WASHINGTON ― A former Marine Corps and U.S. Army veteran who deployed in the Iraq War is the first Democratic candidate to jump into the race against Joni Ernst, the Iowa Republican incumbent seeking her third term in the Senate.
Nathan Sage, executive director of the Knoxville Chamber of Commerce, announced his campaign on Wednesday by vowing to fight on behalf of the working class he said is suffering at the hands of big corporations and politicians in Washington.
On his agenda? Increasing wages, strengthening unions, lowering health care costs, and expanding education opportunities for the people of Iowa.
“There’s a war at home and we’re losing it,” Sage said in a video released by his campaign. “Unions under attack, farmers fucked over, people working nonstop just to survive. The economy is rigged and those in power don’t give a damn.”
“I want to kick corporate Republican Joni Ernst’s ass,” he added.
Sage’s background could make him a compelling candidate against Ernst, the first woman veteran elected to the Senate.
He grew up poor in an Iowa trailer park before enlisting in the U.S. Marine Corps. Rising to the rank of Corporal, he served two deployments to Iraq during Operation Iraqi Freedom. He then enlisted in the U.S. Army and again rose to the rank of corporal. After his military service, Sage worked as a mechanic and as news director at a sports radio station.
He’s got tattoos and knows how to weld, similar to another blue-collar populist who gave Republicans a scare in Nebraska’s Senate race last year.
In an interview with HuffPost this week, Sage knocked Ernst for being beholden to President Donald Trump out of fear of being primaried. He also criticized Trump over his trade agenda, warning about the negative impact of his tariffs on Iowa farmers and other people across the country.
“This game of these tariffs being on and off like a light switch have caused a lot of problems,” he said.
Sage took subtle jabs at his party, too. He said Democrats needed to get more aggressive in standing up to Trump. He also declined to commit to backing Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) as the top Democrat in the Senate, following similar moves by other Senate Democratic candidates in Michigan and North Carolina.
“I can’t make any decisions until I meet somebody and understand exactly who they are and how they are as leader, and then I can make base my decision off that,” Sage told HuffPost.
While Sage is the first candidate to enter the race, he likely won’t be the last. Three Iowa Democratic lawmakers are said to be considering jumping in as well: State Sen. Zach Wahls, State Rep. J.D. Scholten and State Rep. Joshua Turek.
Republicans dismissed the announcement on Wednesday and vowed to hold on to Ernst’s Senate seat next year.
“Democrats seem obsessed with saying ‘f**king ’ and ‘ass’ as the strategy to win back the voters that rejected them in 2024,” National Republican Senatorial Committee spokesman Nick Puglia said in a statement to HuffPost. “It doesn’t matter which radical Democrat gets nominated in their messy primary because Iowans are going to re-elect Senator Joni Ernst to keep fighting for them in 2026.”
Flipping a Senate seat in Iowa ― a red state where Trump is popular ― would be huge for Democrats next year. They need to pick up four seats to win a majority but have only a few solid opportunities to do so, including in North Carolina, Maine and Ohio. Iowa is a bigger reach, but Trump’s shaky handling of the economy could give Democrats an opening there.
On Monday, Trump suggested he would seek another round of financial assistance for the nation’s farmers amid the growing trade war he started with China, a sign of how closely he is attuned to voters in middle America.
“The USA will PROTECT OUR FARMERS,” he vowed on his social media platform Truth Social.
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