IDP Chair Rita Hart Sets the Record Straight Ahead of Trump’s Visit to Iowa

DES MOINES – Ahead of Donald Trump’s visit to Iowa today, IDP Chair Rita Hart penned a new op-ed in the Des Moines Register to set the record straight on how this administration’s policies — and Iowa’s entire federal delegation — have devastated our economy, health care, and farming industry.

Chair Hart outlined how Kim Reynolds, Randy Feenstra, Ashley Hinson, Mariannette Miller-Meeks, Zach Nunn, and all of the Republicans running for governor support Trump’s deeply unpopular economic agenda that has made life too expensive and left working families behind. Under a Republican trifecta in Washington and at home, Iowans are paying $1,303 more a year for everyday costs like health care, food, housing, and clothing.

Read Chair Hart’s full op-ed in the Des Moines Register, or key points below:

• Between Republicans in power in Washington and a decade of one-party rule at home, Iowans are worse off. Kim Reynolds, Randy Feenstra, Ashley Hinson, Mariannette Miller-Meeks, Zach Nunn, and all of the Republicans running for governor cheered on Trump taking a wrecking ball to our economy, supported the Big Ugly Bill that’s making everything from health care to utilities more expensive, and backed the tariffs that are hurting our farmers. They’ve done little more than prove their focus is on bending the knee to Washington, not doing what’s right for hardworking Iowans.

• As our representatives in Congress and here at home stood idly by, Iowa fell to last in the nation for economic growth and 44th in the country for hourly wages — dead last among all Midwestern states. If that wasn’t bad enough, Iowa families are paying $1,303 more a year for everyday costs like health care, food, housing, and clothing thanks to Feenstra, Hinson, Miller-Meeks, Nunn, and their D.C. party bosses.

• Remember Feenstra, Hinson, Miller-Meeks, and Nunn voted to put health care for 106,700 Iowans on the chopping block to give handouts to the rich — a move that Kim Reynolds and the Republicans running for governor have praised — and voted to jack up premiums for 117,890 Iowans. We’re already seeing health care centers in Ottumwa, Traer, and Mount Pleasant close their doors as these extreme cuts go into effect, forcing Iowans to pay more to travel to get care or risk losing access to doctors and timely care altogether.

• To make things worse, we’re also seeing utility bills — which are already rising in the dead of winter — skyrocket thanks to Trump and Iowa Republicans. Feenstra, Hinson, Miller-Meeks, and Nunn all voted to jack up energy costs by $350 a year and cut energy jobs.

• Iowa’s congressional delegation voted against legislation to put a stop to tariffs, and when Trump bailed out Argentina on the backs of taxpayers and farmers, Feenstra, Hinson, Miller-Meeks, and Nunn refused to speak out against the handout. And while Iowa farmers are on the brink of another Farm Crisis, Republicans have failed to pass a new Farm Bill, and kicked the can down the road on the sale of year-round E15 — failing to give our agricultural industry the certainty it needs and costing all of us at the pump.

• Trump broke his day one promise to lower costs, and Iowans are paying the price. Between an economy in decline and working families struggling to make ends meet, we literally can’t afford to keep going down the path that Trump, Reynolds, and Iowa Republicans have put us on.

• In 2026, we have the opportunity to send a message to these folks who have forgotten who they serve and elect leaders up and down the ballot who will put Iowans — not politics or party bosses — first.

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