Iowa Attorney General Race: Who Will Win in 2026

Iowa state Sen. Sarah Trone Garriott, the Democratic candidate for Iowa's 3rd Congressional District, criticized Congress and the Department of Justice for inaction on investigating Jeffrey Epstein and his associates. She spoke after visiting a traveling "reading room" exhibit at The Loft DSM, staged by the Institute for Primary Facts and DEFIANCE.org, featuring excerpts from DOJ-released Epstein investigation documents. She met with family members of Virginia Giuffre and self-identified Epstein victim Sharlene Rochard.

Trone Garriott criticized incumbent Rep. Zach Nunn for not signing Rep. Thomas Massie's discharge petition, which would let state attorneys general, victims and members of Congress sue the DOJ over withheld documents; only three other Republicans have signed it. Nunn's campaign countered that he voted for the Epstein Files Transparency Act and accused Trone Garriott of skipping Iowa Senate votes on sex-offender sentencing. Giuffre's brother, Scott Roberts, thanked Trone Garriott for hearing survivors' stories and called for congressional leaders willing to hold powerful figures accountable.

Sen. Dianne Feinstein, 89, the oldest member of the U.S. Senate, has not yet said whether she will seek a sixth term when her current one expires in January 2025. She has said she will announce her decision this spring. Persistent questions about her mental acuity have fueled calls, including from the Los Angeles Times editorial board, for her to retire rather than run again.

Even without a formal announcement, the race to succeed her is already underway. Democratic Reps. Katie Porter and Adam Schiff have launched campaigns, and Rep. Barbara Lee has told colleagues she intends to run as well, with more candidates possibly to follow. Given California's Democratic lean, the eventual winner is expected to come from within the party, and observers anticipate a contest defined more by personal contrasts and intra-party rifts than sharp policy differences, echoing the centrist-versus-progressive tensions that shaped Feinstein's own career. The outcome will hinge heavily on whether Feinstein ultimately steps aside.

Iowa's 2026 midterm races are diverging sharply. In the open governor's race, Democrat Rob Sand leads Republican Zach Lahn by wide margins across every poll since the summer primaries, including surveys from YouGov, Marist, Emerson, CNN/SSRS, Suffolk and the New York Times/Siena. The Senate race to replace retiring Republican Joni Ernst is far tighter, with Democrat Josh Turek and Republican Ashley Hinson trading narrow leads across the same polls after two debates focused on tariffs, immigration and the Iran war. Analysts cite Sand's stronger name recognition from two statewide auditor wins and Hinson's incumbency advantage as representative to explain the split. Iowa last elected a Democratic senator in 2008 and a Democratic governor in 2006.

Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. called Iowa's upcoming election "the most important" in the country at a Make America Healthy Again rally days before Election Day, endorsing Republican gubernatorial candidate Zach Lahn and congressional candidate Joe Mitchell. The event, organized by MAHA PAC, centered on "food freedom" and "medical freedom," with the PAC committing over $1.9 million to Lahn and six House candidates. Lahn backed removing COVID-19 vaccines from the market and regenerative farming to lower food costs. Democratic rivals Rob Sand and Lindsay for Iowa campaigns criticized the candidates' health care stances, citing Iowa's rising cancer rates and opposition to Medicaid and mRNA vaccine access.

Republican Rep. Ashley Hinson and Democratic state Rep. Josh Turek are competing to succeed retiring Sen. Joni Ernst in a race that tests how firmly Iowa has shifted red. Hinson, who holds an endorsement from President Donald Trump, is emphasizing her willingness to work across the aisle even as she runs on her party's national brand. Turek, meanwhile, is seeking to show that Democrats can still compete statewide despite Iowa's Republican trend over the past decade.

With Election Day about six weeks away, the contest is emerging as one of the more competitive Senate races of the 2026 cycle, reflecting broader questions about whether traditionally purple-turned-red states like Iowa remain contestable for Democrats. The outcome could factor into the overall battle for Senate control and offers a test case for how candidates balance partisan loyalty with appeals to independent and crossover voters in a state with a complex political history.

President Trump announced a $15 billion steel plant for Iowa during an Oval Office event Monday, joined by Reps. Mariannette Miller-Meeks and Senate nominee Ashley Hinson, both facing competitive November races. Trump touted the project's job creation as affordability remains a top concern for voters, and pledged to hold a midterm rally in the state.

Despite Trump's 2024 win in Iowa, recent Marist polling shows Democratic Senate candidate Josh Turek leading Hinson and Democratic House candidate Christina Bohannon slightly ahead of Miller-Meeks. Trump dismissed the polls as "fake." Iowa Republicans have shown some distance from the administration, with Miller-Meeks and Rep. Zach Nunn among seven GOP lawmakers who voted with Democrats to limit Trump's war powers amid the Iran conflict. Hinson skipped a recent Vice President Vance visit to the state, citing a scheduling conflict, underscoring the delicate balance vulnerable Republicans are striking between embracing Trump's economic messaging and managing political risk ahead of the midterms.

Water quality and Iowa's elevated cancer rates — long politically sensitive topics given the state's reliance on agriculture — have become central issues in this year's midterm campaigns. Iowa has the second-highest rate of newly diagnosed cancers nationally, with prostate, breast and lung cancer cases rising faster than the U.S. average. State-funded University of Iowa research attributes much of the above-normal rates to demographic and behavioral factors, though researchers are now examining environmental contributors, including nitrates from fertilizer and animal waste that run off into rivers and drinking water supplies.

Candidates across the ballot — including U.S. Senate hopefuls Josh Turek and Ashley Hinson, gubernatorial contenders Rob Sand and Zach Lahn, and agriculture secretary rivals Chris Jones and incumbent Mike Naig — are addressing the issue, though they differ sharply on whether conservation practices should be mandatory. Gov. Kim Reynolds recently committed $320 million toward water infrastructure and conservation incentives, following lawn-watering restrictions and a prior failed lawsuit by Des Moines-area utilities against upstream counties over nitrate removal costs.

Democrat Rob Sand and Republican Zach Lahn met for their first Iowa gubernatorial debate at St. Ambrose University in Davenport, roughly a week before early voting opens on Oct. 14 ahead of the 2026 election. The exchange was marked by repeated attacks from Sand, Iowa's current state auditor, who questioned whether Lahn, a regenerative farmer, actually lives full-time in Iowa despite running for the state's top office.

The residency dispute dominated the debate, overshadowing substantive policy discussion between the two candidates. With early voting approaching, the clash signals that questions over Lahn's eligibility and ties to the state could remain a central theme as the race intensifies. The contest is one of several closely watched 2026 gubernatorial races that will test partisan dynamics heading into the broader election cycle.

Republican Rep. Zach Nunn and Democratic challenger Sarah Trone Garriott, a state senator, are facing off in Iowa's 3rd Congressional District, one of the nation's most closely watched 2026 midterm races. In Des Moines Register candidate questionnaires, both named affordability as a top priority but offered sharply different diagnoses and fixes.

Trone Garriott blamed Nunn's votes for tariffs and Medicaid cuts for raising costs and threatening the Affordable Care Act, pledging to restore ACA subsidies and reverse Medicaid reductions. Nunn pointed to tax cuts, a rural health care investment, and efforts to lower drug prices and gas prices as evidence of progress, while defending his support for tariffs targeting China and Canada. On immigration, both credited reduced border crossings but diverged on enforcement tactics and legal pathways. The two also split on the Iran war, with Trone Garriott criticizing the lack of a congressional war vote and rising fuel and fertilizer costs, while Nunn defended new war powers oversight and sanctions legislation. The general election is Nov. 3.