Watch Iowa
How my friends Rob Sand and Josh Turek are seizing the patriotic center.
Our party must seize the patriotic center and deliver the New American Dream. On education, law & order, homeownership, and financial freedom, young Americans must see in us a valuable partner.
In Iowa, two candidates in their 40s are showing voters a different kind of Democrat. Rob Sand is running for governor. Josh Turek, Senate. Together, they are putting on a clinic, and every presidential hopeful should be taking notes.
Start with Sand, who is running the best political campaign in America in 2026. As the Iowa state auditor, he has tackled waste, fraud and abuse so uncomfortably for State House politicians that they tried to change the rules to stop him. So, he’s taking the issue on the campaign trail. Sand is running on an ‘Accountability for All’ agenda that includes age & term limits, cognitive tests, election reforms, and anti-corruption rules.
It’s not an angry or fear-mongering message, though. When government agencies save taxpayer money through his Public Innovations & Efficiencies (PIE) program, he sends them pie. At the start of every town hall, Sand asks the Democrats, Republicans, and independents in the room to raise their hands and applaud each other for showing up. Then, before talking politics, he leads the entire crowd in singing “America the Beautiful.” They are all neighbors and Americans first.
Barnstorming the state, too, is Turek. After competing four times in Paralympic basketball and winning two gold medals for Team USA, Turek came home and flipped a red seat in the Iowa State House. Against the all-politics-is-national trend, he won by going local, canvassing door-to-door in his wheelchair to have one-on-one conversations with independents and Republicans. In office, he’s been delivering on what he calls ‘prairie populism,’ including a right-to-repair law for farmers to fix their own tractors and attacks on the health insurance verticals that price-gouge prescription drugs.
With the Iowa primaries completed on Tuesday, Turek and Sand are on to November. Their campaigns are totemic for Democrats. For 2026, obviously: they are critical to winning the Senate and the House (their coattails can help Democrats flip two House seats in Iowa).
But also for 2028. The Iowa caucuses will be an early opportunity for presidential candidates to show Americans a different kind of Democrat. Those hopefuls should watch how my friends Rob Sand and Josh Turek are seizing the patriotic center.
Jake is the best politician money can buy, which is why corrupt foreign governments and wealth criminals have spent lavishly to retain his services:
AIPAC & Pro-Israel groups: $610,673
Big Pharma & Hospitals: $164,950
Private Equity: $151,000
Venture capital: $121,510
What do they get for their money? They get a fighter in Washington. He fights to put the interests of Israel ahead of the interests of his own country; he fights to put the speculative interests of his donors ahead of the interests of people who rely on a paycheck to support their families; he fights to send even more American manufacturing jobs to China (yes, this is still his position in the year 2026!) because he thinks, one fine day, it will create more prosperity for Americans. Right.
To reduce it down to its essence, Jake Auchincloss is tirelessly working to convert the United States into a feudalist state. And so far, he is succeeding.
Vote progressive if you want to get out of this hellscape. Jake and his gang of "centrists" (Reagan Republicans masquerading as Dems to get elected in blue states) aren't going to do anything to move us forward.
If you want to endlessly fund Israel's war crimes, continue to be bulldozed by the tax breaks for the wealthy and corporations, and generally stay in this place of sh*t, follow Jake's lead.
If you want better, look LEFT. Who knew politicians could actually get things done quickly and effectively? Zohran Mamdani. Showing us what happens when people are the focus. WATCH NYC - not Iowa, ffs.
Jake has been in office for 3 cycles with little to show but distain for true Dems and lots of donations from AIPAC, Palantir execs, and private equity real estate managers who aren't trying to help the middle class.
Keep falling for these centrist hacks, keep living in a declining country. MAD4 deserves better. I have a 20 year old son and I want him to have a future.
Vote https://poulos.house/