading Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump by three points.
Harris was supported by 47% of respondents compared to 44% who backed Trump.
The newspaper's poll, conducted by pollster J. Ann Selzer, is widely regarded as the "gold standard" survey of voters in the state and has been recognized as "predicting" numerous election results in Iowa and giving a potential preview of how candidates could fare in other Midwestern states with similar demographics.
Progressive advocates cautioned against placing too much faith in a single poll—even a widely respected one—and urged Harris supporters to continue canvassing, phone-banking, and taking action to defeat Trump and the far-right MAGA movement.
But the unexpected result in a state that hasn't been considered a swing state in this election, and was widely assumed to be a Trump-supporting state, led political observers to look closely at the poll, which showed significant shifts toward Harris among women.
Women aged 65 and older supported Harris over Trump, 63% to 28%, in the poll. Women who identify as political independents also backed her, 57% to 29%.
Overall, women in the state are backing Harris in the poll by a margin of 20 points, according to the survey.
Lyz Lenz, a journalist based in Iowa, said she believed the poll could be linked to one major change in Iowa since the last presidential election: the six-week abortion ban that took effect in July, banning abortion care after fetal cardiac activity can be detected. Similar abortion bans have been blamed for at least four deaths of pregnant women in Texas and Georgia.
"It's the abortion ban," said Lenz. "Women are furious."
Daniel Nichanian, editor-in-chief and founder of the digital magazine Bolts, said the result could preview losses for state Supreme Court justices who have upheld abortion bans in a number of states, including Iowa.
In 10 states this year, voters will make their voices heard on ballot initiatives regarding the right to abortion care. In traditionally red states including Kansas and Kentucky since Roe was overturned, people have voted to protect the right to obtain an abortion.
"It's the Dobbs election," said Helaine Olen of the American Economic Liberties Project. "The Iowa poll is just the latest proof."
Selzer herself told the BBC that many respondents talked about abortion rights.
"The people who say they're supporting Kamala Harris, the issue they say they're thinking about most is democracy, about half of them saying that's the most important thing," she said. "But then half of that, about 25% roughly, say abortion. And Iowa has one of the strictest abortion laws in place... and that may well have played a part in this."
Sean Trende, senior elections analyst for RealClearPolitics, said it would be "foolish to dismiss [Selzer's] poll," but cautioned election watchers against abandoning "all of [their] prior views about the state of the race."
Dan Pfeiffer, a former adviser to President Barack Obama and co-host of "Pod Save America," said one possible interpretation among several is that "Harris isn't really winning Iowa but the poll is capturing late-stage momentum that bodes well for Wisconsin, Michigan, [and] Pennsylvania."
Advocacy group Indivisible on Sunday morning advised supporters to "send this Iowa poll to all your group chats. Then, sign up to talk to some voters. With your help, we're going to win this thing in two days."
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UAW Rips 'Corporate Greed' of John Deere as Mass Layoffs Follow $43 Billion in Stock Buybacks
"John Deere's reckless layoffs and job cuts are an insult to the working class people of Iowa and Illinois," said the United Auto Workers.
Jul 31, 2024
The United Auto Workers on Tuesday condemned the manufacturing company John Deere over recent mass layoffs at factories in Iowa and Illinois, arguing the company's strong profits, lavish handouts to investors, and exorbitant CEO pay give the lie to claims that the job cuts and outsourcing were necessary.
"John Deere's reckless layoffs and job cuts are an insult to the working-class people of Iowa and Illinois, and the United Auto Workers will fight for justice for our members and communities affected by these moves," the union said in a statement. "Let's be clear: there is no need for Deere to kill good American jobs and outsource them to Mexico for cheap labor. The company is forecasted to make $7 billion in profit this year. CEO John May's total compensation for 2023 was $26.8 million."
The union went on to note that John Deere, which is headquartered in Illinois, has spent more than $43 billion on investor-enriching stock buybacks and dividends over the past 20 years, leaving "no question that there is enough profit to go around" and that the company "can afford to keep good jobs in Iowa and Illinois."
"So why are they choosing not to? Because Deere's corporate greed means more to them than the lives of working-class people in Ankeny, Waterloo, Ottumwa, or Dubuque. And our government lets them get away with it, with broken trade laws that don't protect workers on either side of the border," the union said. "When a company is doing as well as Deere, on the hard work of those UAW members who make the product that generates those profits, there is absolutely no reason for job cuts, layoffs, outsourcing, or cutbacks."
The company has spent $43.6 billion on stock buybacks and dividends over the past two decades. There is no question that there is enough profit to go around, and Deere can afford to keep good jobs in Iowa and Illinois.
— UAW (@UAW) July 30, 2024
The UAW represents more than 10,000 John Deere employees across the United States and, in 2021, held a
five-week strike against the company over inadequate wages and benefits.
In recent weeks, John Deere has laid off an estimated 1,500 U.S. workers as part of what the company has described as a broader effort to "control costs." The Guardian's Michael Sainato noted last month that the company reported "a profit of over $10 billion in fiscal year 2023" and spent more than $7.2 billion on stock buybacks.
The UAW's statement came a day after John Deere announced it would lay off around 300 salaried employees at its headquarters in Moline, Illinois.
"The batch of layoffs comes after the tractor giant said earlier this month it would lay off nearly 600 workers across two factories in Iowa and one in Moline," The Chicago Tribune reported.
Given that John Deere is a major beneficiary of federal contracts and subsidies, U.S. President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris—the presumptive Democratic nominee—have faced calls to act in response to the company's mass layoffs and stock buybacks.
"Corporations that do business with the federal government aren't going to like it and will surely cry 'socialism!'" Les Leopold, executive director of the Labor Institute, wrote in an op-ed for Common Dreams last week. "But if the Democrats don’t find a way to intervene to stop the needless mass layoffs that are happening right now, there's a good chance Trump/Vance might fill the void."
As the White House remains quiet on the issue, the UAW said it is doing all it can to "minimize the impacts of these cuts and layoffs for our members at Deere and pushing the company to do right by our members, their families, and their communities."
"We will keep pushing for justice at Deere and keep letting corporate America know that the working class will not accept the scraps while the CEOs and shareholders get richer and richer," the union added.
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