What Are Elections For?

I spent most of last week in Iowa, and I went there because I’d heard that something is happening in the Hawkeye State, and I wanted to see it for myself.

For a decade now, the political story in Iowa seemed pretty simple and straightforward. A state that had voted twice for Barack Obama swung harder to Donald Trump than almost any other state in the country.

Over those years, Democrats—who had been competitive across the state—became an endangered species outside of a handful of cities and college towns.

But now, in these midterm elections, Democrats are suddenly competitive again.

That was the story we went to Iowa to report.

We went to the State Fair. We drove the gravel roads through Carroll County and watched the cornfields roll away toward the horizon. We went to Marshalltown and Des Moines. Saw the covered bridges of Madison County. We talked to candidates, farmers, small-business owners, Democrats, Republicans, and people who weren't quite sure what they were.

Our video report, AMERICA IN PERSON / IOWA 2026: WHAT ARE ELECTIONS FOR?, comes out next week. More on that later.

I started our trip seeking answers to a simple question:

What is changing politically in Iowa?

But by the end of the trip, I thought we had found a more important question:

What are elections for?

I’m not a cynic. I believe in our democracy. I have spent much of my career covering American elections, and I have seen firsthand the earnestness, decency, and stubborn civic hope my fellow citizens bring to the task of choosing our elected representatives, from county boards to the White House.

Over the past year, I’ve been covering what I have come to believe is the most important story of my career: The danger Donald Trump poses to the institutions of American democracy, and the efforts of ordinary citizens to defeat him.

There’a a specific complaint I hear from neighbors, friends and readers all the time, which goes something like this: “I don’t know who to trust anymore. Every news outlet seems to have an agenda.”

And there’s a reason for that: News outlets today aim to keep you engaged, not necessarily informed.

That’s our media world. I can’t fix it. But I do have a tool I use called Ground News. It’s a site and app that analyzes thousands of stories and shows you, side by side, how they are being covered by outlets that lean liberal, lean conservative, and those that play it down the middle. All of them, together, so you can see the gaps yourself.

It’s truly informative, not just about the news, but also about how it is presented to us.

The Blindspot feature in Ground News is my favorite. It’s kind of addicting. Blind Spot flags stories that are getting heavy coverage on one side of the media and almost none on the other. You start to notice patterns you’d otherwise miss.

It won’t tell you what to think. It’ll just make it a little easier to trust what you’re reading, because you can see where it’s coming from. It’s a great addition to your media diet.

Ground News is offering 40% off their Vantage plan to readers of Real Patriotism. You can get that deal through my link: www.groundnews.com/moran.

At the State Fair, Austin and Sydney Sornson stood with their two little boys and told me what they wanted from politics. Austin generally votes Republican. His great concern is keeping the family farm intact so his children won't someday have to sell part of it. Sydney looked at those boys and imagined them becoming the sixth generation on her family's farm. What she wanted for them was choice: college if they wanted it, the farm if they wanted that—and a life not crushed by debt.

Marsha Wright told me she votes “more red.” Then she talked about Iowa's public schools, which she believes are badly underfunded, and about women's healthcare. Her husband serves as president of their school board, so she sees the financial pressures up close. When I suggested education ought to be a bipartisan concern, she said something sad and simple: “I don't know if anybody can be bipartisan anymore, to be honest.”

At a packed Rob Sand event in deep-red Carroll County, I met Aaron Boyce, who has voted both ways. What he wanted was “a little more of that purple” in a county now dominated by Republicans. But what really interested him was not party. It was whether somebody could “fix a system that's not working for us.”

And then we met Isaac and Maria Garcia.

I haven't been able to stop thinking about them.

They are a young married couple, both born and raised in Iowa. Isaac works as a subcontractor. Maria works too. They are not political obsessives. Isaac told me that he tuned out politics most of his life, and that it has been Maria who got him paying attention to elections.

I asked them whether they were red or blue.

“I don't know,” Isaac said. “We're kind of in between.”

Maria put it another way: they were looking for whomever would be “better for Iowa.”

Then they began telling us about their lives.

They both work, but getting healthcare is difficult. Making ends meet is difficult. Isaac said construction work has been drying up. Maria said something so profoundly sad: Iowa is supposed to be a place “where you can actually grow,” but “it just doesn't really feel like that anymore.”

They talked about the cameras appearing around their neighborhood and Isaac's sense that somebody was always watching. A little while ago, he said, he got stopped driving home; a headlight was out. What should have been a warning ended with Isaac handcuffed, put behind the police car and his truck searched.

Isaac described to us how he tries not to get angry. He didn’t want the situation to escalate.

Then I asked them a question I asked a lot of people in Iowa: What does the American dream mean to you?

Maria’s answer was simple, even modest. To raise a family. To build some generational wealth. To be able to enjoy their lives. But she and Isaac aren't sure they can do it in Iowa. And in recent months, they’ve been talking about leaving.

As we said goodbye, I found myself tearing up a little.

I love this country. I love the promise of America—the audacious and ever-revolutionary idea that ordinary people like Isaac and Maria should be able to work hard, build something, raise their children, have a say in their community and leave the country a little better than they found it.

They shouldn't have to be rich.

They shouldn't need a lobbyist.

The country should work for them.

Our full documentary will premier next week for Real Patriotism Members, and I’ll be doing a live Q&A afterwards. Then we’ll release it on my YouTube Channel here: https://youtube.com/@terrymoranjournalist?si=RKTe399YeTHSion2

—Terry