Art Cullen.

You might have attracted as many people to a Unitarian Universalist fellowship hour in Sioux Center as to a Randy Feenstra rally in Sioux Rapids. Just about 40 people showed up for his gubernatorial campaign event at the farm of Rep. Megan Jones. He had won the endorsement of President Trump at the last minute, and few people cared much.

Feenstra seldom showed up so the voters did not show up for him as the congressman from Hull lost his primary race narrowly to Zach Lahn of Belle Plaine. Feenstra refused to attend debates or forums with other candidates, and party regulars resented it. Lahn, meanwhile, staged an insurgent campaign as Feenstra had already secured the Establishment support. Lahn had the support of the spurned former Rep. Steve King, whom Feenstra defeated in a 2020 primary.

Lahn preaches a populist message against corporations mining and polluting Iowa. He wants to break up ag conglomerates. He wants answers to our state cancer crisis.

“I fear every day we are losing the Iowa we love. We’ve lost 10,000 family farms since 2000. Our young people are leaving faster than 46 other states because they don’t see enough opportunity here,” Lahn said in his victory speech on Tuesday, June 2. “Wall Street hedge funds and foreign interests are buying and selling their land, driving up costs, so our kids are priced out of the market. They treat Iowa land like it’s a commodity instead of our inheritance. They treat us like numbers, not neighbors. This is over when I’m governor.”

Lahn identifies what is eating at Iowa. That and Feenstra’s arrogance put Lahn over the top despite Trump’s late intervention.

Lahn faces a well-funded Democrat in Rob Sand, the state auditor with $18 million cash on hand who does show up. He generates enthusiasm by seeking center. Sand is running against corruption of the two-party system, something like Lahn. Sand is not as strident in his populism. Lahn suggests Marxist tendencies among our public school teachers, which is the sort of nutty politics that Iowans have grown sick of. But his criticisms of ag consolidation are serious and registered with rural voters deeply frustrated by 50 years of corrosion before their eyes.

Sand needs to recognize it and address it before Lahn owns the issue. Iowans are afraid of pollution and cancer. They hate the loss of their schools. They are losing health care access. Lahn is addressing these issues head-on, and Republican voters agreed with him. If he laid off the Marxist hogwash he might be somebody you could envision as governor. Sand may well gain his edge by strongly supporting public education. Lahn needs to put the culture war in the cedar chest. He must fix his attention on strong public education and ending attacks on higher education. This is where Sand wins the election.

Lahn’s primary victory indicates that the conversation has changed in Iowa. We are no longer comfortable being used as a sacrifice zone of pollution and consolidation for corporate integrators. Chris Jones is amplifying the message in his campaign as a Democrat for secretary of agriculture against incumbent Republican Mike Naig. That is a big deal. Sand needs to clearly get on board because “just folks” are tired of drinking polluted water for corporate gain.

JOSH TUREK EASILY DEFEATED Zach Wa­hls to win the Democratic nomination for US Senate. Turek will roll his wheelchair uphill again as he challenges Rep. Ashley Hinson, a made-for-TV candidate with all the money in the world defending a Republican-held seat. Turek had a lot of money directed his way by Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, which frustrated Wahls. That’s politics, which is to say that money talks.

Turek is a Paralympic gold medalist in basketball. His TV ads show him trucking up the hills of his native Council Bluffs earning votes. Gritty stuff. Hinson is a former TV news anchor who masters media. Trump will pour money into her campaign. The ad wars will be revolting. Control of the Senate is at stake. Republicans will claim Turek is owned by Schumer, as if Hinson is not owned by Trump.

The election in November likely will come down to gas prices and other economic issues. Hinson warns that the Iran war is weighing on her. Iowa’s economy is hurting. Republicans might not be able to muster a farm bill for a fourth year. That could be what it takes to deliver Turek to the Senate. Iowa could use a divided Senate delegation to play both sides of the aisle; it was brilliant when Grassley and Harkin worked together. Being a one-party state has not worked to our advantage.

Trade war costs

President Trump’s second-term trade war diminished US ag exports to China by $14.9 billion in 2025, according to a study by North Dakota State University. Iowa, California and Illinois bore the worst of it with export declines to China of about $1.2 billion each. Soy trade was off by nearly $7 billion.

It was worse than the trade war Trump started with China during his first term. NDSU figured that trade war cost US agriculture about $11 billion. The study does not estimate export losses to other regions, just China.

Farmers have burned through most of the $12 billion in trade war disaster payments from the Trump Administration. More bailouts are expected before the November election. During his first term, the “Trump Bump” checks to the ag industry approached $100 billion.

Combined with his war on Iran, Trump is causing all sorts of problems for agriculture that will not be resolved quickly. The problem is that neither his war in the Middle East nor his trade wars have produced tangible results except for losses. Iowans who think it is worth it must have money to burn.

No place for a lawyer

Can’t you get a sandwich or some rubber chicken in Fort Dodge or Marshalltown anymore? We wondered when the Iowa Bar Association announced it will hold a symposium on attracting and keeping rural lawyers — at Prairie Meadows on the outskirts of Des Moines. How are you supposed to keep them down on the farm when you tell them rural is nowheresville?

The symposium will be held with the association annual meeting. Storm Lake could host it. The message is that nothing happens outside Des Moines.

Tom Vilsack, former governor, secretary of agriculture and small-town lawyer in Mount Pleasant, is the featured speaker. He knows all about rural practice. He moved to Des Moines.

Young lawyers aren’t drawn to rural communities for the same reason any other professional would prefer someplace urban. They can make more money and have more fun in the city. You have to be from a rural area to want to live there. As wealth drains out of rural Iowa, so does the means for a lawyer to make a living. It doesn’t help when your hometown reeks like a rendering plant on certain days. The less the working class can earn in a rural town, the less the lawyer or newspaper editor will earn. That is the real problem: consolidation and meager wages. If you could make great money you could enjoy small-town life. It’s that simple. If old lawyers don’t want to even meet in Fort Dodge, why would young lawyers want to practice there?

It’s not just lawyers. Why would young doctors or teachers be attracted to rural Iowa if they think it is backwards, has polluted air and runs off people who are different? We hate to bring it up, but that is why young people don’t want to hang around.

Art Cullen is editor of the Storm Lake Times Pilot newspaper, where this column first appeared on Friday, June 5. It is republished here through the Iowa Writers’ Collaborative. Please consider subscribing to the collaborative at iowawriters.substack.com and the authors’ blogs to support their work.