Welcome back to Frequent Flyer Fridays — your weekly newsletter from the Iowa Democratic Party, bringing you the latest updates on everything Kansas’ favorite frequent flyer Zach Lahn is up to.
This week, Zach Lahn came under scrutiny for his disqualifying record of attacking health care, having close ties to corporate polluters, and refusing to answer questions about how much time he actually spends in Iowa.
Let’s get into it.
📍 Where was Kansas carpetbagger Zach Lahn this week? Promising to continue Kim Reynolds’ privatized Medicaid disaster while praising the largest cuts to Medicaid in history.
🔥 Lahn in the hot seat: Iowans hold Lahn accountable for refusing to answer questions about his flights to Kansas
Today, Iowans gathered in Des Moines to call out Kansas carpetbagger and career political operative Zach Lahn for refusing to answer questions about his part-time living situation in Kansas.
- Reporting reveals that Lahn has not held a single open town hall since the June 2 primary election, has skipped candidate forums, and will not “publicly answer questions from attendees or take questions from reporters.”
Lahn is refusing to hold public events to avoid answering questions about how much time he actually spends in Iowa, how often he would travel back to Kansas if he’s elected, and how much those flights would cost taxpayers.
Watch the press conference here and read what Iowans had to say here.
🤔 Concepts of a plan: Lahn doesn’t have a plan to fix Iowa’s water quality crisis
This week, Civil Eats detailed how only one candidate in the governor’s race has a real plan to address Iowa’s rising cancer rates and water quality crisis — and it’s not Kansas carpetbagger and career political operative Zach Lahn.
- Instead of “issu[ing] an official water quality plan,” Lahn is facing growing scrutiny for having close “ties to Big Ag” and a long career working for “political advocacy groups [that] have long backed agribusiness interests in Iowa.
- Despite the last decade of one-party rule that “downplayed the [water quality] problem over the years and offered a lackluster response,” Lahn fully embraced Kim Reynolds’ failed status quo. Lahn has “cast himself as the heir to” Reynolds’ deeply unpopular legacy, including her decision to defund real-time water quality monitors.
Lahn even chose State Rep. Derek Wulf as his running mate — a political insider with close ties to big pesticide companies and special interests. Wulf wrote a bill aimed at “protecting polluters by limiting lawsuits against agriculture operations based on greenhouse gas emissions,” has a cozy relationship with the pesticide lobby, and voted for the worst of Reynolds’ agenda.
📺 What Iowans are watching: Ahead of Medicaid anniversary, Lahn called out for attacking access to health care
Ahead of the 61st anniversary of Medicaid being signed into law on Thursday, Iowans impacted by health care cuts gathered to hold Zach Lahn accountable for attacking access to health care and having no plan to fix Iowa’s health care crisis.
- According to a new report from KFF Health News, Lahn supports Washington’s cuts to Medicaid that threaten health care for 110,000 Iowans and closed rural clinics, and would continue Kim Reynolds’ privatized Medicaid disaster as governor.
Lahn has spent his career trying to block people from getting health insurance and spearheaded a campaign to block Medicaid expansion in Montana, which would have kicked tens of thousands of people off their insurance.
Here’s what Iowans are watching about Lahn’s attacks on health care:
- KCAU: Iowa Democrats target Zach Lahn on health care
- KCRG: Iowans with disabilities say Medicaid is now failing them, 61 years after program became law
- KCCI: Privatized Medicaid system under scrutiny
📲 Tweet of the week:
That’s a wrap for this edition of Frequent Flyer Fridays. Thanks for reading, we’ll see you next week.