We’re off to Iowa, and you’re welcome to lend a hand.
This month, we are taking Terry’s Notebook on the road for the first time—heading to the Hawkeye State, where the Iowa State Fair will bring politicians, journalists, activists, farmers, families, fried-food enthusiasts and just about everyone else together in one gloriously overheated place.
Our story: Iowa’s suddenly important Senate race between Republican US Representative Ashley Hinson and Democratic State Representative Josh Turek.
This race is for an open seat, following GOP Senator Joni Ernst’s decision not to seek reelection, and both political parties now regard it as a critical contest. Going to Iowa first makes sense; it’s one of the emerging Midwestern battlegrounds that could determine control of the Senate, along with Ohio, Michigan, and maybe even Nebraska.
Hinson has Donald Trump’s endorsement and the full support of the Republican establishment. She has promised Iowans that, if elected, she’ll be “President Trump’s strongest ally in the Senate.”
Turek—a two-time Paralympic gold medalist who won a solid red state House district in 2022—is running as a “prairie populist,” a working-class underdog who believes Iowa may be ready to surprise the country again.
Political campaigns are never just about the candidates, and I don’t want to parachute into Iowa, interview a few familiar people, eat something on a stick and declare the work complete.
I want to understand what is actually happening there.
So I’m looking for your help.
Where should we go beyond the fairgrounds? Which town, farm, factory, diner, union hall, church, veterans’ post or county gathering would tell us something important about Iowa in 2026? Who understands the state but rarely gets interviewed?
I’m also investigating a couple of stories that have flown under the radar—one on what’s happening in Nebraska to healthcare (seems to me like a nightmare scenario). The other is about the administration’s secretive efforts to get every American’s personal medical records.
Let’s get to it. The Notebook community is going to help build the Iowa trip, and get to the bottom of these—and other—stories.
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