The Democrats have their first candidate in the race to disregard Senator Joni Ernst, R-Iowa, in what will be a battle uphill in an increasingly red state.
Nathan Sage hopes that his background as a veteran marine and veteran army veteran, mechanical and local sports game, while promoting in his release video, will connect with the voters of the working class.
Sage, who is the executive director of the Chamber of Commerce at Knoxville, Iowa, highlighted his education in his release video.
“I never thought that someone like me could run for the Senate,” he says. “When I was 5 years old, my dad was arrested for a bounced check. $ 50. I was trying to pay new school clothes for my sister and I. We grew up poor, but I still believed in this country.”
In the video, Sage also describes the places in his state as “being abandoned,” and added: “There is a war at home and we are losing.” It describes a “manipulated” economy in which “those in power do not care.”
“I am fighting for a Democratic Party of which people like me will really want to be a part,” he said.
Sage is the first Democrat to enter a primary career that will probably present the additional contestants to face Ernst, as state representative JD Scholten, who made two failed offers for a seat of the United States house in a deep red district and said he is considering joining the contest.
However, defeating Ernst will be difficult for the Democrats in a state that has tended rather since Barack Obama won it in 2008 and 2012. The past fall, Donald Trump won Iowa for 13 percentage points after he won by 8 in 2020. Ernst, a holder of two periods that is also a veteran, won his career of 2020 for 6 points and his contest of 2014 The seat seat like the solid seat.
But there was a ray of hope for the Democrats earlier this year, when Mike Zimmer turned a district of the state Senate and defeated his republican opponent for 4 points. It was a district that Trump won the autumn past by 25 points.
In an interview, SAGE said that the first days of the Trump administration have “many people” in their state that fears the future, including employees of veterans affairs concerned with the cuts of future jobs and owners of small businesses concerned about tariffs that increase costs.
“He talked about reducing the prices of the grocers, spoke about making life easier and more cheaper for everyone, and we have not come there,” Sage said, adding that Trump’s tariff plans: “Any additional cost is difficult to absorb and difficult to treat. When they say that a little pain is very useful, it is like, yes, when you do not have much more pain, it is very difficult to accept that.”
Since Democrats still discover their balance in Trump’s second administration, Sage said he asks how many Congress Democrats are “really fighting.”
“When it comes to that, we need more people who are willing to get to the ground with the troops, and you have to fight them,” he said.
But he said he believes that the Trump administration actions give the Democrats space to grow in their state.
“There are many people, especially in Iowa, who do not feel properly represented,” he said. “Now is the time when people begin to see writing on the wall and understand, such as listening, life is not becoming easier. Life is not improving. We need to change something. And I want to be that Democrat who brings more people and does so so they want to be part of the Democratic Party and fight for what we believe.”
